Sorry to rain on your parade LG, yes it was 5 June that 98 B-29's set off for the Makasan railroad yards in Bangkok, for their First Combat mission...2000 mile round-trip, 14 aircraft aborted before the target, total confusion over the target, a mere 18 bombs landed in the target area, 5 aircraft crashed on the return landing, and 42 had to land at other airfields due to fuel shortage...so much for the decisive launch of the B-29 VLR Bomber. - As I've said, only 46 were altered to carry the A-Bomb, and they were all in the Marianas, very special, very secret . - The B-29's abort rate was 23 percent until Le May arrived in the Marianas, and using Bomber Command techniques, finally started an effective campaign, bringing down the abort rate to less than 7 percent by July 1945. - Their BIG problem was their Wright R-3350 engines, which constantly over-heated...Le May solved this partly by LOW-level attacks at 5-6000 ft, the engines not having to struggle to 30,000 ft anymore. The attrition rate continued though, until 29th May '45, when they started adding Mustang escorts, because with all that armament , they still couldn't shoot their way back n' forth to the targets...After all the ETO had taught them, you'd think they would've got THAT right...At 11 men per aircraft, getting the B-29 effective as the Ultimate Bomber, took alot of needless American blood...- They couldn't just sling an A-Bomb in them either...the modifications to the 'nuke-bomber' variant was quite extensive, involving fitting of a special 'H' type hoist... - Like I said, if the need arose in Europe, the closest choice would've been a Lancaster....not the prima-donna problem-plane the B-29 WAS at the Time...