The Battle of Kansas

The Battle of Kansas. . , History has recorded the Battle of Kansas as an all-out effort by the US Army Air Forces to get a combat-ready fleet of B-29s overseas to bomb Japan and destroy the factories that fueled its war effort. The battle to renovate the B-29s was fought on Kansas Air Fields in March and April 1944 in the teeth of raging blizzards. , The Base Engineering Shop that was located across the street and the Sub Depot Hangar to your left were the Pratt Army Air Field (PAAF) battleground. In July 1943 the 40th Bomb Group began training at PAAF. President Roosevelt and General Hap Arnold, Chief of the USAAF, were depending on these crews to begin the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. The rushed development of the B-29 resulted in numerous modifications as fault after fault was discovered, but the Boeing Aircraft Company was focused on meeting production deadlines, so consequently the first B-29s were far from combat-ready when delivered. Among other things, modifications to the engines, the remote-controlled gunnery system and radar equipment were needed. There were electrical failures in the wiring. The plexiglass in the nose had to be replaced because it distorted the pilots' vision. Better tires and propellers were necessary for combat. And more. , In March 1944 General Arnold visited the Kansas Air Fields and found the fleet not combat-ready. He issued orders to get them combat-ready by April 15th. (Pictured is General Arnold leaving the Officers Club at PAAF.) , General Bennett Meyers was assigned responsibility to ready the B-29s. Mechanics were brought in from several states, and Boeing sent experts from the Wichita plant. Mother Nature wasn't kind. The mechanics and technicians toiled around the clock in a major winter blizzard, often working outdoors with numbed fingers in the bitter cold, as there was not enough room in the hangars for all of the B-29s. The 38 planes of our 40th Bomb Group left PAAF for their flight to their new station at Chakulia, India, on 12 March 1944. Their first raid on the homeland of Japan, the steel center at Yawata, took place three months later on 15 June. The Battle of Kansas had been won! , Text by David Stitt, Virginia Hoover and Jim Bowman , Credit Reference: Giannangelo, Dorthea. Pratt Army Air Field: World War II 1943-1945 Publisher Unknown. 2002. Copy is on file at KSHS Cultural Resources Division , Funded in part by a grant from the Recreational Trails Program, administered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. , Sign frame by Pratt Well Service, Skaggs Ace Hardware and B29 Museum. , Sign by Lowen Sign, Hutchinson. KS