How many b-29s were there in world war 2?

Answer 1

Boeing built 3970 B-29s, but not all saw service in the war.

The B-29s operated almost exclusively in the Pacific and China against Japan. There were no B-29 raids in Europe. Almost all B-29s were assigned to the US 20th Air Force.

At first an effort was made to base the B-29s in China, supported by forward bases in India. This did not work out. Supplies of every type had to be flown in to the forward operating bases in China from India, over the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas. Cargo pilots called this "flying the hump". This supply bottleneck kept any great strength from being built up to operate from China, and aircraft levels never reached half the initial goal.

After the Mariana Islands were captured in the summer of 1944 the B-29 units of the 20th AF were based there, and eventually all B-29 units were withdrawn from China. Five huge airfields were built in the Marianas, each home to a Bomb Wing. A Wing had four Bomb Groups. A Bomb Group had three Squadrons, each with about 16-18 aircraft assigned. The goal for each Squadron was to try to get 12 of these into the air for any mission. So each wing had between 192-220 B-29s on its airfield, and there were a total of 960-1100 in the Marianas if every squadron was at full strength.