Cpl Manuel Nogales Flores – Born October 21st, 1922, in High Rolls, NM
Manuel N Flores Jr was the third son of Chana and Manuel B. Flores. During this period Chana and Manuel continued to live with Chana’s parents in High Rolls. Like his older brothers he went to the High Rolls Mountain Elementary school, but the family moved to Alamogordo in 1930. He attended the local elementary school and went on to attend Alamogordo High School. Needing income, Manuel left high school in his senior year to become a painter’s helper.
In January 1943 he was inducted into the Army and started his basic training at Ft. Bliss, El Paso, Texas. Manuel was evaluated and tested, and he was assigned for training as an aircraft and engine mechanic. He was assigned to the Army Air Force Technical Station located at Amarillo, Texas.
Manuel’s training as an aircraft and engine mechanic took the better part of 1943. He was prepared to be assigned to a B-17 bomb group when he was informed that the War Department had increased the demand for the C46 and C47 transport units for both the European and Pacific theaters.
Cpl Flores remained stateside and was mostly assigned to an Air Transport Unit. Records of Cpl Manuel Flores assignments from 1944 to August 1945 have not been located. In September of 1945 Manuel is listed as a member of the 2nd Combat Cargo Group. This group is part of the 5th Air Force which was assigned to the South-West zone of the pacific and had its headquarters in Brisbane, Australia from 1942 to Nov. of 1944. It subsequently moved to New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. At its peak the 5th Air Force had 10 Bomb Groups, six Fighter Groups, four Troop Carrier groups, and the 2nd Combat Cargo group.
On 15 August 1945, the Empire of Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied forces effectively ending World War II. Over the next several weeks the U.S. and Japan began negotiations over the official surrender of Japanese forces in Japan and the occupation of Japan by the U.S. After the “official” surrender on 2 Sep 45 the Americans took possession of Tama Airfield near Tokyo. The first Army Air Force unit to arrive in Japan was the 2nd Combat Cargo Group with men and supplies to convert the Tama Airfield into the 1st US Air Base in Japan. Four squadrons of C46 and C47 transports started operations with a limited ground crew.
Cpl Manual Flores was among the ground support personnel that traveled by ship to Japan to join the 2nd Combat Cargo group and establish a fully functional Army Air Force base. The airbase was renamed the Yokota Air Base and ground support units (traveling by ship) arrived in Tokyo Bay on Sept 30th,1945 and were transported by trucks to Yokota base.
On 9 Mar 1945, 302 B-29s conducted a nighttime low-level bombing using incendiary bombs. The raid’s impact was devastating on the residents of Tokyo. The individual fires caused by the bombs created a general conflagration, which could only be classified as an enormous firestorm. When it was over, sixteen square miles of the center of Tokyo had gone up in flames and nearly 100,000 people had been killed. The remainder of March 1945 through July 1945 witnessed the continued “fire-bombing” of Tokyo and all major industrial cities in Japan.
What Manuel witnessed was beyond belief. The capital city of Tokyo was essentially destroyed beyond recognition by the American bombing campaign. Block after block, unimaginable urban destruction left only piles of rubble and burnt debris in the landscape.
Old men, old women, families with babies and children lived on cleared sections of land without any real shelter. During Manuel’s convoy through Tokyo, women and children would stand by the road, looking and pleading with their eyes for food and water. The landscape was one district after another of shear destruction and devastation, populated with indigent and starving families.
Manuel would work long days servicing C-46 and C-47 aircraft. The maintenance and repair work was critical to keep these transport aircraft in the air and bring much needed material and supplies. The situation in Japan was desperate with insufficient food, drinkable water, medical supplies, oil, gasoline and anything one could think off. Millions of Japanese civilians were left homeless due to the US bombing campaign. The supply aircraft and crews were pushed to their limits bringing in basic supplies.
This relief effort by the 2nd Cargo Group continued till February 1946. The demobilization of combat groups impacted the 2d Combat Cargo Group and ground personnel returned to the USA. On 25 Feb 1946, Cpl Manuel N Flores boarded a troop transport vessel and returned to Fort Bliss, Tx for final discharge. His Honorable Discharge record show his date of separation as 16 March 46.
Manuel was the last of the High Rolls boys to returned to New Mexico where his mother, brothers, uncles, and aunts were so happy and relieved that the last boy was home safe and sound.