1 November 1944 reconnaissance sortie over Japan

Sortie by US F-13 Superfortress aircraft September 2026 March 2016 1 November 1944 reconnaissance sortie over Japan Air raids on Japan, World War II USAAF photo of Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano on 1 November 1944.png Black and white photo of a ship viewed from directly above A photograph of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano off Yokosuka that was taken during the sortie on 1 November 1944Enright Ryan 1987 13 1 November 1944 Japan Successful US photo reconnaissance mission United States 1912 Empire of Japan 1 F-13 Superfortress Multiple fighter aircraftAnti-aircraft batteries None None On 1 November 1944, a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) F-13 Superfortress conducted the first flight by an Allied aircraft over the Tokyo region of Japan since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942. This photo reconnaissance sortie returned with 7000 photographs which helped with planning air raids on Japan during the last months of World War II. Attempts by Japanese air units and anti-aircraft gun batteries to shoot down the F-13 failed, as the available fighter aircraft and guns could not reach the high altitude at which it operated. Background In late 1944 the United States Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command prepared to conduct strategic bombing raids on the Japanese home islands from bases in the Mariana Islands. These attacks were to replace the largely unsuccessful Operation Matterhorn raids which had been conducted by XX Bomber Command aircraft based in India and staging through bases in China since June 1944.Wolk 2004 72 While XX Bomber Command conducted photo reconnaissance sorties over Japan as part of this effort, the aircraft flying from China lacked the range to reach Japan's main industrial centers.Craven Cate 1953 555 XXI Bomber Command needed aerial photos to develop plans for its air raids.Kreis 1996 335–336 On 10 October 1944 the Committee of Operations Analysts, which provided advice to USAAF commanders on suitable strategic bombardment targets, recommended that photo reconnaissance flights be conducted over Japan's main industrial areas as soon as possible to provide intelligence which could be used to direct raids from the Mariana Islands.Craven Cate 1953 26, 555 These operations were to be conducted by the 3rd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (3rd PRS), which was the only photo reconnaissance unit in the XXI Bomber Command.Craven Cate 1953 555 The 3rd PRS had been formed on 10 June 1941. After conducting flights over the Americas, it was deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater. The unit flew mapping missions over the region from 10 December 1943 until it was disbanded and re-formed in the United States during April 1944 to be equipped with the new F-13 photo reconnaissance variant of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber.Cahill 2012 14 Due to delays to the development of the F-13, the 3rd PRS was unable to commence training on the type until 24 August, and began to receive its first operational F-13s on 4 October. 3rd PRS F-13s began to depart for Saipan in the Mariana Islands on 19 October, where they would be supported by the unit's ground echelon which had arrived on 18 September.Cahill 2012 14 Photo reconnaissance sortie The first two 3rd PRS F-13s arrived at Saipan on 30 October after a 33-hour flight from Mather Field in California via Oahu and Kwajalein.Craven Cate 1953 555Cahill 2012 14 The commander of the XXI Bomber Command, Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell, encouraged the exhausted airmen to rest. However, they insisted on making a flight over Japan as soon as possible.Hansell 1986 179Dorr 2002 25 thumb|left|alt=Black and white photo of a military aircraft powered by four propeller engines parked in an open area|An F-13 Superfortress similar to the aircraft involved in the 1 November 1944 sortie At 5:55 am on 1 November an F-13 whose crew was led by Captain Ralph D. Steakley took off from Saipan bound for Japan.Craven Cate 1953 555 Weather conditions over Tokyo were perfect for photo reconnaissance, with the skies free of clouds.Dorr 2012 118 Flying at 32000 ft m, Steakley's aircraft repeatedly passed over a complex of aircraft and engine plants to the west of Tokyo, before moving on to photograph a similar facility near the city of Nagoya. Overall, the American airmen took 7,000 photos during the mission.Hansell 1986 179Dorr 2012 118–119 While most of the photos of Tokyo were of industrial areas, the aircraft also photographed the densely populated urban areas of the city which were firebombed later in the war.Fedman Karacas 2014 6 Steakley was surprised to encounter strong winds, and reported that his ground speed over Tokyo was sometimes only about 70 mph kph. The jet stream over this region was not known to the USAAF at the time, and greatly complicated XXI Bomber Command's later air raids.O'Hare Sweeney Wilby 2014 97Craven Cate 1953 576 The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's 