World: Faster & Faster

The planes came from carriers, from Iwo, from the Marianas—and their targets were the home islands of Japan. They were torpedo planes, dive bombers, at least three varieties of fighters and the great B-29 Superforts. They struck in daylight and at night from all directions and they hit with everything—six-pound jellied-gasoline fire bombs, high-explosive factory busters and rockets. The tempo grew faster & faster. Latest scores:

¶ U.S. carriers, standing off Kyushu, attacked for three days, raked 19 airfields, destroyed or damaged 284 Japanese planes, bombed railroad lines, storage dumps. U.S. losses: ten planes, one major fleet unit damaged.

¶ B-29 fire raids on Nagoya tore a great swath through the center of Japan’s third largest city and major aircraft production center. Two raids by more than 500 bombers each burned out nearly one-fourth of the city, hit the Mitsubishi Aircraft works (world’s largest in area) and some 30 other military targets. At week’s end B-29s turned on Hamamatsu, 60 miles southeast of Nagoya, to bomb more factories.

¶ Since Pearl Harbor Japan has lost more than 21,170 planes.