Operation Matterhorn

For the 2019 Civil Aviation Authority-initiated operation named "Operation Matterhorn", see Thomas Cook Group § 2019:_Final_year_and_collapse.

Operation Matterhorn
Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II
Locations of B-29 bomber bases in China and the main targets they attacked in East Asia during Operation Matterhorn
Date 1944 Location East Asia and Southeast Asia
Belligerents
United States	Japan
Units involved
XX Bomber Command

Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II for the strategic bombing of Japanese forces by Boeing B-29 Superfortresses based in India and China. Targets included industrial facilities in Japan and Japanese bases in China and Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Matterhorn, a mountain traditionally considered particularly difficult to climb.

Background

B-29 Superfortress

Main article: Boeing B-29 Superfortress

On 29 January 1940, the United States Army Air Corps issued a request to five major aircraft manufacturers to submit designs for a four-engine bomber with a range of 2,000 miles (3,200 km). These designs were evaluated, and on 6 September orders were placed for two experimental models each from Boeing and Consolidated Aircraft. These became the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and the Consolidated B-32 Dominator. These became known as very long range (VLR) bombers. On 17 May 1941, Boeing was ordered to commence the manufacture of the B-29 when ready. Boeing devoted its plants in Renton, Washington and Wichita, Kansas to B-29 production; assemblies would later also be built by the Bell Aircraft Corporation in Marietta, Georgia, and the Glenn L. Martin Company in Omaha, Nebraska. The first prototype XB-29 made its maiden flight on 21 September 1942, but the second prototype crashed on 18 February 1943, killing Boeing test pilot Edmund T. Allen, his 10-man crew, and 20 people on the ground; a firefighter also died fighting the blaze.

Plans

Ostensibly, the B-29 was intended to defend the Western Hemisphere against encroachment by a hostile foreign power, but as early as September 1939, Colonel Carl Spaatz had suggested that it might be used to bomb Japan from bases in Siberia, Luzon or the Aleutian Islands. The Air Corps' first war plan, AWPD-1, issued in September 1941, called for B-29s to bomb Germany from bases in Great Britain and Egypt by 1944. Early war plans did not contemplate bombing Japan until after the war against Germany was won. The idea of basing the Superfortresses in China first surfaced at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In March, the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Major General Laurence S. Kuter, initiated a detailed study of the possibility of using VLR bombers based in China. No other bases within range of Japan were expected to be in Allied hands in 1944.

Support for the effort would have to come through the port of Calcutta, which was estimated to be able to handle the additional 596,000 long tons (606,000 t) per month. From there, supplies would be flown to China in Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers converted to Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transport aircraft. About 200 would be required to support each VLR bomber group, with 2,000 C-87s in operation by October 1944 and 4,000 by May 1945. It was estimated that five missions per group per month could be flown, with 168 group-months being sufficient to destroy all targets in Japan within twelve months. The staff of the China Burma India Theater (CBI) were invited to comment, and they opined that the plan was too optimistic about the logistical challenges involved. On request, the CBI Theater commander, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell submitted an alternative plan drafted by his air commander, Major General George E. Stratemeyer, codenamed "Twilight", that called for more time, a smaller effort, and reduced logistical support. Under this plan, the bombers would be based in the Calcutta area and only staged through Chinese bases for missions. Keeping the ground crews in India would reduce the logistical footprint in China. Stilwell cautioned that the likely Japanese response to any success by the bombers would be a ground offensive to capture the airfields. It was estimated that the first raids on Japan could be mounted as early as April 1944.

Potential bases for the B-29 bombers

In April 1943, the Chief of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), GeneralHenry H. Arnold, set up a special B-29 project under Brigadier General Kenneth B. Wolfe. Wolfe became responsible for preparing, organizing and training B-29 units for combat. By September 1943, he had prepared a plan for operations based on Twilight. His plan was called "Matterhorn"; soon after the Twilight plan was renamed "Drake". The important difference between the plans was that the B-29s would stage through Chengtu in Szechwan province in western Chin rather than at Kweilin in eastern China. This allowed the ground defense to be dispensed with, and the air defenses to be scaled back to two additional fighter groups that would be assigned to the Fourteenth Air Force. Supplies would be stockpiled in China by the B-29s themselves, assisted by the B-24s of Fourteenth Air Force's 308th Bombardment Group. Arnold approved the plan on 12 October. Although Drake still had its advocates, Matterhorn was formally approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Sextant Conference in Cairo on 7 December.

