XXI Bomber Command Monthly Activity Reports, March 1945

8/8/2019 XXI Bomber Command Monthly Activity Reports, March 1945

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XXI BOMBER COMMAND

MONTHLYACTIVITY REPORT

1 MARCH 1945


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This is an a ttempt to sm' ;arize some of the more~ p o r t a n t a c t i v i t i e s ~ o f the Command as disclosed Qy thes tat is t ical data maintained Qy this Unit, a;d to indicatethe trends that may affect the future activity of theCommand


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XXI BOMBER COMMAMl

MONTHLY ACT IV I TY REPORT1 March 1 ~ 4 5

Part I .Part I I .Part I I I .Part IV.Part V.Part YI.Part VII

Strength of the ConnnarrlUse of Aircraft and CrewsM a i n t e n a l ~ e As I t Affects Usc of AircraftEffectiveness of Aircraft On M i f , s i o l ~ SResu:l.t.sCost .)f '11551005Other Activity

Preper,dBy

33rd Statistical Control Unit

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SCIlEDIJLED FLOW OF VIR AIRCRAFT AND CRE,1S TO THEATF1tBased on Information Received Up To and Including 1 March 1945

Before EnrouteJan 31 Feb 1 March March April May June JulyAtC Cws Ale cws A/c Cws A/c Cws A/c C:!'s. A/c Cws Alc Cws A/c C180 240Unit73rd Wing

313 Wg 504 Gp505 Gp6 Gp9 GpWg T/RTOTAL

20 2030 30'27 2727 2733104 137

3 33 32 l6 27 11

10 10

38 548 15 2222

90 9030 3030 3030 300 30

30 3030 30

90 90

30 3030 3025 558511525 5565 115

30 3030 30

130 3029 29 ,30 .3030 30

- , - - - - : - 5 ' ' ' ' ' ' : - _ . . ~ j - . . . , 1 ; - - - ; ~ ; - L 6 o - ; : ; - ~ ? o * 0 - - , - - : - = - - = - . , - : , . - - ; - - - 5 ~ g f - , ' - - - : " - ~

314 Wg 19 Gp29 Gp39 Gp330 Gp

Wg T/RTOTAL::58 Wg 40 Gp444 Gp

462 Gp468 GpWg T/RTOTAL

315 Wg 16 Gp501 Gp331 Gp502 G'pWg T/RTOTAL

;.-.l1PhotoUIE & T/RReplacementTOTAL12 18820 18 4 14 1 22 22 11 55 6 2 42 4 22 4 24 2

XXI BCiIB COMDREPLACI'loIOOS 65 21 55 50 14 3 7!U.!,2 60 149 79 130 82 213 90 12GRAND TOTAL J69 416 124 161 17 13 223348 150270 219 239226 307122JG- = - : = . . . . : . . : . : . : : ~ - = - - . . . : : _ - = - _ - - ' - - - ' - - - - " ~ - - O __Scheduled deliveries are based on l:lformation from 20 AF. However, replacementsbeginning in May are based on rate of 16% UIE per month for aircraft and 15% forcrews during 1st f ive months of operations and 30% per month thereufter .Aircraf t and crews of the 5C9th Composite Group are not included in the above.


5/13

P.\i\T 1. STREll;T;l OF THE COWlANDAll units ass igned or attached to Headquarters XXI BomberCommand, and a l l units of the 73rd Bomb Wing are now in place.313th Bomb Wing units have a ll arrived with the exceptions of the

592nd AAF Band and the 680th Bomb Squadron, due to reach Tinianin April'and May, respectively, and the 509th'Composite Group,which i s scheduled to arr:"re during May and June. The last unitof the 314th Bomb Wing is scheduled to reach Gtmm in March. Move-ment of the 58th Bomb Wing into this theater is scheduled to takeplace during Ap":.l, May and June. Arrivai of the 315th Bomb Wingwil l be approxll ~ ' ~ e l y cOfl.current with arrJ.val of the 58th BoobWing, and wil l be completed ' li th a rr ival of the flight and airechelons of the 331st a!Xl 502nd Bomb Group" in ear ly July... During February the t o t . ~ . 1 . strength in "the theater ofunits assigned or attached to the AXI Bomber Cr)nrrnarrl increased

