The 314th Bomb Wing

    The 314th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy (VH), was activated on 23 April, 1944, at Peterson Airfield, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Brigadier General Thomas Power was named commander of the wing in August, 1944. The groups were stationed in Kansas at Great Bend Army Airfield, Pratt Army Airfield, Smokey Hill Army Airfield, and Walker Army Airfield, where they were to be equipped with new B-29s manufactured by Boeing at the Wichita, Kansas plant. The wing trained in Colorado while subordinate groups were trained in Kansas by the Second Air Force. The 20th Air Force set a precedence by establishing an operational unit at Batista Army Airfield, Cuba. The base was located near Cayuga, Cuba, 30 miles southwest of Havana. The lush tropical environment at Batista was a dramatic change from the harsh winter landscape of Kansas. The flight from Kansas airfields to Batista simulated a flight from the Marianas to targets in Japan. Few crews made this round trip without intermediate stops. From Batista, they would also make practice missions to several areas in Central America. They were required to navigate to tiny islands that were just specks on a map and make practice runs, then head back to Cuba.

    On 16 January, 1945, the wing deployed to the pacific theater and was stationed at North Field, Guam, in the Northern Mariana Islands. The wing was the fourth B-29 wing assigned to the XXI Bomber Command, 20th Air Force. Its mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese home islands and the destruction of its war-making capability. The 19th and 29th groups arrived in January. The 39th and 330th groups arrived in February.

    The groups flew shakedown missions against Japanese targets on Moan Island, Truk, and other points in the Caroline and Mariana islands. The 19th group began combat missions over Japan on 25 February with a firebombing mission over northeast Tokyo and the 29th over central Tokyo on 9 March. The first mission for the 39th and 330th was an attack on the Hodagaya chemical works in Koriyama on 12 April. General LeMay ordered a “blitz” of successful attacks on four different target cities: Tokyo on 9 March, Nagoya on the 11th, Osaka on the 13th, and Kobe on the 16th. An additional attack on Nagoya was made on the 18th. The 19th and 29th groups were components of this attack. Over 300 B-29s were assigned to each of these five missions. Wing commander Power was designated my Gen. LeMay to circle over Tokyo at a much higher altitude during and after the first low altitude incendiary raid on 9 March, 1945, to take pictures and to report back to him. After the war, Gen. Power gave this assessment of that one raid, saying, “t was the greatest single disaster incurred by an enemy in military history. It was greater than the combined damage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Over fifteen square miles of Tokyo were destroyed.

    On 1 August, 1945, Gen. Carl Spaatz, then the commanding general of the U.S. strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, moved Gen. Power up on his staff as deputy chief of operations. He served in this capacity during the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The wing continued attacking urban areas until the end of the war I August, 1945. Its subordinate units conducted raids against strategic objectives, bombing aircraft factories, chemical plants, oil refineries, airfields, and other targets in Japan. The wing flew its last missions on 14 August when hostilities ended. Afterwards, the wing’s B-29s carries relief supplies to allied prisoner of war camps in Japan & Manchuria, as well as participating in the ‘show-of-force’ flight over Japan. The wing participated in the Asian-pacific campaign (1945).

    The 330th Bomb Group was deactivated on 21 November and the 39th in December. Personnel and equipment were returned to the United States for demobilization. The 39th and 330th returned in May, 1946.

    The 314th Bomb Wing was re-designated as 314th Composite Wing in Jan 1946. It was finally deactivated on 20 August, 1948.