Comes with hand-signed C.O.A.

These XXI Bomber Command target map rarely come up for sale in the public sector. This is a once in a timeline chance to own a piece of B-29 WWII history.

This incredibly scare and museum-grade ‘RESTRICTED’ WWII XXI Bomber Command (20th Air Force) TARGET CHART was used during the USAAF long-range bombardment operations, against Japan until mid-July 1945. The XXI Bomber Command was headquartered at Harmon Field, Guam, in the Mariana Islands.

Titled “HITACHI AREA” version of this A-2 SECTION - TARGET CHART NO. 34A were produced in limited quantities with previous aerial reconnaissance mission photos by the 30th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. The print mark on this target chart is April 1945.

This navigators and bombardier chart map was specifically creating using the most updated military intelligence in order to give B-29 Superfortress aircraft the most accurate target information. This was done for fast and effective target identification as well as accurate navigation and bomb/incendiary accuracy. These target charts were handed to B-29 crews during the target mission briefing and were then carried on the B-29 aircraft to used during the raid itself.

This HITACHI, Japan target chart was used by WWII 1st Lieutenant Cecil Rix who served as a B-29 Bombardier Navigator in the Pacific Theater as well as a Radar Observer on Saipan and Guam during the later part of WWII.

*What makes this specific edition of the target chart very rare is the lower left key noting vital Japanese aerial targets and key military and industrial building/factories. The key translates to the numbered building on the map for accurate target identification…and even shows that specific targets elevation. This was valuable information as it could be used on multiple missions raids based on the carrying primary targets.

This specific target map of HITACHI labels HITACHI COPPER REFINERY, HITACHI ENGINEERING WORKS, HITACHI COPPER SMELTER, AND OTHER UNIDENTIFIED INDUSTRIES.

XXI Bomber Command B-29 Air Raid on HITACHI:

• On 24 April, with weather forecasts unfavorable for Kyushu and favorable for Tokyo, LeMay interrupted the ICEBERG support operations to run a mission against the Tachikawa plant of the Hitachi Aircraft Corporation. Located at Yamato, a few miles north of Tachikawa and nineteen miles from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the factory built radial engines for army planes. Production had averaged 250 engines per month in 1944, but in the early months of 1945 had slumped, partly because of a dispersed program, partly because of a carrier strike on 17 February. A force of 131 B-29's got over Tachikawa on the 24th to find the target obscured by haze, but 101 were able to bomb visually from 12,000 feet. The 473.5 tons of GP's dropped completely wrecked the plant; no effort was made thereafter to repair the damage and production stopped altogether. Going in without escort and at an unusually low altitude, the B-29's met stiff opposition from flak and fighters; four bombers were lost and sixty-eight damaged while their own gunners were registering claims of fourteen fighters destroyed and twenty-four probables.

• Good weather was promised for the 10th also, so LeMay named six Empire targets. He sent the 73d Wing back briefed to dump 2,000-pounders on ruined Nakajima-Musashi, and single-group formations against Nakajima plants at Ogikubu and Omiya, Japan Aircraft Company at Tomioka, Hitachi at Cbiba, and the Tachikawa Army Air Arsenal. Weather in the Tokyo Bay area, where all the targets were located, proved variable. Nakajima's luck held: its three factories were cloud-covered and formations assigned to them bombed instead primary radar targets, doing heavy damage to the Hitachi engineering works at Kaigan and a seaplane base at Kasumigaura. Against the other targets, bombing was visual and quite effective in each case. VII Fighter Command provided an escort of 107 P-51's.