Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands
During World War II, a series of Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands took place between November 1944 and January 1945. These raids targeted United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bases and sought to disrupt the bombing of Japan by Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers operating from the islands. The Japanese lost 37 aircraft during this operation, but destroyed 11 B-29s and damaged a further 43. Preparations were also made for commando raids on the bases in early and mid-1945 but these did not go ahead.
US aircraft burning in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Isley Field, November 27, 1944
B-29s burning at Isley Field on November 27
B-24 Liberators fly away from Iwo Jima after bombing the island on December 15, 1944
A B-29 undergoing maintenance on Saipan
During World War II, Allied forces conducted air raids on Japan from 1942 to 1945, causing extensive destruction to the country's cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people. During the first years of the Pacific War these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942 and small-scale raids on military positions in the Kuril Islands from mid-1943. Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Allied naval and land-based tactical air units also attacked Japan during 1945.
B-29 Superfortress bombers dropping incendiary bombs on Yokohama in May 1945
An air-raid shelter being built in Japan, September 1940
A B-25 Mitchell taking off from USS Hornet on 18 April 1942
Civilians participating in an air-raid drill during 1942