To further complicate matters, B-29 deliveries were falling drastically behind schedule due to production delays. While the 58th Bomb Wing existed on paper as consisting of five bomb groups allocated 30 planes apiece, in truth there weren’t even enough B-29s available to train the crews. By the end of 1943, of the 97 B-29s produced thus far, only 17 were actually airworthy. As a result, only 67 pilots had been checked out in the aircraft and virtually none of the combat crews had trained together as a team.
Arnold was being pressured by Roosevelt to start bombing Japan by January 1944, but production and training delays forced him to tell the president that the B-29s could not leave the States until mid-March, while combat operations would not start until mid-May at the earliest. Arnold’s decision at that juncture to take delivery of the planes "as is" and modify them in the field was influenced in part by the urgency to get B-29s into the hands of aircrews for training. That move led to what became known as the "Battle of Kansas."
The XX Bomber Command headquarters was established at Kharagpur, India, in late March under the command of Brig. Gen. Wolfe. Four bases near Calcutta were set up to receive the B-29s, and the first plane arrived on April 2, 1944, flown by Brig. Gen. LaVerne "Blondie" Saunders, the new commander of the 58th Bomb Wing, after an 11,530-mile journey via Gander in Newfoundland, Marrakesh, Cairo and Karachi.
Over the next month, B-29s began to arrive in the CBI, but not without incident. After five B-29s crashed near Karachi due to overheated engines, the entire fleet was grounded. The problem was traced to high ground temperatures in India that exceeded the engines’ normal operating limits. Further modifications were made to the engine cooling baffles, oil lubrication tubes and cowl flaps, but those changes only lessened the difficulties rather than solving the problem. By May 8, 130 B-29s were in India. The forward bases in China were declared usable even if conditions there were far less than ideal. The B-29s, ready or not, were about to go to war.
General Kenneth Wolfe
The transition to combat marked the start of the logistical nightmare that would characterize Operation Matterhorn from beginning to end. Despite the Allies’ best efforts, the airlift capability to support all other operations in the CBI plus the B-29s did not actually exist. The Chinese army was in critical need of supplies because the Japanese had gone on the offensive in May 1944, pushing the battle lines 200 miles farther inland. General Chennault, defending a 1,000-mile frontier, insisted that the B-29s be attached to the Fourteenth Air Force for tactical operations, a request Arnold promptly denied. When B-29 operations resumed, instead of going into combat the bombers were forced to transport their own fuel, spare parts and munitions to the forward bases to stockpile what they would need for a mission. The first combat action actually took place during one of those trips, when a B-29 carrying a load of aviation gas was attacked by six Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa, or "Oscar," fighters. Its crew managed to beat off the attackers using the B-29’s defensive armament of 12 .50-caliber guns.
Combat Operations Begin
The first target would not be Japan but the Makasan rail facilities in Bangkok, Thailand. On June 5, 1944, 98 Superforts led by General Saunders took off on the 2,261-mile mission, the longest thus far attempted in the war. En route, 14 B-29s were forced to abort the mission due to overheated engines, and the remainder arrived to find the target obscured by weather. After a confused, radar-assisted bombing run, only 18 bombs hit the target. On the way back, 42 planes were forced to divert to other airfields due to low fuel, while five B-29s crashed on landing.
In the wake of that fiasco, Wolfe was ordered to attack Japan with a minimum of 70 B-29s by June 15. It was a tall order, especially considering that he had only 86 airplanes equipped with the bomb bay tanks that would enable them to reach Japan -- and with an expected abort rate of 25 to 30 percent, getting that many planes over the target looked doubtful. Using the B-29s as transports again, it took another 10 days to move fuel, bombs and spares for the mission from India to the forward bases.
