<p>Finally, the United States had a strategic bomber capable of carrying sufficient bomb tonnage over great enough distances to produce significant results. It was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, and its deployment to the Pacific theater forced the surrender of Japan before a single enemy soldier had set foot on its shore.
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<p>Original plans for B-29 deployment called for operations from bases in Northern Ireland and Egypt; from those two flanks they would carry out a huge aerial pincer movement against Germany. With Hitler defeated, the bombers would move to the Pacific and support the surface forces that were to invade Japan from the east coast of China and from the southwest Pacific. General Arnold saw the single flaw in that plan, from his viewpoint: the world 'support'. The plan saw the B-29s only as a tactical strike force, not a word was written about a strategic air offensive.
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<p>Arnold proposed the only course possible under the conditions that existed when he attended the Quadrant Conference at Quebec in August 1943: base the B-29s in India, and stage them through forward bases in China for the attacks on Japan. It was a totally inadequate plan, but it was the only plan conceivable in Arnold's mind at the time, and he clung to it. At the Cairo Conference in December that year, Generalissimo Chiang agreed to build the bases in China. The Cairo Conference was the first official recognition that the B-29s would conduct an air offensive. Second, the British agreed to construct bases in India for the B-29s. Third, the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed upon the capture of the Marianas islands to serve as B-29 bases in the Pacific theater. Command and control problems immediately arose, because of the multi-headed, multi-national organizational structures in that region. Generals MacArthur, Stilwell and Chennault wanted B-29 operations either under their command or their control; Admiral Nimitz thought the Navy ought to have a first claim; Generalissimo Chiang saw the B-29s as an important factor in his war against the Japanese. The issue finally was settled the way the Army Air Forces had settled things before: a complete new air force was created, to be commanded and controlled directly by General Arnold from Washington.
