The members of the 6th Bomb Group flew a variety of missions: Precision Bombing, Area Bombing, Aerial Mining, Tactical Support, Fighter Escort, Search and Rescue (Super-Dumbo), POW Supply, Weather Reconnaissance, Photo Reconnaissance and Leaflet Drops.

“The group’s bombing accuracy, as judged by photographs of Empire targets destroyed, is the best in the 313th Bomb Wing. The group’s crew losses are by far the lowest of groups of the Wing.” –Memo dated 21 Jul 1945 from Col. Kenneth Gibson to All Officers and Enlisted Men, Sixth Bombardment Group

While the 6th Bomb Group is proud of these accomplishments, they cannot take sole credit. To a large extent, the accomplishments of the 6th Bomb Group were a reflection of the efforts of all of the Groups, especially the Groups that arrived earlier and paved the way for later Groups. The 6th Bomb Group participated in 75 missions plus 7 or more post-war missions. These included: Precision Bombing (including Tactical Support), Area Bombing (primarily Night Incendiary Bombing), Aerial Mining, Fighter Escort, Dumbo and (Air/Sea Rescue) and POW Supply.

General Curtis LeMay and the Politics of the War

During World War II, the Air Force was not an independent branch of the Service, but was part of the Army – which is reason for the designation U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF). Responsibility for the war in the Pacific Theatre was divided between the Army and the Navy. The Army was under the command of General Douglas McArthur and the Navy was under the command of Admiral Chester Nimitz. The 20th Air Force was unusual in that it was not put under the command of McArthur or Nimitz. Instead General Curtis LeMay assumed command of the 20th Air Force and reported directly to General Hap Arnold in Washington. The mission of the 20th was to engage in the strategic destruction of Japan by air. However, as with any new arrangement, there were challenges in this design:

• The 20th Air Force bases were in “Navy Territory”
• General LeMay was dependent on the Navy for manpower and supplies. Navy Seabees built the airfields. Navy personnel were in charge of the fuel farms and fueled the aircraft in using Navy trucks and Navy personnel.
• The Navy captured Iwo Jima to provide an emergency landing field for the B-29s. This saved many aircrews, but cost the lives of many Marines.
• The Navy wanted the 20th Air Force to support their operations with tactical support missions, such as bombing Kyushu (the home of the Kamikaze) and the aerial mining of Japanese waterways.

With all these pressures, General LeMay was exactly the kind of leader that the Air Force needed to stay on mission. A lesser man might have buckled in to Navy pressure. But General LeMay was single-minded in his desire to win the war using strategic bombing missions. On the other hand, the Navy forced LeMay to fly missions that turned out to be extremely successful, such as the mining missions. This arrangement was directly (and sometimes indirectly) responsible for the wide variety of missions that the 6th Bomb Group flew.

• This arrangement was directly responsible for the aerial mining and tactical support missions.
• This arrangement was indirectly responsible for the long gaps between area bombing campaigns. For example, following the March “blitz,” the 20th Air Force simply ran out of incendiaries because the Navy was unable to keep up with the demand. This enabled the Japanese to rebuild their defenses so that the May area bombing missions over Tokyo were some of the costliest of the entire campaign.

Things became even more heated after May. By that time, both the Army and Navy were heavily focused on the upcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands. The 8th Air Force was being supplied with B-29s and fresh crews – which took resources and replacement crews away from the 20th Air Force. At the same time, LeMay felt that an invasion was unnecessary – that the 20th Air Force could bring Japan to its knees with air power alone.

During June and July, LeMay stepped up the intensity of his bombing campaigns, sometimes striking as many as four cities a day. His goal was to make the November invasion unnecessary.

On August 2, LeMay became chief of staff to General Carl Spaatz and relinquished command of the 20th Air Force to General Nathan Twining. Some say that the War Department made this change in command to appease the Navy, who was upset with LeMay. However, that is unverified. Furthermore, General Spaatz was to command the Air Forces during the invasion of Japan.

CLICK to Learn More About Japanese Air Defenses

In order to complete their missions, the 6th Bomb Group had to run a gauntlet of Air Defenses, ranging from fighter to radar-controlled AA guns and rockets.

From 3 Feb 1945 to 14 Aug 1945, the 6th Bomb Group officially flew 75 missions. The graph indicates the number of planes on each mission.

THE LIST OF MISSIONS

The missions are color coded below as follows: Precision, Area, Mining, Radar Search and Other.

• In the plane listing: the first number is from the “Pirate’s Log” and appears to count total 6th Bomb Group planes hitting targets.
• The second number is the equivalent number for the 20th Air Force.
• The numbers in parenthesis are the losses for the 6th Bomb Group and the 20th Air Force.
• This shows the mission in context. In some cases, the 6th Bomb Group planes were the entire mission. In other cases, the 6th Bomb Group planes were part of a multi-wing mission involving over 500 B-29s.

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