April 18, 1942
Doolittle Raid on Japan led by Lieutenant Colonel
J. H. Doolittle, USA, are the first attack on the Japanese homeland are made
at sea 668 miles from Tokyo. 16 B-25's launched from the aircraft carrier USS
Hornet (CV-8) carry out the first AAF attack on the Japanese mainland. 15 of the B-25's bomb in Japan, the principal targets being Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama,
and Nagoya. Since the bombers had to be launched earlier than scheduled they
are unable to reach planned bases in China and have to be crashlanded or abandoned,
15 in China and the other in USSR.
November 29, 1944
2 B-29s bomb Yokohama on the night of 29/30.
May 29, 1945
Mission 186: 454 B-29s, escorted by 101 P-51s
from the VII Fighter Command for the first time on a fire-bomb raid, bomb Yokohama
with incendiaries and destroy the main business district (a third of the city's
area) along the waterfront; the burned out area of Yokohama now amounts to almost
9 square miles; about 150 Japanese fighters attack the formations;
the B-29s claim 6 fighters and the P-51s claim 26-9-23: 7 B-29s and 3 P-51s
are lost.
