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B-29s are military airplanes designed and produced by the United States that were utilized in World War II and also in the Korean War. These bomber-aircraft had four propeller-driven engines and went by the nickname of "Superfortress".
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What was the inportance of the battle of Iwo Jima?
Airfield for B29s.
How many B29s are still flying?
one its name is fifi
Where did American military planners decide to invade so b29s could be refueled?
Iwo Jima
B-52 bomber financing in World War 2?
The B17, B24, and B29s were the heavy bombers of WWII. The B52 was the heavy bomber of the Vietnam War.
How did the B29s get to Japan to drop the bombs?
The US military had captured the Marianas Islands and build large airbases for the B-29's. From there, the B-29's could reach the Home Islands of Japan.
Did Japan have B29s in the battle of Iwo Jima?
Hmm. B-29 was an American bomber; not a Japanese. The US wanted to capture Iwo Jima so they could use the airstrips as a base for their B-29's and bomb Japan. But B-29's were not involved in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
How many B29s saw action in World War 2?
It is not clear the exact number. 3,970 were built through May 1946. I estimate that at least 3,400 were completed before the war in the Pacific ended in August 1945. Of that number probably about 3,000 made it to combat units in India, China & Marianas Islands before the end of the Pacific war. The rest would have been in stateside modification work centers, in transit or assigned to training units stateside. Bottom line educated guess is that about 2,900 would have flown at least one mission during the war. I believe that a search of wartime records (by aircraft ID) could possibly reveal the actual number.
What kind of military aircraft had the 50 caliber machine gun mounted on or in them?
After 1941, it was SOP for all US airplanes to be armed with .50s. The P47 Thunderbolt had eight fifties; four in each wing. Mustangs, Corsairs, Hellcats, Wildcats, B17s, B25s, B29s, all were armed with fifties. Even the Korean War F86 Sabre jet had fifties. By the time of the Vietnam War, the .50 had given way to the 20mm cannon on US aircraft; Except the B52 in Vietnam, the B52 tailgunner had a quad .50. Those two USAF tailgunners were the last bomber "tailgunners' to shoot down enemy aircraft (two NVAF MiG21's) with machine guns in combat.
Why did the US use B29s instead of B17s to strike Japan?
Even later models B-17s, such as the B-17E and B-17F, which had additional fuel tanks called "Tokyo tanks" in the outer wingtips, lacked the range for the round trip to Japan and back from the island bases available, or from those in China. After Iwo Jima and Okinawa were captured airbases on them were within B-17 range of Japan, but by that time the 20th AF B-29s had been doing a very thorough job of it for months from the Marianas. The B-29 could also carry a much larger bombload than the B-17. The B-17 was a design from the mid 1930s, and lacked a pressurized interior, and was really outdated by the end of the war. The only heavy bomber retained after the war was the B-29.
Why did the allies want to conquer the islands of Iwo Jima and okinawa?
The military importance of the Battle of Iwo Jima has been debated since World War II ended, as the costly U.S. victory over the Japanese did not lead to a clearly improved strategic situation. Given the famous photograph of U.S. soldiers raising a flag atop the Japanese stronghold (which inspired in turn a monument still standing in Arlington, Virginia), the battle has undeniably become an important symbol for American valor, teamwork, and success.
How did the atomic bomb end World War 2?
Japan was prepared to fight to the last man, woman and child. Only something utterly dramatic would have detered them. The last battle, Okinawa (sp) resulted in the highest casualties to the US Navy in all battles up to that time. The USN had 30 ships sunk! It had 300 ships put out of commission for 30 days or more at that battle. This was out of about 1400 ships in the invasion force. Worse, at the end of October 1945 one of the worst typhoons hit Japan and the surrounding areas. It did extensive damage to our facilities that had prepared fot the invasion of Japan on Okinawa. Had be been prepared for the invasions, we would have suffered a major defeat and losses from this storm. The invasion of the 1st island of Japan scheduled for the 1st of November would have had to have been postponed. The "devine wind" would have saved them again from invasion and only emboldened them to fight on. On the night of March 9-10 1945, 485 B29's burned out 16 square miles of Tokyo and killed about 100,000 people. There is a book called "Flames over Tokyo" that describes the situation on the ground for the inhabitants of Tokyo... They did the math: 485 to destroy Tokyo, 1 each to destroy Hiroshima amd Nagaski. The Japanese knew that we had about 2,000 B29s in the Marianas.It forced the Japanese to surrender without the invasion of the mainland
Why did japan suffer defeat in word war?
The atomic bombs- "little boy" and "fat man" they were called- they dropped on two large cities in Japan and they caused the death of many lives Japan surrendered soon after the bombs. Japan was already beaten by the time the A bombs were used. They insisted in fighting on even though B29s were now bombing Japanese cities with conventional bombs at will. The US chose to use A bombs to end the war quickly without armed invasion, which they calculated would cause greater loss of life than A bombs. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, two medium sized cities, were chosen to demonstrate the enormous power of this weapon, along with the unspoken threat 'give up now,or Tokyo and Kobe are next'. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor they truly believed that the US, being made up of a mongrel mix of races [not my words] would not be able to re-organize and regather after such a successful and devastating attack in the manner of a super and pure race like them. Mistake No1. every fighting man knows this 'Never under-estimate your enemy'. Mistake No2. They attacked the largest industrial power the world had ever seen but had not realized how quickly the US could put that power into war production and turn it into the largest military power the world had ever seen. A Juggernaut the Japanese could never defeat. There are additional reasons the Japanese lost the war. They suffered the deaths of millions of soldiers. They were overextended across the Pacific. Japan (including Korea and Taiwan at that time) had a very strong military but very little access to oil and limited access to coal and iron. By 1944, Japan was losing more shipping than their entire national output of steel. Almost no oil made it to Japan in 1944 and no significant oil reached the islands in 1945. All of the preceding thoughts are true, but it is important to realize that the Japanese ability to wage war was doomed to fail. Despite all of that, everything said here, Japan could still put on a horrific defense of a small area at a great cost to America. The two final island campaigns (Iwo Jima and Okinawa) cost America 20,000 dead. Predictions were floated in the White House and Pentagon that the invasion of the four home islands -- each many times better defended than Iwo Jima and Okinawa -- might take 500,000 American lives while destroying nearly all of Japan's men. By comparison, the final decision to use the atomic bombs seems almost merciful.
