Location of Bomber bases, 1944-45

Operation Matterhorn

A brief ‘Snippet’

..."Things became more definitive after the August 1943 Quadrant Conference in Quebec. At that time, General Henry H. Arnold submitted a plan under which the newly activated 58th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy) would be stationed in the CBI Theatre by the end of 1943 and began attacking Japanese targets by flying out of bases in China. It would be commanded by General Kenneth B. Wolfe and would consist of four groups of B-29s. It was envisaged that once sufficient numbers of B-29s were available, Japan could be forced out of the war within six months by the destruction of her war industries, making a costly seaborne invasion of the home islands unnecessary. It was projected that such a program could defeat Japan by mid-1945.

..."According to Arnold's original plan, the B-29s would be stationed permanently in China, at bases around Chengtu in the south-center of the country.

..."General Stilwell pointed out that it would be impractical to carry out all of the B-29 operations from China because of the length of the supply lines, and suggested instead that the B-29s be maintained at bases in eastern India, and only staged through Chengtu in the process or aftermath of the raids on Japan. This plan had the advantage in that a complex base facility would not be needed in China, and the supply problem would be simplified if the B-29s themselves could be used to carry some of the bombs and fuel needed to build up the dumps at Chengtu.

..."The British were brought into the plan, and on November 10, (1942) they agreed to provide bases for B-29 operations around Calcutta. At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to begin construction of five new airbases around Chengtu.

..."There were four sites in the Chengtu area of China that were assigned to the B-29 operation -- at Kwanghan, Kuinglai, Hsinching and Pengshan.

..."The primary flaw in the Operation Matterhorn plan was the fact that all the suplies of fuel, bombs and spares needed to support the forward bases in China had to be flown in from India over the Hump, since Japanese control of the seas around the Chinese coast made seaborne supply of China impossible.

..."In retrospect, Operation Matterhorn had been a failure. The supply problems proved to be insoluble, and the Chengtu bases in China were too far west, requiring long overflights of Japanese-occupied territory in China before the Japanese home islands could be reached. Even then, only the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu was in range of the B-29s. Nevertheless, the Matterhorn operation provided valuable experience for the B-29 operations that were to be mounted from the far more convenient bases in the Marianas."

The above snips are from taken from:
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/b029-09.html

using these sources:
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/b029-s.html

I have one personal account which lists the 58th BW forward B-29 bases
in China as, A-1, A-3, A-5 and A-7, which he lists as:

A-1 was the base for the 40th BG at Hsinching.
A-3 was the base for the 444th BG at Kwanghan
A-5 was the base for the 462nd BG at Kiunglai,(maybe spelled Chiung-Lai)
A-7 was the base for the 468th BG at Pengshan,

all near Chengtu. I'm guessing the designations are map coordinates.

Not all of them are on this map, but you can get an idea of where Chengtu is from this image of China B-29 and other airbases:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-C-ChinaD/maps/USA-C-ChinaD-3.jpg

Allowing for spelling differences, the sites are corroborated in an account of the first mission that used them, on June 13, 1944:

Hsinching for the 40th Bombardment Group
Kwanghan for the 444th Bombardment Group 
Chiung-Lai for the 462d Bombardment Group 
Pengshan for the 468th Bombardment Group

from: http://www.ww2guide.com/pacific.shtml#b29s

--Jim Crosby

Chengtu, (indistinguishable from Kiunglai on your map) A-5:
lat 30.655 North     (using decimal system for lat/long)
Long 104.065 East
altitude 1738 feet

Hsinching A-1:
Lat 30.4167 N
Long 103.8167 E
altitude 1400 feet

Kwanghan A-3:
Lat 31.067 N
Long 104.2667 E
altitude 1617 feet

Pengshan A-7:
Lat 30.204 N
Long 103.874 E
altitude 1400

I was able to confirm this and obtain the altitudes from this website of over 84,000cities in China:

http://www.calle.com/world/china/index.html

Be careful that you are not only using the correct spelling, but one word/two word separation, as there are MANY cities of similar spellings.

There are also MAPS of the "town" location at the above website...although they are not very helpful.

Just putting each into a search engine, I also came up with photos at Kwangshan A-3, here:

http://www.seanachas.com/China/forward_base_a3.htm

And Hsinching A-1 here: (scroll to the middle of the page)

http://40thbombgroup.org/balkin.html

My father-in-law has a "silk map" of the area that was issued to pilots, folded and kept in his flight jacket. I have taken pictures of this map but they are not of high enough quality for your purposes.

More if I find it...

jim

(Jim Crosby)