[RSwank]

The B-29s based in the Marianas did six "training" missions against Truk and 2 missions to Iwo Jima in November. There are 3 Truk missions shown on the fold3 list for the 497th and the two Iwo missions. I don't think there are any "missing" Truk missions for the 497th as I believe all the bomb groups in the Marianas flew some training missions to Truk so the other 3 Truk missions were probably flown by other groups.

Nov 24 was the first raid against Japan (Tokyo) by units in the Marianas.

The fold3 record shows Thumper did one Truk mission, and one of the two Iwo missions that show in the 497th fold3 record. It then flew the first Japan mission on the 24th and that seems to be what the nose art shows.

There were still B-29s in India and China during this time and raids were conducted against Singapore, Burma and Thailand by Calcutta based planes and planes from Chengtu, China conducted raids against Kyushu, Japan and Shanghai, China.

The fold3 gaps may be more like a plane not shown for a particular mission date rather than the whole date is missing for the group. I think this "spreadsheet" was possible done by people interested in the 497th possibly they are connected with the 497th website or some earlier associated site. As you note it is not an official record.