Operation Matterhorn

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Japan campaign
*Matterhorn* – Volcano & Ryūkyū Islands – Tokyo – Starvation – Tokyo Bay – Downfall – Hiroshima & Nagasaki

This article deals with the World War II Operation Matterhorn, for the operation of the same name in the Malayan Emergency, see Operation Matterhorn (1963).

Operation Matterhorn was a military operations plan of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II for the strategic bombing of Japan by B-29's forward-based in China.

1 The plan

[edit] The plan

Operation Matterhorn was developed by Brig. Gen. Kenneth Wolf in October, 1943, for implementation by the XX Bomber Command. Wolf drew from an initial plan termed "Setting Sun" based on an outline drawn by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference, and from a counter-plan offered by Gen. Joseph Stilwell called "Twilight". The forward airbases in China would be supplied out of India by the flying supplies over the Hump from India. Under Setting Sun the forward bases were to be in Guangxi in southern China, but because of intense Japanese pressure against the forces commanded by Stillwell and Gen. Claire Chennault, the Matterhorn plan moved the bases farther inland to Chengdu.

Gen. Henry H. Arnold approved the plan on October 12 and presented it to the U.S. Joint Chiefs after convincing President Roosevelt, through Gen. George C. Marshall as an intermediary, that no other strategic bombing of Japan was possible until the capture of the Marianas, then not yet scheduled. Roosevelt was unhappy with the projected starting date of June 1, 1944, having promised Chiang Kai-Shek that the campaign would begin January 1, 1944, but agreed on condition that the campaign be continued for a year.

The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29, which had an operational range of 1500 miles (2,400 km); almost 90% of the bombs dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this type of bomber (147,000 tons). The first raid by B-29s on Japan from China was on June 15, 1944. The planes took off from Chengdu, over 1500 miles away. This first raid was also not particularly damaging to Japan. Only forty-seven of the sixty-eight B–29s airborne hit the target area in Tokyo; four aborted with mechanical problems, four crashed, six jettisoned their bombs because of mechanical difficulties, and others bombed secondary targets or targets of opportunity. Only one B–29 was lost to enemy aircraft.

Bombing from China was never a satisfactory arrangement because not only were the Chinese forward airbases difficult to supply via the Hump, but the B-29s operating from them could only reach Japan if they substituted some of the bomb load for extra fuel tanks in the bomb-bays. When Admiral Chester Nimitz's island-hopping campaign captured islands close enough to Japan to be within the range of B-29s, XXI Bomber Command commanded Twentieth Air Force units flying from the islands in a much more effective bombing campaign of the Japanese home islands. XX Bomber Command remained in the CBI until April, 1945, as agreed upon in 1943, then was dissolved and its groups moved to Guam.

[edit] Command structure

The bases in China were part of the China Burma India Theater of World War II for administrative purposes: the commander of the XX Bomber Command had no control over stations, bases, units, and personnel not directly assigned to him, and none over shipping and other logistic support essential to the operation. However the Commander-in-Chief of the XX Bomber Command reported directly to the JCS in Washington and was not under SEAC operational control like the rest of the personnel in the CBI. In this respect the situation of the Twentieth Air Force was similar to that in the European Theater of Operations between the Eighth Air Force and SHAEF following the move of Gen. Eisenhower to London in December, 1943.

General Henry "Hap" Arnold retained personal command of the Twentieth Air Force with Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell as chief of staff (and later commander of XXI Bomber Command). XX Bomber Command originally had two subordinate combat wing components before deploying overseas (the 58th and 73rd Combat Bomb Wings), but only the 58th went to the CBI. There it was deemed a redundant level of command and removed from the chain of command until the groups moved to Guam in April, 1945, when it was restored as part of XXI Bomber Command.

Commanders of XX Bomber Command: