Aviation in World War II : Part 4

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For the next three years, Allied forces pushed the enemy back across the Pacific. Japan entered the war with the world's finest torpedo bomber (Nakajima B5N2 Type 97) and long-range fighter aircraft (Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, known as the Zero). In 1942 the arrival of Grumman F6F Hellcats and Chance Vought F4U Corsairs began to tip the technological balance in favor of United States naval aviators. The mediocre Curtiss P-40 and Bell P-39 aircraft, flown by the U.S. Army during the early months of the war, were replaced by superior P-38, P-47, and P-51 fighters. B-17 and B-24 bombers attacked Japanese island bases, while B-25 bombers sunk Japanese merchant ships.

Aircraft such as the American-built Douglas C-47, Douglas C-54, and Curtiss C-46 were the aerial workhorses of the war effort, ferrying personnel and supplies to the far corners of the globe. Many of the 12,000-plus C-47s built during the war helped found the postwar airline industry, and a few of them were still being used in 2002. Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats patrolled the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to attack German U-boats and rescue downed Allied pilots. Specially modified Spitfires, P-38s, and other airplanes roamed over hostile territory, collecting vital photographic intelligence.

In the final phase of the air war in the Pacific, the USAAF’s new, large, and high-flying Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers launched attacks on targets in Japan from bases in China during 1944. The capture of the islands of Saipan and Tinian enabled the B-29s to range even farther over the Japanese islands. When high altitude precision bombing techniques yielded disappointing results, Army Air Force planners sent the B-29s in low and at night to conduct area fire raids of the sort pioneered by the RAF. The results were devastating—more than 83,000 residents of Tokyo lost their lives during a single raid on the night of March 10, 1945. The dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was quickly followed by the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945