An Island-Hopping Strategy

Early in the war, American ground forces on the Asian mainland concentrated on supporting China’s president, Chiang Kai-shek, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia. After conquering Burma, Japanese troops cut the overland supply routes between India and China. The AAF began airlifting matériel over the Himalayas—the famous “Hump” air route. Here in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater, the Allies pursued three objectives: keep China in the war, liberate Burma, and defend India. The Fourteenth Air Force supported Allied forces in China, and the Tenth Air Force aided the British in Burma and India. Preoccupied with defensive problems and lacking long-range bombers, neither air force contemplated long-range bombing missions against Japan. 

Meanwhile, in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Allied commander in the Southwest Pacific theater, led a campaign to liberate the Philippines. The Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces dedicated themselves to flying tactical missions in support of the ground troops. Like their CBI counterparts, MacArthur’s airmen had no aircraft with enough range to bring Tokyo and other Japanese cities under attack. 

Of the entire Asian-Pacific region, the Central Pacific theater, commanded by Adm. Chester Nimitz, held the most promise. There, the Seventh Air Force supported an island-hopping strategy, bypassing some important enemy strongholds to reach key western Pacific islands. In American hands, these islands could eventually serve as bases for the long-range bombing campaign.