~ 0 . 6 ~ over January to a total of }4.00' officers and enlisted men.The ultimate strength of the Command on a five-wing basis is over63,000.I t should be noted that the lower loss rates (see Part VI)coupled with the flow of replacement aircraft at a rate greater.than losses has made possible a speedier build-up to authorized.strength than was antic':' mted. Replacements in FebrlE.rY were 17aircraft over losses, a l to date are 25 aircraft over losses.Crew replacements to date, hOTIever, are )0 crews less than lossessuffered. The ~ aircraft and 145 c ~ e u s scheduled to arrive inMarch as replacements are further indication that the COmmnd mayaccelerate the builu-up to present authorizeo strength .The estimated growth of the strength of this Command inthe theater is shown below:

J ~ e n t a t i v e Estimates28 FEB (ON HAND) 31 MAR -30 APR 31 ~ I A Y 30 JUNE 31 JULOFF EX TOTPL TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL TOTALHq XXI Be & Hq Units 487 2054 2541 2550 2650 2750 2800 280073rd Bomb Wing 1887 10028 11915 11915 11915 11915 11915 11915313th Bomb Wing 11;48 9232 10680 10900 11400 13000 13400 13400314th Bomb Wing leoo 7867 8867 11100 11700 11700 11700 11700315th Bomb Wing 3'100 7300 9500 1170058th Bomb lUng 6900 8500 11600 11600

TOTAL 4822 29181 34003 36465 48265 55165 60915 63115

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Ave. HOURS Ave. HOUNO. PER NO. PETOT!!.. COMBAT TRNe OTHER WL Alc CREWS CRENOVEmlER73rd Wing nnd Command Tote.1 1524 3239 128 157 93.2 37.8 124.6 28.nEl:JEMBER73rd Bomb Wing 7403 6742 165 496 133.1 55.4 197.6 37313th Bomb Wing 58 58 1.7 1.9 38.5 1.Command Total 7461 6742 223 496 134.8 55.3 236.1 31JANUARY73rd Bomb Wing 8484 7464 598 422 136.5 62.2 212 40313th Bomb fling 3930 415 1529 1986 77.6 50.6 80.1 49Comm!Uld Total 12414 7879 2127 2408 214.1 58 292.142.FEBRUARY

73rd Bomb Wing 10249 7878 1943 428 158.3 64.7 214.3 47313th Bomb Wing 6585 4669 1212 704 129.4 50.9 152.2 43314th Bomb Wing 1821 353 1053 415 25.5 71.4 28.3 64COIlllllE'.nd Total 18655 12900 4208 1547 313.2 59.6 394.8 47SORTIES FLOVIN SORTIES SORTIESBO!IBIM:l I< \'lEATHER pm PERTOTAL SHAKEDOWN STRIKE OTHm* Alc CREf;N01rnolBm73rd lill and Command Total 303 303 3.3 2.4DECJi1,!Brn73rd 1Vg and Command Total 595 526 69 4.5 3JANUARY73m Bomb Wing 543 469 74 4 2.631Jth Bomb Wing 219 94 125 2.8 2.7COlllJllBlld Total 762 563 74 125 3.6 2.6

fEIlRUARI73rd Bomb rling 558 466 83 9 3.5 2.6313th Bomb Wing 424 363 61 3.3 2.7314th Bomb Wing 22 22 .9 .8Command Total 1004 851 83 70 3.3 25* Includes Training, Sea Cearch and Photo Sorties.

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7/13

PART I I . USE OF B-29 ~ . I R C R A F r AND CP.E1IS

An average of 60 hours per aircraft and 47 hours per crewwas flown by the Commarrl during February, the best record to date.As shown in the following table , the 73rd Wing attained 65 hoursper aircraft for the :1(' ' 1 despite a substantial increase in thenumber of aircraft assigned end fewer days in the month. Inaddition, with this increase of a ircraft on hand, the Command wass t i l l able to fly over 60% of aseigned aircraft on combat missions.65% were ready for combat on mission days during February, theadditional a i rcraf t being uti l ized chiefly for training f l ightsand weather strike missions.

Both the 73rd and 3l3th Wings showed increases ill combsthours, and the 73rd Wing also t r ip led i t s flying t raining t ime.The 4,208 hours used for tralning time, or 13.4 training hoursper aircraft was the chief factor in the slight ~ e c r e a s e of totalsor t ies per ai rcraf t . (See table on preceding page)

These f ac tors for February highlight two things: First, theincreasing training time, am second, the ability of the Commendto absorb more aircraft and s t i l l f ly each aircraft n greatern\lilber of hours.

