Rain of Fire: B-29's Over Japan, 1945 75th Anniversary Edition Endorsed by General Curtis E. LeMay USAF PDF Download
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Author: Charles L. Phillips Colonel Usaf
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781630504410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Author: Charles L. Phillips Colonel Usaf
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781630504410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Curtis E. LeMay
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594160394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Complete Story of the Design, Development, and Deployment of an Iconic Aircraft Among the most sophisticated aircraft flown during World War II, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was designed to replace the B-17 as the primary long-range bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces. With its distinctive glazed nose and long, thin wings that provided both speed at high altitude and stability at takeoff and landing, the Superfortress was the first operational bomber with a pressurized crew cabin and featured advanced radar and avionics. Armed with remote-controlled machine gun turrets and a 20,000 pound bomb load, it was the first USAAF bomber capable of mastering the vast distances of the Pacific Theater of World War II. The prototype flew in September 1942 but a series of post-production modifications delayed the bomber's first mission until April 1944. Superfortresses began attacking Japan in daylight with conventional ordnance from high altitude, but their mission was redirected in March 1945, with massive low-level formations dropping incendiary bombs! at night on Japanese cities. The ensuing firestorms, followed by the complete destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs dropped from two specially modified "silverplate" B-29s, forced Japan to cease fighting. Written by the man who led the B-29 into combat, Superfortress: The Boeing B-29 and American Airpower in World War II is an important document of one of the most turbulent times in world history. General Curtis LeMay recalls the early debate about whether or not the United States needed a long-range bomber, how the B-29 was created and produced despite the enormous logistical difficulties of the design, and the decision to conduct fire-bombings against Japan and ultimately drop the atomic bomb. Highly praised when it was first published, this new edition is complete with photographs, a new introduction, and statistical tables.
Author: Charles L. Phillips
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780964757707
Category : B-29 (Bomber)
Languages : en
Pages : 189
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Book Description
Phillips recreates the air assault against Japan, the B-29 raids on major Japanese industrial cities he flew over 51 years ago, at age 27. As a crew commander he flew 17 mid-day formation bombing missions & 12 night (non-formation) incendiary sorties, starting with the famous March 10, 1945 strike against Tokyo. That mission was the wildest, most violent flight he ever experienced. This was due to severe turbulence from the 17-sq-mile fire below. Flying into the fire cloud at 7,800-ft his B-29 was tossed about so severely that he came out at 14,000 feet! His airspeed exceeded the 300-mph "placard speed" by over 50-mph; to avoid structural failure, he had to pull all four throttles back to idle! Still the heavy B-29 gained altitude, with the fire bombs still aboard. After the bombs were placed squarely on their target he turned for home, & had an unforgettable view of the City of Tokyo aflame below. On Aug. 6 on his 28th mission he was forced to ditch 45 miles north of his base on Saipan when his B-29 ran out of gas. He & his 11-man crew were rescued by a Navy LSM, with all surviving. Gen. Curtis LeMay said of Phillips' manuscript, "I like it!" Order directly from B-Nijuku Publishing, 11875 Pigeon Pass Rd. B-14-357, Moreno Valley, CA 92557. Add $3 S&H, CA tax $1.55. Note: B-Nijuku means "B-29" in Japanese; Box #357 is significant because 357 was Nakajima Aircraft Plant, Musashino, Tokyo, which was our toughest target.
Author: Charles L. Phillips
Publisher: Paragon Agency, Publishers
ISBN: 9781891030321
Category : B-29 (Bomber)
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472832485
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97
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Book Description
The air campaign that incinerated Japan's cities was the first and only time that independent air power has won a war. As the United States pushed Imperial Japan back towards Tokyo Bay, the US Army Air Force deployed the first of a new bomber to the theater. The B-29 Superfortress was complex, troubled, and hugely advanced. It was the most expensive weapons system of the war, and formidably capable. But at the time, no strategic bombing campaign had ever brought about a nation's surrender. Not only that, but Japan was half a world away, and the US had no airfields even within the extraordinary range of the B-29. This analysis explains why the B-29s struggled at first, and how General LeMay devised radical and devastating tactics that began to systematically incinerate Japanese cities and industries and eliminate its maritime trade with aerial mining. It explains how and why this campaign was so uniquely successful, and how gaps in Japan's defences contributed to the B-29s' success.
Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985201071
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 94
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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the firebombing by both Americans and Japanese civilians in Tokyo *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day, the attack will have served its purpose." - The New York Times As American forces pushed the Japanese back across the Pacific from 1942-1944, their island-hopping campaign ultimately made it possible for the Air Force to conduct bombing runs over the Japanese mainland. The first serious air raids came in November 1944, after the Americans had captured the Marianas Islands, and through February 1945, American bombers concentrated on military targets at the fringes of the city, particularly air defenses. However, the air raids of March 1945, and particularly on the night of March 9, were a different story altogether. In what is generally referred to as strategic or area bombing, waves of bombers flew low over Tokyo for over two and a half hours, dropping incendiary bombs with the intention of producing a massive firestorm. The American raids intended to produce fires that would kill soldiers and civilians, as well as the munitions factories and apartment buildings of those who worked in them. 325 B-29s headed toward Tokyo, and nearly 300 of them dropped bombs on it, destroying more than 267,000 buildings and killing more than 83,000 people, making it the deadliest day of the war. The firebombing that night and morning left 25% of Tokyo charred, with the damage spread out over 20 miles of the metropolis. In fact, the damage was so extensive that casualty counts range by over 100,000. Additional raids, this time largely on the north and west, came in April, and in May, raids hit Ginza and the south. Altogether, American bombers flew more than 4,000 missions over Tokyo before surrender. The damage was spread widely, but it was worst in the low city, where some neighborhoods were virtually depopulated as survivors fled to the relative safety of the countryside. Honjo and Fukagawa each lost roughly 95% of their pre-raid populations. In 1940, Tokyo was a city of perhaps 6.8 million, but two years after the end of the war, when the population had already begun to increase again, it was still no more than 4.1 million. As with dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Tokyo has remained controversial since the end of World War II. Japan had wisely spread out its industrial facilities across Tokyo so that one concerted attack could not deal a severe blow to its military capabilities. However, by spreading everything out, as the Germans had also done, Allied planes hit targets in residential zones, greatly increasing the casualties. Thus, by destroying as much of Tokyo's wartime manufacturing as possible, the American air force also destroyed half the city. Of course, it's far easier with the advantage of hindsight for people to call the campaign disproportionate, especially since the bombing campaign came at a time when the United States still faced the dreadful prospect of invading Japan's mainland. In 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo took responsibility for Japan's refusal to surrender when defeat was inevitable, thus placing the blame for the firebombing on Japan itself. Shinzo announced that Japan would financially compensate survivors and bereaved family members of those killed, and shortly after the announcement, 112 survivors filed a lawsuit seeking damages for damage done during the campaign. The Firebombing of Tokyo: The History of the U.S. Air Force's Most Controversial Bombing Campaign of World War II chronicles the background of the campaign, its destruction, and its notorious legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the firebombing of Tokyo like never before, in no time at all.
Author: Edwin P. Hoyt
Publisher: Madison Books
ISBN: 1461704200
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
Did the bombing of Japan's cities—culminating in the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—hasten the end of World War II? Edwin Hoyt, World War II scholar and author, argues against the U. S. justification of the bombing. In his new book, Inferno, Hoyt shows how the U. S. bombed without discrimination, hurting Japanese civilians far more than the Japanese military. Hoyt accuses Major General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force leader who helped plan the destruction of Dresden, of committing a war crime through his plan to burn Japan's major cities to the ground. The firebombing raids conducted by LeMay's squadrons caused far more death than the two atomic blasts. Throughout cities built largely from wood, incendiary bombs started raging fires that consumed houses and killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. The survivors of the raids recount their stories in Inferno, remembering their terror as they fled to shelter through burning cities, escaping smoke, panicked crowds, and collapsing buildings. Hoyt's descriptions of the widespread death and destruction of Japan depicts a war machine operating without restraint. Inferno offers a provocative look at what may have been America's most brutal policy during the years of World War II.
Author: Samuel Russ Harris, Jr.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786484918
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
This diary focuses intensely on Col. Samuel Russ Harris' life within his own 499th Bomb Group and his relationship with the 73rd Bomb Wing's operations. The first section of the book is an intimate portrait of war. To provide a context of the B-29 war against Japan, the second half of the text details how the 73rd Bomb Wing was engaged in the war against Japan. Together, the two parts provide a well-rounded portrait of America--and one American--at war.
Author: James M. Scott
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003006
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285
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Book Description
"Riveting.…This book is required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in World War II and the Pacific Theater." —Bob Carden, Boston Globe Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: “If we lose the war, we’ll be tried as war criminals.” James M. Scott reconstructs in granular detail that horrific night, and describes the development of the B-29, the capture of the Marianas for use as airfields, and the change in strategy from high-altitude daylight “precision” bombing to low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing. Most importantly, the raid represented a significant moral shift for America, marking the first time commanders deliberately targeted civilians which helped pave the way for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. Drawing on first-person interviews with American pilots and bombardiers and Japanese survivors, air force archives, and oral histories never before published in English, Scott delivers a harrowing and gripping account, and his most important and compelling work to date.
Author: Robert F. Dorr
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 0760341222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
From Hell Hawks! author Bob Dorr, Mission to Tokyo takes the reader on a World War II strategic bombing mission from an airfield on the western Pacific island of Tinian to Tokyo and back. Told in the veterans' words, Mission to Tokyo is a narrative of every aspect of long range bombing, including pilots and other aircrew, groundcrew, and escort fighters that accompanied the heavy bombers on their perilous mission. Several thousand men on the small Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian were trying to take the war to the Empire—Imperial Japan—in B-29 Superfortresses flying at 28,000 feet, but the high-altitude bombing wasn't very accurate. The decision was made to take the planes down to around 8,000 feet, even as low as 5,000 feet. Eliminating the long climb up would save fuel, and allow the aircraft to take heavier bomb loads. The lower altitude would also increase accuracy substantially. The trade-off was the increased danger of anti-aircraft fire. This was deemed worth the risk, and the devastation brought to the industry and population of the capital city was catastrophic. Unfortunately for all involved, the bombing did not bring on the quick surrender some had hoped for. That would take six more months of bombing, culminating in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As with Mission to Berlin (Spring 2011), Mission to Tokyo focuses on a specific mission from spring 1945 and provides a history of the strategic air war against Japan in alternating chapters.
