ISBN 0-7864-1787-0
xi + 276

Acknowledgments; Preface; Introduction; Abbreviations; Bibliography

Appendix: Serial Key Matrix

   Robert Mann's qualifications for putting together this volume include not only 20-plus years of research, but also experience with "his" B-29, WB-29 44-62094. While a simple serial number might not mean much prior to reading Mann's book, flipping through a few pages while armed with such a number allows readers to extract a great deal of information. What's more, just knowing the name of a B-29, let alone the s/n, can lead straight to an enormous amount of detail.
   At the heart of Mann's book is Chapter I, a "Master List" of serial numbers comprising almost eighty pages and representing over 3900 aircraft. Each serial number corresponds to one line of data: the name of the aircraft, tail code (rudder marking), date the plane was delivered by the manufacturer, unit to which the machine was assigned, date the aircraft was "removed from inventory," and the cause of that removal (such as crashed, scrapped, reclaimed, etc). Don't know the serial number? No problem. Knowing just the name of the aircraft—which is the most common situation—means readers can use the second part of the book, "Names List," to find the serial number. This chapter of the book, totaling about ten pages, is a straightforward alphabetical list including "?" (the name of the plane was just a question mark), "Zero Avenger," and everything in between. A quick glance through the list shows seven ships named "Dragon Lady" (plus two named "Draggin' Lady"), a plethora beginning with "Lucky" ("Lucky 13," "Lucky Dog," "Lucky Lady," etc), and many named after wives and sweethearts. The "Names List" matches each name with the plane's serial number. With serial number and unit in hand, readers can proceed to later chapters of the book for details about missions flown.
   First, however, the author provides some information about block numbers and construction numbers in Chapter III. Chapter IV gives one page of "Design Specifications and Performance Parameters." Chapter V describes B-29 variants, including lists of serial numbers for the F-13 photo reconnaissance configuration, the KB-29M hose and reel tanker configuration, the KB-29P boom tanker configuration, the SB-29 Rescue Configuration, and the WB-29 weather reconnaissance configuration.
   Chapter VI provides a complete list of missions flown by the XX Bomber Command. This is especially detailed information. For each mission, Mann gives the mission number, date, target(s), and—broken down according to bomb group—exactly which aircraft bombed the primary target, which aircraft bombed an alternative target, which didn't bomb at all, and which were lost, all listed by serial number. Given that level of detail, after looking up the serial number it's easy to follow the history of each individual B-29 in the XXth.
   Unfortunately, the record is not quite so precise for the XXIst Bomber Command. After a brief overview, that chapter lists the basic facts about each of more than three hundred missions from 28 October 1944 through 14 August 1945 for the XXIst as a whole. Each line shows the mission number, date, target (such as submarine base, airfield, industrial area, etc), location (such as Truk, Iwo Jima, Tokyo, etc), wings involved, groups participating, number of aircraft taking off, number bombing the primary target, and number of planes lost. In subsequent group-by-group sections, the data is repeated in the same format for each individual bomb group of the XXIst, which makes for a bit of redundancy. Despite the redundancy—and unlike the information for the XXth—these tables don't include serial numbers for aircraft, so for the XXIst it's impossible to determine exactly which B-29s participated in which missions.
   Partly ameliorating that shortcoming, Mann gives rosters (by serial numbers) of each bomb group, which matches the information in Chapter I, "Master List," where the author listed the bomb group for each airplane serial number.
   Subsequent sections of Chapter VII list targets alphabetically by name (from 33rd Infantry Regiment and Aeronautical Experimental Laboratory to Yotsuyama Mine and Yuasa Storage Battery Mfg), showing target number and geographical location of each. That's followed by another list of the same targets, but in target number sequence rather than alphabetical order.
   The next section of Chapter VII lists all the "fire raids" against Japan, followed by "Missions against Kyushu Airfields," "Aerial Mining of the Japanese Home Waters," and finally "Pumpkin Missions." The latter comprised eighteen training missions for the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All of these tables are structured the same way as the main list of missions flown by XXI Bomber Command, and—again—this actually seems to be quite redundant. For example, the main section on missions of the XXIst lists mission 181 on 23/24 May 1945 with separate lines for each specific target and for each unit attacking. Those lines for mission 181 include, among other wings, all the data for the attack by the 58th Bombardment Wing. Those same lines get repeated under the "Fire Raids" heading, with all the same data.
   Here's how the first eight rows of mission 181 look in the main list of missions:

