Tokyo 1944–45: The destruction of Imperial Japan's capital

The US Army Air Force and the US Navy launched a ten-month long campaign against Tokyo in 1944, including the single deadliest air raid in human history. This book examines the campaign's development from daylight bombing to firebombing and anti-ship mining, and how the target was handed over to the US Navy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The full history of how the United States targeted and destroyed the Japanese capital from the air, in a ten-month long campaign by the US Army Air Force and the US Navy. In November 1944, the US Army Air Force launched a 111-plane B-29 strike against Tokyo, the first raid since the morale-boosting Doolittle Raid of 1942. From then until August 13, 1945, the United States would attack Tokyo 25 times, 20 from B-29s based in the Marianas and five from US Navy carrier task forces. The campaign included the single deadliest air raid in human history, when around 100,000 people were killed by the firestorm created by the Operation Meetinghouse raid of March 10, 1945. This book, the first to examine the full history of the United States air campaign against the greatest target in Japan, looks at the USAAFs and US Navys efforts to use air power to eliminate Tokyos strategic value to the Empire. It considers how the campaign developed from daylight bombing to firebombing and anti-ship mining, and finally how the target was handed over to the US Navy, whose carrier-based bombers and fighter-bombers continued to strike Tokyo during July and August 1945. Using specially commissioned battlescenes, strategic maps and diagrams, this volume presents a detailed picture of how Tokyo was vanquished from the air.

Weight: 306g
Dimension: 248 x 185 x 8 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472860354