The B29 raids on Osaka. (1 Viewer)

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Here are some more papers I have collected on Japanese flak. Excellent for insomnia.
 

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  • Digest of Flak News 1 to 20.pdf
    9.1 MB · Views: 15
  • Flak Over Japan.pdf
    4.6 MB · Views: 15
  • Japanese AA Material.pdf
    18.6 MB · Views: 17
  • Methods of Flak Analysis.pdf
    23.2 MB · Views: 16
This excerpt from (attached)
View attachment 719792
gives a somewhat lower limit for Japanese heavy Flak stating its maximum effectiveness is at 7,500 feet.

View attachment 719791
The Japanese main (most numerous) AA "heavy" gun during the war was the 75mm Type88 which probably had better "tracking" due to its lighter weight and less inertia. The German 88mm would (probably) have had slower accurate tracking, but I can't say for sure. Their giant twin 128mm (the ones often used on the big Flak Towers) must have been even slower at tracking lower flying aircraft. The 5K-10K range "gap" is a rough guide to volume of space where both "light" and "heavy" AA would have had problems with accuracy but could (by the laws of chance) been a deterent to any aircraft within range.

I read somewhere (maybe in Westermann's book 'Flak', but I'm not sure) that for light AA training (37mm and quad 20mm) the Germans used a setup that allowed firing at actual atacking aircraft that was safe for the aircraft. In front of and above the 37mm gun was a large, wide mirror (or mirrored surface) that didn't block the barrel. (Don't know if it was attached to the gun or hung separately or not.) The gun crew's view of the sky was, thus, actually the reflection BEHIND them and the "attacking" aircraft would come at them from the rear but appear to be coming from the front of the gun. They would sight and shoot (live ammo) with tracers at the reflection of the aircraft in the normal way, and everything was very realistic with regard to ranging, high speed, and angle of the attack, etc. Film cameras on theodolites were used and the resulting film and theodolite readings could be used to judge how close they came to the "aircraft" as if it were really coming at them from the front. (The pilot probably was warned never to cross the marked firing line but to turn away before that. The guns probably had safety stops to prevent swinging around!) It was supposed to be nearly as realistic as firing in combat at real aircraft, and gave the crew training that was superior to just shooting at towed sleeves and the like. I cannot find any references other than that short description of it and how it worked in detail. If anybody has any information on this, I would love to hear more about it. Sounds very clever and effective. German light flak was feared and respected by allied pilots.
 
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Back in the 1970s I read a book of WW2 aircrew stories, and one was written by a crewman on the B-29 night missions, and something he said was possibly pertinent to the statement of "increased losses requiring higher altitude".

He related how if you weren't one of the first set of bombers, that the updrafts from the fires would toss the B-29 around like a single-engine trainer in a thunderstorm... he commented on seeing some lose control and crash purely from the updrafts, and of finding his aircraft upside-down over 2,000 feet higher than it had been a few seconds earlier.
Agreed, my uncle speaks of that in his writing, getting bounced around like a toy in the updrafts. No mention of him going upside down thank God but the air did get pretty rough as more bombers came through and I see him referencing him changing altitude (both up and down) for an aggregate 12,000ft in just a couple of minutes, albeit some of that was also dodging flak and searchlights.
 
I recall a quote from a B-29 pilot, "I flew that great big beautiful bomber over that burning city, looked down into the flames and said, 'Who the hell did you think you were messing with?'"

The guy who wrote that book about the B-29 raids flew B-50's out of Japan after WWII. He had a B-50 model sitting on the mantlepiece. Some Japanese workers came to do some repairs to his house and he was careful to point out that model was not that of a B-29, which he had not flown, but was a B-50. He said he need not have been concerned. They were not angry; they were impressed as hell.
 
Angry was second thing if they were not nationalists.
I recall someone buying a Japanese made car and taking it to Detroit so the people there could beat it to pieces in revenge for the success the Japanese vehicles were having in the US market.

Someone pointed out that it would have made far more sense for the Detroit people to instead take that car apart and figure out what made it so successful. That is the approach the people of Japan took. They thought, "If the Americans can build something that is so far beyond anything we have then we need to study what they do and try to do even better." That is an attitude that breeds success. I own four Toyotas; one was made in Indiana and one in Canada.
 
A Toyota (Scion) saved my life...

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One of the best books about the B-29 raids on Japan is entitled "Friendly Monster", which was the call sign the USN used for B-29's passing through their areas. They describe how they once stopped at Iwo Jima to refuel on the way back from one strike on Japan. When you do the math it turns out that from Iwo to Saipan they were doing 350 mph; not too shabby for a huge airplane in 1945!
 
I recall someone buying a Japanese made car and taking it to Detroit so the people there could beat it to pieces in revenge for the success the Japanese vehicles were having in the US market.

Someone pointed out that it would have made far more sense for the Detroit people to instead take that car apart and figure out what made it so successful. That is the approach the people of Japan took. They thought, "If the Americans can build something that is so far beyond anything we have then we need to study what they do and try to do even better." That is an attitude that breeds success. I own four Toyotas; one was made in Indiana and one in Canada.
Not to derail this thread further, but that's what North American did with the Spitfire to create the XP-51F/G/J and P-51H Mustangs, and even the F-82 Twin Mustang (all were designed to similar loadings to what the Spitfire was).
 
If you get a free account on Scribd, you may download a 47 MB file named Resume, 20thAF Missions. It is a summary of all of the missions flown by B-29 Wings from the Marianas Islands during WWII. The reports include the altitudes for the missions flown.
Also on Scirbd, you may download several, but not all, of the detailed mission reports with your free account. Search for user Japan Air Raids.

Sorry to get back on track after discussing the Japanese auto industry. However, you may also know that there is a town in Japan named Usa. In the 50s, they would inscribe Made in USA on their products for sales in the states. Well, that's what I heard, no documented proof.
 

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