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

WAR AGAINST JAPAN
were still few and the Japanese interceptors were numerous, the Americans
admitted that they faced “a serious but temporary problem.” From a peak
resistance on January 27, Japanese fighter reaction diminished steadily in
intensity and in numbers.5o
The relative lack of success of the earliest B-29 precision-bombing
raids against Japan seemed to be more attributable to bad weather and
strain on engines imposed by high altitudes and heavy bomb loads than to
the effectiveness of Japanese air defenses. “Over Japan, we ran into problems
that we hadn’t foreseen,” remarked Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the
Commander of XX Bomber Command in India from August 1944 and of
XXI Bomber Command on Guam from January 1945. One of the unforeseen
problems was a “ferocious” jet stream never before encountered by
American airmen. The winds aloft over Japan interfered seriously with
bomb sight computation. Japanese visual flying weather was abominable
and difficult to predict. In addition, many of the U.S. flight crews were
seeing combat for the first time, and the B-29s themselves had many bugs
to work out. “We were feeling our way along with a new weapons system,”
said LeMay. Indeed, the general went so far as to suggest that most of the
B-29 losses over Japan were due more to mechanical problems than to the
Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay (/eft), Commanding General of the XXI
Bomber Command, and Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, Commanding
General of the XX Bomber Command, as LeMay departs for his new
command in the Marianas.
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