Since the B-29s, even with bomb bay tanks, were only capable of reaching Kyushu, the southernmost Japanese Home Island, the Joint Chiefs decided the primary target would be the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, believed to produce 24 percent of Japan’s steel capacity. Despite the aircrews’ lack of night bombing experience, they were ordered to fly the mission at night in a stream rather than in formation. The weakness of this approach was that each plane would have to find and bomb the target individually.
On June 15, 68 B-29s, each carrying 2 tons of bombs, took off for the first raid against the Japanese mainland in more than two years. One airplane crashed on takeoff, and four more aborted with engine problems. Seven hours later, 47 B-29s found a blacked-out target almost completely obscured by smoke and haze. The other planes in the stream had either jettisoned their bomb loads en route because of mechanical problems, or tried to bomb targets of opportunity. Of those that found Yawata, 15 tried to make a visual approach, and the others depended on radar (the AN/APQ-13 mapping radar system that was still largely experimental). Poststrike photos revealed that only one bomb landed near the target -- the steel mill was not even scratched. One B-29 was shot down by flak, and six more were lost in accidents. The mission was nevertheless hailed as a success by the American press -- Japan had been attacked.
After that, when he was pressed to mount further attacks, Wolfe was resistant, telling Arnold that it would be impossible to stage new raids against Japan any time soon. Wolfe was summarily ordered to return to Washington, with Saunders put in temporary command. New mission orders came from the Joint Chiefs, and on July 7, 1944, 18 B-29s set out to attack four different industrial targets on Kyushu, causing negligible damage. The steel complex at Anshan, Manchuria, was bombed on July 9. Of 72 B-29s participating, one crashed on takeoff, 11 were forced to abort and four more were lost returning from the mission. Once again, bombing results were graded as poor. In August, 56 B-29s flew a 4,030-mile raid -- the longest of the war -- from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to bomb oil storage facilities in Palembang, Sumatra (Indonesia). Other B-29s laid mines in the Moesi River in Sumatra, and a third group attacked Nagasaki in western Kyushu. Again, damage to targets was minor.
The B-29 operations were a logistical mishmash compounded by a weird command structure, poor operational control and inadequate training. But not all the news was bad: The aircrews were learning to handle the B-29. They discovered, for example, that engine temperatures could be kept within tolerable limits if the takeoff run was extended and airspeed was allowed to build before beginning the climb.
Change of Command
On August 29, 1944, Curtis LeMay, the youngest major general in the U.S. Army Air Forces, arrived in India to take over XX Bomber Command. LeMay was not part of Hap Arnold’s inner circle as Wolfe had been, but had distinguished himself as a group commander, then as an air division commander with the Eighth Air Force in Europe, where he established the theater-wide pattern for heavy bombardment operations. After touring his new command, LeMay decided it needed to be reorganized: tactics, combat procedures, training, internal organization -- everything. One of the first changes he made was to establish a school to train lead crews, who would find and mark the targets on missions. He discovered that many of the maintenance problems associated with combat operations stemmed from the way the groups were organized.
Major General General Curtis LeMay
While XX Bomber Command was struggling in the CBI, a new development was unfolding in the Central Pacific. The island of Saipan, captured by U.S. Marines in July 1944, was within 1,600 miles of Honshu. More important, it could be resupplied by sea. The decision was made to send in the B-29s of the newly organized XXI Bomber Command as soon as the base could be readied. The 73rd Bomb Wing (Very Heavy), which had been training in the States since March, was slated to leave for Saipan in October.
The B-29s of the 58th Bomb Wing resumed combat operations in September, flying another raid against Anshan, in Manchuria. The results were mediocre. In mid-October, LeMay was ordered to attack various targets in Formosa in support of the planned invasion of the Philippines. On October 25, the B-29s attacked the Omura aircraft factory on Kyushu with the best results so far -- due in part to the decision to use a 2-to-1 mix of incendiary and high-explosive bombs. Because of supply problems, however, particularly fuel shortages, further efforts to fly more missions against Japan were severely hampered. That caused LeMay to reduce the number of missions flown from the forward bases in China in favor of missions against Singapore, Borneo, Malaya and Sumatra, which could be staged out of India.