181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo	MISSION		558	520	17
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo	58BW		127	119	4
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		40BG	32	30	1
181	May23/24	Target of opportunity	Sagara		40BG	in above	1	0
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		444BG	34	32	0
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		462BG	30	27	1
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		468BG	32	29	1
181	May23/24	Target of opportunity	Shizuoka		468BG	in above	1	0

   And here's how the same eight rows of mission 181 look in the separate "Fire Raids" section of the book:

181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo	MISSION	WINGS	558	526	17
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo	58BW	WING	127	118	4
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		40BG	32	30	1
181	May23/24	Target of opportunity	Sagara		40BG	in above	1	0
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		444BG	34	32	0
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		462BG	30	27	1
181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo		468BG	32	29	1
181	May23/24	Target of opportunity	Shizuoka		468BG	in above	1	0

   Finally, here are the relevant lines from the separate list of missions for the 40th BG of the 58th BW:

181	May23/24	Urban Area	Tokyo	40BG	32	30	1
181	May23/24	Target of opportunity	Sagara	40BG	in above	1	0

   That being the case, it looks like Mann has put the same information in three different places: in the main list of missions, in the mission list for each individual bomb group, and in the separate lists of specialized missions (such as fire bombing). In certain circumstances that might help readers find what they're looking for, but it also seems like it might have been easier just to flag missions as "fire raid" or "Kyushu airfield" or "mining" or "pumpkin" in the main section and for each BG, rather than printing the same lines all over again for all the specialized missions. (By the way, the slight discrepancies between the two sets of numbers are not explained.)
   In any event, Chapter VIII provides a list of strengths, organized by bomb wings and bomb groups, of Strategic Air Command from 1946 through 1955. Chapter IX devotes five pages to B-29 operations in Korea, and Chapter X offers some information on "B-29s in the Royal Air Force."
   In short, this is not a book for light reading. It's a densely packed tome of data ripe for mining by anyone looking for detailed information about individual B-29s, air units equipped with B-29s, missions flown by B-29s, and targets hit by B-29s. Although we learned long ago to judge a book according to what it contains rather than what we hoped it would contain, it's still worth noting what Mann left out: except for the relatively few missions of the XXth Bomber Command, it's not possible to identify which aircraft flew on which missions. Likewise, there's no information whatsoever about names of pilots or crews of the B-29s. While that's a disappointment, the author nevertheless provides huge amounts of information, and in many cases that information can point to further resources and more detail.
   For example, as mentioned in our earlier review of United States Air Force and Its Antecedents: Published and Printed Unit Histories, a Bibliography by James T. Controvich, a woman in our office knew of her father's war service only that he was co-pilot of a B-29 named "Pride of the Yankees," and she wanted to learn more. Using Mann's "Names List," it was easy to determine the serial number of that aircraft. From there we were able to turn to the appropriate bomb group and then follow the chronological sequence of missions for that unit. Although we couldn't know for sure on which missions Pride of the Yankees flew, the list still provided a good feel for what her father had been through. Further, using information gleaned from Mann, a search of the Web turned up even more detail which listed the father by name and also mentioned events in which he had participated.
   Besides the remaining veterans of the B-29s, there must be thousands of wives and children and grandchildren who could similarly find bittersweet pleasure in knowing more about the stories of individual airmen and their planes. Robert A. Mann has provided a great starting point for that kind of exploration.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from McFarland & Company.
   Thanks to McFarland for providing this review copy.