1944 Battle of Kansas

[Music] foreign [Music] the year 1944 represented a turning point in the second world war when battles in places like Stalingrad Monte Casino Normandy Saipan pelalu and Leyte became seared into the memories of a world at war but another battle thought that year was nearly forgotten between February and March 1944 the United States Army Air Forces fought a desperate struggle in some of the most extreme conditions of the second world war and while that battle was different than those others it was perhaps as important as any of them the 1944 battle of Kansas deserves to be remembered the war in the Pacific was quite different than the war fought in Europe among the differences were the vast distances involved requiring different technology the initial idea was grounded in the thinking that had been derived from the war in Europe array ortenzi of the United States Air Force material command history office wrote on the webpage of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 2018. during the late 1930s hemispheric defense was a popular phrase when the war in Europe began to arouse public opinion in the United States to the dangers of axis aggression the hemispheric defense was the entire Western half of the Atlantic Ocean that President Franklin D Roosevelt had declared part of the Western Hemisphere and thus neutral with the U.S Navy patrolling the area to disclose locations of German submarines to the British however here in Dayton Ohio at right field a young Captain with material command Donald putt interpreted the phrase hemispheric defense in aggressive terms by drawing up a statement of military characteristics which envisioned a bombardment airplane with greater bomb capacity and longer range than any airplane ever conceived before impressed by the German use of strategic bombing over Britain President Roosevelt perceived the need to rapidly build up the United States strategic bombing Force requesting and a message to Congress on 12 January 1939 the enormous sum of 300 million dollars to build up the U.S bomber Force her tenzie continues at the recommendation from Secretary of War Henry stimpson Hap Arnold on 5 May 1939 established the Kilner board named after Brigadier General Walter Kilner to make recommendations for future development and procurement programs the board returned in June recommending aircraft and equipment to be acquired by 1944 which included a very long range heavy bomber in a 1999 monograph written for the school of advanced military studies of the United States Army command and general staff College Air Force Major Gerald s Gorman explained the specific challenge in terms of strategic bombers with its unique silhouette four big engines impressive defensive armaments a range of over 2 000 miles an average speed of 233 miles per hour the B-17 Flying Fortress became perhaps the most famous airplane in the history of the Air corps but even the improved performance characteristics of the B-17 and other bombers like the Consolidated B-24 Liberator were inadequate for the operational demands of the Pacific Theater what was needed instead was a very long-range bomber that could exceed 3 000 miles in range with a significantly larger payload consequently the Army Air corps issued a specification for a new super bomber in December 1939 design proposals were submitted in 1940 by manufacturers Consolidated Lockheed and Douglas but the design that quickly impressed the Air corps was the proposal by Boeing called the XB 29 by May of 1941 the Air Force had made an initial production order of 250 aircraft major Gorman explains the significance of the super bomber the B-29 was on The Cutting Edge of aircraft technology when first flown in 1942 twice as heavy as the B-17 with a crew of 11 men the B-29 could carry a 20 000 pound bomb load a distance of over 3000 miles at a speed 30 percent faster than the B-17 Air and Space forces magazine writes that Boeing created the ultimate World War II bomber the Air corps ordered more than 1500 of them before the first one flew the advantages and challenges that the B-29 were vast the largest engines available at the time of the aircraft's development pressurization of large crew areas allowing high altitude flight Advanced targeting radar the northern bomb side allowing Precision delivery of Munitions On Target and remote control defensive Gunnery that Gorman describes as in a class all its own and that justifies the name super Fortress but the major notes the advanced features of the B-29 taxed the limits of American aircraft industry it was in fact so Advanced that designers at Boeing themselves were uncomfortable with the aircraft feeling that they were going too far forward in the technological unknown writing in his 1988 book super Fortress the story of the B-29 in American Air power General Curtis LeMay noted the logistic problems inherit in producing a plane as complex as the B-29 would have been monstrous under the best of conditions but the b-29s had to be produced quickly and this led to their starting to roll off the assembly line before all the engineering changes were made in his 1963 book the B-29 story Arthur Gene Gurney writes that in the summer of 1943 some industry leaders were urging that the b-29b discontinued because of the serious defects that were showing up these obstacles ran into the exigencies of War air and space forces magazine wrote in 2012. President Roosevelt was concerned that China hard-pressed by the Japanese since 1937 might drop out of the war at the Cairo conference in November 1943 he pledged his word to General lisimo Chang kaishek the b-29s based in China would bomb Japan by the spring of 1944. this was an imperative as the magazine notes the B-29 was needed to keep China in the war until Japan was brought to its knees major Gorman explains the first call for strategic bombing operations in the Pacific came as a result of the Casablanca Conference of January 1943 as a remedy for the desperate position of the Chinese government and the inability of the Allies to administer help in any other way in August 1943 the air War plans division prepared a plan for b-29s operating from rear bases in India and forward bases in China against Japanese lines of communication and Japan proper to conduct this campaign the JCS created an entirely new organization the 20th Air Force Under the command of Commanding General Army Air Force Henry Hap Arnold General Lemay noted the timeline to meet the promises made to Shanghai Shack the first combat-ready b-29s would have to be flying out of Smoky Hill Army Air Force Base in Salina Kansas on March 10 1944 and so the Allies had a plan for the Strategic bombing of Japan that had a critical timeline that was essential to the survival of a desperate Ally and yet that entire plan depended upon the B-29 and not one single B-29 that had been delivered was yet combat ready ortan's Right Said in January 1944 of the 97 aircraft that came off the production line only 16 were serviceable Lemay continues there were 54 major modifications