Saipan Superfortress commander addresses pilots. Brigadier General Haywood S.

5 december 1944

Saipan Superfortress commander addresses pilots. Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell, Jr., commanding general of the 21st U.S. Bomber Command, addresses B-29 Superfortress pilots in a briefing room on Saipan prior to their first attack on Tokyo's war industries on Nov. 23, 1944. Said General Hansell: 'Our bombs will correct the false impressions of the Japanese people that they are winning the war.' Following the first attack from the new American base on Saipan, a central Pacific island wrested from the Japanese less than five months earlier, two more B-29 assaults were launched against military targets in the enemy capital for a total of three within six days. Flames from vital airplane plants and other objectives were viewed by reconnaissance plane crewmen after the assaults.