End of the Road
LeMay was fast discovering that to get anything approved he had to battle not only the complex logistical problems and command issues within the CBI, but also the headquarters staff in Washington. The Japanese were pressing the Chinese armies farther westward, threatening the China bases, and the relationship between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-shek was unraveling. On top of that, the 58th’s B-29s, the earliest production models, were beginning to wear out, in part because they had done double duty as transports. LeMay began to empathize more with Wolfe, realizing that many of the difficulties had not been under the former commander’s control.
By early November 1944, LeMay had gotten the unit to a much higher level of combat efficiency -- the crews were better trained and the aircraft were better maintained -- but it didn’t solve the overall problem. While B-29 missions continued against targets in Southeast Asia, Formosa and Kyushu, it was becoming apparent to LeMay, Arnold and the Joint Chiefs that sustained B-29 operations out of the CBI were of limited strategic value. The raids, averaging 50 to 60 B-29s, were delivering about 125 to 150 tons of bombs to the target, and not all the targets could be classified as strategic (i.e., war industries). During the same time period, the Eighth and Fifteenth air forces in Europe were putting 3,500 tons of bombs on a strategic target in a single day.
In December 1944, the Joint Chiefs decided that Matterhorn would be phased out and the aircraft and personnel of the 58th would be transferred to Tinian, one of the islands in the Marianas group near Saipan. Certain personnel and B-29s would be left behind in India under the command of Lord Mountbatten and would not join the others until March 1945. On January 6, 1945, Arnold announced that he was naming LeMay as new commander of XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas, replacing Brig. Gen. Haywood "Possum" Hansell.
In all fairness, the attempt to operate the B-29s out of the CBI should be classified as an experiment. Even in a different combat theater with better logistical support, early B-29 operations would likely have proved difficult, given the teething problems associated with a complicated new aircraft. In fact, the XXI Bomber Command produced only marginal results during its first months of combat operations, resulting in General Hansell’s suffering the same fate as Kenneth Wolfe. It would not be until March 1945, with LeMay at the helm, that the B-29s started to inflict serious strategic damage on the Japanese Home Islands. By mid-1945, large segments of Japan’s major industrial cities had been reduced to rubble as a result of the Allied bombing effort. The Imperial Navy had been destroyed, and the Japanese army and air forces had been forced to move underground. Some military historians believe the Japanese would have surrendered by the end of 1945 even if the United States had not elected to use the atomic bomb.
In any case, Hap Arnold was on target in his prediction -- a war can be fought and won through the right use of strategic air power.
Additional Sources: www.nasm.si.edu
www.afwing.com
www.nutleysons.com
www1.ocn.ne.jp
www.wpafb.af.mil
farrellpublishing.com
www.fas.org
www.history.noaa.gov
Better late than never.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on April 25:
1214 Louis IX king of France (1226-70)
1228 Koenraad IV Roman Catholic German king (1237-54)
