Bombing of Japan: When Did It Begin?

[Texas Star]

Does anyone know when the first US bombers, other than Doolittle's B-25's, reached Japan for the first serious bombing raids?

When did the B-29 enter combat duty and was it over Burma at first?

Photos welcome.

 

[jeffsmith]

We Bombed the Kurile Islands in May of 43

In June 43 B-29's started some missions from China

B-29 Operations from the Marianas began in November of 1944

 

[silentflyer]

Yes the first B 29 strikes were in SE Asia in 1944, and the Japan from Chinia, before the main effort from the Pacific islands.

 

[kwselke]

As I recall the B-29 attacks on Japan which were launched from the Mariana Islands began in November 1944. It seems like that was about the time the Japanese started using Kamikaze tactics.

 

[QuickDrawMcGraw]

Some good info here Texas Star*
.. Scroll down to "Japanese Bombings"
I was just reading this last night.

----> Strategic bombing during World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

~ Joe

 

[V1 Rotate]

A good recent book, "Whirlwind", is about the air campaign on Japan. It was the longest range bombing campaign in history, and it utilized the most complicated and sophisticated combat aircraft ever built until then, the B-29. The campaign was ineffectual until reliability problems and tactics were were perfected. The arguments of revisionist, America-blaming historians who imply that the atomic bomb was unnecessary are also effectively refuted. The book is less than a year old, I believe; I read it after it got positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal. Regards, Bill S

 

[Dmaxboy08]

Does anyone know when the first US bombers, other than Doolittle's B-25's, reached Japan for the first serious bombing raids?

When did the B-29 enter combat duty and was it over Burma at first?

Photos welcome.

Have you been watching the Military Channel today?

 

[Texas Star]

Have you been watching the Military Channel today?

Nope. No cable TV.

 

[Dmaxboy08]

Nope. No cable TV.

Oh okay. Reason for me asking was yesterday(saturday) the military channel did a show on the Doolittle raid.

 

[cmort666]

A good recent book, "Whirlwind", is about the air campaign on Japan. It was the longest range bombing campaign in history, and it utilized the most complicated and sophisticated combat aircraft ever built until then, the B-29. The campaign was ineffectual until reliability problems and tactics were were perfected. The arguments of revisionist, America-blaming historians who imply that the atomic bomb was unnecessary are also effectively refuted. The book is less than a year old, I believe; I read it after it got positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal. Regards, Bill S

High altitude bombing with the existing technology was almost totally ineffective due to the effects of the jet stream.

Most current popular criticism of the firebombing of Japan seems premised on a belief that bombing accuracy over Tokyo in 1945 was equivalent to bombing accuracy over Baghdad in 1991.

Most current popular criticism of the atomic bombing of Japan seems premised on a complete and utter ignorance of (or dishonesty about) the political situation then pertaining on the ground in Japan. Virtually ALL claims of the Japanese "wanting to surrender" refer to persons with no more real ability to offer that surrender than Cindy Sheehan had to terminate the war in Iraq... with the caveat that Sheehan was NEVER in ANY real danger of being assassinated for her public statements about the war.

 

[cmort666]

A good recent book, "Whirlwind", is about the air campaign on Japan. It was the longest range bombing campaign in history, and it utilized the most complicated and sophisticated combat aircraft ever built until then, the B-29. The campaign was ineffectual until reliability problems and tactics were were perfected. The arguments of revisionist, America-blaming historians who imply that the atomic bomb was unnecessary are also effectively refuted.

If you stacked the number of serious books which refuted such claims and stood upon them, you could probably look Lady Liberty in the eye.

Like Holocaust revisionism, Hiroshima revisionism is premised almost entirely upon ignorance and dishonesty.

