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Old 5th September 2022, 12:38
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Alfred.MONZAT Alfred.MONZAT is offline
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"Black Snow: Curtis Lemay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb" by James M. Scott

"Seven minutes past midnight on March 9, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a more than 1,800-degree firestorm that liquefied asphalt and vaporised 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, 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."



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Old 7th September 2022, 01:56
Larry deZeng Larry deZeng is offline
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Re: "Black Snow: Curtis Lemay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb" by James M. Scott

Postscript Curiosity Item:

I had lunch at the Fort Myers North Post Officer's Club across from the Pentagon one October day in 1960 along with my uncle-by-marriage Pat Frank, who was an author of fiction about World War III in the United States. General Curtis LeMay was CinC SAC (Strategic Air Command) at the time. I was in civvies so as not to embarrass the General because I was only an (E-4, i.e., the equivalent of a corporal!). I found him to be easy going, humorous and very much in command of his subject, but at the same time a no-nonsense commander of the huge force and responsibility assigned to him: America's airborne nuclear arsenal.

L. deZ.
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Old 7th October 2022, 15:52
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FalkeEins FalkeEins is offline
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Re: "Black Snow: Curtis Lemay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb" by James M. Scott

..it is/was useful that the argument can be made that the destruction wrought may ultimately have saved American and Japanese lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan’s main islands. Bomber Harris didn't have the luxury of that argument over Dresden. LeMay's 'star' only really started to wane when he talked of bombing Vietnam back to the stone age.
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