Posted on 05/27/2015 4:24:24 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Thanks for your great posts and hard work making us aware of what happened in WWII.
Looks like the Mighty 8th would have flown B-29s
http://www.8thafhs-pa.org/history/air-force-pacific-theater-wwii/
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I don't know what the plan is. It seems like it would make sense to transition to B-29s, due to the distances involved and existing air base infrastructure. Doolittle would be the guy to supervise such a move. What a remarkable man he was. But they better get moving. It could take a few months for training and transport to the Pacific. I don't expect they will see action much earlier than the end of August.
According to wiki they were based in Okinawa but did not get B-29s until after the surrender, actually got the firt B29 the day after Hiroshima:
Pacific Theater
Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 plans were made to transfer some of the B-17/B-24 heavy bomber groups of Eighth Air Force to the Pacific Theater of Operations and upgrade them to B-29 Superfortress Very Heavy (VH) bomb groups. As part of this plan, Eighth Air Force headquarters was reassigned to Sakugawa (Kadena Airfield), Okinawa, on 16 July 1945, being assigned to the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific without personnel or equipment.
On Okinawa, Eighth Air Force derived its headquarters personnel from the inactivated XX Bomber Command, and Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle assumed command, being reassigned from England on 19 July. The command controlled three airfields on Okinawa, Bolo, Futema, and Kadena Airfield. The Eighth received its first B-29 Superfortress on 8 August 1945.
My father was on the USS Mississippi BB-41.
He never spoke much about his experiences until a granddaughter related her history lesson from public school about how Americans had made a sneak nuclear attack on the innocent Japanese.
Thereafter, he pulled out memorabilia, and hung a framed document listing those killed on the battleship, among them a chaplain who was his close friend.
High-speed minesweeper USS Southard (DMS-10, ex DD-207) is slightly damaged by a kamikaze which crashed 15-yards (13.7 m) ahead of the ship.
I don’t know if my father was aboard the Southard at that time or if he had transferred to the YMS-389. I believe author Herman Wouk was CO of the Southard at that time.
On one hand it would make sense to bring the 8th Air Force over as currently organized. The 8th being based on Okinawa could continue with the B-17/B-24 wings and carry max bomb load of roughly 10,000 pounds.
The advantage to using the B-17/B-24 you already have an air force in being, minimal training required to get started on the reduction of Japan.
The B-29 gives you double the bomb load with a better defensive gun arrangement than the B-17/B-24. However by going to the B-29 you would need at least a 3 to 6 month training cycle to get the Bombardment groups up to speed, IMHO.
I am not sure what was in the training pipeline regards the B-29 back in the States so the Mighty 8th may have been able to deploy faster. The fact that in August the 8th was still getting up to speed may indicate otherwise.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Although the Communist Party (known during the war as the Communist Political Association) opposed strikes as part of their efforts on behalf of Uncle joe, there were quite a few strikes during the war years.
At the end of July, 1942, instrumentalists in the musicians' union went on strike against the record companies. In the days before the strike, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians worked frantically to finish their recording A Visit from St. Nicholas and just barely got it into the can before the musicians walked out. Had they failed to complete the project before the deadline, this classic recording, enjoyed by tens of millions of people over the past seven decades, would never have come into existence.
Since no instruments could be used, opular recordings that came out during the strike had a unique sound. Here are some examples:
An interesting article in several ways. It certainly presents a sobering prospective.
Does anyone know when the Pacific commanders (MacArthur, Nimitz, etc.) were first informed of the existence and presumed efficacy of the atomic bombs?
There was an article in the Times a month or so before the end in Germany where the last B17 to roll off the assembly lines was displayed next to a new B29. Willow Run is going to cease production of B24s on June 28.
No reason to deploy bombers that are no longer in production is probably the thought here, and flying only one type of bomber in combat makes the logistics and maintenance easier.
Considering the training time delays for converting -17 & -24 crews to the -29, that is exactly the decision one would expect from someone who knows the A-bomb will preempt everything.
I don’t think retraining ground and air crew for the B29 would have been that difficult. These were veterans who knew their business. And LeMay has already worked out the kinks in getting peak efficiency in flying them in combat.
At this time, there are four B29 plants in more or less full production, collectively turning out about 300 planes per month. I went to law school because I’m bad at math, but matching the existing fleet with new production I could see fleets of 1000 bombers flying from both Okinawa and the Marianas by the end of the year.
As it was, over 3200 B29s were actually produced, and in September the government cancelled orders for an additional 5000 of them.
Makes perfect sense.
Once refitted, the Iwo Jima Marines began training for Operation Longtom, a joint Army-Marine landing on the China coast to seize land for air bases to attack Japan. As we have seen, however, the Joint Chiefs just ordered Nimitz and MacArthur to proceed with Olympic with November 1 as the target date. Longtom was shelved indefinitely.
Longtom was a dead end; the Asian Market-Garden.
Couldn’t agree more. Our worst strategy would have been to engage Japan on land in China.
http://www.history.army.mil/books/70-7_23.htm
Sounds about right. Obviously it was on a need-to-know basis, and the field commanders didn’t make that cut.
LeMay knew well in advance, as early as March 30. Nimitz was briefed at the same time. They had to be briefed about the purpose of the 509th Composite Group. And having been briefed, LeMay was forbidden from flying combat missions.
From all the little things going on it looks like the US Military is figuring on at least one more year to knock out Japan.
Ha Ha little did they know!
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
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