It's only necessary to look at the coup attempt the night before the surrender to understand that. The Japanese almost DIDN'T surrender, even WITH Hiroshima, Nagasaki AND the Soviet declaration of war. How mind numbingly stupid does one have to be to believe that the Japanese would have been MORE likely to surrender unconditionally when NOT faced with utter destruction from which they had ABSOLUTELY no defense?

And if the Japanese weren't going to be forced to surrender unconditionally, why the Germans? Until the very last moment, the Japanese wanted to keep their slave territories of Manchuria and Korea. Heck, if that was acceptable, why not throw in the Philippines and Hawaii?

 

[Kinman]

I read a book when I was a kid called "30 seconds over Tokyo" written by the pilot of the "Ruptured Duck" a B-25 Mitchell bomber that flew on Doolittles raid. Excellent book parts of which stay with my memory. One thing I remember was how scared they were on take-off with a load of bombs off the carrier. The pilot said that he was so flumoxed that he forgot to set the flaps to full on take-off and didn't find out until he told the co-pilot to kill the flaps. If you ever watch the footage of the take-off there is one plane that looks like it was going for dive into the ocean, that was his plane. The details of their crash landing along the Chinese coast was particularly harrowing, the amazement of what was accomplished when none of what they did was thought capable of being done is very memorable.

 

[Texas Star]

I read a book when I was a kid called "30 seconds over Tokyo" written by the pilot of the "Ruptured Duck" a B-25 Mitchell bomber that flew on Doolittles raid. Excellent book parts of which stay with my memory. One thing I remember was how scared they were on take-off with a load of bombs off the carrier. The pilot said that he was so flumoxed that he forgot to set the flaps to full on take-off and didn't find out until he told the co-pilot to kill the flaps. If you ever watch the footage of the take-off there is one plane that looks like it was going for dive into the ocean, that was his plane. The details of their crash landing along the Chinese coast was particularly harrowing, the amazement of what was accomplished when none of what they did was thought capable of being done is very memorable.

I read that book by Capt. Ted Lawson as a kid. It was made into a movie. You can see clips of it on YouTube. Excellent film, and close to the book.

I remember Lawson telling how his crew all carried personal pistols and knives in addition to the issued .45's. He had his wife Ellen's Colt .32 auto. I always wondered what happened to Lawson. I think his injuries probably got him a medical discharge?

In the movie, you hear a certain noise as the bomb bay doors opened. Sometimes, my refrigerator door sounds like that, and I always think of that scene in the film. (Yes, I have a good imagination, but the door sounds that way.)

 

[Stephanie B]

I'm pulling on old memories here, as I did some reading on this topic a long time ago.

One of the lesser-known bits of the war was Operation Starvation. That was a large-scale mining campaign in which Army bombers mined the Inland Sea. (Lots of internal politics there, as the Army and the Navy regarded each other as the primary long-term enemy.) Between the mining and the Navy submariner's anti-shipping campaign, Japan's home islands were nearly completely isolated from its supply sources and its army in China.

The Army's incendiary bombing campaign had reduced most of the major Japanese cities to ruins. The two Tokyo fire raids killed more people than both of the atomic attacks.

The estimates that I remember reading were that Japan had about twelve to sixteen million gallons of aviation gasoline on hand in the summer of 1945. That sounds like a lot of gas, but the tank farm at a single B-29 base in the Marianas had at about the fuel, and it is equivalent to about what three tankers would hold.

So the Japanese were cut off from much of their food supply, from their supply of raw materials and oil and most of their land forces were essentially stranded in China.

And they weren't giving up.

I don't know what would have happened if we had concentrated on ensuring that the blockade was watertight and just pounded them from the air, but that would probably have taken a long time. Dictatorial rulers rarely care about the suffering of their people.

On a personal note, my uncle Jim was a two-invasion Marine and he was going to go on this third if we invaded Japan. My father had been trained by the Army to defuse Japanese land mines, he had made it as far as Hawaii. Uncle Jim once told me that his division was, at least on paper, going to disappear by D+7.

