It seems we have more children and grand-children participating in this site so they might be interested in the "Show of Force" flown by the B-29's over the Missouri on VJ-Day.
I may be off somewhat in the numbers of B-29's participating but I think it was in the neighborhood of six-hundred plus from all the B-29 units on Saipan, Tinian and Guam. The timing was to be that the first formation was to go over the Missouri at exactly the time that Gen. MacArthur was to sign the surrender documents and it was somewhere around 10:00 A. M. Then from that point on a second Squadron (a 9 or 12 ship formation) was to go over roughly every two minutes so if we had say 600-B-29's divided into 9-ship formations that's about 67-formations, two minutes apart or the so-called "bomber stream" would take about two-hours with a formation every two minutes.
To say the least, this was quite a complex operation in which timing was essential. Not only did each B-29 have to "navigate" to their correct rendevouz location off the coast of Japan but they had to get into formation at low altitude and the leader had to take them down over the Missouri. I still marvel at the planning and timing of the Ops Order which was all done at 20th AF Headquarters on Guam then sent to each of the five (5) B-29 Wings.
But here is the most amazing part! The Ops Order said that once-formed each formation was to not go south toward home after the first pass over the Missouri but to go out over the water east of Japan and go back up north to around Hokaido (the original rendevous area and formation departure point) and come back down south in formation for a second pass over the Missouri. So if we had 67-formations on the first pass then "theoretically" we would have another 67-formations for the second pass totaling 134-formations or 1,206 B-29's over the Missouri--I think the altitude was around 3,000 feet or maybe staggered between 3,000 and 4,000.
Now, even a non-B-29 flyer can tell that this is no small operation. Flying that much formation is very tiring and the navigating on the part of the lead navigators had to be accurate in almost seconds and not minutes. As a consequence, by the time the second-pass came around the "tired pilots" wanted to do a little "sight-seeing" and the formations disintegrated. A 9-ship formation became a 2 or 3-ship formation while the "others" were off buzzing Tokyo or some, I am told, might have wandered as far away as Nagoya or other burned-out cities.
This display brought out the "wrath" of Gen. MacArthur and he wrote a scathing msg. to the 20th AF which was forwarded to all the Wings but without comment from anyone at 20th Hqs. The war was over, we had been victorious and the B-29's were letting off a little steam. How we avoided any accidents in this melee is still a mystery but I have never heard of any.
Now you know the story.
Gen. Johnson