When the British and American Combined Chiefs of Staff had previously met at the First Quebec Conference in August 1943, they had tentatively authorized a Central Pacific drive that included the capture of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, Truk, Palau and the Mariana Islands, the last perhaps in early 1946. In September 1943, the air staff planners began incorporating the Marianas into their plans as a potential base for the B-29s. This was formally approved at Cairo. By January 1944, there was consideration of advancing the Central Pacific timetable by bypassing Truk and heading directly for Palau after the capture of the Marshalls, but senior army and navy officers in the Pacific doubted the utility of basing B-29s in the Marianas due to the limited harbor facilities there. A January 1944 study by the Joint War Plans Committee assessed the Mariana Islands as the best location for the deployment of the B-29s, but in view of the fact that they would not be captured until later in the year, recommended that the first B-29 groups be deployed to the Southwest Pacific Area to attack the petroleum refineries in the Netherlands East Indies or to India and China to attack industrial targets in Japan. In March 1944, the timetable for the Central Pacific advance was revised. Truk was to be bypassed and the Palau operation was postponed until 15 September, after the capture of the southern Mariana Islands, which was now scheduled to commence on 15 June 1944. The new timetable was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 12 March.

Campaign

Advance echelons arrived in India in December 1943 to organize the building of airfields in India and China. Thousands of Indians labored to construct four permanent bases in eastern India around Kharagpur. As well as construction or modification of airfields in Bengal, a fuel pipeline to Calcutta and expansion of the port there was proposed. Meanwhile, 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the northeast, across the Himalayan mountains, about 350,000 Chinese workers toiled to build four staging bases in western China near Chengtu (where Chennault had already developed airfields) and new airfields near Kunming.

The original plan envisioned two combat wings of 150 bombers each, but in April 1944 the second of those wings had not been sufficiently organized, equipped, or trained, and XX Bomber Command was reduced to a single bomb wing, fatally crippling its ability to sustain itself by airlift. By April 1944, the four B-29 groups of the 58th Bombardment Wing were available in Asia, and eight operating bases had become operational.

Operating bases

Group	Assigned to	Forward deployment
40th Bombardment Group	Chakulia Airfield, India	Hsinching Airfield (A-1), China
444th Bombardment Group	Dudhkundi Airfield, India	Kwanghan Airfield (A-3), China
462d Bombardment Group	Piardoba Airfield, India	Kuinglai (Linqiong) Airfield (A-5), China
468th Bombardment Group	Kharagpur, India	Pengshan Airfield (A-7), China

40th Bombardment Group B-29 crossing the Himalaya Mountains "Hump" flying from India to China

To avoid the risk that B-29s might be wasted on the battlefields when they would be much more useful against the Japanese home islands, the Joint Chiefs approved the establishment in April 1944 of the Twentieth Air Force, setting the stage for Operation Matterhorn.

Acting as executive agent for the Joint Chiefs, Arnold named himself the Twentieth's commander, and the AAF Air Staff as also the Air Staff of the Twentieth Air Force. Brig. Gen. Haywood S. Hansell served as chief of staff and de facto commander of the Twentieth after Arnold suffered a heart attack in May. Centralized control of the Superfortresses from Washington marked the recognition of the B-29 as a strategic weapon that transcended theaters and services. That same month, the first Superfortresses arrived in India, having flown across the Atlantic Ocean using the South Atlantic Transport route from Morrison Field, Florida to Natal, Brazil then across to North Africa, then to Arabia, and Persia. Accompanying them was Major General Kenneth B. Wolfe, the designated commander of the XX Bomber Command, which had been reassigned from the Second Air Force as the operational component of the Twentieth Air Force. Although a brilliant officer in research and development, with an excellent knowledge of the B-29, Wolfe had no upper echelon command or operational experience and was thus an unfortunate choice to command the first B-29 operations. The 58th Bomb Wing headquarters also arrived in India during the spring of 1944.

A committee of operations analysts who advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Twentieth Air Force on targets recommended Superfortress attacks on coke ovens and steel factories in Manchuria and Kyūshū. Shutting down these key industries would severely cripple the enemy's war effort. Also on the target list were important enemy harbor facilities and aircraft factories. Wolfe launched the first B–29 Superfortress combat mission on June 5, 1944, against Japanese railroad facilities at Bangkok, Thailand, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away. Of the 98 bombers that took off from India, 77 hit their targets, dropping 368 tons of bombs. Encouraged by the results, XX Bomber Command prepared for the first raids against Japan.

