WI. General Kenney gets his B-29s in 1944.

I've learned something new. But that is really pushing things to the limit. There must have been little room for miscalculation or unexpected winds or storms. A minimal bomb load. And no escort fighters. I'm going to have to read up more about those missions.

That link was the 380th Unit History, it had a followup mission for damage report, and that bombload was just 900 pounds, but carried 6000 rounds of ammo. Used most of it too.

for comparison, during the Schweinfurt–Regensburg Strike, the 303rd and Composite groups fired an average of 388 rounds per plane



It's a good read on how the B-24s were used
 
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With the benefit of hindsight I think a productive and less costly way to conduct B-24 missions out of Darwin in 1943 would be mining. Strip out all the defensive armament including the turrets. Make these planes as light as possible.
Typical American air dropped mines designed against shipping weighed around 1000 pounds. With a lightened B-24 you could load perhaps 6 of them to mine the approaches to harbours like Balikpapan and other places out to about 1500 miles is my rough estimate.

Of course these are night missions as mining can be done at night. This almost totally eliminates the threat from enemy fighters. Navigation and locating the correct drop area for the mines is tricky. How soon can these planes be outfitted with the H2X radar? Mining can be an effective and low cost option for the USAAF. A couple of bomb groups of specialized B-24s "gardening" the harbours and sea approaches to the Indonesian ports in 1943 could have done a lot of good.
I think 6 per plane would be too many. Three maybe four with the extra gas. In '43 B-24s were a critical commodity. especially ones with centimetric radar. They were desperately needed in the battle of the Atlantic to close the mid ocean gap. Maybe by early to mid '44 some would be available. Also If I remember correctly mining was definitely a low level operation. You needed to do low level drops to ensure they landed where you wanted and none landed ashore where the enemy cold retrieve them and analyze them as the British did with the German magnetic mines in the London estuary).
 
What would have happened if General Kenney had asked for P-51 Mustangs instead of B-29s? Would Hap Arnold have been generous?

What if Kenney requested Marine fighter support as well? MacArthur took a Marine Air Group with him to the Philippines. Some Marine F4U Fighter Squadrons could have been committed to flying fighter escort as well.
 
What would have happened if General Kenney had asked for P-51 Mustangs instead of B-29s? Would Hap Arnold have been generous?

What if Kenney requested Marine fighter support as well? MacArthur took a Marine Air Group with him to the Philippines. Some Marine F4U Fighter Squadrons could have been committed to flying fighter escort as well.

The 5th Air Force did get P-51s eventually in 1944.
 
For anyone interested in the history and combat history of Kenney's Fifth Air Force (and incidentally - they did use B-32s), I can highly recommend - Flying Buccaneers, The Illustrated story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force By Steve Birdsall ISBN0 7153 7750 7
 
How come the US Navy was never sent against Balikpapan? If the oil refineries had been considered a higher priority target by the Allies why not send a carrier task force against it like Truk? At a minimum carrier planes could have went after Japanese airfields to make these easier for the B-24s.
 
How come the US Navy was never sent against Balikpapan? If the oil refineries had been considered a higher priority target by the Allies why not send a carrier task force against it like Truk? At a minimum carrier planes could have went after Japanese airfields to make these easier for the B-24s.
The Pacific was divided into different operational areas. The DUtch East Indies fell into the area of responsibility of the British command out of India.

Also to get the Fast Carrier Force there would involve a fairly extensive transit through somewhat restricted waters. This would take them away from their primary mission for an extended period of time.
 
For anyone interested in the history and combat history of Kenney's Fifth Air Force (and incidentally - they did use B-32s), I can highly recommend - Flying Buccaneers, The Illustrated story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force By Steve Birdsall ISBN0 7153 7750 7
Another good book is Kenney's memoirs of the Pacific war. He talks about the fight to get aircraft for his command and his relationship with Arnold. The Ebook version is very cheap, and I think occasionally shows up on 'free' lists.
https://www.amazon.com/Air-War-Paci...J6GTY2V/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
 

DougM

Donor
As a total aside, I had a B-29 fly over my house yesterday. The sound compared to the B-17 that often flys over, was totally different and obviously it was noticeably bigger. So how are they keeping This flying if the engines where such a problem?
 
As a total aside, I had a B-29 fly over my house yesterday. The sound compared to the B-17 that often flys over, was totally different and obviously it was noticeably bigger. So how are they keeping This flying if the engines where such a problem?
The late war R-3350 were almost completely redesigned by Dodge at their Chicago Plant for reliability and easier mass production than what Curtiss-Wright started with. By the '50s, the bugs were solved, outside of the PRTs, Power Recovery Turbines on the Super Connie airliners.
 
As a total aside, I had a B-29 fly over my house yesterday. The sound compared to the B-17 that often flys over, was totally different and obviously it was noticeably bigger. So how are they keeping This flying if the engines where such a problem?

The R-3350 became one of the reliable engines that powered many post war aircraft. The Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-7 as well as the A-1 Skyraider and P-2 Neptune used them. They also tried to wring more power out with a 'Turbo-Compund' version which used an exhaust powered turbine to increase power. That never fully panned out then Jets took over.
 
Another good book is Kenney's memoirs of the Pacific war. He talks about the fight to get aircraft for his command and his relationship with Arnold. The Ebook version is very cheap, and I think occasionally shows up on 'free' lists.
https://www.amazon.com/Air-War-Paci...J6GTY2V/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

I think that book was originally published under the title "General Kenney reports". And under the original title it may be available at Project Guttenberg and other public domain sites. General Kenney wrote it shortly after the war.
 
I think that book was originally published under the title "General Kenney reports". And under the original title it may be available at Project Guttenberg and other public domain sites. General Kenney wrote it shortly after the war.
I doubt it is available on a Public Domain site. Copyright law changed about 1920 or so and most books after that have very long copyrights which mean even if they are out of print they are not copyright free. But 99 cents is a very good price and the book is well worth it.
 
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