The brass band and ceremonial pomp that welcomed Lieutenant Colonel L.F. Harman’s B-29 Superfortress to Chakulia airfield 80 years ago this month, on 2 April 1944, represented lofty hopes for an already grueling logistical challenge. Chakulia, some 80 miles west of Kolkata in British India, was one staging ground for Operation Matterhorn. This American campaign, approved in November 1943, was to base long-range bombers in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater and introduce the kind of strategic bombing that had become standard practice in Europe.

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