Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [37]
The Japanese army leadership agreed. Lieutenant General Masakazu Kawabe, inspector-general of aviation and de facto chief of the Japanese Army Air Force, stated: “One of the biggest things leading to the surrender was the bombing of industrial cities. . . . Your bombing of small industrial cities and the use of fire bombs was very effective.”
Defensively, Tokyo was hopelessly slow off the mark, waiting until after the first Marianas-based strike in November 1944 to take serious measures. Attacks on airframe and engine plants in Nagoya convinced Japanese planners of a severe dilemma: they needed to increase aircraft production but under present conditions their industry could be crippled or even destroyed in a short time. Though dispersing the factories would necessarily reduce production for several months, it was preferable to losing the facilities entirely. The government opted for dispersal, beginning with Mitsubishi. The company physically separated the engineering division from manufacturing while spreading production facilities to a dozen or more sites on Honshu. However, establishing factories in outlying areas incurred the disfavor of residents and evacuees from other cities who had been displaced by air raids.
Mitsubishi designer Jiro Horikoshi explained, “Many a factory that went through the time-consuming steps of dispersing its most important machine and assembly lines now found itself no better off than before dispersal. The B-29s relentlessly and literally tracked down every move; no sooner had the new factory sections settled down in their new locations than the bombs showered down. The plant managers searched frantically for new sites, and sought refuge in factory buildings surrounded by steep mountains, or placed their vital machines within emergency caves drilled into the sides of hills. Eventually the dispersal plan proved to be a complete failure. At the time when we most desperately needed production, our industrial personnel scrambled in the hills for new machine sites. Devastation in Japan mounted daily.”
The 73rd Wing Arrives
As the Pacific part of the 20th Air Force, the Marianas operation was designated XXI Bomber Command. Its chief was well known to American airmen.
Brigadier General Haywood “Possum” Hansell was a soft-spoken forty-one-year-old Virginian who had been flying since 1929. His cockpit credentials included Claire Chennault’s aerobatic team that had performed at the Cleveland Air Races. He served a stretch with air intelligence, including observer status during the Battle of Britain in 1940. His stellar work at Maxwell Field, helping produce the 1941 air war plan, had marked him as one of Hap Arnold’s favorites. Subsequently, Possum led an 8th Air Force wing in Britain during the rough days of 1942–43, and he did well enough to earn command of the Marianas B-29 operation in August 1944.
On October 12, XXI Bomber Command welcomed its first B-29, though no bomber fields were yet fully operational. Greeted by two P-47s, Hansell landed his pet Superfortress, which he had wanted to christen The Pacific Pioneer. However, the crew had its own preference: Joltin’ Josie. The impasse was broken in an unmilitary compromise, and thus did the famous B-29 become Joltin’ Josie, the Pacific Pioneer.
Hansell’s subordinate was Brigadier General Emmett O’Donnell, commanding the 73rd Wing. “Rosie” was a blue-eyed New York Irishman who had played halfback at West Point, class of ’28, and later coached the Cadets. A 1939 graduate of the Tactical School, he was well versed in the theory of bombardment aviation and a noted practitioner. In September 1941, as a major, he had led the first “mass flight” (nine B-17s) from Hawaii to the Philippines. He flew missions from Java until the Japanese seized the Dutch East Indies, then served in India before returning home to advise Hap Arnold and subsequently learn the B-29 trade.
One of the things that Hansell and O’Donnell had in common was Hap Arnold’s willingness to give them a chance to fail. That was about all that the AAF chief ever offered, even to