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

AIR SUPERIORITY
in the spring of 1944 that finally inspired Imperial General Headquarters
(IGHQ) to address the question of improving the air defense of the homeland
proper.s6
First, IGHQ reduced the protective zone for which the General
Defense Command was responsible. (See Figure 8-1) In February 1943,
the Northern Army had already taken over the defense of Hokkaido,
Karafuto (southern Sakhalin), and the Kuril Islands. Now, in March 1944,
prime responsibility for the defense of Korea, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu,
Bonin, and Volcano Islands was assigned to commands other than GDC;
namely, the Korea Army, the Taiwan Army, the new 32d Army (stationed
on Okinawa), and the Western Army. These changes left GDC with direct
responsibility for defending the heart of Japan-the main islands of
Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Although there were agreements between
the Army and the Navy General Staffs to cooperate in defense of the
homeland, in practice the conduct of Japan’s air defense (other than
harbors and naval facilities) lay with IJAAF and the Army’s antiaircraft
artillery elements.
IGHQ’s second step to improve the air defense of the homeland, in
March 1944, was to augment the 17th Air Wing and reorganize it as the 10th
Air Division. Two months later, the division was transferred from the 1st
Air Army (actually a training command) and assigned to direct control of
GDC, although operational command was vested in the Eastern Army. As
of October 1944, the 10th Air Division possessed about 150 fighter aircraft
(organized in 5 groups) and 50 high-altitude scout planes (in an independent
squadron) with which to try to defend Tokyo and the Kanto region. The
division was obliged to release fighter units to assist in defense of other
areas, such as the Philippines, central and western Japan, and Iwo Jima.
Replacement units of uneven quality were brought in from the Kwantung
Army Air Force in Manchuria.
In the spring and summer of 1944, IGHQ also upgraded the 18th Air
Wing to the 1 lth Air Division (200 planes) under the Central Army, and the
19th Air Wing to the 12th Air Division (150 planes) under the Western
Army. Apart from a small number of reconnaissance aircraft, all planes in
the new air divisions consisted of fighters (6 types in all). In late December
1944, the Air Training Army was reorganized as the 6th Air Army, and
several Air Training Divisions were formed. By February 1945, recognizing
that the 6th Air Army was too weak to conduct such ambitious missions as
attacks on the Marianas or participation in the defense of Japan, GDC limited
its role to that of a strategic reserve to be committed only against
enemy invasion forces. The next month, in March, the 6th Air Army had to
be moved from the Kanto area to Kyushu and assigned to the Combined
Fleet for the Okinawa campaign. A new IJAAF fighter wing was organized
to help protect the Kanto sector against enemy carrier task forces. Training
was intensified and new airfields were built.
408