Whirlwind

by Barrett Tillman

  Also, a dip of the wing to my literary agent, Jim Hornfischer, who suggested the subject, and a tip of the helmet to my patient editor, Roger Labrie.

  Notes

  PROLOGUE

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  1 something that had never been done: In May 1938 the Chinese air force dispatched two American-built Martin bombers to drop leaflets over southern Japan, including Nagasaki. Both returned safely but no further missions were flown. Information from Richard L. Dunn, http://www.warbirdforum.com/elusive.htm.

  2 “out of the country”: http://www.njipms.org/Articles/doolittle-lawson.htm.

  2 A sub kill was claimed: “U-boat Losses by Year,” http://uboat.net/fates/index.html.

  2 Doolittle’s crew: Doolittle’s copilot, Richard E. Cole, was twenty-six; bombardier Fred A. Braemer was twenty-four; navigator Henry A. Potter was twenty-three; and gunner Paul J. Leonard twenty-nine. The senior pilots were Major John A. Hilger (wings 1934) with Captains David M. Jones (1938), Edward J. York (1939), and Charles Ross Greening (1937). Of the others, four had completed pilot training in 1940; six in 1941.

  4 One observer: Masatake Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshi with Martin Caidin, Zero: The Story of Japan’s Air War in the Pacific (New York: Bantam, 1991), 315.

  4 “extremely satisfactory”: “The Tokyo Raid,” Headquarters, Army Air Forces Director of Intelligence, October 5, 1942.

  5 the 16,700-ton Taigei: “IJN Ryuho: Tabular Record of Movement,” http://www.combinedfleet.com/Ryuho.htm.

  5 Tokyo reported six schools: Conrad Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Champion of Freedom (New York: PublicAffairs, 2003), 727.

  6 “No sir”: James H. Doolittle and Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (New York: Bantam, 1991), 12.

  7 The toll: Jon Grinspan, “April 18, 1942: Pearl Harbor Avenged,” AmericanHeritage.com, http://www.americanheritage.com/people/articles/web/20070418-tokyo-doolittle-raid-jimmy-doolittle-pearl-harbor-battle-of-midway-world-war-II-japan.shtml.

  CHAPTER ONE: BEFORE THE BEGINNING

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  9 “Aeronautics opened up”: Giulio Douhet, Command of the Air (Dino Ferrari, translator) (New York: Coward-McCann, 1942), 3.

  10 “issuing false news”: Philip S. Meilinger, “Giulio Douhet: The Origins of Airpower Theory,” The Paths of Heaven: Evolution of Airpower Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1997), 10.

  13 “almost treasonable administration”: American Airpower Biography, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/mitch.html.

  16 “relentless and incessant offensiveness”: Philip S. Meilinger, “Trenchard, Slessor, and Royal Air Force Doctrine Before World War II,” The Paths of Heaven: Evolution of Airpower Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1997), 44, 46.

  18 “the very threat”: Lieutenant Colonel Marc A. Clodfelter, in Philip S. Meilinger, “Molding Airpower Convictions: Development and Legacy of William Mitchell’s Strategic Thought,” The Paths of Heaven: Evolution of Airpower Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1997), 96–97.

  18 In twenty years of discussion: Lieutenant Colonel Peter R. Faber, in Philip S. Meilinger, “Interwar US Army Aviation and the Air Corps Tactical School,” The Paths of Heaven: Evolution of Airpower Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1997), 212–21.

  20 “In view of the world situation”: AWPD-1: The Process, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, Air University Press, Historical Analysis: Joint Doctrine Air Campaign course, 1996, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/readings/awpd-1-jfacc/awpdproc.htm.

  21 “in one blow”: Ibid.

  21 about half of Bomber Command: Max Hastings, Bomber Command: The Myths and Reality of the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939–45 (New York: Dial, 1979), 370.

  22 By one reckoning: Philip S. Meilinger, “Alexander P. de Seversky and American Airpower,” The Paths of Heaven: Evolution of Airpower Theory (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1997), 266.