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8/13

PART I I I . MAINI'ENAtllE AS IT AFFECTS USE OF AIRCRAFT

The mere fact of greater hours flown per a i r c r ~ f t despitean increased number of aircraft on hand is S ~ ~ e indication ofincreased mainttnance efficiency


9/13

PART IV . EFFEC1'IVEllESS OF AIRCRAF'i' Oli ',:I58IONS

During FoorUD.I'Y 49% of u i r m . ' ( ~ f t airborne on Honshu missionsbombed the plima.;-:.r target , \':cather bel%. the c: .Lei' cause off c . i l u r ~ s to bomb thu. prinary. Only 19% of tht: c.irborne l1.ircre.ftbomaed the p r i n k ~ tcrget v isual ly . Hieher for t h r o ~ y t h suc-cessive month, in FEib:." . l"y 8?j-J of' airoorne aircraft bombed c.llturgets.

Thus i t i s s ~ e n that ~ h i l e ~ h C o n ~ n n d is steacily i n c r ~ a s -ing both the nunber and p e r c ~ n t l \ g E J of t:ircra.ft bombing the. Jllpcn-ese r.m.inland, br.Ci m ~ u . t h e r has permitted nly a s m ~ l l J-crcent toborno v i s ~ l l y . The fol louine tnbles shan the effoctiveness ofu i r c r ~ f t s i n c ~ November .

NOV DEC .rAN ~ ' ; " B R W , R Y73RD '/3:lD '73RD 7.:aD 3l3'fH 31iSH TOTAL%llirborne Bombing Primary


10/13

pART V RES U L T S1 . Bombing AccursX

Bombing accuracy information was available on only one of the fiveJapanese mainland missi,,:,.-!'J conducted during the month. No f igures were available on the f i rs t tno missions in uhich 89 aircraft bombed the primary targetvisual ly , nor on the 2.ast t'",e missions in which none of the ai rcraf t bombedthe primary t arge t v isua lly. On 15 February, hmlever, 17% of the bombs releasedon the M i t ~ u b i s h i Engine plant in Nagoya fel l uithin 3000 feet of the aimjngpoint , and 18 hi t s uere ident i f ied in the target area. Photo coverage HaS alsoincanplete for th is m i s s i o n ~ I t should be noted that these figures are basedon photo coverage dur ing the mission and do not r e f lec t l a te r damage assessmentstudies , which are not avai lable in th is office . In vie17 of the fact , as s tatedin a recent Operations Analysis report on bombing, tha t probably l ess than fourdays a month ' iTil l be suitable for visual bombing during the next eight months,it seems evident that even less bombing accuracy inforn:etion \ i i l l be availablein the fu tu re , esp ecially a s to \Ting and group comparisons.

2. Bomb, W e i g ~ t and FUel DataAs of 28 February. 6793 tons of bombs have been dropped by "the c""""nd

OIl J'ailanc.ae targ0t tb 30% of these tons ,\Gre incendiariss . 1494 tons have beenreleased on f ive major ai rcraf t and eng ine factoies . Of the urban areas, Tokyoreceived the greates t tonnage, 1016 tans being dropped on th i s ci ty to date .Greater tonnaga has been made possible by measures increasing the bombload. In February the 7Jrd \"ling carried an ave rage of 6739 pounds cCl:!J98red

to 5646 in January. At tho same time average graBS ,r;-e:.ght decreased to 133,600pounds from 135.700 in January, and t he ave rage fuel 1'3tnrned decreased to923' gallons from 987. Even the ; 'ebruary averages tiere not indica tive of theactual progress in substantiB'..2y i n ~ r e a s i n g the bomb load on missions to theJapanese mainland. Individual a i rc ra f t carr ied about 7500 pounds of banbs inscme cases and returned 1-::ss fuel . Increased experience and the emphasis onth i s problem point to c. 5 i.eady upoard t rend in bomb tannago carried during March

3. l ~ p . 9 . . . A i r c r a f t DeatroyedDuring the month, 71 Japanese ai rcraf t nerc destroyed, 59 probably des

troyed, ond 126 damaged. To date, 267 enemy ai rcraf t have been destroyed.This is eqUivalent to a ra t io of 6i Japenese a i rc ra f t destroyed per each B-29l o s t to enemy action in combat missions I or on aVC3rage of 14 Japaneso ai rcraf tdestroyed per 100 B-29 sor t ies . B3.sod on information from 20th Air Force, thisrate of f i ~ t e r destruction i s by far the greates t averago achieved by ei tncrt1&htcrs or bombers in the U.S. Jirmy Air Force.

