1944 Dairen Air Raid
While it is a well known fact that a key battle in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 took place in Dalian, the city was spared any direct military action in the later Second World War. The city was defended by a ring of mountain fortresses against an amphibious invasion that never came. Yet Dalian, known as Dairen at the time, earned the distinction as a site of Allied bombing in the closing days of the war. This obscure and forgotten historical footnote has not been recorded in any book about Dalian but there are clear eyewitness accounts of the event.
“One day, the American bomb hit the downtown office building and half of it collapsed.” from the memoir Dalny by Tatiana Erohina.
On 26 September 1944, a squadron of American B-29s from the 40th Bombardment Group flew to Anshan, China on a mission to destroy the strategic industry of Showa steel works. Due to technical complications, two bombers were unable to follow the main group and instead headed for the secondary target of Dairen. A series of weather and mechanical problems would deliver an amazing and successful result, best summarized in the words of the men who actually participated in the action.
“I remember the mission against Anshan when we bombed the alternate target at Dairen. That mission was one of the things that helped to make Frank McKinney something of a legend as a bombardier.” Robert L. Hall, Central Fire Control Gunner.
“As I remember the Anshan/Dairen mission, we lost our formation near Anshan, and had to go to the secondary target at Dairen, Manchuria… At the last moment, the bombardier said he saw some buildings through a hole in the clouds, and that he would take over. I distinctly remember looking at a big, square building when the bombs made a direct hit on it.” John Z. Topolski, Radar Operator.
“I felt a great disappointment for not being able to bomb Anshan… As we approached the secondary target at Dairen, I had a sinking feeling that we would have to bomb by radar. Then we had another disappointment when our radar equipment malfunctioned and the radar operator couldn’t identify the target. I was frustrated, and even though we had to get rid of the bombs, I was determined to do something with them other than dropping them at random… We had no idea of the importance of this target to the Japanese… What a great satisfaction it was to me, luckily hitting the target and not having to just dump the bombs somewhere to get them off the plane.” Frank W. McKinney, Bombardier.
“A memo to my old China-based B-29 gang: Remember your two plane “accidental” raid on Dairen last September? Well chums, the Japanese are still rocking on their heels over that one. They think you must have done it with mirrors. Remember how the B-29’s raided the Anshan steel works that day, and how two Superforts dumped their bombs on the Dairen waterfront and warehouse all because they were unable to reach the Anshan targets so many miles farther north? Well, I found out when I landed here with 7th fleet units that the eight story head office building of the Anshan Steel Co., right in the heart of Dairen’s modern business district, was sliced off in that half pint raid and not a single adjacent building was hit. The Japanese are still going around talking to themselves. They think you did it on purpose but they can’t figure out how a B-29 could pick off that single Anshan company building in Dairen with such precision, while the main force wrecked the steel works so far away.” Accidental Raid Still Puzzles Dairen Japanese in Manchuria (1944) by John Grover
