by Wayland Mayo
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt had a burning desire to retaliate by bombing Japan. This soon became an obsession with him, but how were we going to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat? The only long range bomber in our arsenal was the B-17, and the idea of reaching Japan became increasingly remote. We needed a Super Bomber, but did not even have one on the drawing board. Roosevelt fortunately had a solution to his problem, with time almost ruling out such an undertaking. His solution was Gen. H.H. Arnold, better known as “HAP”. Gen. Arnold was already pushing for a more sophisticated Air Force with long range capability. He sent request to all the aircraft companies seeking designs for a Super Bomber. Boeing had been working on such a design and won the contract. They were to deliver two flying prototypes by 1942. It was to be the fastest, largest, heaviest plane ever mass produced. The U.S. ordered 250 sight unseen. Then Germany attacked Russia. The number was increased to 500 planes. On Sept. 21st, 1942, the Boeing XB flew out of the Seattle plant. This three billion dollar gamble was the largest government commitment ever to a single project, including the Atomic Bomb. There were residual benefits to this contract. It brought the country together. Boeing had four assembly plants, and hundreds of smaller plants making subassemblies. Finally in 1943 the first production model B-29 rolled out of the Wichita plant. Eventually over 4000 were produced, 1600 at the Wichita plant which employed 26,000 workers working seven days a week.
The first bombers were sent to the CBI area (China, Burma, India). Gen. Arnold realized we needed a place for damaged planes to land after bombing Japan. Roosevelt asked Stalin for permission to land in Siberia or Russia. Stalin evaded answering the request. Russia was not at war with Japan, and had their hands full fighting the Germans. They did not want to open up another front by taking on Japan. Our crews were told that after bombing Japan, only in an extreme emergency, to land in Vladivostok, Russia. On August 20, 1944, a B-29 was forced to divert to the Soviet Union. It crashed east of Khabarovsk after the crew baled out. The crew was interned in Russia.
A U.S. made version of the B-29
About the same time three B-29’s with emergencies landed in Vladivostok. One of the planes was the “Ramp Tramp”, another was the “Ding Hao”. Ironically the third plane was completely intact was the Gen. H.H. Arnold Special.
The crews assumed the planes would be refueled and they would return to China. They were never to see their planes again. The crews and aircraft were all interned. Now the Russians were holding four crews and three complete B-29’s. Desperate negotiations by the U.S. for the release of the crews and the aircraft were ignored.
Stalin was continually pressured for the release of the crews and planes, however it soon became obvious that he had no intentions of giving them up. He decided to steal them. He figured it would take over five years to design and build their own much needed long range bomber. A better way would be to steal these already in his possession and make a bolt for bolt exact copy of them. Stalin demanded the reproductions be ready in two years. The entire Soviet aircraft industry was mobilized to meet this seemingly impossible deadline. At that time any dissention was met with punishment, even death. That would be considered sabotage to question a project. This project received top priority. The Russians were completely dumbfounded when faced with the enormity of the situation. They were fascinated with the gigantic “Silver Bullet”. What better luck than to have three of them dropped right in their back yard.
Finally through some bizarre diplomatic negotiations between the US and Molotov it was arranged for the aircrews to “escape” to Tashkent, Russia, via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. They were given adequate treatment while interned. From Tashkent they were transported by train and truck to Tehran, Iran, for their release. However their release wasn’t going to be that simple. They were warned not to talk to anyone, and had to sign top secret documents swearing them to secrecy. They were flown to Naples, Italy, and then shipped to N.Y. where they finally found freedom.
http://b-29s-over-korea.com/shortstories/russianclone.htm