  22 some of his lessons: Alexander P. de Seversky, Victory Through Air Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942), 120–52. Seversky’s lessons:

  1. No land or sea operations are possible without air superiority.

  2. Navies have lost their function of strategic offensive.

  3. Blockade has become a function of airpower.

  4. Only airpower can defeat airpower.

  5. Land-based aviation is always superior to ship-based aviation.

  6. Air-striking radius must equal the maximum dimensions of the theater of operations.

  7. In aviation, quality is relatively more decisive than quantity.

  8. Aircraft types must be specialized for strategic and tactical concerns.

  9. Destruction of enemy morale can best be accomplished by precision bombing.

  10. Unity of command applies to aviation as well as land and naval operations.

  11. Airpower needs its own transportation.

  23 The world’s most famous bombsight: Albert L. Pardini, The Legendary Norden Bombsight (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1999), 43–44.

  23 The first large order: Ibid., 50–51.

  25 “A direct attack”: Meilinger, Paths of Heaven, 68.

  25 “the moral high ground”: Hastings, Bomber Command, 177.

  26 “It was preferable”: Ibid., 96.

  27 Prior to 1942: “Heavenly Dog,” Time, May 15, 1939; Mark Peattie, Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Airpower (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2001), 116.

  27 “offer yourselves courageously”: “A Brief Introduction to the Shinto Religion,” www.buzzle.com/articles/a-brief-introduction-to-the-shinto-religion.html.

  28 Beginning in the nineteenth century: For the evolution (or mutation) of original samurai Bushido into the twentieth century, see Karl F. Friday, “Bushido or Bull? A Medieval Historian’s Perspective on the Imperial Army and the Japanese Warrior Tradition,” InYo: Journal of Alternative Perspectives, March 2001, http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_friday_0301.htm#EN2. Regarding the lack of candor in Japanese military history, see Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2005), 436–32.

  28 “make money to live luxuriously”: Christopher Thone, in Max Hastings, Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944–45 (New York: Knopf, 2007), 35.

  29 Nichiren Buddhism: M. G. Sheftall, e-mails to author, April 2008.

  CHAPTER TWO: CHINA SKIES

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  31 “an efficient guerrilla air corps”: Alan Armstrong, Pre-emptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor (Guildford, CT: Lyons Press, 2006), 16.

  31 “fire fighting facilities”: Attaché report via Dunn, 2008.

  32 A second AVG: Daniel Ford, Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941–1942, revised edition (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 85–86.

  33 “Japanese aircraft production facilities”: Chennault to Arnold, July 16, 1942, War Plans Files, AAF, 145.95, AFHRA, cited in Guanggiu Xu, War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001), 173.

  33 “accomplish the downfall”: Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945 (New York: Macmillan, 1970), 337.

  34 So confident: The same month as the B-29’s first flight a second very heavy bomber left the ground as Consolidated produced the B-32 Dominator as a hedge against a Boeing failure. Powered by the same engines as the Superfortress, the Dominator suffered even greater problems with various systems. Resolving the problems took time, and delivery began over two years later with only 115 being built. Ray Wagner, American Combat Planes (New York: Doubleday, 1968), 137.

  36 The onboard extinguisher system: Kenneth P. Werrell, Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan During World War II (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), 81.

  36 Flying the second prototype: After Allen’s death, workers at Boeing’s Wichita
plant donated $600,000 in money and labor to purchase a B-29 in his name. The Eddie Allen logged two dozen combat missions before sustaining serious flak damage that forced an end to its combat career.

  36 The setback: When it became apparent that Boeing could not build enough B-29s, other manufacturers were engaged. Eventually four factories turned out Superfortresses: Boeing plants at Renton, Washington, and Wichita, Kansas; Martin at Omaha, Nebraska; and Bell at Marietta, Georgia. The program accelerated through 1943 and 1944 with production peaking at 375 in July 1945. Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, December 1945.

  37 “splendid record”: Curtis E. LeMay and MacKinlay Kantor, Mission with LeMay: My Story (New York: Doubleday, 1965), 322.

  37 “all those college athletes”: Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 72.

  38 “It is my desire”: Ibid., 80.

  38 Crew training suffered: Wilbur H. Morrison, Point of No Return (New York: Playboy, 1980), 39.

  39 “a new Boeing bomber”: Details from Osamu Tagaya, J-Aircraft.com, http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=4470.0.

  40 Estimates of full-scale production: Osamu Tagaya, 2007, citing Senshi Sosho, Volume 19.

  40 “Now the enemy”: Richard L. Dunn, J-Aircraft.com, October 21, 2007.

  42 The man who pulled it together: http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7545.

  42 American resources were scarce: Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 7: Services Around the World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), xix.

