This was a night incendiary mission involving 45 planes from the 6th Bomb
Group:
On the 1st of August, Army Air Force Day, combat operations continued
with a maximum effort night incendiary mission. The Sixth's target was
Nagaoka, machine tool manufacturing center of 75,000 people on northern
Honshu. * * *
Forty-seven Sixth ships were airborne by 1840 that day, but engine
trouble forced two to return to base shortly after takeoff. The
remaining forty-five, except one which bombed a target of opportunity, hit
Nagaoka at 0100 with excellent results. The last crews over the target
reported smoke and thermals rising from the burning city to a height of
20,000 feet. Later photographs showed 2.03 sq mi, 65 per cent of the
city burned out. Opposition from the Japs was negligible as only six
night fighters were seen. The Group's contribution to the Air Force
Day raid was forty-five planes over the Empire, its greatest number thus
far.
[Pirate's Log, pp. 52-53]
