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Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other US targets in the Pacific, December 7th 1941 (I think due to the Int’l Dateline, the attack occurred on the 8th?)

Doolittle’s Raid on Tokyo, April 18th 1942, had little practical effect but was a massive punch in the nose and profound humiliation, and caused it to dawn on the Japanese warlords that all their cities were located on the seacoasts. Meanwhile, Washington DC is also on the seacoast, but on the wrong coast. Most of the industry of the US was along or east of the Mississippi.

Battle of Midway, June 3rd 1942, obliterated the four big carriers; also lost were quite a few of Japan’s best pilots, who were uncontroversially the best in the world. Some ditched and were picked up, some had landed and managed to abandon the carriers before they went down.

The USMC landed on Guadalcanal August 7th 1942, overwhelming the Japanese troops and construction crews which thoughtfully built a nice airfield for US use. :^) After considerable effort on land and sea, the Japanese finally gave up on their campaign to retake the islands in February 1943.

I believe the number of divisions the Japanese had used to basically secure much of the island off SE Asia, plus French indo-china, was a mere eleven, amazing. With the attrition in their airpower, they lost air supremacy and their ability to expand or even hold what they’d taken.

Boeing worked hard to bring the B-29 long range heavy bomber into operational status, manufacturing over 3000 of them, mostly in Kansas, from 1944 to 1945. Meanwhile US naval forces and air power whittled down the Japanese air and naval forces, while ground forces conquered Saipan and other places to use as land bases to strike the Japanese home islands.

Iwo Jima was needed as an emergency landing spot for ailing B-29s returning from raids on Japan. The first use of the capability happened during the Battle of Iwo Jima, and used one of the three airfields the Japanese had built there. By that time over a hundred B-29s had been lost due to getting shot up or having other mechanical problems, and capture of Iwo was crucial.

B-29 raids on Japan consisted of up to 1000 aircraft at a time, kind of a lot really.

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