Word: saipan
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Superfortresses flying from China and Saipan opened the battle for Japan during the last half of 1944, long before Allied troops could land on the enemy shore. But there was no overconfidence this time, as there had been when the strategic bombing of Germany began. There was no talk of winning the war in the Orient with air power alone...
Good and Not So Good. The 21st Bomber Command, at Saipan, had started later and gained faster. In its first month of operations, beginning Nov. 24, it had dropped more than 1,500 tons on Honshu, concentrating on aircraft factories around Tokyo and Nagoya. The Japs had new interceptors of improved types (known as Jack and Irving). U.S. airmen did not underrate the threat of these planes; the factories building them were top-priority targets. The Nakajima Company's great Musashina factory on Tokyo's outskirts was hit three times before year's end. Said the 21st...
...occasionally some of his precious 6-295) to keep hammering at Sulphur Island (Iwo Jima) in the Volcano group, whence Jap fighters took off to harry 6-295 bombing Honshu, and whence Jap bombers took off to bomb the Superfort base at Saipan.* Later, when bases nearer to Japan had been won, Harmon could use 8-24 Liberators alongside their bigger cousins against the enemy homeland...
Even from the new airdromes on Saipan, the reach to Tokyo (1,500 mi.) was a long one. The Superfortresses, built for just such a job, had to go out with cut-down bomb-loads and carefully calculated fuel allowances to make the run and get home. But as airmen worked into intimate acquaintanceship with their massive, wondrously complicated weapon, the assaults were stepped up both in timing and in loads dropped. This week, when the B-29s had struck the great industrial center at Nagoya a second time, the force on Saipan could count five assaults...
...Anderson crew began looking for some other target, found a fine fat factory in Hamamatsu (55 mi. south of Nagoya) and plunked their bombs squarely among its buildings. Then came the letdown. Back on Saipan, Anderson reported his emergency measure-and got a big laugh. The plant was a musical instrument factory...