Japanese Pilots Were Stunned When 444mph P-51 Mustangs Appeared Over Tokyo With Drop Tanks

Japanese Pilots Were Stunned When 444mph Mustangs Appeared Over Tokyo With Drop Tanks Seven hundred and fifty miles of open ocean. Ninety-one American fighters. And the day Japan learned its homeland was no longer safe. SUMMARY This documentary tells the story of April 7, 1945 — the day American P-51 Mustangs flew from Iwo Jima to Tokyo and shattered one of Japan’s last strategic assumptions. For three and a half years, Japanese commanders believed the Home Islands were protected by distance. Their intelligence officers had calculated that no single-engine fighter could fly from Iwo Jima to Tokyo, fight, and return. They were wrong. Less than two weeks after Iwo Jima was declared secure, 108 P-51D Mustangs prepared for the longest single-engine fighter mission in history. Seventeen aircraft aborted. Ninety-one continued north over the Pacific, crossing nearly 750 miles of empty ocean to escort B-29 Superfortresses over the Musashino aircraft engine plant. One of those pilots was Major James Buckley Tapp, a twenty-four-year-old from Eveleth, Minnesota. Flying his Mustang, Margaret IV, Tapp entered combat over the Japanese homeland and shot down four enemy aircraft in roughly twelve minutes. For that action, and for protecting a damaged B-29, he would receive the Distinguished Service Cross. But the mission was bigger than one pilot. The P-51s proved that Iwo Jima had changed the war. The island that had cost 6,821 Marines to capture had become the launchpad for fighter escort over Japan itself. The B-29s no longer had to fly alone. Japanese pilots, including defenders from units like the 244th Sentai, suddenly found Mustangs above Tokyo — fighters that, according to their own doctrine, should not have been able to exist there. The air war had changed. Across the Very Long Range campaign, Mustangs from Iwo Jima flew 51 missions, nearly 2,800 sorties, and destroyed hundreds of Japanese aircraft in the air and on the ground. But the cost was heavy. More Mustangs were lost to weather, distance, fuel, and the Pacific itself than to Japanese fighters. This is the story of the men who crossed an ocean in single-engine fighters — and took away Japan’s last feeling of safety. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Impossible Flight to Tokyo 01:00 James Buckley Tapp 01:17 Iwo Jima’s Black Ash 02:16 Japan’s Shield of Distance 02:55 The Price of Iwo Jima 03:50 Why Iwo Jima Mattered 04:19 The P-51D Mustang Arrives 05:27 Tapp from Minnesota 07:03 The Mustang’s Range 08:58 Teruhiko Kobayashi 10:42 Japan Dismisses the Warning 11:39 Saburo Sakai 12:42 The Mission Briefing 14:38 Engines Start on Iwo Jima 15:10 Ninety-One Mustangs Take Off 16:29 Three Hours Over Water 17:36 Beckwith Turns Back 18:51 Fuel Management 20:26 Mount Fuji Appears 21:43 The B-29 Rendezvous 22:45 Japanese Radar Confusion 24:28 The First Mustangs Over Tokyo 25:47 First Kill of the Day 26:39 James Tapp Attacks 29:20 Four Kills in Twelve Minutes 30:17 Friendly Fire 31:52 The Air Battle Over Tokyo 33:35 The Results 34:32 The Mustangs Come Home 35:52 Fred White and the Cost 37:18 The VLR Campaign Begins 38:16 Tapp Becomes an Ace 38:28 Fifty-One VLR Missions 39:12 Black Friday 41:34 Japanese Fighter Opposition Fades 42:28 Saburo Sakai’s Judgment 43:56 Tapp Comes Home 45:01 What the Mustangs Took Away 45:52 The Road to Enola Gay 47:11 Remembering the VLR Pilots INSIDE THIS DOCUMENTARY ▸ Why Japan believed American fighters could never reach Tokyo ▸ How Iwo Jima became the launchpad for Very Long Range escort missions ▸ What made the P-51D Mustang capable of the impossible flight ▸ How James Buckley Tapp shot down four aircraft in twelve minutes ▸ Why Japanese air defense doctrine failed over Tokyo ▸ Why the Pacific killed more Mustangs than Japanese fighters did ▸ How VLR fighter escort changed the final air war over Japan SOURCES & REFERENCES • VII Fighter Command Mission Records • 15th Fighter Group and 21st Fighter Group Reports • James Buckley Tapp Service Records • P-51D Mustang Technical Data • Iwo Jima Airfield Operations Records • Japanese Home Defense Fighter Unit Records • Very Long Range Campaign Accounts #WorldWarII #P51Mustang #WW2Documentary #IwoJima #MilitaryHistory