Strategic Bombing Matured Quickly During WWII
Strategic Bombing Matured Quickly During WWII
OCT. 22, 2019 | BY DAVID VERGUN DOD
Strategic bombing — destroying enemy military and infrastructure targets and lowering their morale — became a significant part of America’s war strategy during World War II, although it was slow at first to get off the ground, so to speak.
Perhaps the earliest and most publicized use of strategic bombing was the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and surrounding areas of Japan by 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers in April 1942.
Despite causing a limited amount of damage and casualties on mainland Japan, the raid provided a morale booster to the American people, who still had the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, fresh on their minds.
The Doolittle Raid also demonstrated the limitations of strategic bombing at this early stage in the war. The problem was that the aircraft didn’t have the range to return to the carrier, so it was a one-way mission.
As it turned out, most of the aircraft crash-landed in China — amazingly 77 of the 80 crew members survived the initial landings.
The Army realized it needed two things to make strategic bombing a success: longer-range bombers and the capture of islands closer to mainland Japan so aircraft could make a round trip.
Finally, in late 1944, the Army began the effective strategic bombing of Japan with its longer-range B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers, operating from the captured Mariana Islands and later from Iwo Jima in 1945. It augmented the B-17 Flying Fortress, which didn’t have the range or payload capacity necessary to travel long distances of over 3,000 miles.
Meanwhile, in the European theater, distances from the United Kingdom to enemy-held territory were much shorter, so in 1942, the U.S. flew B-17 missions. However, these missions were at a cost in loss of planes and high U.S. casualties, because no long-range fighter aircraft were available to protect the bombers.
In 1943, however, the P-51 Mustang fighter proved to have the range needed to travel from the U.K. to Germany and other Axis areas. It was also employed in the North African and Pacific Theaters, where it provided bomber escort.
Incredibly, the Mustang remained in service until the early 1980s. The B-29s also proved so effective, they were used later during the Korean War.
After the war, when the Air Force became a separate service in 1947, it took over the mission of strategic bombing from the Army.
Strategic bombers today are an important component of America’s nuclear triad system, the other two being land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Historical Snapshot: Boeing
The North American B-25 Mitchell, a twin-engine bomber that became standard equipment for the Allied air forces in World War II, was perhaps the most versatile aircraft of the war. It became the most heavily armed airplane in the world, was used for high- and low-level bombing, strafing, photoreconnaissance, submarine patrol, and even as a fighter and was distinguished as the aircraft that completed the historic raid over Tokyo in 1942.
It required 8,500 original drawings and 195,000 engineering man-hours to produce the first one, but nearly 10,000 were produced from late 1939, when the contract was awarded to North American Aviation, through 1945.
Named for famed airpower pioneer Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell, it was a twin-tail, mid-wing land monoplane powered by two 1,700-horsepower Wright Cyclone engines.
Normal bomb capacity was 5,000 pounds (2268 kilograms). Some versions carried 75 mm cannon, machine guns and added firepower of 13 .50-caliber guns in the conventional bombardier’s compartment. One version carried eight .50-caliber guns in the nose in an arrangement that provided 14 forward-firing guns.
Technical Specifications
| First flight | Aug. 19, 1940 |
| Span | 67 feet 6.7 inches |
| Wing area | 610 square feet |
| Length | 53 feet |
| Weight | Empty, 20,305 pounds; normal gross weight, 27,051 pounds; useful load, 6,746 pounds |
| Power plant | Two 1,700-hp Wright Cyclone supercharged 14-cylinder radial engines, driving 12-foot-7-inch full-feathering, constant-speed Hamilton Standard three-bladed props |
| Speed | In excess of 300 miles per hour |
| Crew | Pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, radio operator, gunner |
| Range | In excess of 3,000 miles, using droppable tanks |
| Landing gear | Hydraulically operated tricycle |