On 02 April 1944 the first United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress arrived near Calcutta, India, after an 11,530-mile (18,567-km) trip from Kansas, including stops at Presque Isle, Maine; Gander, Newfoundland; Marrakech, Morocco; Cairo, Egypt; and Karachi, and a 2,700-mile (4,348-km) non-stop transatlantic flight between Gander and Marrakech. Before it could land, 6,000 U.S. troops and 27,000 Indians laboured for two months to build the runways and bases. At the same time, since the B-29s would be based In India, out of the reach of the Japanese, thousands more Chinese were busy constructing staging areas in the neighborhood of Chengtu, China. By 10 May, the Chengtu bases were ready for the B-29s. These bases were within the range of the Japanese homeland, although not yet within range of Tokyo.
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