Part 2 of the book, starting with this chapter, is about the Pacific Theater in World War II, and the bombing campaign that began once the United States clawed back some islands close enough to reach Japan. The B-17s used in Europe had a round-trip range of about 2,000 miles. By 1944, the United States had developed the B-29, bigger and larger, with a round-trip range of around 3,000. That put them just within striking distance of Japan from the Mariana Islands, which were captured in the summer that year.

Gladwell now returns to the Marianas, where he began the book in the Introduction. General Hansell was dispatched there in the fall to lead the bombing campaign against Japan with the newly formed 21st Bomber Command. In every way, it was an “absurd” mission, according to Gladwell. The climate was scorching and mosquito-infested; the Army had nothing built except Quonset huts, tents, and (at first) one runway; and the bombers were so overladen with extra fuel to squeeze out enough miles for the trip to Japan and back that they literally could not get airborne without the boost of a stiff tailwind. In addition, the B-29s themselves had bugs that hadn’t yet been fully worked out, most notably engines that overheated to the point of catching fire.