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' !be number of enemy attacks per B-29 over t!1o targot dropped in Februaryto 2.1 from tho January figure of 7.6 and December figure of 4.4. Hon muchor 'tills ClocJ.1ne is clue to bacl tnrget ond Japanese base \7cother ond to Navystr ikes is Dot yet dotcrminoblo.


11/13

---PART VI. COST OF MISSIONS

1. Losses... 8-29 aircrrrI t, losses in February were only 12% of tmi t equip-ment compared to 22% in December em January. At the same .timeB-29 crew lossE.';o in February r.tere only ll% ~ o uni t equipment compared to 15% in December am 23% in January. On bombing missions,3.2% of 'airborne aircraf t -and 3.0% of airborne crews were los tduring the month. 3.8% of airborne aircraf t were lo s t in Decemberam 5.5% in January. It should be stated that February figuresdo not yet form sound lx>.sis for prediction of t r ems because ofthe T",kyo mission ot 25 FobiuC.ry :7bon 229 aircraft were,u...1'oorne with.only two losses. . Further stu::ly must be made to determine the effect of radar bombing days as relates to enemy fighterreaction and aircraf t losses. I t may be thnt the bad \leather forJapanese missions will substantially decrease previous sortie loss

.. rates.As shOtln in the tab le belo'il; enemy action continues to bethe major cause of losses and enemy fighters have been the b igges tsingle factor . I t must be noted here that TIhilc actual cost ofmissions can effectively be a68esued in relation to number of lossesper bomb tonnage dropped uithin the target area, this type ofassessment awaits more detailed bombing accuracy figures.


12/13

2 . !ia.ttle Damage21% of aircraft airborne on Japanese mainland missions incurred batUedamage d ur in g F eb ru ar y. Th:is d e c re a se from the 31% fig u re o f January " " s ingreat part due to the last mdssion of the ~ i o d end hence is not yet soundeVidence of a reversal of tho previously increasing trend. The effect of

radar bombing days must be studied in this connection, too. The percent ofb n t t l e - ~ g e d aircraft uhich required over 6 days to repair has sl ightlydecreased each month, the February figure being 14% as compared to 16,% farJanuary and 21% for December. The causes and effect of battle damage ui l lbe the subject of more detailed analysis uhen the nan reporting and analysisprocedures nou in process of being formulated, became effective. A briefswm:oary of the general ceuses o f a ir craf t los t and bettIe dmne.ged fo11005:

CAUSES OF J,lRCRJJT LOST J.ND Bt.TTLE-DJJ,MlED\ Percon"- of TotoJ. Loat and DamElgedDecem.b':lr Janttary February

EnCII\Y .l i .i rcraft 27.&10 5l.6r. 34->%En6II\Y F l a k 40.1% 12./% '42.6%.En6II\Y Ale ClDd F l a k 15.2% 159% 8,1%Accidents &Malfunctions 7.&10 25% 4-8%se l f l l l f l i c t e d 5itZ 7.1% 43%Oth e r ond un.knOTlIl 38% 10.2% 5&10

3. Air-Sea. RescueODly 22% of thoso failing to return from combat missions or .50.% of

thOse knoon to have ditched TIare rescued during February." This representsQ. substantial incroase over Jonuary figures of 71% and 9%, ond \o-d.o.tefigures of 19% and 33%. 258 crei'1 members failed to return from missionsd u r i n g t h e month. Of t h o s e , 113 uere kno"" to have d i t c h e d ClDd 56 u e r erescued.

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13/13

PfJ'T VII, OTHER ACTIVITY1. Weather Strike M i s ~ i o n s

During FebrU

XXI Bomber Command Monthly Activity Reports, March 1945

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Transcript of XXI Bomber Command Monthly Activity Reports, March 1945