1284 Edward II king of England (1307-27)
1599 Oliver Cromwell Puritan lord protector of England (1653-58)
1710 James Ferguson astronomer
1792 John Keble Anglican priest/founder (Oxford Movement)
1825 Charles Ferdinand Dowd US, standardized time zones
1840 James Dearing Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1865
1874 Guglielmo Marconi Bologna Italy, inventor (radio/Nobel 1909)
1906 William J Brennan Jr Newark NJ, 92nd Supreme Court judge (1956-90)
1908 Edward R Murrow Pole Creek NC, newscaster (Person to Person)
1912 Gladys L Presley mother of Elvis
1918 Ella Fitzgerald Newport News VA, jazz singer (The First Lady of Song, Is it live or Memorex, A-Tisket A-Tasket)
1923 Albert King Indianola MS, blues singer/guitarist (Bad Look Blues)
1925 Flannery O'Connor short story writer (or 03/25)
1930 Paul Mazursky Brooklyn NY, writer/director (Moscow on the Hudson)
1932 George "Meadowlark" Lemon basketball star (Harlem Globetrotter)
1940 Al Pacino New York NY, actor (And Justice For All, Godfather, Scorpio)
1942 Jon Kyl (Senator-Republican-AZ)
1945 Stu Cook Oakland CA, rock bassist (Creedence Clearwater Revival-Proud Mary)
1952 Vladislav Tretiak USSR hockey player (Olympics-gold-1972, 76)
1971 Michelle Harris Newark DE, Miss Delaware-America (1996)
Deaths which occurred on April 25:
1295 Sancho IV the Brave, scholar/king of Castile/León, dies
1342 Benedict XII [Jacques Fournier] Pope (1334-42), dies
1482 Margaret of Anjou Queen (Henry VI), dies
1607 Don Juan Alvarez Spanish Admiral (Gibraltar), dies in battle
1644 The Ming Chongzhen emperor committed suicide by hanging himself as Beijing fell to the bandit and rebel leader Li Dzucheng (39). The Qing, or Chi’ing, dynasty of China began when the Manchus invaded from Northeast China and overthrew the 300-year-old Ming Dynasty.
1744 Anders Celsius Swedish astronomer (Centegrade Thermometer), dies at 42
1840 Siméon-Denis Poisson French mathematician (Poisson verdeling), dies
1862 Charles Ferguson Smith US Union General-Major, dies of infection at 55
1882 Johann CF Zöllner German astronomer (astro photography), dies
1905 Jacob Olie Dutch photographer, dies at about 70
1937 Clem Sohn air show performer dies at 26 when his chute fails to open
1955 Paulus B Barth Swiss painter/lithographer, dies at 73
1960 Amanullah emir/king of Afhanistan (1919-28), dies at 67
1981 Dixie a mouse who lived 6½ years, dies
1982 Don Wilson TV announcer (Jack Benny Show), dies at 81
1982 John Cody US cardinal/archbishop of Chicago (1965-82), dies at 74
1982 William R Burnett US, writer (Asphalt Jungle), dies at 82
1988 Clifford D. Simak sci-fi author (Hugo, Way Station), dies at 83
1990 Dexter Gordon (67), jazz saxophonist, died in Philadelphia
1995 Art Fleming game show host (Jeopardy), dies at 74
1995 Ginger Rogers actress/dancer (Top Hat, Stage Door), dies at 83
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
25-Apr-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US 1st Lieutenant Osbaldo Orozco Tikrit (near) Hostile - vehicle accident
US Specialist Narson Bertil Sullivan Not reported Non-hostile - weapon discharge (accid.)
25-Apr-2004 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Kenneth A. Melton Baghdad (nr. Sadr City) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal Hostile - hostile fire - suicide boat bomb
Afghanistan
78 04/25/03 Dennis, Jerod R. Private 19 Army 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment Hostile fire Near Ne Shkin, Afghanistan
