Bombing in the summer of 1945 showing planning, execution, and return after 3000 miles of flight. Our b29sn 1940 five, began fullscale operations against japan. And 1500 milese back from bases in saipan and guam. Campana mber command concentrated its massive japan down toing the last bomb. Here was beginning of the end to the road to tokyo. After six months of reoccupation, there were few signs of war along the quiet summer shores of guam. The liberated peoples were back in their reclaimed villages american citizens again, smiling and friendly. Unaware that a miracle had happened around them. A miracle that moved mountains of material, equipment, and supplies. Across the pacific. That changed their dirt roads into broad highways, that manicured their jungles into airfieldslack topped and nearby, new communities of american citizens had set up housing with various types of services. The latest labor saving devices. Few laundry problems. And no modern inconveniences. By midsummer, 21st Bomber Command was in business. Big business. Direction. Al lemays 600 planesnd saipan, increased the weight. The planning. The lemay plan began on the ground with maintenance. Cutmbly line technique engine change time from three days to less than half a day and ground crews work day and night during the week to keep more b29s on the line. By july, lemays Bomber Command is an efficient, well oiled, well drilled the sheen of destruction. Here is a vital cog of the machine. 11 men and a bomber. While they wind up for action, let us find out where they are going and some of the things they will do and why and with what. How do they set up the Bomber Mission the longest Bomber Mission in history . To begin about 12 hours ago in the war room in guam with general lemay and a staff receiving a report on the japanese weather for tomorrow. Tomorrows forecast is similar. The cloud will be a about 10,000 feet. It will be at 14,000 feet. Osaka and everything west is reporting completely suck it in. How will the general solve this one . His b29s are up against a solid wall. Considered every vital factor and made his decision. Four wings will strike tokyo at 12 00. Now, it is a question of target selection. First priority in tokyo is number 573. Intelligence informs the general that number 573 is three quarters destroyed. 574 is still untouched. Operations checks the tactical plan for 574. General lemay orders the required changes, oks the target and commits all executive details to his staff. Operations with his deputy chief of staff and project officer go to work setting up the changes. In the plans folder is a mountain of preparations. 1000 hours of research. Collated facts and figures have been distilled into tactical plan 574. Aircraft will assemble with three groups for escort. At one minute intervals will be dropped. One squadron each wing will carry incendiary clusters. 5001000 pound bombs. Attitude altitude of attack, 12,000 feet. Planes from the 314th wing will carry fuel. The same airspeed will be flown by all aircraft on the bombing run. The navy has requested to furnish the following facilities. Three surface vessels. Tor submarines assigned lifeguard duties. Two dumbos to orbit. Uper dumbos each section of the plan is double checked. To supervise certain aspects of timing, the Lieutenant Colonel was brought over as project officer. This officers extensive combat experience iron sound operational irons out operational kinks. A field order is dispatched to the wing. Takeoff time is flashed to the controller who coordinates the vast network of communications gathered here at the heart and nerve center of command. Room,in the control status panels and a Mission Board are maintained to show it a glance the countless uptotheminute details of the daily operations. Prior to takeoff, each mission is set up on the board to afford a visual progress of the flight from takeoff to target and return. Wing are laid out to indicate the flight lines. You would team is the halfway point. And proceed as specified in the field order to the proper target. Other symbols are used to mark airsea rescue operations. A timetable is planned and flown. Beginning with takeoff time. For the veteran crews it is just another days work, one more 1500mile haul up down the ruddy pacific, 15 hours, 7000 gallons, four engines, 11 guys. Knock wood a water jump across 20 degrees of the globe, a continent of ocean. Destination, tokyo. It is like taking off in mexico for targets in canada. The 314th is airborne, 145 planes one minute apart, 67 tons each. Those b29 takeoffs are a tough sweat. That first long moment is the worst. Some swear it takes luck, like a wifes stocking, to beat it. At 100 miles north, two more b29 wings prepare for takeoff. 134 aircraft from the 58th wing. 100 more from the 313th wing. At taipan a few minutes later, the veteran 73rd wing lines up for takeoff. 153 more bombers are added to the mission striking force. [propeller noises] the last b29 is airborne at 15 40. The tower of saipan relays this information to the controller back at guam. First and last takeoff times of each wing are recorded here and go to make up the first of a series of tabulated mission reports. Copies of these reports are dispatched to Headquarters Washington and posted on the control room report board. During the first hour, the b29s have settled down for the big grind, saving precious gas, cruising 1000 feet off the water, ability, experience, confidence ride in each plane. A plan of action for 11 men trained and tested to function as one. The navigator sets the course, logging island checkpoints as they climb past the northern marianas. After about four hours of flight, the bombers pass close to iwo jima. The hot rock, a black, gritty pork chop halfway to hong to, 8 square miles bought and paid for by our marines. We made some quick changes. Cutting away the sulfurous volcanic crust and rolling iwos surface into one enormous flat top. Three big airstrips now launch our p51s for bomber escort over japan. General moore and his staff run the show and direct all rescue operations in close cooperation with Bomber Command. A last minute briefing check just to make sure todays fighter escort knows all airsea rescue positions. Out on the line, general moores p51s are warming up for the longest fighter flight on record. Seven hours on one engine, extra belly tank, extra nerve and stamina in the cockpit. About the time our bomber wings are passing iwo jima, the pea shooters are taking off. Scheduled to join them 3. 