Main article: Bombing of Yawata (June 1944)

Ten days later, sixty-eight Superfortresses took off at night from staging bases at Chengtu to bomb the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata on Kyūshū, more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) away. The June 15, 1944, mission – the first raid on the Japanese home islands since the Doolittle raid of April 1942 – marked the beginning of the strategic bombardment campaign against Japan. Like the Doolittle attack, it achieved little physical destruction. Only forty-seven of the sixty-eight B–29s airborne hit the target area; four aborted with mechanical problems, four crashed, six jettisoned their bombs because of mechanical difficulties, and others bombed secondary targets or targets of opportunity. Only one B–29 was lost to enemy aircraft over the target, while another was strafed and destroyed by Japanese aircraft after making an emergency landing at Neihsiang.

The second full-scale strike did not occur until July 7, 1944. By then, Arnold, impatient with Wolfe's progress, had replaced him temporarily with Brigadier General LaVern G. Saunders, until Major General Curtis E. LeMay could arrive from Europe to assume permanent command. Unfortunately, the three-week delay between the first and second missions reflected serious problems that prevented a sustained strategic bombing campaign from China against Japan. Each B–29 mission consumed tremendous quantities of fuel and bombs, which had to be shuttled from India to the China bases over the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range. For every Superfortress combat mission, the command flew an average of six B–29 round-trip cargo missions over the Hump, using both tactical aircraft and B-29s modified as fuel tankers. When it was immediately apparent that the operation would never be self-sustaining, the Air Transport Command was called upon to support Matterhorn with allocations on its Hump airlift, taken from the allocations to the Fourteenth Air Force already in China. In September 1944 70 C-109s were added to the effort, flown by surplus B-29 crews, but XX Bomber Command, fearful of diversions to other agencies, resisted all attempts to have them operated by ATC. Its transport procedures contradicted those of ATC, however, limiting its efficiency, and beginning in November 1944 its B-29s were withdrawn from the airlift and the C-109s transferred to ATC. With plans already developed to shut down B-29 forward basing in China at the end of January 1945, ATC took over the logistical supply of the bases in China, too late to provide the volume required to stockpile materiel. In the end, 42,000 tons of cargo were delivered over the Hump to XX Bomber Command between April 1944 and January 1945, nearly two-thirds of it by ATC.

Main article: Operation Boomerang

Range presented another problem. Tokyo, in eastern Honshū, lay more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the Chinese staging bases, out of reach of the B–29s. Kyūshū, in southwestern Japan, was the only one of the major home islands within the 1,600 miles (2,600 km) combat radius of the Superfortress. Targets in South East Asia also involved lengthy flights, with the Operation Boomerang raid which was conducted against Palembang on 10/11 August requiring a round trip of 3,855 miles (6,204 km).

The very heavy bomber still suffered mechanical problems that grounded some aircraft and forced others to turn back before dropping their bombs. Even those B–29s that reached the target area often had difficulty in hitting the objective, partly because of extensive cloud cover or high winds. Larger formations could have helped compensate for inaccurate bombing, but Saunders did not have enough B–29s to dispatch large formations. Also, the Twentieth Air Force periodically diverted the Superfortresses from strategic targets to support theater commanders in Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific. For these reasons, the XX Bomber Command and the B–29s largely failed to fulfill their strategic promise.

On August 20, LeMay arrived to breathe new energy into the XX Bomber Command. The former Eighth Air Force group and wing commander had achieved remarkable success with strategic bombing operations in Europe, testing new concepts such as stagger formations, the combat box, and straight-and-level bombing runs. The youngest two-star general in the Army Air Forces had also revised tactics, tightened and expanded formations, and enhanced training for greater bombing precision. He inaugurated a lead-crew training school so that formations could learn to drop as a unit on cue from the aircraft designated as the lead ship.

During his first two months at XX Bomber Command, LeMay had little more success than Wolfe or Saunders. The command continued to average only about one sortie a month per aircraft against Japan's home islands. When Douglas MacArthur invaded the Philippines in October 1944, LeMay diverted his B-29s from bombing Japanese steel facilities to striking enemy aircraft factories and bases in Formosa, Kyūshū, and Manchuria.

