Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

WAR AGAINST JAPAN
fighters out of a total of 13 American squadrons. The Seventh Air Force
had deployed its advanced headquarters to Kwajalein in the Marshalls,
retained the forward tactical base at Makin in the Gilberts, and mounted
strikes against Truk and Ponape from the Navy field at Eniwetok. A week
after D-day on Saipan, P-47~ were catapulted from escort aircraft carriers
(CVE) and flew their first combat mission on the day they landed at Isley
Field, now the most advanced of the Seventh Air Force bases. Two
flights of P-61 night fighters, flown in from Hawaii, maintained night
Combat Air Patrol (CAP) while the P-47~ flew CAP from dawn to dusk.
Seventh Air Force fighters conducted 1,870 sorties, claimed to have
knocked out 16 enemy fighters, and lost 14 planes, 6 of which were
combat-related. By helping the Navy to neutralize Truk, the Seventh Air
Force also prevented Japanese air or surface attacks against U.S. bases
in the Gilberts and Marshalls. Army, Navy, and Marine aircraft claimed
to have destroyed 223 Japanese planes and damaged 56 at Mili, Wotje,
Jaluit, and Maloelap in the Marshalls by June 1, 1944. The Seventh Air
Force lost 28 planes of all types in combat during the entire Marianas
campaign.39
U.S. carrier planes struck Iwo Jima on June 15, July 3-4, and August
3-5, 1944. The Seventh Air Force began its own raids against Iwo Jima,
from Saipan, on August 16. These operations became particularly important
during October and November, when very heavy bombardment bases
were established in the Mariana Islands to accommodate B-29s that could
strike at the heart of the Japanese homeland-something that had not been
feasible or profitable from the China-Burma-India theater, despite enormous
Allied logistic efforts. Well aware of the new B-29 threat, the Japanese
launched a total of 80 to 100 sorties from Iwo, mostly by night, against
the Marianas. The persistent U.S. air strikes against Iwo Jima, conducted
by the Seventh Air Force and the Navy, contributed to the interdiction of
that island and the ultimate success of the Marianas-based B-29 offensive
against Japan. All large U.S. missions met interception in force-the only
time Japanese air resistance was regularly encountered. Of 1,466 sorties,
661 were conducted by P-47s, which claimed to have destroyed 7 Japanese
aircraft (6 of which were airborne). P-38s claimed 14 enemy planes
destroyed (12 airborne) and 11 damaged (3 airborne). By December 1944,
the Seventh Air Force employed 1 group and 1 squadron of fighters, out of
4 groups (and 1 photo reconnaissance flight) in action. Of its campaigns to
date, the Seventh Air Force judged that “enemy bases in the western
Pacific whose neutralization was entrusted to [this] AF were the source of
no real disturbance to the movements of United States forces in the area,
and the development of our bases in the Marianas was continued almost
without any enemy interr~ption.”~~
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