Word: b-29s
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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...Superfortresses droned over the cluster of factories in their first daylight operation, flames from the bombed plants billowed up to 6,000 feet, smoke to 26,000. But the B-29s were above these, above the ack-ack, and above the effective fighting ceiling of Jap Zeroes. The first high-level operation of the kind for which B-29s were designed (as distinct from medium-altitude night bombing such as the two previous attacks on Yawata and Sasebo) was a success. Only two planes were lost. Total for three raids...
...principle is not new. Years ago the Army experimented with air pumped into a sealed cabin from a supercharger; the idea was used commercially in Boeing's Stratoliner. But until the B-29s attacked Japan, no pressurized cabins had been exposed by the U.S. to enemy fire...
Close-mouthed U.S. communiques said the bombing had been "accurate and effective." Antiaircraft fire over the target was "moderate to intense." There was "some resistance" from enemy fighters. The number of planes in the attack was left blank; a communique said only a "sizable task force of B-29s." The cost of the attack was four aircraft: one knocked down by enemy flak over the target; one missing; two lost by accidents...
...China Problem. For this and for future raids, the worst problem for the B-29s now is not Japs but supply. All bombs, gas and technical equipment must be flown in over the "Hump" route from India. Planes bringing in gas use several times the amount of their payload, just to get it there; the B-29s have proved to be their own most efficient tank cars. How much they can haul, and how often they can crank up new raids, now rates a spot well up on the crowded list of things the Japs must worry about...
Besides, this amphibious campaign-of the made-in-America type by which U.S. forces in two hemispheres have conquered historic handicaps-would win bases for U.S. air fleets. If the Americans' monstrous B-29s could come from western China to Yawata, they could come from Saipan (and, doubtless, Guam) to Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe...