This second volume on US Air Power covers the bomber force of the USAAF and later USAF. In with this is the formation of Strategic Air Command (SAC) which actually came into existence prior to the USAF. The US finished WWII with probably the largest strategic bomber force on the planet. Though many of its aircraft (B-17s and B-24s) were nearing obsolescence, The air force had a decent number of B-29 with the improved B-50 and even larger B-36 in the pipeline. They also had the atomic bomb.

To put that into context, after the second bomb was dropped on Japan, there were none left. These devices took a very long time to build and were not really as efficient as one would think. Of the two types dropped, that actual amount of material that was used in the explosion was less than 15%. As horrific as the atomic bombs were, it was the firebombing of Japanese cities that caused the greatest amount of devastation.

Convinced that it was the bomber that actually won the war, the air force went into high gear, pushing this type of aircraft when it came to asking for money from congress. We know now that bombers were not as important to the capitulation of Germany and Japan as was thought, but decades of propaganda to that conclusion caused the air force to follow that line of reasoning for many years.

January 2025

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