Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [20]
More than payload and performance, the Japanese worried about the new bomber’s range. In May, Colonel Joichiro Sanada, head of the Army General Staff operations section, cited navy information that the B-29 (the designation was known by then) might reach Japan from Midway—2,580 statute miles. In fact, B-29s seldom operated more than 1,500 miles from Japan, but even that figure was cause for alarm in Tokyo.
Justifiably concerned, in early 1943 Imperial General Headquarters directed the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) intelligence section to determine the performance of the emerging threat, likely rate of production, and tentative combat debut. Though scattered information was gleaned from publications, consulates, and elsewhere, it was a time-consuming, often inaccurate process. Consequently, JAAF engineers were tasked with “building” a super-bomber based on known or probable capabilities of the U.S. aviation industry. An interim report issued at year end concluded that the new design would exceed the B-17 and B-24 in every category, with the range to attack the homeland from Wake Island, almost 2,000 statute miles away. Though Wake remained in Japanese hands until war’s end, the Marianas were an equally obvious roost. Likely China bases included Chengtu, the actual B-29 operating area.
The Japanese reckoned top speed at 600 kph (372 mph, somewhat more than the original B-29). With an operational ceiling of 32,800 feet (an accurate figure) the JAAF correctly assumed that the bomber would have a pressurized cabin. Army Air Intelligence surmised that the Boeing had entered production that autumn, which was reasonably accurate: ninety-two B-29s were delivered in 1943.
Estimates of full-scale production led Tokyo to conclude that B-29 combat operations would begin in May or June 1944. The General Staff’s Intelligence Section Six (Europe and America) and Seven (China) agreed that new Boeings would be employed against the homeland, but probably operating independently from the Pacific and China—another accurate call, if premature.
A mimeographed five-page pamphlet titled Views on the Use of Crash Tactics in Aerial Protection of Vital Defense Areas—No. 2 was issued by the JAAF in February 1944: “Now the enemy is speeding up the mass production of powerful, extra-large bombers like the B-29 and B-32, and boasting of his intention to bomb vital areas of our empire. It is therefore a most urgent and vital task to thwart these planes by establishment of some counter policy.”
The Japanese got their first look at a Superfortress when the initial aircraft landed in India in April. Therefore, Tokyo knew much about the world’s most capable bomber before it appeared in Asian skies. That was the good news for Japan. The bad news: Japan could do very little to prevent “B-san” from operating wherever it chose.
Building Bases
The plan for deploying B-29s to India and China was Operation Matterhorn, originally called Setting Sun. It was approved at the Allies’ Cairo Conference in November 1943 when Chiang Kai-shek and Winston Churchill agreed to construction of heavy bomber bases in the China-Burma-India Theater. Simultaneously the Pacific Theater commander, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, was directed to seize the Mariana Islands for the same purpose: placing B-29s within range of Japan itself.
Meanwhile, contingencies were studied to prepare operating bases for B-29s. Original plans were literally all over the map: Alaska, Formosa, the Marianas; even Siberia. But grand strategy, weather, logistics, and geopolitics narrowed the menu. For the time being, it had to be China. However, the bases needed to be located well away from the coastal enclaves controlled by the Japanese. Consequently, AAF planners decided on the Chengtu area in central China, more than 1,000 miles from the coast and 1,500 from Japanese soil.
Four locales were selected, each intended to support at least one B-29 group of four squadrons: Kwanghan, Kuinglai, Hsinching, and Pengshan. They