<text id=00he1101><title>The Newest Air Force</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>The Newest Air Force</hdr><body>
<p>The Twentieth Air Force was activated on 4 April 1944. It brought under its umbrella both the XX Bomber Command and the XXI Bomber Command. XX BC had been formed on 20 November 1943, to include originally the 58th and 73rd Bombardment Wings (Very Heavy) that were the pioneering B-29 users. XXI Bomber Command had been created later when it became apparent that the 58th was going to India and the 73rd to the Marianas, and that the distance between them required separate command structures.
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<p>Each wing was based on a seven-aircraft squadron, four squadrons to each group, and four groups to each wing. Two 11-man crews were formed for each plane. Thus a complete B-29 wing, early in 1944, would deploy 112 aircraft and 2,464 crewmen.
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<p>The 58th headed for Calcutta and a complex of bases to its west. They had been British bomber fields, expanded by thousands of Indians working under the direction of Engineer Aviation troops. The first B-29s arrived there in April 1944.
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<p>The Chinese bases were built near Chengtu by local peasants drafted for the labor force, numbering perhaps a quarter of a million. In three months, the Chinese had drained the rice paddies chosen for the airfield sites and converted them to operational, if primitive, B-29 bases. All four were ready by 1 May 1944.
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<p>Now the problem was to supply the Chinese bases. Gasoline, bombs, bullets, spare parts, tires, and the myriad necessities of operational deployments had to be moved by air to the Chengtu bases. By stripping the Superforts, they could be adapted to carry about seven tons of fuel in auxiliary tanks. It was not an efficient way to move gasoline; two gallons of fuel had to be burned at a minimum for each gallon delivered to a forward base.
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<p>The supply route also was flown by Air Transport Command, as part of the Hump lifeline to China. XX Bomber Command included a number of Consolidated C-87 cargo transports and modified B-24 bombers, and these were used to augment the logistics lines.
