In the European theatre the 8th Air Force launched its
first 1000+ bomber raid in, I believe, late 1942. After that they were fairly routine in Europe and, I
would assume, in Japan as well.
They started before that, and were common (if not routine) throughout much of the war against Germany, but the logistics are completely different - setting off from an industrialised country with a long established bomber command, with nearby factories, maintenance facilities and deep water harbours, with readily available fighter support for much of the trip (these raids really came into their own with the introduction of the P-51 Mustang, which could travel with the bombers all the way into Germany).
In the Pacific, once the Japanese had retreated out of range of Darwin and Townsville air bases, the logistics became a nightmare. PSP runways, coastal freighters to bring in fuel and munitions. The B-29 also reduced the need for such numbers with its greater capacity (in fact by March 1945 they stripped the armaments from the B-29s and increased payload over the standard 20,000lb) than the B-17 at 6,000lb. (ie 334 B-29s hit Tokyo on March 9th, 1945 - with a payload equivalent to 1,250 B-17s).
Sorry - got a bit OT there...
Cheers Russell C.
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