page_title: 30th Bombardment Squadron
section_title: B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan
hierarchical_section_title: 30th Bombardment Squadron / History / World War II / B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: 19th Bombardment Group B-29 Superfortresses 1945
context_page_description: The 30th Bombardment Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. On 19 September 1985 it was consolidated with the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, also known as the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. The squadron was first activated in 1917 when the United States entered World War I as the 30th Aero Squadron. It deployed to France in the fall of 1917 and served as a construction unit throughout the war, returning to the United States at the end of 1918 for demobilization. It was reconstituted as the 30th Bombardment Squadron in March 1923 and served with reserve personnel during the decade. In 1932, the squadron became a regular unit, serving at bases in California.
  The squadron, which had equipped with early models of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, deployed to the Philippines in the fall of 1941 to reinforce the American garrison there. The squadron's base at Clark Field was attacked on 8 December 1941. During the month of December, the squadron withdrew through the Philippines to Darwin, Australia, although it continued to stage through Philippine bases through the spring of 1942.
context_section_description: The squadron arrived at its new base at Pocatello Army Air Field, Idaho, where it became a B-17 Replacement Training Unit (RTU).  The RTU was an oversized unit to train individual pilots and aircrews for combat units. The squadron continued its training mission when it moved to Pyote Army Air Base, Texas in January 1943.  However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units, which were organized based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not proving well adapted to the training mission.  Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. The squadron was inactivated on 1 April 1944 and its assets and those of other units at Pyote were transferred to the 236th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Unit, Bombardment), which was organized the same day.
  The squadron was activated with new personnel at Great Bend Army Air Field, Kansas the same day it was inactivated at Pyote.  At Great Bend, the squadron began training as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment squadron.  It completed training by the end of the year and deployed to North Field, Guam, arriving in January 1945.  The squadron flew its first combat mission on 12 February 1945 against a Japanese airfield on Rota and began participating in the strategic bombing campaign against Japan with a mission to Tokyo on 25 February.
  The squadron initially conducted high altitude daylight raids against strategic targets in Japan such as aircraft factories, chemical plants, and oil refineries. The results of high altitude B-29 raids on Japan, however, were disappointing.  More than a month after a raid on 19 January 1945, no mission had been able to bomb visually, and radar bombing results were unsatisfactory.  Low altitude night area attacks with incendiaries promised better results, and the squadron began the switch with the launch of a raid against Tokyo on 9 March 1945. On 11 March, the squadron attacked Nagoya.  Six high altitude raids on aircraft production facilities there had failed to inflict significant damage.  Although no aircraft factories were taken out of production by this attack, the Aichi plant was damaged enough to reduce its production. A raid on Osaka followed on 13 March.  Cloud cover forced the squadron to use radar bombing, but over 100 manufacturing facilities were destroyed in the raid. Kobe was attacked on the 13th and a return to Nagoya occurred on the 19th. Its participation in these raids earned the squadron another DUC. The squadron earned another DUC for a low altitude daylight attack against Kobe on 5 June, which was heavily opposed by Japanese fighters.  This attack eliminated Kobe as a target for future incendiary attacks.
  During April and May 1945, the squadron was diverted from the strategic campaign against Japan to support Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa.  It struck air bases from which kamikaze attacks were being launched.  Many of these bases were located on Kyushu, only 300 miles from Okinawa.  The attacks directly impacted kamikaze launches, but also forced the Japanese military to retain fighter aircraft to defend the Japanese Special Attack Units that otherwise might have been used to challenge air superiority over Okinawa.
  After the Japanese surrender, the squadron flew airlift missions, dropping supplies to prisoners of war and participated in show of force missions over Japan.
caption: 19th Bombardment Group B-29 Superfortresses 1945
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