Meanwhile, LeMay gained the support of Communist leader Mao Zedong, who controlled parts of northern China. Willing to help against a common enemy, Mao agreed to assist downed American airmen and to locate in northern China a weather station that would provide better forecasts for the XX Bomber Command's raids on the Japanese in Manchuria and Kyūshū. Hoping to gain American recognition of his own regime, Mao suggested that the Americans set up B–29 bases in northern China like those in Chiang Kai-shek's area of control in southern China. LeMay declined, however, because he found it difficult enough to supply the airfields at Chengtu.

Locations of B-29 bomber bases in India and Ceylon and the main targets they attacked in South East Asia

Ichi-Go and the first "fire raid" of Hankow (Wuhan)

Lemay continued to experiment with new technologies and tactics and soon imported to China the incendiary weapons being used by the British against Germany. In late 1944, a Japanese offensive (codenamed Operation Ichi-Go) in China probed toward the B–29 and Air Transport Command bases around Chengdu and Kunming.

To slow the enemy advance, Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault of the Fourteenth Air Force asked for raids on Japanese supplies at Hankow (an area now part of present-day Wuhan), and the Joint Chiefs directed LeMay to hit the city with firebombs. On December 18, LeMay launched the fire raid, sending eighty-four B–29s in at medium altitude with five hundred tons of incendiary bombs. The attack left Hankow burning for three days, proving the effectiveness of incendiary weapons against the predominantly wooden housing stock of the Far East.

By late 1944, American bombers were raiding Japan from the recently captured Marianas, making operations from the vulnerable and logistically impractical China bases unnecessary. In January 1945, the XX Bomber Command abandoned its bases in China and concentrated 58th Bomb Wing resources in India. The transfer signaled the end of Matterhorn. During the same month, LeMay moved to the Marianas, leaving command of the XX Bomber Command in India to Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey. Between January and March, Ramey's B–29s assisted Mountbatten in the South-East Asian theatre, supporting British and Indian ground forces in Burma by targeting rail and port facilities in Indochina, Thailand, and Burma. More distant targets included refineries and airfields in Singapore, Malaya, as well as Palembang and other locations in the Netherlands East Indies. The 58th, the only operational wing of the XX Bomber Command, remained in India until the end of March 1945, when it moved to the Marianas to join the XXI Bomber Command.

XX Bomber Command stopped being an operational command at the end of March 1945 when the 58th Bomb Wing moved from India to the Marianas and control of the wing passed to the XXI Bomber Command.

