Battle of Kansas

The Battle of Kansas (also known as the "Battle of Wichita") was the nickname given to a project to build, modify and deliver large quantities of the world's most advanced bomber to the front-lines, originally in Europe and in the Pacific, although due to delay in production, was only used in the Pacific. The battle began as the first B-29 Superfortresses rolled off the production lines of the massive new Boeing factory on the prairies near Wichita, Kansas.

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a quantum leap in aviation technology which unfortunately came with a lion's share of problems to be resolved before it was committed to combat operations. When the B-29 was ordered into production, Pearl Harbor hadn't even happened yet and the first flight of the XB-29 prototype was still over a year away. On 6 September 1941 the US Army Air Corps (soon to be the US Army Air Forces) placed its initial production contract for 250 B-29s, built mainly in Wichita, KS.

In early 1941 the Boeing Wichita factory (which was intended to become one of the main assembly plants for "Project 345") was building PT-13D & N2S-5 "Kaydet" biplane trainers for the USAAF and the USN respectively, as well as B-17 control surfaces: the plant needed massive expansion to build the new bomber. On June 24, 1941, new ground was broken for what was to become "Plant II", which was to be completed in January 1943. New equipment was already being installed by Boeing six months before final completion. Also needed was a whole army of factory workers: people were recruited from all over Kansas and neighboring states. Accommodation for all of them needed to be found. Few of them had any experience in aircraft assembly and a large scale training program was required: they were expected to build a new type of aircraft.

At the same time as the new factory was being built the USAAF started forming the foundations of four "Bombardment Groups" (the 40th, 444th, 462nd and 468th BGs.) Together they made up the 58th Bombardment Wing (58th BW), which was the first operational unit to take the B-29 into combat from as yet un-built bases in China. A fifth BG, the 472nd was also formed as an operational training unit: this Group stayed in the U.S. and was disbanded in April 1944.

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