Hyorim wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, Jamie and Bridget Wilde wrote:
Am I correct in assuming the part with Ryouga represents General
Doolittle's raid on Tokyo in early 1942, and Gosunkugi's bit the
invasion of the Marianas towards the end of the war?
Well.. General Doolittle used B-17 launched off a carrier group. B-17s
B-25 Mitchells, a twin engined medium bomber. They had to be specially
lightened to make the trip too. The B-17 is a four engined heavy
bomber, and is way to big to fly off an aircraft carrier.
were rather standard through out the war. I gave a hint of the crashed
plane: "a new enemy bomber." That plane is the B-29, then a very new and
very long-range bomber. They were first used in Indian airbases as supply
planes flying over the Himalayas to supply the four airbases surrounding
Chengtu, a Nationalist Chinese city during that time. The B-29s started
flying combat missions around June of '44, about the same time when the
Marianas got invaded.
Well, I'm not sure about using your brand new heavy strategic bomber as
a transport plane, It's simply not equipped for the job.
Janes says the B29 was first reported in action on June 5 1944, in an
attack on railway yards in Bangkok, and on June 15, the first raid on
Japan was made from bases in China. Since that date, attacks on the
Japanese mainland were steadily stepped up, mainly form bases in the
Marianas and on Guam, with forces of up to 450 and 500 Superfortresses