To organize this growing force, the XX Bomber Command was created on March 28, 1944. The initial idea was to place all of these machines and their operators in the war theater area known as CBI, or China-Burma-India, which was referred to by the Americans. Later, additional Bombardment Wings (BW) were established, each with its corresponding Bombardment Group (BG). In turn, each of these bombing groups had three squadrons, with an average allocation of 20 to 30 B-29 aircraft per squadron. These five units were the 40th Bombardment Group, 444th Bombardment Group, 462nd Bombardment Group, 468th Bombardment Group, and 472nd Bombardment Group, which primarily had training bases in the Kansas region. A large unit that housed five bombardment groups was the Bombardment Group or BG. On June 1, 1943, the 58th Bombardment Wing (58th BW) was created and activated in the city of Marietta, Georgia. ![]() īut before that someone would have to leave those planes as close to Japan as possible. No other major World War II fighter model, regardless of size, had such a short interval between its first flight and its first appearance in enemy territory: only 20 months. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress could truly be considered an exceptional aircraft. A vast network was established to provide materials, equipment, and civil and military training programs. To achieve this feat, there was the largest subcontracting project in the world at that time. Once the design was complete, four main assembly plants were built by three separate companies, which were widely dispersed, all over the country. The Americans had their goals, but the extensive development required for the B-29 delayed its entry into service until mid-1943. It was later identified that if only 30% of these sites were destroyed, 20% of Japanese production would be lost, and the number of victims could reach 560,000 people in a short period of time. A study from October 1943 noted that only twenty Japanese cities housed 22% of the country’s entire population. The houses in this community were constructed with fragile materials, which made them particularly vulnerable.Īround the same time, air personnel identified eight priority industrial targets in Japan, Manchuria (China), and Korea. In 1943, this abandoned community was destroyed for the first time by bombers, showcasing the ease and devastating impact of destruction that would later be experienced by cities in Japan. The place had two dozen faithfully reproduced wooden houses, each furnished with traditional tatami (straw mats spread on the floor). That day, the XB-29 prototype took off from the city of Seattle in the northwest of the United States. In the case of Japan, its political and economic center was located much further away from the reach of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers.īut on September 21, 1942, the United States, a great industrial power, presented a solution to the case. ![]() The problem was that, at that time, Nazi Germany and the territories occupied by that nation also needed to be defeated. There was no shortage of heavy bomber models produced in the USA. This situation has always been seen as natural however, the methods used to achieve it have been questioned. ![]() In 1942, there was never any doubt among the highest political and military authorities in the United States that the Japanese Empire, the enemy nation that carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, had to be bombed relentlessly. – Special thanks to my friend João Baptista Rosa Filho for his assistance in providing additional information for this article. There were several reasons why the B-29s passed through Natal, in the Northeast region of Brazil, to attack distant Japan. Without a doubt, the most revolutionary and expensive aircraft produced during the Second World War was the Boeing B-29. Natal was probably the only place in South America to receive this type of aircraft. Group of nine B-29 bombers at Parnamirim Field in 1944.
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