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Text originally published in 2002 under the same title.
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NO QUARTER GIVEN: THE CHANGE IN STRATEGIC BOMBING APPLICATION IN THE PACIFIC THEATER DURING WORLD WAR II
By
MAJOR JOHN M. CURATOLA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
ABSTRACT
European airpower theorists of the 1920s and 30s envisioned the deliberate bombing of civilians in order to affect an enemy nations wartime production capabilities and national morale. However, American proponents of airpower were more exacting in their approach to the use of the airplane. The US Army Air Corps developed the idea of precision bombing as a means to destroy an enemys ability to prosecute war through the targeting of only an enemys means of production and state infrastructure while avoiding civilian casualties.
World War II provided the US Army Air Force (USAAF) the opportunity to prove the effectiveness of this theory. However, as the war progressed, the USAAF targeted not just centers of production, but political targets as well as civilian populations. Thus, USAAF bombing came to resemble the type of application that was initially proffered by European theorists. Large-scale bombing of cities and populations became the mode of operation for the USAAF in the Pacific. Despite its policies and doctrine, the USAAF deliberately bombed civilian populations in conjunction with the Japanese means of production. Why did this targeting change take place? How did the USAAF eventually come to conduct indiscriminate area bombing of civilians despite the perception that it was contrary to our national mores?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank my parents, Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Carl Curatola USAF (Ret.) who gave me life, love, and the ability to stand on my own two feet. Additionally to my wife Deb, and daughters Jenny and Katie, who provide me with an infinite amount of patience and support to all of my endeavors.
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ACTSAir Corps Tactical School
AWPDAir War Planning Document
CBIChina, Burma, India
CBOCombined Bombing Offensive
COACommittee for Operational Analysis
CWSChemical Warfare Service
ETOEuropean Theater of Operations
HEHigh Explosive
RAFRoyal Air Force
USSBSUnited States Strategic Bombing Survey
USAAFUnited States Army Air Force
USSTAFUnited States Strategic Air Forces
VEVictory Europe
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.H2X Radar Set
2.Japanese Winter Weather Pattern
3.Japanese Summer Weather Pattern
4.APQ-13 Radar Return of Osaka
5.M69 Incendiary Bomb
6.Comparison of B-29 to B-17
7.B-29 Climb Control Chart
8.Excerpt from Leatherneck Magazine
9.20th Air Force Organizational Chart
LIST OF TABLE
1.Area Destroyed by 20th Air Force
PART I: BEGINNINGS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
While there have been a number of military aviation developments during the twentieth century, World War II was arguably the single most important event leading up to the formulation and development of contemporary military aviation. Paramount to the aviation events occurring during World War II was Americas strategic bombing campaign against the Axis nations. For three years, the United States Army Air Force (USAAF), in conjunction with its British allies, conducted an exhaustive and expansive effort to defeat the Axis nations by strategically bombing their war-making and industrial capacities. This air assault forever changed the way the world viewed airpower and created an entirely new dimension in the execution of war.
While conducting this bombing campaign, the USAAF professed an adherence to a doctrine that was uniquely American--precision daylight bombing. This doctrine was based upon the premise that a sufficiently defended bomber, in daylight, can conduct a precision attack on an enemys war-making production and industrial capabilities. This doctrine, which emerged from the U.S. Armys Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) in the 1930s, envisioned that bombers would fight their way to the industrial and administrative centers of the enemy and destroy the means of making war, thereby avoiding a long and bloody campaign aimed at defeating the hostile army. {1}
While this doctrine was the initial premise for the American bombing effort, as the war progressed it became apparent that the USAAF had strayed from its professed doctrine of precision bombing. By the end of the war in 1945, and concluding with the dropping of the atomic bomb, it was obvious that the USAAF had transitioned from high altitude precision bombing to practicing low level area and fire-bombing against entire population centers. This area bombing effort stood in stark contrast to the beliefs of the American men who first developed the idea of precision bombing. Ironically, many of the men who designed the American concept in the 1930s were the same ones who lay waste the German and Japanese cities in the 1940s.
How a nation conducts war is often a reflection of the societal values it holds. America has long been a nation that prides itself on a sense of fair play and moral virtue. However, given Americas military history, this pride may or may not be justified. Regardless of its validity, this professed allegiance to a sense of fair play and morality is a perception most Americans have about their nation and the way in which it prosecutes Despite Americas self-professed moral proclivity, area and fire-bombing civilians eventually became the mode of operation for the American bombing campaign. The shift in American bombing applications originally began in the European theater of operations (ETO) and reached its culmination in the Pacific theater against the Japanese. In the ETO the change in American bombing application appeared to occur gradually and over a considerable period of time. While the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) in Europe certainly did conduct area bombing on German populations during the later months of the war, it had initially attempted to execute precision bombing in accordance with prescribed methods. The reasons for this change in bombing application by both the 8th and 15th Air Forces were many and were unique to that theater of operations.
