Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [0]
NONFICTION
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WHIRLWIND
The Air War Against Japan, 1942–1945
Barrett Tillman
Simon & Schuster
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New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2010 by Barrett Tillman
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition March 2010
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Manufactured in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tillman, Barrett.
Whirlwind : the air war against Japan, 1942–1945 / Barrett Tillman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. World War, 1939–1945—Aerial operations, American.
2. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Japan. 3. Bombing,
Aerial—Japan. I. Title.
D790.T624 2010
940.54’49730952—dc22 2009049218
ISBN 978-1-4165-8440-7
ISBN 978-1-4165-8502-2 (ebook)
PHOTO CREDITS:
Author’s Collection: 7, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28; Andrew Farmer: 29, 30, 31, 32; National Museum of the Pacific War: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 15, 19, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38; The National World War II Museum: 35; Donald Nijboer: 20; Tailhook Assn.: 21, 22, 23; USAF via Air Force Test Center Museum: 8, 9, 10.
Dedicated to the memory of Jeff Ethell:
pilot, historian, colleague, friend.
“Rock your wings when we rendezvous again
and I’ll join on you.”
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
—HOSEA 8:7
Contents
Preface
Prologue
CHAPTER 1 Before the Beginning
CHAPTER 2 China Skies
CHAPTER 3 From the South
CHAPTER 4 From the Sea
CHAPTER 5 Firestorm
CHAPTER 6 Pacific Ponies
CHAPTER 7 The Harbor War
CHAPTER 8 “A Most Cruel Bomb”
CHAPTER 9 Legacy
Appendix A:The Unknown War
Appendix B: Japanese Aircraft by Allied Code Names
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Preface
DURING THE LAST year of the war in the Pacific, the U.S. Army Air Forces, Navy and Marine Corps, and British Royal Navy conducted a relentless air assault against the Japanese home islands. The attacks came from around the compass: from the west out of China, southwest from Okinawa, due south from the Marianas, northeast from the Aleutians, and from almost anywhere that aircraft carriers steamed. American B-29 bomber crews razed most of the enemy’s urban-industrial areas and delivered two nuclear weapons that ended the war. But there were many