Interview with Maj. Arthur C. Shepherd

Flight Journal, Oct 2001 by Thompson, Warren

Editors' note: an interesting twist to this article occurred when we mentioned to contributing editor Warren Thompson that we were going to run it He told us that he had interviewed the pilot of the plane in which Shulenberger was the RIO. Here it is:

"Concerning our famous June 9, 1945, 'kill' of a B-29 Superfortress off Iwo Jima: on days when the B-29s were returning from their raids on Japan, we would fly out and give whatever assistance we could. If we saw one ditch, we would call in a Dumbo Sea Rescue plane and direct it to the downed crewmen. While on one of these missions, my R/O, Al Schulenberger, picked up an emergency IFF and directed us in on it. I pulled up on the right wing and tucked in real close. I could not see anything wrong with the aircraft, but the crew was all at the windows waving like mad. At first, we thought they were being friendly, so we peeled off and moved away; but Al continued to receive the IFF, so he directed me to pull in close again.

"This time, I moved in on the left wing and looked down on the nose of the aircraft. The hole in the nose was big enough to drop a piano through! A 90mm had gone right through the pilot's seat, killing him and injuring the copilot. We led them to Iwo. Over the island at 4,000 feet, on autopilot, the crew bailed out without incident. I was just about to ask if I could shoot it down when I was directed to do so. It didn't seem like much of a contest with a 'sitting duck' flying straight away and me right behind it with four .50-caliber machine guns and four 20mm cannon that were loaded with armor-- piercing and incendiary rounds!

"I did not realize that the bomber still had its full load of ordnance, as the first burst from my guns blew the bomb bay doors open. I don't remember how many rounds we pumped into that old bird, but it didn't want to go down. The 20mm shells were ripping big holes in the fuselage and wings. At last, the left wing dropped a little and it started turning back toward Iwo, losing altitude all the time. At that time, I decided to concentrate my fire on the two left engines. When I scored hits on both, the aircraft began a tight left spiral into the ocean. I actually felt sorry for it and wished that the copilot had been able to bring it in. What a magnificent aircraft it was."