on 9 February 1945, against a Japanese naval airfield located on the island of Moen at Truk atoll (now known as the Chuuk Islands). Flown by day at an altitude of , it was in actuality a further training mission, encountering no opposition. Its second mission was to Iwo Jima on 12 February, one week prior to D-Day for Operation Detachment. The capture of Iwo Jima had as its objective an emergency landing field for Twentieth Air Force bombers attacking Japan and a base for escorting P-51 and P-47 fighters. The first mission to the Japanese home islands was the 1st Bomb Squadron's fifth, flown 25 February 1945. Again a day mission flown at high altitude, the target was the port facilities of Tokyo. On the squadron's seventh mission, 9–10 March 1945, Tokyo was attacked with incendiaries by night and at low altitudes of 6,400 to . This mission also resulted in the first loss of a 1st Squadron B-29 when the crew of L'il Iodine was forced to crash-land at sea when it ran out of fuel returning to Tinian, although the crew was rescued. The Tokyo fire raid was the first of five flown between 9 and 18 March, resulting in devastation of four urban areas (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe) and extensive civilian loss of life. The squadron had a B-29 bomber [44-69748] shot down and crew lost on 24 March 1945, attacking the Mitsubishi Aircraft factory at Nagoya, ironically the same crew that had ditched on 10 March. On 27 March, the 1st Squadron began a week of night missions sowing aerial anti-shipping mines of Japanese harbor approaches and Inland Sea ship passages, a mission they would again conduct during the entire second half of May. Attacks in April were a combination of night and medium altitude day missions against the Japanese aircraft industry, and beginning 18 April, three weeks of daytime attacks against Japanese airfields on Kyūshū launching Kamikaze attacks against U.S. naval forces at Okinawa. On 1 June, the 1st Bomb Squadron began a grim campaign of night fire raids against the remaining urban areas of Japan not previously attacked that continued to its final mission, 14 August 1945. In all, the 1st Bomb Squadron flew 71 combat missions, 3 post-hostilities flyover missions, and one mission to drop medical and food supplies to liberated prisoners-of-war. Of the 71 combat missions, 27 were fire raids,