page_title: Eleventh Air Force
section_title: Operations against Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Eleventh Air Force / History / Operations against Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: B-24 Raid on Paramushiru Island - Japan - 18 August 1943
context_page_description: The Eleventh Air Force is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces. It is headquartered at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska.
  11 AF plans, conducts, controls and coordinates air operations in accordance with the tasks assigned by the commander, Pacific Air Forces, and is the force provider for Alaskan Command, the Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and other unified commanders. The Commander, Eleventh Air Force, also serves as Commander, Alaskan Command, and as commander of the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region. The NORAD mission is accomplished largely through the PACAF Regional Support Center, the 611th Air and Space Operations Center, and units of the Alaska Air National Guard. Together, they carry out air surveillance, and command and control forces that provide tactical warning and attack assessment in defense of Alaska.
  Established on 28 December 1941 as the Alaskan Air Force at Elmendorf Field, Alaska Territory. it was initially part of the United States Army Air Forces. It provided air defense of Alaska during World War II and fought in the Aleutian Islands Campaign.
context_section_description: More than a month before the unopposed landing on Kiska, the Eleventh Air Force began a new phase of operations against the Japanese. On 10 July 1943, six Eleventh Air Force B-25 Mitchells made the long flight to Paramushiru Island in the Kuriles and made the first direct attack on the Japanese home islands since the famous Doolittle raid in April 1942.  From Alexai Point AAF on Attu, eight Mitchells of the 77th Bomb Squadron. (28th BG) struck Paramushiro bases principally. All returned safely.
  A week later, B-24 Liberator heavy bombers from Attu bombed the Kuriles and secured pictures of the Japanese installations, the first pictures taken of northern Japan home-island defenses.  The next Kurile raid, carried out on 11 August, was a diversionary raid prior to the landings on Kiska. On this mission, the first plane was lost over the Kuriles and Lieutenant James C. Pottenger and his crew made a forced landing in Russia.
  These operations led to a joint mission on 11 September 1943, when Eleventh Air Force dispatched eight B-24 Liberators and 12 B-25s. However the Japanese were alert and reinforced their defenses. 74 crew members in three B-24s and seven B-25 failed to return. Twenty two men were killed in action, one taken prisoner and 51 interned in Kamchatka, Russia.  It had proven that the Kurile Islands could be attacked, but new methods had to be devised as the raid lost Eleventh Air Force over half its offensive striking power.  No more combat missions were flown in 1943.
  Several changes took place following the occupation of Kiska. The Eleventh Air Force became a component of Task Force "Y", still under Navy jurisdiction. Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher was named ComNorPac and Major General Davenport Johnson relieved General Butler as commander of the Eleventh Air Force.  One of General Johnson's first acts was the establishment of the Eleventh Air Force Instrument flying school and the promotion of an intensive training program in navigation and instrument flying, as well as the accelerated development of radio and navigation aids in the Aleutian Islands. Because of the tremendous advances brought about by intensive instrument training and the increased aids to navigation and radio, planes that used to be grounded by weather, were now flying regular schedules. Troop Carrier Command and Air Transport Command planes were operating in the Aleutian Islands with airline regularity.
  In November 1943 a second airfield, Casco Cove Army Airfield was constructed on Attu for long-range bombing operations.
  Eleventh Air Force carried out another bombing mission against northern Kurils on 5 February 1944, when it attacked with six B-24s from the 404th Bomb Sqdn. (28th BG) and 16 P-38s from the 54th Fighter Sqdn. (343d FG).  March 1944 saw Eleventh Air Force bombers over the Kuriles on daylight armed reconnaissance missions. Not many, but a sufficient number to convince the Japanese that there were aircraft in the Aleutian Islands and that the Kuriles were in constant danger of air attack. During the crucial period, while other United States forces were advancing in the South Pacific, the Japanese were forced to keep much-needed aircraft, in the Kuriles and Hokkaido as defense against possible attack from the North.
  Operations against Northern Japan became the new mission of the Eleventh Air Force, and it was being successfully carried out. Except for July 1944, when the weather was especially bad, each month of 1944 showed a steady increase in operations against the Kuriles.  Each month's record showed planes turned back short of their targets, weather again protecting the Japanese. Often, too, B-24 Liberator bomb loads were dropped through the undercast by aid of the newly installed radar bombing equipment, a far cry from the timed runs made on the Kiska main camp area using the Kiska volcano as an initial point when the target was closed in. The record month, June 1945, for the Eleventh Air Force showed a record number of tons of bombs dropped.
  The B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, too, were playing their part in operations again
caption: B-24 Liberators of the 404th Bombardment Squadron conducting a raid on Paramushiru Island, Japan, 18 August 1943
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