  42 “Headquarters figured”: First Lieutenant Bedford Hertel, 27th Troop Carrier Squadron, author interview, c. 1990.

  42 Construction of XX Bomber Command bases: http://www.cosmos=club.org/web/journals/1996/adams.html.

  43 fewer than half: Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 93.

  44 “We knew basic problems”: 462nd Bomb Group Web site, http://www.geocities.com/jr462nd/Hellbird_Stories_p7.html.

  44 Accommodations were basic: Morrison, Point of No Return, 59.

  46 “We lost”: Wait ’Til the 58th Gets Here (Nashville: Turner, 1999), 16.

  46 “Broken Nose Charlie”: Bedford M. Hertel to author, c. 1975.

  46 On June 5, Wolfe’s command: XX Bomber Command mission summary, 5 June 1944; Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 101.

  47 “The city appeared”: Saburo Sakai with Fred Saito and Martin Caidin, Samurai! (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 317.

  50 “acceptable number”: Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 102.

  51 “I was scared!”: Koji Takaki and Henry Sakaida, B-29 Hunters of the JAAF (London: Osprey, 2001), 9.

  52 In all, fifty-seven American fliers: XX Bomber Command mission summary, 15 June 1945.

  52 “the sight of”: Jonathon Delacour, “Japanese Remorse?”, The Heart of Things, http://weblog.delacour.net/archives/2002/08/japanese_remorse_hardly.php; Masuo Kato, The Lost War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 8.

  52 “By the time”: Masatake Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshi with Martin Caidin, Zero: The Story of Japan’s Air War in the Pacific (New York: Bantam, 1991), 193.

  53 “People sat around”: LeMay and Kantor, Mission with LeMay, 322.

  55 Burning wreckage: Takaki and Sakaida, B-29 Hunters of the JAAF, 13, 16.

  56 From the American perspective: During the night thirteen more bombers departed for Yawata, having been delayed by a crash on the runway. Ten bombed the primary, escaping without harm. XX Bomber Command mission summary, 20 August 1944.

  57 Beyond that, LeMay was five years younger: The Navy’s youngest two-star (rear) admiral was Harold B. Miller, who became Admiral Chester Nimitz’s public relations officer in 1945 at age forty-two. AAF chief Arnold had pinned on his second star at age fifty-two in 1938, but only because of his superior’s death.

  58 “If I’m going to command”: Thomas M. Coffey, Iron Eagle (New York: Crown, 1986), 109.

  58 “utterly absurd”: LeMay and Kantor, Mission with LeMay, 322.

  59 Perhaps LeMay’s greatest success: Sortie and tonnage figures computed from XX Bomber Command statistics for June to August versus October to December 1944.

  59 the “aircraft plant”: Henry Sakaida e-mail to author, December 2007; René J. Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War (London: Putnam, 1979), various entries; U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Aircraft Division Report No. 34, Army Air Arsenal and Navy Air Depots, Corporation Report No. XIX, February 1947, via Jim Long on J-Aircraft.com. Total production from April 1941 through 1945 was 966 aircraft and 2,100 engines.

  60 “Damage to the plane”: Brigadier General Jack Ledford (Ret) et al. 40th Bomb Group Association Memories, July 1997. (Some accounts state that Ledford flew 20th Century Unlimited but apparently that name was applied to the opposite side of the fuselage. Heavenly Body’s memorable nose art was the work of a former Esquire magazine artist.)

  61 “negligible”: XX Bomber Command mission summary, 11 November 1944.

  62 Meanwhile, the four: Personal papers provided by Mrs. Jody Smith, December 2007.

  62 That night of the 21st: Dr. Frank Olynyk, USAAF (China-Burma-India Theater), Credits for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air to Air Combat, World War 2 (Privately published, 1986).

  63 “Dear Curt”: Coffey, Iron Eagle, 123–24.

  63 “persistent reports”: 40th Bomb Group history, 1–31 December 1944, dated 23 January 1945, 2.

  63 On December 19: XX Bomber Command mission summary, 19 December 1944.

  65 “The barn door”: Keith Todd, 40th Bombardment Group (VH) History (Nashville: Turner, 1989), 30–31.

  65 The nine homeland strikes: Actual numbers of XX Bomber Command’s missions to Japan were 498 of 3,058 total sorties delivering 961 of 11,244 tons of ordnance.

  65 “I’ve never been able”: LeMay and Kantor, Mission with LeMay, 322.

