File:330th Bombardment Group B-29 City of Allentown 1945.jpg

English: 29th Bombardment Group B-29 City of Allentown.

The "City of Allentown" :was a 29th Bombardment Group B-29 Superfortress bomber during World War II. was a production B-29A, block number 65, Boeing construction number (serial number) 10718. After acceptance by the Army Air Forces in 1944, the aircraft was assigned US Army Air Force Serial 44-69886 and deployed to North Field, Guam (Now Andersen AFB) early in 1945 for duty with Twentieth Air Force. It was assigned to the 314th Bomb Wing, 29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy).

The unnamed aircraft was named "City of Allentown" by the group on Guam. The B-29s assigned to the 29th Bomb Group were all named after various cities in the United States, and their exploits during the war were sent by news releases to the United States as a morale booster for the civilians in the various cities which they were named for.

The "City of Allentown"s first combat mission was an attack on Tokyo on 25 February 1945. Until March 1945, it engaged primarily in daytime high altitude attacks on strategic targets, such as refineries and factories. The campaign against Japan switched that month and the group began to conduct low altitude night raids, using incendiary fire bombs to attack Japanese cities and start large area fires. .During the invasion of Okinawa, the 29th Bomb Group was diverted from the strategic campaign against Japanese industry and attacked airfields from which kamikaze attacks were being launched against the landing force.

Following VJ Day, the City of Allentown dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war and participated in several show of force missions over Japan The group remained on Guam until it was inactivated in March 1946

The aircraft was returned to the United States after the war and was assigned on 27 Dec 1945 to the Second Air Force San Antonio Air Technical Service Command, 4141st AAF Base Unit, Pyote Army Air Field in west Texas near El Paso for reserve storage. However, by 1953 after the end of the Korean War, the age of the jet bomber had arrived and made the world War II propeller-driven B-29's obsolete. Pyote AFB was closed in 1954 and the "City of Allentown" was dropped from the USAF inventory and subsequently scrapped in Kingman, Arizona afterwards.

REF: Mann, Robert A. The B-29 Superfortress: A Comprehensive Registry of the Planes and Their Missions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1787-0.