Japan Thought It Owned the Skies — Then P-51 Mustangs Appeared Over Tokyo

P-51 Mustangs over Tokyo ended Japan's advantage in the air on 7 April 1945. Ninety-six fighters flew 1,500 miles round trip from Iwo Jima beside the B-29 Superfortresses, claimed twenty-one Japanese aircraft, and lost two. Japan's interceptors would never again have the sky above Tokyo to themselves. This documentary covers the first Very Long Range escort mission from Iwo Jima, flown by the 15th and 21st Fighter Groups of VII Fighter Command, with the 506th Fighter Group joining in May 1945. It follows the P-51D Mustang from its 1940 origins in California to the Nakajima Musashino raid, the Iwo Jima early-warning problem, the Army and Navy interceptors that defended the Home Islands, the B-29 navigation aircraft that led the fighters across the Pacific, and the cost of the long missions, including the weather disaster of 1 June 1945. Every figure is drawn from unit histories, mission records and published campaign accounts. Where sources disagree on a count, the video says so instead of choosing the neater number. That is what separates it from the highlight reels. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USAAF #WWIIHistory #P51Mustang #IwoJima #VIIFighterCommand #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2