Combat missions

Combat missions

Mission	Date	Primary target	Groups	Up	Bombed	Lost
1	5 June 1944	Makkasan railway yards, Bangkok, Thailand	40, 444, 462, 468	98	77	5
2	15 June 1944	Yahata Steel Works, Yahata, Fukuoka, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	68	47	7
3	7 July 1944	Sasebo Shipyard, Nagasaki, Japan	444, 468	18	14	0
4	29 July 1944	Showa Steel Works, Anshan, Manchuria	40, 444, 462, 468	96	75	3
5	10 August 1944	Baraban oil refineries, Palembang, Dutch East Indies	444, 468	54	39	2
6	10 August 1944	Nagasaki, Japan	444, 468	29	24	1
7	20 August 1944	Yahata Steel Works, Yahata, Fukuoka, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	88	71	14
8	8 September 1944	Showa Steel Works, Anshan, Manchuria	40, 444, 462, 468	88	72	3
9	26 September 1944	Showa Steel Works, Anshan, Manchuria	40, 444, 462, 468	109	83	0
10	14 October 1944	Takao Naval Air Station, Okayama, Formosa	40, 444, 462, 468	131	106	2
11	16 October 1944	Okayama, Formosa	444, 462	49	38	0
11	16 October 1944	Heito, Formosa	468	24	20
12	17 October 1944	Einansho Airfield, Tainan, Formosa	40	30	10	0
13	25 October 1944	Omura, Nagasaki, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	75	58	0
14	3 November 1944	Malegon Railway Yards, Rangoon, Burma	40, 444, 462, 468	50	44	1
15	5 November 1944	Singapore	40, 444, 462, 468	74	53	3
16	5 November 1944	Omura Aircraft Factory, Nagasaki, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	93	29	2
17	11 November 1944	Omura Aircraft Factory, Nagasaki, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	96	63	2
18	27 November 1944	Bangkok, Thailand	40, 444, 462, 468	60	55	3
19	7 December 1944	Manchuria Aviation Company, Mukden, Manchuria	40, 444, 462, 468	70	40	9
20	14 December 1944	Rama VI Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand	40, 444, 462, 468	45	33	1
21	18 December 1944	Hankow, China	40, 444, 462, 468	94	85	6
22	19 December 1944	Omura, Nagasaki, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	36	17	5
23	21 December 1944	Manchuria Aviation Company, Mukden, Manchuria	40, 444, 462, 468	55	40	0
24	2 January 1945	Rama VI Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand	40, 444, 462, 468	49	44	2
25	6 January 1945	Omura, Nagasaki, Japan	40, 444, 462, 468	48	29	2
26	9 January 1945	Formosa	40, 444, 462, 468	46	40	0
27	11 January 1945	Floating Dry Dock and King George VI Graving Dock, Singapore	40, 444, 462, 468	43	27	0
28	14 January 1945	Kagi Airfield, Chiayi County, Formosa	40, 444, 462, 468	82	54	0
29	17 January 1945	Shinchiku, Formosa	40, 444, 462, 468	90	78	2
30	25 January 1945	Mine-laying, Indochina area	462	26	25	0
31	25 January 1945	Mine-laying, Singapore area	444, 462	45	41	1
32	27 January 1945	Saigon Naval Shipyard	40	25	22	0
33	1 February 1945	Floating Dry Dock	40, 444, 462, 468	104	78	0
34	7 February 1945	Saigon Naval Shipyard	444, 462	66	44	0
34	7 February 1945	Phnom Penh, Indochina	444, 462		17	0
35	7 February 1945	Rama VI Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand	40, 468	60	59	2
36	11 February 1945	Rangoon, Burma	40, 444, 462, 468	60	56	1
37	19 February 1945	Kuala Lumpur, Malaya	444, 468	58	48	0
38	24 February 1945	Empire Dock, Singapore	40, 444, 462, 468	117	105	0
40	24 February 1945	Mine-laying, Johore Strait area	444	12	10	0
41	2 March 1945	Singapore Naval Base	40, 444, 462, 468	62	48	1
39	4 March 1945	Mine-laying, Yangtze River, China	468	30	24	0
43	10 March 1945	Railway yards, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya	468	29	23	0
42	12 March 1945	Samboe Island oil storage, Singapore	40	15	11	0
42	12 March 1945	Bukum Island oil storage, Singapore	444	30	21	0
42	12 March 1945	Sebarok Island oil storage, Singapore	462	15	11	0
44	17 March 1945	Rangoon, Burma	40, 468	39	39	0
45	22 March 1945	Rangoon, Burma	444, 462	30	28	0
45	22 March 1945	Mingaladon railway station, Rangoon, Burma	468	10	10	0
46	28 March 1945	Mine-laying, Yangtze River, China	468	10	10	0
47	28 March 1945	Mine-laying, Saigon area and Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina	468	18	16	0
48	28 March 1945	Mine-laying, Johore Strait and Riau Strait, Malaya	444	33	32	0
49	29 March 1945	Bukum Island oil storage, Singapore	40, 462	26	24	0

Assessment

The American Bomber Summary Survey states that "Approximately 800 tons of bombs were dropped by China-based B-29s on Japanese home island targets from June 1944 to January 1945. These raids were of insufficient weight and accuracy to produce significant results." XX Bomber Command had failed to achieve the strategic objectives that the planners had intended for Operation Matterhorn, largely because of logistical problems, the bomber's mechanical difficulties, the vulnerability of Chinese staging bases (see Operation Ichi-Go), and the extreme range required to reach key Japanese cities. Although the B–29s achieved some success when diverted to support Chiang Kai-shek's forces in China, MacArthur's offensives in the Philippines, and Mountbatten's efforts in the Burma Campaign, they generally accomplished little more than the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators assigned to the Fourteenth, Fifth, Thirteenth, and Tenth Air Forces.

