Customer Reviews

B-29 Units of World War II

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Noted aviation historian Robert Dorr summarizes the WWII combat career of Boeing's 'heavy hauler' in this 2002 Osprey Publishing release, #33 in their 'Combat Aircraft' series. Though the B-29 didn't enter combat until the spring of 1944, it played a decisive role in the defeat of Japan, firebombing its cities and mauling its shipping through mining. Dorr's book provides comprehensive coverage of the B-29 wings that forced Japan to its knees.

Aftre summarizing the sometimes troubled development of the B-29, Dorr details events in 1944, when the first B-29 attacks were launched from Chinese bases, and 1945, when the Superforts flew from Pacific Islands. Aircraft problems and faulty tactics were both eventually resolved, 20th AF bomb groups soon laying waste to city after city. Though Superfort missions to Japan didn't suffer the horrendous losses 8th AF crews experienced over Germany, the B-29s had their share of hard missions, losing a fair number of aircraft to ramming attacks by IJAF and IJN fliers.

Dorr does a workmanlike job of summarizing the exploits of the various CBI/PTO bomb groups - the 40th, 6th, 9th, 444th, 462nd, 468th, 497th, etc. - but this is one Osprey publication that could have benefitted from extra pages. B-29 SUPERFORTRESS UNITS OF WORLD WAR 2 is a good overview of B-29 ops but there's an awful lot of Superfort history left over that couldn't fit into the book's 80-page limit.

Along with over 70 photos, the book features 16 pages of Mark Styling color artwork including three pages of close-up nose art.

All in all, Dorr's book is a comprehensive, nicely illustrated volume on the career of a mighty warbird...could have used some extra pages but that's just me. Recommended.

The most advanced bomber of the world in his date, the huge silver cigar-shaped Boeing B-29 derived from a requirement from the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) in 1938 for a long-range, four-engine strategic bomber. After an accident with the first XB-29 that killed test pilot Eddie Allen and 19 other people and delaying the project for almost a year, the second prototype flew on August 1943. During the previous July, the now re-designated Army Air Forces established the new 58th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy). Later, in November 73rd Bomb Wing was activated and both wings would made up the XX Bomber Command, starting operations in April 1944 from bases in China.
After the invasion of the Marianas Islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian (July/August 44), the XXI Bomber Command was activated and in November the first two bomb groups started operations from the new bases in the Pacific. In February 1945, Iwo Jima was occupied and transformed into a huge air base for B-29 emergency landings and for P51D and P47N long-range escort fighters.
Besides the color profiles in the central plates, there also have several pages dedicated to nose-art, the gaudy and sometimes gorgeous paintings made by anonymous artists on the fuselage and nose of the planes.