It had been more than two and
a half years since Jimmy Doolittle's small carrier-borne group of B-25s
had bombed Tokyo. Since then Japanese authorities had drilled their
docile populace in air-raid defenses, warning them incessantly that it
might happen again. Last week the warning was justified: the sirens
shrilled and the bombs began to fall. This time it was no hit-&-run attack by lightly loaded medium bombers.
The attackers were U.S. B-29 Superfortresses. They cruised in over
Tokyo at noontime and kept coming; the attack went on for two hours.
Japan later said that 70 planes carried out the operation; the U.S.
said only that it was a “sizable task force.” Japanese cities and industries had taken B-29 attacks before, but they
had come at infrequent intervals, from the remote, gasoline-starved
U.S. air bases at Chengtu in China. This time Tokyo was struck from a
new and formidable base on Saipan in the Marianas, 1,500 miles from
the Japanese capital. At Saipan the high-octane gas comes in by the
tankerload. Tokyo could be sure that more and bigger attacks would be
made—and on a frequent schedule. If the Japs had any lingering doubt,
that was dispelled three days later when a B-29 group roared northward
to hit Tokyo again, while an India-based mission of Superforts carried
out a simultaneous attack on railway yards in Thailand's capital,
Bangkok. In the Driver's Seat. First B-29 off the ground for the first Tokyo
strike was Dauntless Dottie, piloted by Major Robert K. Morgan, onetime skipper of
the famed B-17 Memphis Belle. Riding with him was the task-force
commander, 38-year-old Brigadier General Emmett O'Donnell
Jr., a veteran of the long, bitter delaying action early in the war
when a handful of U.S. airmen fought and fell back from the Philippines
to Java to Australia. The boss of Saipan's newly announced 21st Bomber Command, 41-year-old
Brigadier General Haywood Shephard Hansell Jr., had to sweat
out the mission on the ground. He was not alone; ground crews had all
preparations made for the homecoming and were out strolling uneasily
around the runways hours before the big silvery planes were due back.
But the returning airmen brought less blood-and-thunder narrative than
an hour's mission in Europe might produce. The first Superforts had arrived over Tokyo flying high and riding tail
winds that boosted their speed to around 400 m.p.h. The Japs were
surprised, their defenses were weak. The big Forts laid a pattern of
bombs across the main target, sprawling Nakajima Aircraft plant, eleven
miles from Tokyo's center. They saw heart-warming fires spring up, then
high-tailed for their island home. By the time later waves got over the target, the Japs had come to and
begun to fight. But only one Superfort went down; a Jap Tony
crashed into its tail and fell with it.
Another B-29 crash-landed at sea with engine trouble, but the crew got
out in rubber rafts and was picked up by Navy rescuers within 24 hours.
Said Rosie O'Donnell: “One of the easiest missions I've been
on.”
