The first assignment of the B-32 began when General
George Kenney, the commander of Allied air forces in the
South West Pacific Area and commander of the U.S.
Fifth Air Force, traveled to
Washington D.C. to request B-29s. Since priority had been given to
strategic bombing by the B-29, Kenney's request was denied, after which he then requested the B-32. Following a demonstration, the Army General Staff agreed that Kenney could conduct a combat evaluation, and a test schedule of 11 missions was set up, followed by a plan to re-equip two of the
312th Bomb Group's four
Douglas A-20 Havoc squadrons with the B-32. Project crews took three B-32s to
Clark Field, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, in mid-May 1945 for a series of test flights completed on 17 June. The three test B-32s were assigned to the 312th BG's
386th Bombardment Squadron. On 29 May 1945, the first of four combat missions by the B-32 was flown against a supply depot at
Antatet in the
Philippines, followed by two B-32s dropping 16 bombs on a
sugar mill at Taito,
Formosa, on 15 June. On 22 June, a B-32 bombed an alcohol plant at Heito, Formosa, with bombs, but a second B-32 missed flak positions with its fragmentation bombs. The last mission was flown on 25 June against bridges near
Kiirun on Formosa. The test crews were impressed with its unique reversible-pitch inboard propellers and the Davis wing, which gave it excellent landing performance. However, they found a number of faults: the cockpit was noisy and had a poor instrument layout, the bombardier's vision was limited, the aircraft was overweight, and the nacelle design resulted in frequent engine fires (a deficiency shared with the B-29 Superfortress). However, the testing missions were mostly successful. In July 1945, the 386th Bomb Squadron completed its transition to the B-32, flying six more combat missions before the war ended. On 13 August, the 386th BS moved from Luzon to Yontan Airfield on
Okinawa and flew mostly photographic
reconnaissance missions. On 15 August,
Japan surrendered (documents signed 2 September), and the 386th's missions were intended to monitor Japan's compliance with the ceasefire and to gather information such as possible routes occupation forces could take into Tokyo. On 17 August, the B-32s were intercepted by Japanese fighters. During the two-hour engagement, the Dominators suffered only minor damage and none of their crew was injured. "Though the B-32 gunners later claimed to have damaged one fighter and 'probably destroyed' two others, surviving Japanese records list no losses for that day or next." Based on the Japanese action on 17 August, U.S. commanders felt that it was important to continue the reconnaissance missions over Tokyo so they could determine if it was an isolated incident or an indication that Japan would reject the ceasefire and continue fighting.) attacked the remaining two U.S. aircraft.
Saburō Sakai, a Japanese ace, said later that there was concern that the Dominators were attacking. The B-32 Dominator
Hobo Queen II (s/n 42-108532) was flying at when the Japanese fighters took off
Hobo Queen II claimed two Zeros destroyed in the action as well as a probable Shiden-Kai (though the Japanese lost no aircraft). The other Dominator was flying below
Hobo Queen II when the fighters took off. Marchione was the last American to die in air combat in World War II. Production contracts of the B-32 were cancelled on 8 September 1945, with production ceased by 12 October. Many B-32s ended up being salvaged at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas with a total of 38 flown to
Kingman Army Airfield for disposal. Along with several other noteworthy aircraft on temporary display at Davis Monthan AFB after World War II, the last surviving Dominator, B-32-1-CF #42-108474, was written off and destroyed in 1949. ==Variants==