Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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8/1/44 Tokyo: A major air battle over Tokyo illustrates the give and take of the strategic bombing campaign. The Allies came in three waves and faced stiff opposition from a potent CAP. Here's what happened: (1) From Iwo, 24 B-24, 62 P-38, 8 P-47D, and 10 P-61 Black Widow targeted Tokyo's airfield and faced 92 Frank, 32 Jack, 20 George and 21 Tojo. The Japs lost 57 aircraft (including 26 Frank) and the Allies 40 fighters (35 P-38) and 1 B-24; however, the carnage persuaded the B-24 pilots to head back home without hitting the airfield; (2) 18 B-17 and 148 B-24 from Toyohara came in unescorted against the remaining CAP, the Japs losing 12 fighters and the Allies 5 fighters and 13 bombers, and one again the bombers did little or no damage; (3) then 140 unescorted B-29s faced a fatigued CAP and scored 64 resource hits (and perhaps a few hits on the Frank factory to boot), losing 9 Superforts. John was justifiably pleased with the performance of his CAP (those Franks are tough customers!). The aircraft loses ran roughly 7:5 in favor of the Japs. However, the Allies scored 348 strategic bombing points, meaning that in points alone the Allies came out ahead roughly 400 to 90 (counting ops losses). Moreover, I "assume" that the strategic bombing is, or will eventually, affect the Japanese war effort. The Allies have already destroyed 1/3 of Tokyo's 900 resource points, plus major resource concentrations at bases like Sendai, Sapporo, Aomori, and Akita; there have also been successful raids against Japanese heavy industry, oil, and aircraft factories. But I have no experience with strategic bombing, so I'm relying on an intuitive feeling that it will affect the Japanese beyond the mere awarding of points. Japan: Elswewhere, 29 B-29s from Changsha scored a few resource hits at Fukuoka in southern Japan, and a 115 4EB raid raid from Shikuka (these B-24s and -17s didn't have the range to join the Tokyo raid) scored about 30 oil hits at a base just south of Harbin, Manchuria. Aircraft Losses: For the day, the Allies lost 94 aircraft (78 a-2-a, 0 field, 2 flak, 14 ops) to 77 for the Japs (53, 18, 0, 6). NoPac: The Dutch Harbor invasion force will depart Amchitka Island tomorrow. D-Day is about August 4. CenPac: Things remain quiet at Iwo Jima and vicinity. The combined American carrier TFs plus the empty transports just returned to Midway, where other transports are busy loading the Wake Island invasion reinforcement force. This group will depart in three or four days. SWPac: Frances bombers in small sorties from Port Moresby and Buin (or it might have been Rabaul) sank a couple of the transports unloading supplies at Milne Bay. It will take a good week to ten days for the engineers to establish a level one airfield here. To the northwest, a detachment of Gull Force batallion landed and took a vacant Sarmi, a small island north of Darwin with a level 1 port, 0 (0) airfield. Will John respond in force to either the New Caledonia or Milne Bay invasions? No sign of such to this point. SEAC: Allied 2EB from Kampong Son and Tavoy hit many Japanese transports in and around Saigon. The Allies will try a probing attack at Camranh Bay tomorrow. China: B-24s from Henchow hit Hong Kong damaging 12 Japanese transports. Points: (A) 61,251 to (J) 55,259; Ratio: 1.10 to 1; Strategic Points: 9,388.
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