that had to be made to every B-29 that came off the line in 1944 the areas affected included the electrical system the Fire Control System the propeller Feathering system the tires and of course the engines the most complex part of an incredibly complex aircraft these changes would have to be made on the flight line and the necessary parts were spread out in sub-assembly factories all over the country the problem was not merely theoretical Lemay explains that General Henry Hap Arnold chief of the United States Army Air Forces flew into Smoky Hill on March 8th when Arnold inquired how many b-29s would be ready to leave for India on March 10th he was told none he was livid or tens Right Said during the visit he found the production in a shambles void of organization management and Leadership with individuals unclear were missing parts and Equipment were located the aviation history website Tails Through Time explains that all the available flying b-29s were being used for crew trading and as such and many of them weren't even fitted with the defensive gun system let alone any of the other systems necessary for combat even worse there was a shortage of qualified B-29 mechanics to get any aircraft combat ready the May concludes I was appalled at what I found Arnold said later there were shortages in all kinds of classes of equipment the engines were not fitted with the latest gadgets the planes were not ready to go it would be impossible for them to be anywhere near China by the 15th of April unless some drastic measures were taken the Saturday evening post reported on August 25th 1945 that Arnold then exploded a string of impossible orders that set phones jangling all over the country Gurney writes that phones began to ring all over the country what's the dope Arnold wants every part required to complete modification no not next month tomorrow tomorrow morning the Kansas historical quarterly explained in November 1945 so began an uproar famed as the Salina Blitz or the battle of Kansas Arnold put his own Deputy Major General Bennett e Myers in charge of the battle or tens notes that contractors and subcontractors were directed to stop everything and get missing aircraft Parts flown immediately into the bases in Kansas the mayor writes that Meyer spent the next five weeks on the telephone begging threatening and sweet talking the firms in many of which he owned stock whose cooperation with the difference between success and failure Benny Myers demanded and the vast archipelago of suppliers responded Gurney writes that Myers asked for no paperwork except simple notes about were completed and hours were to be as long as a man could stand on his feet the last plane was to be ready to leave no later than April 15th armored and fully equipped the Kansas Historical Society continues overnight Kansas swarmed with tough kernels GI mechanics win from a dozen states and Boeing sent 600 civilian experts from the Wichita plant Lemay explains that for Hap Arnold the Battle of Kansas was no clever euphemism applied to a logistical setback it was Stalingrad it was a battle that could not be lost the task was enormous for many reasons one being that few hangars were large enough to accommodate the massive bombers much of the work had to be done outside here in space forces magazine writes most of the workforce had been battling the long Kansas winter for months working outside with temperatures hovering between two below zero to 20 degrees Fahrenheit even as spring approach to March the weather continued to hamper the work effort with large snowfalls often the cold was so severe that workers could work no longer than 20 minutes at a stretch before going to warm up it one of the small gasoline heaters studying the flight line the Senate eating post wrote that they worked outdoors in a Winfred Gale hangers were scarce the wind hissed with sleet loose cowling flapped and clattered and sailed away gasoline heaters were flown in and every shivering man was issued a high altitude flying suit the Kansas Historical Society writes that delicate Fire Control mechanisms were delivered to waiting b-29s in softsprung ambulances spare engines were hoisted into bombays and when B-29 was ready and then another Gurney writes that General Myers was constantly on the phone calling Chicago Oklahoma City New York Air transport command planes were arriving at a steady stream delivering parts for the b-29s Tales Through Time Right Said 24 hours a day seven days a week for 35 straight days the first group of b-29s were ready for combat and some of the most atrocious Winters in Kansas history by the end of the month the Battle of Kansas was one or attends notes that the pelmel project finally turned around under General Myers and in late March the first B-29 was turned over the 20th bomber command and departed for India with roughly 150 planes departing for the China Burma India theater by the end of April and then moving into China after the battle of Kansas the B-29 continued to suffer from various problems including engine overheating initial raids that came from bases in India and China did so little damage that Japan determined that the cost of the program to the Americans had exceeded the plane's strategic value but as the war in the Pacific progressed an America captured bases that were closer to Japan the Army Air Forces were able to supply larger numbers of bombers and as general Lemay shifted the strategy from high-level Precision bombing to low-level firebombing the value of the B-29 became clear Air and Space forces magazine writes that under lemay's leadership the B-29 came to symbolize air power General Thomas S power commander of the U.S Air Force Strategic Air Command remarked in 1963 throughout the history of warfare some weapon or device usually has been credited with a more decisive role than achieving Victory than most other factors if such a role can be attributed to any particular weapon system in helping to win the war in the Pacific it was the B-29 of course it was b-29s that dropped the atomic bombs that are largely credited with ending the war ironically the B-29 program which cost some three billion dollars for development and production the most expensive program of the war dwarfed the cost of the 1.9 billion dollar Manhattan project that built the bombs that they dropped the B-29 continued to be important in American bomber strategic forces after the war wasn't officially retired from the United States Air Force until 1960 but all of that might have been abandoned were it not for a lonely forgotten battle fought in America's Heartland General Lemay concluded the Battle of Kansas was typical of a number of efforts that Americans made at home and abroad during World War II when the chips were really down the work went on night and day I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguideguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 315,441

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: fp1t4OT_QG4

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023