Chennault considered the Twentieth Air Force a liability and thought that its supplies of fuel and bombs could have been more profitably used by his Fourteenth Air Force. The XX Bomber Command consumed almost 15 percent of the Hump airlift tonnage per month during Matterhorn. Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, who replaced Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell as American senior commander in the China theater, agreed with Chennault. The two were happy to see the B–29s leave China and India. Yet, despite those objections, Matterhorn did benefit the Allied effort. Using the China bases bolstered Chinese morale and, more important, it allowed the strategic bombing of Japan to begin six months before bases were available in the Marianas. The Matterhorn raids against the Japanese home islands also demonstrated the B–29's effectiveness against Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft artillery. Operations from the Marianas would profit from the streamlined organization and improved tactics developed on the Asian mainland.

Command structure

General Arnold retained personal command of the Twentieth Air Force – to avoid diversion of assets from the B-29 effort against Japan, particularly by Admiral Nimitz, who was given command authority over all efforts in the Central Pacific – with Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell as chief of staff (and later commander of XXI Bomber Command). Tentative plans called for an operational force of 48 B-29 groups, numbering between 1,000 and 1,500 B-29s, to be deployed in four bomber commands (the XX BC of 4 groups in India-China, the XXI BC of 16 groups in the Marianas, the XXII BC of 24 groups in the Philippines and Okinawa, and the XXIII BC of 4 groups in the Aleutians).

Original plans for XX Bomber Command to employ two combat wings in China (the 58th and 73rd Combat Bomb Wings) were changed on 2 March 1944 when limited numbers of operational B-29s resulted in only the 58th CBW assigned. There, after poor bombing results, and as developing operations deemed the original complex organization unnecessary, it was deemed a redundant level of command and its four groups moved to Guam in April 1945 as part of XXI Bomber Command.

The bases in China were part of the China Burma India Theater of World War II for administrative purposes. The commander of the XX Bomber Command had no control over stations, bases, units, and personnel not directly assigned to him, and none over shipping and other logistic support essential to the operation. However the Commander-in-Chief of the XX Bomber Command reported directly to the JCS in Washington and was not under SEAC operational control like the rest of the personnel in the CBI.

Operational Command Structure

General Henry "Hap" Arnold named himself the commander of the Twentieth Air Force. Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell became Twentieth Air Force chief of staff. The subordinate commanders of XX Bomber Command were:

• Major General Kenneth B. Wolfe
• Brigadier General LaVerne G. Saunders
• Major General Curtis E. LeMay
• Brigadier General Roger M. Ramey

References

• Bell, Raymond E. Jr. (Fall 2014). "With Hammers & Wicker Baskets: The Construction of U.S. Army Airfields in China during World War II". Army History (93): 30–54. ISSN 1546-5330. JSTOR 10.2307/26300287.
• Cate, James (1953). "The Twentieth Air Force and Matterhorn". In Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James (eds.). The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945 (PDF). The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. V. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
• Haulman, Daniel L. (1999). Hitting Home: The Air Offensive Against Japan (PDF). The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II. Air Force History and Museums Program. OCLC 1101033871. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
• Hayes, Grace Person (1982). The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II: The War Against Japan. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-269-7. OCLC 7795125.
• Mann, Robert A. (2004). The B-29 Superfortress: A Comprehensive Registry of the Planes and Their Missions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1787-0. OCLC 55962447.
• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
• Mays, Terry M. (2016). Matterhorn: The Operational History of the US XX Bomber Command from India and China: 1944-1945. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military. ISBN 978-0-7643-5074-0. OCLC 927401983.
• United States (1968). The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943. Foreign Relations of the United States. Washington, D. C.: US Government Printing Office. OCLC 213502760. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
• United States (1970). The Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943. Foreign Relations of the United States. Washington, D. C.: US Government Printing Office. OCLC 213773675. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
• United States (1961). The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943. Foreign Relations of the United States. Washington, D. C.: US Government Printing Office. OCLC 394877. Retrieved 1 July 2023.

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps51153/airforcehistory/usaaf/ww2/hittinghome/index.htm
  • Chapter 4: The Superfortress Takes to the Skies
  • Chapter 5: Over the Hump to Matterhorn

Further reading

• Cline, Ray S. (1990) [1951]. Washington Command Post: The Operations Division (PDF). United States Army in World War II. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 1-2.

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20050311211933/http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/hittinghome/hittinghomepg5.htm
• http://historynet.com/ahi/bloperationmatterhorn/index.html Archived 2006-05-26 at the Wayback Machine