Comments by several eyewitness STIC internees about the downing of the B-24 over Manila Source: E-mail messages to Roderick Hall, 05/12/2017
I HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO SEE IT HAPPEN AND I NEVER STOPPED WONDERING [WHO] THEY WERE. I FINALLY MET THE WING MAN IN HONOLULU AND GOT THE CREW LIST. MANY YEARS LATER WE VISITED THEIR GRAVES AT THE BATTLE MONUMENTS CEMETERY IN MANILA AND THE WALL OF THE MISSING. - ALOHA SASCHA JENSEN
I never observed pastel flak. In my memory it is always popcorn burned black. I do have a memory of a lot of tracer flying around liberation night and thinking the American tracer was red, white and blue; the Japanese, green and yellow. Hewitt Schlereth
I have a memory of a B-24 flying low over the camp, trailing black smoke and passing out of sight beyond the wall. (I was 8-1/2 at the time.) My father (40) described seeing a flash at the bomber's right wing root as an anti-aircraft shell struck the plane. On page 122 of Surviving A Japanese P.O.W Camp, Robert Wygle's diary entry for Jan 8 says the B-24 "burst into flame." and "Some of the crew bailed out..." The remembrance of Wygle's son is more like mine, but, instead of flying on out of sight, he says "The whole thing blew up!" Hewitt Schlereth
What was left of the B-24 crashed in San Juan, Rizal, not far from the San Juan Bridge. When the ack-ack subsided, we exited our makeshift shelter and my brother, Jesse, Jr., discovered a soot-covered oxygen tank . . . part of the debris from the plane. Jap soldiers took it away. I also recall some of the ack-ack used the latter part of 1944 were tinted different pastel colors when they burst in the sky . . . guess they were using leftovers. Dr. Mary Jane Hodges Vance