Barret Tillman's Whirlwind documents the air war against Japan from 1942 through to 1945. Tillman is a modern writer and writes in an easy to read and gripping narrative form. You don't feel like you have missed anything, nor do you feel like you have been bogged down in something unnecessary or too much research detail.

About the only area that seemed odd, or out of place, in that respect was the bombing of Kure Harbor in the final days of the war which went into policy implications for the Admirals involved, the US Navy and America.

There were four stages of the air war against Japan. The B29s flying our of China as a new, complicated and untested technology. The United States Navy attacking japan directly with its huge and powerful naval force. The B29s flying from the Marianas and later with P51 escort from Iwo Jima and finally the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The early deployment of the B29s to China was fraught with problems. The B29 was a very high tech aircraft for its day. It has pressurized cabins, automated gun turrets, and was a big and complex aircraft. Tactics had not been fully developed with it, and to add to the serviceability difficulties, it was first placed in China where the logistics and supplies had to be flown over the hump. As a consequence the B29s were often without fuel to perform missions.

The American doctrine for strategic bombing was that it was to be done in daylight, in large numbers and on precision targets. This was still being tried out in Europe. By this time the RAF Bomber Command had switched to night operations as losses were too high for bombers without fighter escort.

The B29s that were bombing Japan from China, had no fighter escort. They had to do it on their own, while flying for many hours from deep in China. The other issue was that the technology in 1942 was not precise. We live in a world dominated by the digital chip. During the 1940s everything was analogue. Computers were mechanical, not digital, and the norden bombsight, while an improvement over dead reckoning, was not that great.

Another issue the B29 crews faced which is unfathomable in today's world of GPS and maps on phones. They had no good maps of China or Japan. So often, a navigator who grew up in Kentucky, was sent to the other side of the world to fight, was trying to work out how to get his B29 aircraft from somewhere in the dead of China, to Japan and back again from poor maps. The crews found it easier when night bombing as the stars made it simpler to navigate with accuracy.

Organization is very important, technology only goes so far. With the B29s Curtis LeMay was the one who introduced different forms of organization within the groups and different tactics which made the B29s more effective as a fighting force. LeMay was known for introducing the box of four in Europe where the B17 bombers flew tightly together to cover each other.

He had also introduced the lead bomber and having the other bombardiers drop their bombs when they saw the lead do so. This meant he needed fewer highly specialized bombardiers and could take advantage of a particularly skilled bombardier.

Another issue the B29s faced over Japan was the jet stream. Sometimes it would propel their aircraft at super high speeds but mostly it would mess up their bombing runs and make a joke of their carefully calculated bombsights. The reality was that the technology of the time did not allow for any great precision. Hitting a city was achievable from 30,000 feet. Hitting a factory at that height, was a fluke.

LeMay decided to introduce fire bombing. This had been done in Europe with day and night attacks by the USAAF and RAF. It basically created a horrible fire that burnt everything in sight. There were questions to the morality of it, and there were advocates for it arguing that it would destroy the enemy's will to fight - which proved untrue.

Tokyo was an easy target in this respect. Most of the buildings in the city and suburbs were wood. Japan had been isolated from any bombing for a long time and had not dispersed its industry. Many of the important energy and aerospace industries were clustered together. The decision was made for the B29s to firebomb Tokyo with incendiaries.

To ensure accuracy, the B29s bombed at night from low level. Additionally, the crews removed all the defensive guns other than the tail gun so they would have more fuel and ordnance. The attack destroyed a large part of Tokyo, including industry. Many Japanese were killed and many more were made homeless placing even greater stress on a government that was unable to provide for its people.

As the United States island hopped across the Pacific coming closer and closer to Japan with each island being invaded, it allowed for aircraft to be placed closer to Japan as well. The capture of the Marianas meant the B29s could bomb Japan directly after flying across a lot of water. Additionally, the capture of Iwo Jima meant that P51s could escort the B29s.

At this time the Aircraft Carrier groups had run out of Japanese Navy aircraft to go after and there were fewer and fewer islands to attack. Consequently the USN started pushing for air superiority over Japan and making tactical strikes at Japanese industry such as rail, energy and anything naval that looked like it could still float. Where the B29s which flew from China had to contend with Japanese aircraft constantly, by this time most of the aircraft were being suppressed by the USN and P51s from Iwo Jima.

The final phase of the bombing of Japan was the dropping of nuclear bombs. This was done by a special B29 group, the 59th Composite, that had been trained especially to do it. The first target was Hiroshima, the second, Nagasaki. Both caused untold destruction. After the attacks Japanese scientists determined that America had used nuclear bombs on Japan. It was obvious that Japan could be destroyed from afar by the US. Japan surrendered.

There are moral issues about the concept of total war and for the most part modern western democracies have tip-toed around it. The reality of the second world war was the technology was not sufficient to avoid it. The Tokyo firestorm and the nuclear blast drops were about as accurate as bombing could be from a strategic perspective. It also has to be said, despite the repugnance of dropping nuclear bombs, it did end a violent and brutal war with Japan.