← Back to the front page

A Prank Led to America’s First Nominated Female to Office, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 13, 2019 33 min

18. The Super Fortress’ Shaky Start

B-29 prototypes first flew in 1942, and the plane was introduced to service in May, 1944. Super Fortresses initially bombed Japan from bases in China, but getting the most out of the revolutionary bomber’s potential proved difficult at first. Shaky logistics, with all fuel, supplies, and bombs needing to be flown from India over the Himalayas, coupled with the airbases’ vulnerability to Japanese attack, rendered a sustained bombing campaign from China impractical.

The Mariana Islands, located about 1500 miles south of Tokyo and thus within B-29 range, were a better option: they could be supplied limitlessly by ship, and were beyond Japanese reach. Once they were captured and the necessary airbases and facilities built, B-29s were rebased there and began bombing Japan in October, 1944, from the Mariana islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.