In March and April 1944, Kansas air fields became the scene of an intense effort by the U.S. Army Air Forces to make B-29 bombers combat-ready for deployment overseas against Japan. At Pratt Army Air Field, where the 40th Bomb Group had begun training in July 1943, crews worked to correct numerous problems caused by the aircraft's rushed development, including engine, remote-controlled gunnery system, radar, wiring, plexiglass, tire, and propeller defects. After General Hap Arnold visited in March 1944 and found the fleet unready, he ordered that it be made combat-ready by April 15. General Bennett Meyers took charge, mechanics arrived from several states, and Boeing specialists came from Wichita. In raging blizzards and bitter cold, with too little hangar space for all the aircraft, mechanics and technicians worked around the clock, often outdoors. The 38 planes of the 40th Bomb Group left Pratt Army Air Field for Chakulia, India, on 12 March 1944, and three months later took part in the first raid on Japan's homeland at the steel center of Yawata on 15 June.