How far could a WWII American bomber fly without refueling? Nt

[raccoon]

5. I'm reading a book called THE SHORT AMERICAN CENTURY:A POSTMORTEM.

Edited by Andrew J Bacevich.

In chapter 2, “the origins and uses of American hyper power” by David M Kennedy, he writes about the use of “ Strategic bombing“ in Europe. Against Germany.

“for those who could carry it off, strategic bombing promised rich rewards: a brief war, with relatively few casualties, and minimum disruption of one’s own social and economic structure.” (Bacevich, p 22). Then on p. 30-31, “While Japan in the first half of 1945 adopted a primitive wind–driven technology [balloons carrying firebombs] in a last desperate effort to strike at the Americans in their heartland, huge B-29 bomber streams flew nightly to Japan from the Mariana islands.”

So I started thinking, why couldn’t they do the
strategic bombing on Japan as well? And I thought that might be because of the distance to the Japanese home islands from wherever the Americans could have a base. Until much later in the war.

I am certainly no expert on military strategy or American bombers in WWII, so chime in if you think otherwise.