5 hours later off the shores of japan. After a rendezvous, the p51s head for Assembly Point led by b29s designated as navigators ships. Far ahead the bomber wings ahead on the last wing to the empire. Reports back to the control at guam give their flight position, which is kept up to the hour on the Mission Board. Still at low altitude, the b29s are approaching the bad weather belt where unreported storms appear suddenly across the bomber course. Pilot to crew. We are going to start our climb. Check oxygen equipment. [indiscernible] narrator as they begin their slow climb to altitude, the crews prepare for the vital business ahead. From now on until they come off target and head home, it is all business. The central fire control system is warmed up. Superhuman brainpower at the flick of a switch. Each gunner flexes his sights and tries the coordinated fire controls with a few short bursts to clear the guns. After pushing up to altitude, the bombers arrive close to Assembly Point. Air in the pressurized cabin is comparable to 8000 feet, but oxygen masks are adjusted and ready for instant use. From the southeast a fighter escort appears with its navigator ships, which now turn off to wait for the fighters return to rally point. The mustangs climb in formation to take positions of both the boxes of b29s. Lead bombers begin to circle, dropping the new smoke markers for assembly. The project officer observes this part of the tactical plan in action. From various zone positions, the groups separate. And form on their lead ships in nine or 11 plane waves. Which head for initial point. The big parade is on. Landfall is picked up, along with the first blackbirds from enemy coastal battery. Fujiyama, the familiar white beacon, marks the initial point. Strikes become heavier and more accurate. And now the first jap snoopers appear, diving headon into the formations. Some are suicide fighters trying to ram our bombers. Other jap fighters drop phosphorus bombs that will be set to explode in front of the oncoming b29s. Our p51s go out after them and know they are tangling with experts. The p51s job is to protect the b29s. For some of those jap fighters, they will meet the blast of bomber guns. [gunfire] a tailgunner pleads with a nip fighter to come in a little closer. [plane sounds] from the turn at initial point the tight bomber weight has moved steadily on and gets ready for business. Flack and fighters fall off. But those clouds are beginning to close in, and it looks worse ahead. Then just east of hachioji, the tokyo area breaks clear. The bombardiers begin to draw a beat on 574. Their planes sit tight for the bombing run. Heres where we pay off. Two jap aircraft plants and an air drone 12,000 feet below are prepared to receive 4000 tons of destruction. The first waves of b29s have already found their objective. Succeeding bomber groups add their devastation to the smoking targets. Tactical plan 574 is now an accomplished fact. The bombers turned and go downwind across the burnt acres of tokyo. Closeup cameras show the scars of those spectacular fire strikes last march. 51 square miles of lemay treatment. Across the bay, and a tail wind speeds them south down the peninsula. This is fighter country. The first call on intercom, the mustangs peel off and go to work again. [aircraft engines] with the big bombers homeward bound, the p51s drop down for straight runs. Concentrating on objectives from here to the enemy coast. Going along a maximum speed, the fighters go to work cutting off vital jap pipelines, blasting away at communications, radio installations, power lines. [gunfire] swooping down on enemy transportation, railroads, marshaling yards, small suburban factories. [gunfire] and airfields. [gunfire] then on to shipping targets, freighters, fishermen, trawlers, harbor and coastal. Destroyer or lugger, it is the same enemy. [gunfire] after strafing, our fighters climb back to rally point and the waiting b29 navigator planes. With the first sight of iwo, fuel gauges are down to close to empty. But fighter spirits begin to rise. They wind up and finish with a kick, coming past sunabachi with a whiplash speed and going into their victory roles. Once over for each jap kill. [gunfire and propeller noises] after the last fighter groups are in, all hands limp in, the first b29s. That runway is a beautiful site, as they let down with engines out, low in gas, all beat up by flak and fighters. In three months, nearly 2000 crippled or gas shied b29s haven here. You can understand why those four fan boys bless those marines and even name their planes after those marines. The lucky ones depart for home or with luck a b29 might drop in. From here you can see how the cloud cover up there smothers the runway and realize what one pilot went through. Sometimes a bomber stumbles back, only to flatten out at the last heartbreaking second. [sirens] by some miracle, the whole crew got away from the station before 2000 gallons of flaming gas enveloped them. Firefighters risk their lives to save the ship. This also takes courage beyond the line of duty. Most of the wings are nearing their bases. Exhausted crews wait out the last endless our when time seems to stop. The position is radioed in. The controller gets word of the approaching flight. At last, the familiar appear on the horizon. The bombers fly across guam and turn into the landing pad. 15 hours ago they left the other end of that runway. It is a pleasure to be back, a pleasure to roll on solid familiar blacktop. It is good to feel the sudden heat, to be among the living, swapping details with the ground crew. Flak, fighters, the close calls, the one that got away. Some of those b29 crews wont be able to talk it over today. 11 men on a bomber that didnt quite make it. [sirens] the rescue squad tear away the hot metal. Somewhere in that wreckage, a man has lived. One life saved and 10 lost. That is part of the days total. There were many other days and nights that took their toll of Young American lives in the service of our relentless expanding airpower. By the end of july, our b29s had all but obliterated our enemy. To hit japan with twice the monthly tonnage. The question was, how much longer would a beaten japan hold out . Great land, sea, and air forces gathered for the last invasion, dropped two atomic bombs. Which hastened the surrender of japan and saved untold thousands of american lives. The mission of our air forces, which began nearly 40 years ago, was accomplished. Announcer american at the American History tv products are available as cspan. Org. Check out all of the cspan products. In san antonio, the cities tour visited historic sites. Up next, we will take you to randolph l from space Randolph Air Force base