None of the planes you suggested could catch and kill B29s was Japanese.
- oldman
The Japanese really didn't have an interceptor that was fully capable of intercepting the B-29s when flying at high altitudes (30,000 - 33,000ft), the Raiden was the most successful of the interceptors when engaging at high altitude and even then the Raiden struggled.
Oldman -
We also don't have any of the Japanese fighters that were used to attack the B-29s when they flew high. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed by this update. Only new plane is the B-29, which will end up seeing next to no use. Not even useful for scenarios, since we don't have the Japanese planeset to go against it. I keep thinking every new update is going to be the "big one" with some Russian or Japanese planes to fill the chasms in the planeset.
Even if we did have planes like the Raiden or Ki-100, they would still struggle intercepting B-29s at high altitude, just like they did in real life.
In RL history, Curtis Lemay ordered the B-29s to low altitude incendiary bombing raids due to poor high altitude high-explosive bomb accuracy, and because Japanese cites of the 1940's were highly flammable.
EDIT: context added
LeMay ordered that incendiary bombs also be used and not their exclusive use. For night time raids, the first B-29 group over the target would be the pathfinders dropping their flares, the 2nd group would be carrying incendiaries to mark the saturation area and the remaining groups would usually be loaded with either general purpose or general purpose (Composit B) 500 pound bombs. Sometimes, some bombers would have a mix of incendiary and general purpose but that all depended on the mission parameters and target.
Bombing accuracy from high altitude wasn't the only reason the bombers were ordered lower. B-29s groups taking off from the recently captured islands in the Pacific would have to fly against the Jet Stream on the way to the target and taxed the engines and significantly shortened their life span and increased the likelihood of engine malfunction. People tend not to realize that wind speeds up in the Jet Stream could reach speeds up to 250mph. B-29 crews flying out of India and China faced the same problem but on the return leg of the portion over Japan, increasing the time spent over enemy territory.
another interesting point that probably isn't modeled in the 29...when you punch holes in a thermos...it makes for explosive problems...pressurization problems would require them to drop below 10k and make for a very long flight home...
After switching to low level bombing raids, B-29s regularly flew below 10,000ft to and from the target. The only exceptions would be those on the top of the "stair step" formation and that would usually be during the attack run to and from the target. The average bombing altitude for the low level raids (both night time and daylight formation raids) was between 4,500ft - 15,000ft. It was also very common that cruising altitudes was 400ft for the group at the bottom of the step formation and 1,200ft for the group at the top of the step.
No... he ordered them "lower." Low alt means below 15k. LeMay ordered the bombers "down" to 23k.
No, LeMay ordered the bombers to fly at very low altitudes enroute to the target and then low altitude bombing runs. He didn't just order them to fly a few thousand feet lower. This not only ordered for night time bombing raids but also for the daylight formation raids because LeMay wanted to send the bombers to Japan with maximum bomb loads and that was not possible if ordered to fly higher. Like I mentioned in my comment above, en route to the target the group comprosing the bottom step of the formation would be at 400 feet while the group making the top of the step would be at 1,200ft. Then on the bombing run, they would then climb to their low altitude bomb run, which again depending on the groups position in the formation, could be as low as 4,300 feet or as high as 15,000 feet.
For example, on the March 10 night raid over Tokyo the first group came in and bombed from 5,300ft and the top group came in and bombed from 12,300ft.
Re B-29 low level alts: The incindiery bomb raids were conducted at night from alts of @5000-9000 feet. Japanese flak and night fighters were nowhere near as effective as the Luftwaffes and so the losses were judged to be within reasonable %. The first such raid mass raid were done in March 1945. The benefits were; fewer fighters intercepting and much greater damage to the targets compared to high alt day raids with conventional HE loads.
Incendiary bombs were also used in the low level daylight formation raids and as mentioned earlier, the night time missions didn't just drop Incendiary bombs, general purpose bombs were used as well.
Japanese flak was effective at night, though at first with the change of tactics to low level bombing raids it did take a short period of the time for the Japanese gunners to adapt. Soon patterns in the B-29s bombing runs started to emerge (like speed, direction, altitudes) and the flak fire started to increase in accuracy and more B-29s started to get shot down or receive damage from flaks, particularly 40mm AA fire. The Japanese also would target either individual B-29s or flights caught in their searchlights instead of firing rolling flak barrages.
As for Japanese night interceptors...sometimes they would take off in large numbers, other times in very small numbers or not at all. When they would take off to intercept, they were most likely to tail the formation if they made visual contact and report their speed, altitude and heading to the flak batteries and often not press the attack. Also, a lot of B-29 crews would report seeing night fighters but the fighters were flying as though they were in a hunting pattern looking for them and this was mostly attributed to the lack of radar on the Japanese night fighters and they were visually looking for the glow of the B-29's exhaust stacks. In one night mission, a B-29 crew reported seeing close to 20 night fighters all milling around but not engaging until they were over the target and illuminated by the glow of the flames from the burning target and then only 1 fighter dove to intercept but the pilot didn't see if it was destroyed by the tail gunner on the B-29 that was being attacked or by a 40mm flak burst.
ack-ack
