Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • Pott. Co.
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Roster
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-KL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • Awards for Valor
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other Counties
      • Other States
    • Deaths >
      • War with Japan Deaths
      • The Atlantic Deaths
      • Mediterranean Theater Deaths
      • European Theater Deaths
      • Stateside Deaths
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
    • Roster Photos >
      • Roster Photos - Contents
      • Photos of Individuals
      • Land War with Japan
      • Air War with Japan
      • Sea War with Japan
      • Land War with Germany
      • Air War with Germany
      • Sea War with Germany
      • Stateside
      • Memorials
      • Cemeteries
    • Roster Outliers
    • About the Roster
  • WWII
    • WWII Overview
    • US in WWII - Organization
    • US in WWII - Operations
    • WWII References >
      • WWII Free Sites
      • WWII Pay Sites
      • WWII Personnel Lists
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • WW I >
      • Iowa In WW I
  • WWII-Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • US Navy War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is. - Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea - Papua
      • NE New Guinea - Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is. - New Georgia
      • Solomon Is. - Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
      • Pacific Comm. Zone
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
  • WWII-Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • North Africa & Sicily >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
        • Sicily
      • Italian Mainland >
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino - the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • The MTO Sea War
      • The MTO Air War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • Normandy after D-Day
      • France Liberated >
        • Normandy Breakout
        • Northern France
        • Southern France
        • The Allies Stall
      • Arnhem & Antwerp >
        • Arnhem - Market Garden
        • Antwerp
      • Rhineland 1944
      • Lorraine & Alsace >
        • Lorraine Campaign
        • Alsace Campaign
      • Ardennes/Bulge Overview >
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
      • Rhineland 1945 >
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
        • North, Feb/Mar, 9th/1st Armies
        • Mid, Feb, 3rd Army
        • Mid, Mar, 1st/3rd Armies
        • South, Mar, 3rd/7th Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Central Germany
      • The ETO Air War
      • The ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
B-29 Pacific Union
B-29 Pacific Union
Japan Overpowered
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Japan > Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan , updated by RAC 18 May 2022.

The Strategic Air War against Japan used Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft. These very heavy bombers attacked targets in the Japanese home islands and did much to bring Japan to its knees. I view this part of the US War with Japan as fought in four phases. The final three phases used bases on the Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian approximately 1,500 miles south of Tokyo.
  1. 15 June 1944 - January 1945 - From bases near Calcutta in eastern India, using advanced bases in southern China.
  2. 24 November 1944 - March 1945 - bombing of Japanese industrial targets.
  3. March - July 1945 - incendiary area bombing of Japanese cities.
  4. August 1945 - atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Phase 1 - June 1944 - January 1945 - from the China-Burma-India Theater
In early 1944, thousands of Indian laborers constructed airbases suitable for very heavy aircraft in West Bengal west of Calcutta. Meanwhile, over 100,000 Chinese laborers built by manual labor airfields near Chengtu, China, northwest of Chungking.

These rear and advanced airfields were used by the US XX Bomber Command during Operation Matterhorn, the first bombing raids against Japan by the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber. As the accompanying map shows, B-29s could fly the less-mountainous Low Hump route between their main bases in India and their staging fields in China. The bombing missions over Japan were then round-trip from the staging fields back to the staging fields.
Routes Between Operation Matterhorn Bases
Routes Between Operation Matterhorn Bases
Operation Matterhorn was a failure. The costs of supporting by airlift the advanced staging bases in China far exceeded the damages inflected on the Japanese home islands during the Matterhorn raids.
Phases 2, 3, and 4 - November 1944 - August 1945 - from the Mariana Islands
The accompanying low-resolution maps show the Mariana Islands airfields used for the strategic bombing of Japan. I suspect that the Guam airfields were lesser used as they were further from the Japanese home islands.
XXI Bomber Command Mariana Islands AirfieldsXXI Bomber Command Mariana Islands Airfields

Will add more content here later.

Sources for the Strategic Air War - Japan webpage:
  • The webpage header image, B-29 Pacific Union is courtesy of worldwarphotos.info. The bomber's nose art is derived from the logo of the Union Pacific Railroad, which is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, location of one of the four B-29 assembly plants. Elvin Hansen died when the Pacific Union ditched on a mission to Japan.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan - a long, thorough, well-written and accurate article.
  • The Routes Between Operation Matterhorn Bases map is courtesy of https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/OR-Forum-A-Glimpse-at-an-Operation-Analyst%27s-World-Green-Green/f3d21c4558aa19435fc76749fd32b53cbaa01728/figure/0.

Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead -  Strategic Air War - Japan webpage:
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
12-02 - Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan (seven dead, updated 26 Oct 2021)
  • Deaths herein are due to the June 1944 - August 1945 US aerial bombing campaign against the Japanese Home Islands using B-29 very heavy bombers.
  • Deaths include both the initial Operation Matterhorn B-29 raids from eastern India using advanced bases in China and the later and larger B-29 raids from Guam and Tinian in the Mariana islands.
† Davenport, William Thomas Jr., SN 17-122-771, USAAF, Pott. Co.
  • Crew #P-46, 62nd Bomb. Sqdn., 39th Bomb. Gp., XXI Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force, based at North Field, Guam, Mariana Is.; Boeing B-29 Superfortress #44-69889 The Slic Chic right gunner w/ aircraft commander Edgar B. Grear; KIA 29 May 1945, 120 miles NE of Tori-Shima, S of Tokyo; aircraft hit by flak over Yokohama and ditched, four dead, eight survivors; Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan; BNR.
† Davis, August William Jr., SN 17-003-658, USAAF, Pott. Co.
  • 792nd Bomb. Sqdn., 468 Bomb. Gp., XX Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force, based at Kalaikunda AAF, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India; Boeing B-29 Superfortress #42-6230 Limber Duggan tail gunner w/ aircraft commander Dushan V. Ivanovic, staging from Pengshan, near Chengdu, China; KIA 15 Jun 1944, near Yawata, Kyushu, Japan; plane was part of the first B-29 raid on Japan; mission consisted of 68 aircraft included 11 correspondents; plane damaged over target & exploded; all eleven crew and Newsweek correspondent William T. Shenkel died; this was the first B-29 lost over Japan, however three other B-29s on this mission went down returning to base; Operation Matterhorn -  Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan; BNR.
† Gidley, Robert Allan, SN 17-040-837, USAAF, Pott. Co.
  • 676th Bomb. Sqdn. 444th Bomb. Gp., XX Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force, based at Dudhkundi AAF, near Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, staging from Kwanghan AAF, near Chengdu, China; Boeing B-29 Superfortress #42-6330 Come-In-23982 flight engineer w/ aircraft commander Charles E. Hansen; KIA 20 Aug 1944 near Chengdu, Sichuan, China; aircraft hit cliff while landing after bombing Yawata Iron Works on Kyushu Is., Japan; eleven dead, one survivor; Operation Matterhorn -  Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan.
† Hansen, Elvin Emsley, SN O-739093, USAAF, Harrison Co. & Los Angeles Co., CA
  • 869th Bomb. Sqdn., 497th Bomb. Gp, XXI Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force, based at Isley AAF, Saipan, Mariana Is.; Boeing B-29 Superfortress #42-24595 Pacific Union bombardier w/ aircraft commander Leonard L. Cox; KIA 14 Jan 1945 NW of Saipan on a mission to Nagoya, Japan, after leaving base, #3 engine caught fire and Captain Cox decided to ditch; plane exploded when ditching; seven dead, four rescued by destroyer; Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan; BNR.
† Rannells, Robert Vance, SN 17-065-979, USAAF, Harrison Co.
  • 873 Bomb. Sqdn., 498th Bomb Gp., XXI Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force, based at Tinian, Mariana Is.; Boeing B-29 #42-24614 Joltin' Josie radio operator w/ pilot Wilson C. Currier Jr.; KIA 1 Apr 1945, aircraft exploded after takeoff and crashed into Magicienne Bay on nearby Saipan, crew of eleven all died;  Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan; BNR
† Widows, Harry James Jr., SN O-771857, USAAF, Mills Co.
  • 873rd Bomb. Sqdn., 498th Bomb. Gp., XXI Bomber Cmd., 20th Air Force based at Isley Field, Saipan, Mariana Is.; Boeing B-29 Superfortress #42-65295 co-pilot w/ pilot Marvel L. Geer; KIA 29 Apr 1945 Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Kyushu, Japan on a mission to bomb Nyakonojo Airfield, Kyushu; aircraft was attacked by fighters, hit, exploded, and crashed on land, crew of eleven all died;  Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan.



Proudly powered by Weebly