Building Up the Force

LeMay arrived in the Marianas with a reputation as a troubleshooter for B–29 operations in Asia and quickly built on Hansell’s carefully prepared foundation. Driven to improve the XXI Bomber Command’s ability to destroy Japanese targets while decreasing the number of planes that failed to bomb the target or to return from a mission, LeMay stressed crew training, especially for lead crews. 

As more B–29s arrived in the Marianas, LeMay was able to increase the average number of aircraft in each formation from seventy-five to more than one hundred. He reasoned that if huge formations dropped their loads at the same time, a large contiguous area that included the target would be destroyed. He also persuaded the AAF to assign escort fighters to the Twentieth Air Force to reduce further the chances that the big bombers would be lost. 

LeMay soon amassed the resources to create his large bomber formations. The XXI Bomber Command ultimately set up one wing on each of five airfields that navy and army engineers constructed in the Marianas: one on Saipan, two on Tinian, and two on Guam. By the end of January 1945, the 73d, 313th, and 314th Bombardment Wings were established on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, respectively. At the end of March, the 58th Bombardment Wing moved from India to Tinian, and during April the 315th Wing arrived on Guam. 

LeMay also benefited from the maturation of the B–29 as a weapon system. As assembly line workers gained experience, Superfortress factories increased the quality and quantity of their production, and more of the very heavy bombers were available for Pacific duty. Throughout 1945, B–29s in the Marianas suffered fewer mechanical problems because maintenance crews discovered and corrected defects more quickly. 

Fortunately for LeMay, U.S. Marines conquered Iwo Jima between February 19 and March 26, 1945. By taking the island, U.S. forces deprived the Japanese not only of an air base from which to raid the Marianas and the AAF bomber formations, but also of a radar site from which to warn the home islands of im-pending raids. Iwo Jima soon be-came a staging base, a fighter-escort base, and an air rescue station. The VII Fighter Command found a home there at the end of March. More important, the Unit-ed States gained an emergency landing field for the B–29s. By the end of the war, 2,400 Super-fortresses had made emergency landings on Iwo Jima, proving the worth of the small island that 4,600 Americans had sacrificed their lives to capture.