Comes with a hand-signed C.O.A.

Size: 10 x 10 inches

The Bombing of Sendai in World War II on July 10, 1945, was part of the strategic bombing campaign waged by the United States against the civilian population and military targets during the Japan home islands campaign in the closing stages of World War II.

This incredibly rare and museum-grade WWII artifact is a 21st Bomber Command TYPE ONE aerial raid mission photograph taken from the open bombay of a USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing B-29 Superfortress during the U.S. Firebombing Campaign against mainland Japan in June-July of 1945.

The USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing and its squadrons fell under Major General Curtis LeMay’s 21st Bomber Command and participated in numerous bombing raid missions and incendiary attacks over the Japanese home islands with these missions continuing until just days before the dropping of the second atomic bomb.

This aerial raid mission photograph was taken on July 10th, 1945 as more than 123 B-29 Superfortresses of the 21st Bomber Command firebombed Sendai, Japan. Intelligence mission photographs like these were reviewed by Curtis E. LeMay (Commander of the 21st Bomber Command) as it was LeMay’s direct order for the greater use of incendiary bombs coupled with a lowering of the altitude at which crews dropped their payloads.

MISSION DETAILS:

On July 9, 1945, 131 B-29 bombers from the USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing launched from Tinian island in the Marianas. Several aircraft turned back due to mechanical problems, and 123 aircraft arrived over the target at an altitude of 10,000 feet at just after midnight in the early morning of July 10, 1945.

The bombers split into 25 groups of between two and five aircraft each to carpet bomb the densely packed residential center of the city with 10,961 incendiary bombs. The resultant firestorm destroyed most of the historic center of city.