So for me, my brothers, my sister, my nieces and nephews and my cousins, I am glad that President Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Japan.

 

[cmort666]

One of the lesser-known bits of the war was Operation Starvation. That was a large-scale mining campaign in which Army bombers mined the Inland Sea. (Lots of internal politics there, as the Army and the Navy regarded each other as the primary long-term enemy.) Between the mining and the Navy submariner's anti-shipping campaign, Japan's home islands were nearly completely isolated from its supply sources and its army in China.

I read a book a few years ago, "Downfall" maybe, where the author discussed the final stages of the air campaign against Japan.

In addition to heavily mining the Japanese ports and routes to and from it's sources of supply, we concentrated heavily on mining and bombing intra-island train ferries which distributed most of the domestic coal supply. This effectively curtailed vast swaths of Japanese industry and cut off the ability of the civilian populace to heat itself.

On a personal note, my uncle Jim was a two-invasion Marine and he was going to go on this third if we invaded Japan. My father had been trained by the Army to defuse Japanese land mines, he had made it as far as Hawaii. Uncle Jim once told me that his division was, at least on paper, going to disappear by D+7.

My father wrecked his back playing Negro League football and was a legit 4F. Had we had to invade Japan, I have no doubt that he would have been reclassed to 1A. I probably wouldn't have had any uncles who lived, and I might not have been born without the atomic bombs.

 

[jeffsmith]

Ted W. Lawson

I read a book when I was a kid called "30 seconds over Tokyo" written by the pilot of the "Ruptured Duck" a B-25 Mitchell bomber that flew on Doolittles raid. Excellent book parts of which stay with my memory.SNIP

I read that book by Capt. Ted Lawson as a kid. It was made into a movie. You can see clips of it on YouTube. Excellent film, and close to the book.

I remember Lawson telling how his crew all carried personal pistols and knives in addition to the issued .45's. He had his wife Ellen's Colt .32 auto. I always wondered what happened to Lawson. I think his injuries probably got him a medical discharge?
SNIP

Today would have been Lawson's 96th Birthday
He wasn't immediately discharged because of his injuries,
but performed further service.
He owned & operated a machine shop after the war.

Ted Lawson

 

[BearBio]

I remember reading a history of the Flying Tigers (my dad was a crew chief with them after they joined the Air Corps) and Chenault had a plan to bomb Japan from China and even started hand building airstrips. I don't remember if they ever tried it, though.

 

[Texas Star]

My father was on Okinawa, and would probably have invaded Japan, had the Bomb not been dropped. He was glad not to have to invade.

 

[Texas Star]

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Part 10 - YouTube


Here's Part 10 of, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". It includes the actual bombing and the crash landing in China during a storm.

This is very close to the book by Capt. Ted Lawson, pilot of the B-25 "Ruptured Duck."

Considering what they had to expect if captured or unable to land safely, these guys had a lot of courage.

I can't hear the bomb bay doors open in this version. Maybe I heard that dubbed in in a different edit.

I think you can see the entire movie on YouTube. It 's well worth watching. I think every American school kid should see this, but few do. Most probably can't tell you when WW II was!

 

[Harkrader]

My dad was WWII Navy, a carrier pilot flying Hellcats, Helldivers and Avengers. After sinking German submarines in the North Atlantic he was sent to Great Lakes Naval Air Station where, with George Gay, among others, they were preparing to be the first wave to invade Japan. He said they all figured they were dead.
To the end of his days he called them "Japs" and said we should have dropped a lot more A-bombs.
I was a USAF Vietnam tactical pilot and very fond of our attitude: "One on one, just me and my gun." Fact is, it's a foolishly inefficient way to fight a war. Go drones, go laser-guided artillery, go cruise missiles! Our oldest son didn't listen to his father and joined the USAF in July, 2001. Four tours in Iraq/Afghastlystan later . . .. *I* say, stand off and throw big boomers. Keep our son coming home.