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
1185 Sea battle at Dan-no-ura Minamoto Yoritomo defeats the Taira-family
1449 Anti-pope Felix V resigns
1507 Geographer Martin Waldseemuller 1st used name America
1590 The Sultan of Morocco launches a successful attack to capture Timbuktu.
1607 Battle at Gibraltar Dutch fleet defeats Spanish/Portuguese fleet
1614 Amsterdam Bank of Loan forms
1660 London Convention Parliament meets & votes to restore Charles II
1684 Patent granted for the thimble
1707 Battle of Almansa-Franco-Spanish forces defeat Anglo-Portuguese
1719 Daniel Defoes publishes "Robinson Crusoe"
1781 Gen. Nathanael Greene engages British forces at Hobkirk’s Hill, South Carolina, was forced to retreat
1792 Guillotine 1st used, executes highwayman Nicolas J Pelletier
1850 Paul Julius Reuter, use 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices
1859 Ground broken for Suez Canal
1861 7th New York arrives to reinforce Washington DC
1861 Battle of Lavaca TX
1862 Battle of New Orleans LA - US Admiral Farragut occupies New Orleans
1864 Battle of Marks' Mill AR (Camden Expedition)
1867 Tokyo is opened for foreign trade
1875 Latest date for measurable snow in NYC (3")
1876 Chicago Cubs 1st National League game, beats Louisville 4-0 (1st National League shutout)
1881 250,000 Germans petition to bar foreign Jews from entering Germany
1881 French troops occupy Algeria & Tunisia
1886 Sigmund Freud opens practice at Rathausstrasse 7, Vienna
1896 Fight in Central Dance Hall starts fire (Cripple Creek CO)
1901 New York becomes 1st state requiring auto license plates ($1 fee)
1901 In last of 9th, Detroit Tigers, trailing by 13-4, score 10 runs to win one of the greatest comebacks in baseball (1st game in Detroit).
1915 78,000 ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli
1925 Paul von Hindenburg elected 2nd President of Germany (Adolf Hitler is 3rd)
1926 Persian cossack officer Reza Chan crowns himself Shah Palawi
1927 Spain routes 20,000 soldiers to Morocco (uprising Rifkabylen)
1928 Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes 1st guide dog for the blind
1933 US & Canada drop Gold Standard
1944 United Negro College Fund incorporates
1945 46 countries convene United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco CA
1945 Clandestine Radio 1212, used to hoax Nazi Germany's final transmission
1945 Last Boeing B-17 attack against Nazi Germany
1945 US & Soviet forces meet at Torgau Germany on Elbe River
1945 Red army completely surrounds Berlin
1947 Trial against WWII mayor of Amsterdam Edward Voûte begins
1950 Chuck Cooper becomes the 1st black to play in the NBA
1951 After a three day fight in the Battle of Imjim River against Chinese Communist Forces, the Gloucestershire Regiment was annihilated on “Gloucester Hill,” in Korea.
1952 American Bowling Congress approves use of an automatic pinsetter
1952 6th NBA Championship Minneapolis Lakers beat New York Knicks, 4 games to 3
1953 Scientists identify DNA
1954 Bell labs announces 1st solar battery (New York NY)
1954 British raid Nairobi Kenya (25,000 Mau Mau suspects are arrested)
1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1956 Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" goes #1
1957 1st experimental sodium nuclear reactor operated
1957 Ibrahim Hashim forms Jordanian government
1959 St Lawrence Seaway linking Atlantic, Great Lakes opens to shipping
1960 1st submerged circumnavigation of Earth completed (Triton)
1961 Mercury/Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin
1961 Robert Noyce patents integrated circuit
1961 Premier Moïse Tsjombe of Katanga arrested in Congo
1967 Abortion legalized in Colorado
1967 Jules Feiffer's "Little Murders", premieres in NYC
1971 About 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters march on Washington DC
1972 Hans-Werner Grosse glides 907.7 miles (1,461 km) in an AS-W-12
1974 Chancellor Willy Brandt's Secretary Günther Guillaume found to be a spy
1974 Marcello Caetano overthrown in Portugal; he is exiled to Madeira and later to Brazil (Carnation revolution)
1975 Mario Soares' Socialist Party wins 1st free election in Portugal
1975 West German embassy blown-up in Stockholm Sweden
1976 Cub centerfielder Rick Monday rescues US flag from 2 fans trying to set it on fire
1976 Elections in Vietnam for a National Assembly to reunite the country (one man one vote one party one time)
1978 William Clinton (31), attorney general of Arkansas and candidate for governor, sexually assaulted Juanita Broaddrick at the Camelot Inn in Little Rock. Broaddrick made the story public on national TV in 1999
1978 Supreme Court rules pension plans can't require women to pay more
1979 "Rock 'n Roll High Schools" premieres
1979 Peace treaty between Israel & Egypt goes into effect
1980 Announcement of Jimmy Carter hostage rescue bungle in Iran
1982 In accordance with Camp David, Israel completes Sinai withdrawal
1983 Yuri Andropov invites US schoolgirl Samantha Smith to USSR
1984 Rock group Wings disbands
1985 For 2nd time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 goals in a Cup game
1985 West German Parliament ruled it illegal to deny the holocaust
1986 ETA bomb attacks Madrid killing 5
1988 John Demjanjuk (Ivan the Terrible), sentenced to death in Jerusalem
1990 Hubble space telescope is placed into orbit by shuttle Discovery
1991 Lisa Olson brings suit against NFL New England Patriots for sexual harassment
1992 “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.” begins.