47th Sentai provided fighter cover for Tokyo on 1 November.Sentais were air groups with several flying squadrons.Takai Sakaida 2001 6 Note The unit's Nakajima Ki-44 fighters began to take off from Narimasu airfield to intercept the F-13 at 1:00 pm. These aircraft were not designed to be used at high altitudes, and the Japanese airmen were unable to get closer than about 1000 m ft flip 1 from Steakley's aircraft. Two formations of fighters fired machine guns at the F-13, but did not hit it.Takai Sakaida 2001 25–26 Several batteries of Japanese anti-aircraft guns also unsuccessfully fired on the American aircraft.Dorr 2012 118 The F-13 was the first American aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, and was seen by many Japanese civilians.Takai Sakaida 2001 25 Its presence over the city and the failure of the military to shoot it down increased the concerns many had over the course of the war.Fedman Karacas 2014 6 Aftermath The F-13 returned to Saipan after a 14-hour flight. By the next day the crew had named the aircraft "Tokyo Rose" in reference to the propaganda broadcaster. Steakley received the Distinguished Flying Cross for the flight, and the other members of the crew were also later decorated.Cahill 2012 14Dorr 2012 119 It took weeks to process all of the photographs and months to fully analyze them.Fedman Karacas 2014 6Dorr 2012 119 The photographs taken during the sortie were an important source of intelligence for the Twentieth Air Force and other American units, especially as 1 November proved to be the only day of the air campaign against Japan in which weather conditions over the home islands were entirely clear of cloud.Dorr 2012 118–119 Hansell later said the sortie had been probably the greatest single contribution to the air war with Japan.Fedman Karacas 2012 6 The 3rd PRS flew 16 more sorties over Japan before XXI Bomber Command's first raid against Tokyo on 24 November, but several of these missions were frustrated by bad weather.Hansell 1986 179Cahill 2012 15 One F-13 was lost during a mission to Nagoya on 21 November, but the squadron had nine aircraft at Saipan by the end of the month.Craven Cate 1953 555–556 The 3rd PRS continued to fly reconnaissance sorties over Japan until the end of the war.Cahill 2012 19 References Footnotes Note Citations Works cited 30em Cahill William M. Imaging the Empire: The 3d Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron in World War II Air Power History 2012 50 1 12–19 1044-016X Craven Wesley Cate James James L. Cate The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki University of Chicago Press Chicago 1953 The Army Air Forces in World War II. Volume V http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/V/index.html 256469807 Dorr Robert F. Robert F. Dorr B-29 Superfortress Units of World War 2 Osprey Publishing Oxford 978-1-84176-285-2 2002 Dorr Robert F. Mission to Tokyo: The American Airmen Who Took the War to the Heart of Japan 2012 MBI Publishing Company Minneapolis, Minnesota 978-0-7603-4122-3 Enright Joseph F. Ryan James W. 1987 Shinano!: The Sinking of Japan's Secret Supership New York City St. Martin's Press 0-312-00186-X amp https://archive.org/details/shinanosinkingof00enri Fedman David Karacas Cary A cartographic fade to black: mapping the destruction of urban Japan during World War II Journal of Historical Geography 2012 38 3 306–328 0305-7488 10.1016/j.jhg.2012.02.004 free Fedman David Karacas Cary The Optics of Urban Ruination: Toward an Archaeological Approach to the Photography of the Japan Air Raids Journal of Urban History May 2014 40 5 959–984 10.1177/0096144214533288 143766949 May 2021 medicmedic Hansell Haywood S. Haywood Hansell The Strategic Air War Against Germany and Japan: A Memoir 1986 Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force Washington, D.C. 978-0-912799-39-1 http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/Hansell/index.html Kreis John F. Kreis John F. Piercing the Fog: Intelligence and Army Air Forces Operations in World War II 1996 Air Force History and Museums Program Washington, DC 978-0-16-048187-1 297–348 http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101203-023.pdf Taking the Offensive: From China-Burma-India to the B-29 Campaign 17 February 2016 23 November 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20161123161632/http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101203-023.pdf dead O'Hare Greg Sweeney John Wilby Rob Weather, Climate and Climate Change: Human Perspectives 2014 Routledge London 978-1-317-90482-3 Takai Kōji Sakaida Henry Henry Sakaida B-29 Hunters of the JAAF Osprey Publishing Oxford 2001 Aviation Elite Units 978-1-84176-161-9 Wolk Herman S. The Twentieth Against Japan Air Force Magazine 2004 http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2004/April%202004/0404japan.pdf 68–73 0730-6784 Category:World War II strategic bombing of Japan Category:Aerial operations and battles of the Pacific War Category:1944 in Japan Category:November 1944 in Asia Category:Tokyo in World War II Category:Aerial reconnaissance