November 24, 1944

The End of an Era: Or How Do You Say Wild Blue Yonder in Chinese?
















Yesterday we covered the bloody invasion of Tarawa, the first stepping stone in the island hopping campaign aimed at the heart of Japan. As we discussed, the ultimate goal of creeping closer to Tokyo island by island was to secure airbases and jump off points close to the Japanese mainland. By late 1944, the Marines had finally captured airfields that brought the home islands into the range of the B-29 Superfortress, America's new heavy bomber. Soon after, relentless air attacks would hit Japan from over the ocean, dealing death on daily basis after racing down out of the rising sun.

Before that, however, the task of bombing Japan was the charge of the United States Twentieth Army Air Force, stationed at a far off series of airbases near Chengtu in central China. On the far side of the world, 10,000 miles from Washington, D.C., the Twentieth Air Force had been taking the war to the Japanese homeland since the start of 1944. Using four groups of B-29s, the Twentieth Air Force was personally commanded by General Henry H."Hap" Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces.


Kumming Air Base, China, in 1944. B-29s from the XX Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force took off from this field and others like it before bases opened in the Marianas.

Supplies to the base had to be airlifted via "The Hump", the high altitude supply line from India over the Himalayas, and not all the equipment the Twentieth needed always arrived. With Arnold at the helm, the Twentieth developed a knack for resourcefulness, ingenuity and inventiveness. That, combined with the distance from home and the dangerous nature of their mission meant that a unique attitude developed on the airbases near Chengtu. Perhaps the farthest flung of all American troops across the globe, the airmen developed a cocky, colorful yet workmanlike demeanor.

On November 24, 1944, the first B-29s took off for Tokyo from the island of Guam in the central Pacific. For the Twentieth, still launching raids on Japan in Operation Matterhorn, it was the beginning of the end of the flyboy haven on the other side of the world. With island airfields large enough to handle the giant bombers, the daunting logistics that came with raiding the enemy's home were eased. The lifeline of a B-29 over Japan no longer had to stretch from China, over Everest, through India and across two oceans. With bases in the Marianas, planes, pilots and munitions could all be delivered by the United States Navy who now controlled the Pacific.

When most think of the bombings of Japan, familiar images include formations of B-29s taking off from airfields on the widespread islands of the Pacific. To be sure, most of the destruction suffered by Japanese cities was yet to come, hand delivered by American boys who had launched from places like Guam, Tinian and Saipan. The Twentieth Air Force itself would even transfer to the Marianas to continue their work for the rest of the war. But lost to the deathly efficiency of these raids is another story of men fighting on the far side of the world.

B-29s drop incendiary bombs on Japan, 1945.

Deep in the Asian mainland, with the entire Japanese war machine between themselves and their homes, they paved the way for the bombing campaign that would eventually bring the war to a close. All the while, they bred a unique environment, where skill and initiative and guts trumped dogma and spit and polish. True, they were far more effective later from the Marianas, and their huge requisitions dogged the overburdened airlift, but the story of the Twentieth Air Force in China is not to be forgotten.