Note that who was writing about the air war, and most of all, where they were. Chronkite, Murrow and Rooney and with few exceptions, all others writing about the AIR WAR did so out of England ... talking to the crews between missions, and spending each night comparing notes in Mayfair London bars.
So, the aircraft operating out of there got all the glory ... B-17s, Spitfires, Mosquitos, Mustangs, C-47s, P-47s, etc.
Few correspondents bothered to go to China-Burma-India, North Africa, Italy, Eastern Front, South Pacific and Aleutian Islands or travel with North Atlantic, Murmansk, South Atlantic convoys or the long USN shipboard cruises. Sure, they avoided them as it was difficult to file stories from those locations, but consider that many aircraft were mostly serving in those areas due to their availability at the time (mostly early war) or their longer range and the missions those remote locations concentrated on. Often a combination.
Early on, the P-40, P-39, P-36, Buffalo, F4F, PBY-5s, Gladiator, A-20s and Hurricanes were stop gaps, being supplanted by longer range P-38s, Venturas, B-24s, PBMs, Hudsons, C-46s which were heaped into the theaters for their range and load carrying.
The Navy realized that they were getting less coverage, and put correspondents on remote bases and aboard ships, like John Ford at Midway.
Only when the war in Europe wore down and conflict shifted to the Pacific did the B-29 begin to feature.
So, the aircraft operating out of there got all the glory ... B-17s, Spitfires, Mosquitos, Mustangs, C-47s, P-47s, etc.
Few correspondents bothered to go to China-Burma-India, North Africa, Italy, Eastern Front, South Pacific and Aleutian Islands or travel with North Atlantic, Murmansk, South Atlantic convoys or the long USN shipboard cruises. Sure, they avoided them as it was difficult to file stories from those locations, but consider that many aircraft were mostly serving in those areas due to their availability at the time (mostly early war) or their longer range and the missions those remote locations concentrated on. Often a combination.
Early on, the P-40, P-39, P-36, Buffalo, F4F, PBY-5s, Gladiator, A-20s and Hurricanes were stop gaps, being supplanted by longer range P-38s, Venturas, B-24s, PBMs, Hudsons, C-46s which were heaped into the theaters for their range and load carrying.
The Navy realized that they were getting less coverage, and put correspondents on remote bases and aboard ships, like John Ford at Midway.
Only when the war in Europe wore down and conflict shifted to the Pacific did the B-29 begin to feature.