  CHAPTER THREE: FROM THE SOUTH

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  67 “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”: See the author’s detailed treatment, Clash of the Carriers (New York: Caliber, 2005).

  68 “There was good reason”: Masatake Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshi with Martin Caidin, Zero: The Story of Japan’s Air War in the Pacific (New York: Bantam, 1991), 272.

  68 The Navy Seabees were so popular: The film was The Fighting Seabees, 1944, script by Borden Chase, directed by Edward Ludwig. “Seabee” derived from the acronym for “construction battalion.” Contrary to the film and public impression, Seabees did not all come from prewar construction crews. However, the average age was thirty-seven, well past the median twenty-six of all military personnel. Some experienced old-timers, eager to make a contribution, leveraged their experience and know-how into service at age sixty or more. “Paving the Way to Victory,” https://portal.navfac.navy.mil/pls/portal/url/ITEM/130B09D8E61041B3E0440003BA8FC471.

  70 “A world of difference”: Okumiya and Horikoshi, Zero, 195–96.

  70 In December 1944: “Engineer Aviation Units,” http://www.usace.army.mil/publications/misc/un21/c-14.pdf, 336, 375.

  71 “It would rain”: Howard Chamberlain, 504th Bomb Group, http://www.444thbg.org/unithistoryinfo.htm.

  71 On Saipan: “Paving the Way to Victory,” https://portal.navfac.navy.mil/pls/portal/url/ITEM/130B09D8E61041B3E0440003BA8FC471.

  73 “some matronly ladies”: William R. Thorsen, oral history, “World War II Through the Eyes of Cape Fear,” University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

  74 The enormity of the job: Commander Edmund L. Castillo, The Seabees of World War II (New York: Random House, 1963), 118, 123, 128–29.

  74 every field was completed on schedule: Ibid., 129.

  75 some Easterners insisted: Ibid., 118.

  75 When the Tinian complex: Dan McNichol, Paving the Way: Asphalt in America (Lanham, MD: National Asphalt Paving Association, 2005), 193–95.

  75 “The lieutenant was infuriated”: Gordon Bennett Robertson, Jr., Bringing the Thunder (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 2006), 132.

  76 the centralized nature: René J. Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of th
e Pacific War (London: Putnam, 1979), 15.

  76 “The Americans chose”: Okumiya and Horikoshi, Zero, 303–4.

  76 “One of the biggest”: Assistant Chief of Air Staff–Intelligence, HQ AAF, Mission Accomplished: Interrogations of Japanese Industrial, Military, and Civil Leaders, Washington, DC, 1946, 23.

  77 “Many a factory”: Okumiya and Horikoshi, Zero, 304–5.

  78 In September 1941: O’Donnell’s nine-plane flight was not the first Flying Fortress deployment to the Philippine Islands, as a smaller group had preceded him. When the Japanese attacked in December 1941 there were thirty-five bombers in the Philippines, most being destroyed on the ground.

  79 Nevertheless, navigators remained: National Museum of the Air Force Web site, http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1619.

  80 “a large, gray pork chop”: Robert Leckie, Battle for Iwo Jima (New York: Random House, 1967).

  81 “terrible coral”: “Guam Airfields,” http://www.geocities.com/alwood.geo/B29Guam/Lairfields.html.

  82 The declining standards: Alvin Coox, Japan: The Final Agony (New York: Ballantine, 1970), 60.

  84 During an interception: Henry Sakaida, Imperial Japanese Navy Aces, 1937–45 (London: Osprey, 1998), 88–89.

  84 The November 24 mission: XXI Bomber Command mission summary, 24 November 1944.

  84 targets of last resort: Ibid.

  86 later study showed: Kenneth P. Werrell, Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan During World War II (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), 132.

  86 Brigadier General Hansell: Koji Takaki and Henry Sakaida, B-29 Hunters of the JAAF (London: Osprey, 2001), 33.

  87 The Bonin Islands: James Bradley, Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (New York: Little, Brown, 2003), 190.

  87 Meanwhile, on December 3: XXI Bomber Command mission summary, 3 December 1944.

  88s Lieutenant Hugh Mcnamer’s: 500th Bomb Group history, http://www.xmission.com/~tmathews/b29/56years/56years-4412.html. The group’s mechanics repaired the plane, which eventually flew twenty-eight more missions.