1993 Russia elects Boris Yeltsin leader
1994 14" of snow in Southern California
1994 King Azlan Shah of Malaysia resigns
1994 Mexican businessman & billionaire Angel Losada kidnapped
1998 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified(lies) via videotape for the Little Rock, Ark., grand jury in the Whitewater case.
1999 Vice President Al Gore was among the 70,000 who attended a memorial service for the victims of the Columbine High School shootings five days earlier.
2000 Ohio state motto, “with God, all things are possible,” was declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court
2001 In unusually blunt terms, President Bush warned China that an attack on Taiwan could provoke a U.S. military response.
2001 A rescue plane flew out of the South Pole with ailing American doctor Ronald S. Shemenski in the most daring airlift ever from the pole.
2003 Farouk Hijazi, who once helped run Saddam Hussein's intelligence service and was linked to al-Qaida, was delivered by Syria to US forces.
2004 Apr 25, Pope John Paul II added six more people to the ranks of Catholics on the path to possible sainthood. Honored were: August Czartoryski (1858-1893) of Poland, a prince who became a Salesian priest; Laura Montoya (1874-1949) of Colombia, who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Mary; Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (1878-1963) of Mexico, co-founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poor; Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) of Italy, a nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Giovanna Antida Thouret; Eusebia Palomino Yenes (1899-1935) of Spain; a nun of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians; and da Costa (1904-1955), who became a lay Salesian cooperator.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Australia, Nauru, New Zealand, Solomon Is, Tonga, W Samoa : ANZAC Day (1915)
Azores : Portugal's Day (1974)
Italy : Liberation Day
Portugal : Revolution Day (1974)
England : Cuckoo Day
Babylon : New Years Day (except leap years)
Swaziland : Flag Day
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi : Confederate Memorial Day (1868) (Monday)
US : National Dream Weekend
US : National Earthquake Awareness Week Begins
Actors Appreciation Month
Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Robigalia; god of mildew asked not to harm
Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran : Feast of St Mark the Evangelist
Christian : Latest possible date for Easter (eg 1943, 2038)
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of the Greater Litanies
Christian : National Christian College Day
Buddhist-Laos : Buddhist Holiday
Religious History
1530 The Augsburg Confession was read publicly at the Diet of Worms. Written principally by Philip Melanchthon, the document comprised the first official summary of the Lutheran faith.
1792 Birth of John Keble, English clergyman and poet. Credited with having founded the Oxford Movement in 1833, Keble also authored the hymn, "Sun of My Soul, Thou Savior Dear" (1820).
1800 Death of William Cowper, 69, English poet. A lifelong victim of depression, Cowper nevertheless left a great spiritual literary legacy, including three enduring hymns: "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," "Oh, For a Closer Walk with God" and "There is a Fountain."
1929 The Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America was organized in Detroit, partly in response to the insurgence of Communism in Eastern Europe. Previously, its parishes were under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate in Bucharest, Hungary.
1982 Captured in 1967, the Sinai Peninsula was returned by Israel to Egypt, as part of the 1979 Camp David Accord.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."
