6 Group, which represented about one-sixth of Bomber Command's strength, was a Royal Canadian Air Force unit.
Over 12,000 Bomber Command aircraft were shot down during World War II, and 55,500 aircrew were killed,[1] the highest attrition rate of any British unit.
Until June, 1943, VIII Bomber Command could not mount missions of more than 100 aircraft and consequently limited targets to those in Occupied France and the Low Countries, and to shallow penetrations of Germany.
Attempts to attack the German aircraft industry during the summer and fall of 1943, beyond the range of escort fighters, resulted in critical losses of aircrew.
Not until long range escort fighters such as the North American P-51 Mustang became available in sizeable numbers did daylight bombing become effective.
XX Bomber Command was part of the Twentieth Air Force and flew missions from China against mainland Japan in Operation Matterhorn.
Its B-29 Superfortresses, operating from the Marianas, were the longest range and most modern bomber in service in the world at the time, although not developed until almost the end of the war.
However, it proved inconclusive because of poor weather conditions, jet stream over Japan that severely affected both aircraft and bomb drops, and inadequately trained crews.
The Japanese economy was uniquely vulnerable to this sort of attack, the cities being closely packed and largely built of wood, and manufacturing being 90% cottage industry.
It was a firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945, which created a conflagration and killed 100,000 people and destroyed 16 square miles of the city, far more damage and deaths than either the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or of Nagasaki.