There Are No Great Men

[Eric]

"There are no great men, there are only great challenges, which ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet. Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell." Admiral William Halsey Jr.

 

[janice6]

At least we brought Hell to some of them through an Atomic Bomb.

[Valmet]

1 hour ago, janice6 said:

At least we brought Hell to some of them through an Atomic Bomb.

Yes. Twice. 

[railfancwb]

3 hours ago, janice6 said:

At least we brought Hell to some of them through an Atomic Bomb.

I would not be surprised to learn that fire bombing killed more than the atomic bombs. 

[Eric]

2 hours ago, railfancwb said:

I would not be surprised to learn that fire bombing killed more than the atomic bombs. 

The firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9-10 March, 1945, killed more than 100,000 people. 15.8 square miles and more than 267,000 buildings were destroyed.

 

[Eric]

This USMC ambulance got shot up by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

 

[Huaco Kid]

5 hours ago, janice6 said:

At least we brought Hell to some of them through an Atomic Bomb.

The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.  ~wiki

 

1 hour ago, Eric said:

The firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9-10 March, 1945, killed more than 100,000 people. 15.8 square miles and more than 267,000 buildings were destroyed.

FAFO.

[Hook]

[Eric]

Operation Meetinghouse (the March 9-10 night, 1945) Tokyo bombing is the deadliest single air raid in history. 
 

There was once an American WWII plan to bomb Japan with incendiary bats. The Mexican bats would have incendiary bombs strapped to them and they would be released over a Japanese city at dawn, in an area as big as 40 square miles. The bats would find dark places to roost, on buildings most likely, and delayed timers would then set off the bombs. The plan was ultimately scrubbed, but not before more than $2,000,000 was spent on planning and preparation. 
 

The bats did actually start one fire, when a number of armed bats were accidentally set free at Carlsbad Army Airfield. They ignited a fuel truck and some buildings. I guess that counted as a successful test. If the idea had ever been used against Japan on a large scale, it might have made Operation Meetinghouse look like a campfire, by comparison. Imagine a conflagration covering two and a half times the area of the Meetinghouse air raid fires. 
 

 

[janice6]

58 minutes ago, Huaco Kid said:

The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.  ~wiki

 

FAFO.

Also:  "The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city.^[1] The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed more than 1,600 acres (6.5 km²) of the city centre.^[2] An estimated 22,700^[3] to 25,000^[4] people were killed.^[a] Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railway marshalling yard and one smaller raid on 17 April aimed at industrial areas.......", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

[railfancwb]

7 hours ago, Hook said:

I understand the last of the USS Arizona survivors who wished to rejoin his shipmates in death has been returned to the ship. At the time I read this, one still survived who wished to rest elsewhere. 

[janice6]

1 hour ago, railfancwb said:

I understand the last of the USS Arizona survivors who wished to rejoin his shipmates in death has been returned to the ship. At the time I read this, one still survived who wished to rest elsewhere. 

On my visit to the memorial I was surprised to see on the list of sailors that went down with the ship, a sailor with my first and last name.....................  

[minervadoe]

Never forget what B 29s did to Tokyo with conventional bombs.  It is just a turn of the phrase for us to say, "War is Hell."  But in this case, the fires created by incendiary bombs engulfed Tokyo's wooden structures in hellish flames.  Admiral Yamamoto's sleeping giant was awake and furious. 

 

Quote

The Bombing of Tokyo (東京大空襲, Tōkyōdaikūshū) was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history.^[1] 16 square miles (41 km²; 10,000 acres) of central Tokyo were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless.^[1] In comparison, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki resulted in the immediate death of between 39,000 and 80,000 people.

Quote

 

On the night of 9–10 March 1945,^[16] 334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo. The bombs were mostly the 500-pound (230 kg) E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets at an altitude of 2,000–2,500 ft (610–760 m). The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries were also dropped: the M-47 was a 100-pound (45 kg) jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses.^[17] The first B-29s to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's densely populated working class district near the docks in both Koto and Chūō city wards on the water; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to 45 km/h).^[18] Approximately 15.8 square miles (4,090 ha) of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died.^[19][20] A grand total of 282 of the 339 B-29s launched for "Meetinghouse" made it to the target, 27 of which were lost due to being shot down by Japanese air defenses, mechanical failure, or being caught in updrafts caused by the fires.^[21]

The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9 March 1945 was the single deadliest air raid of World War II,^[22] greater than Dresden,^[23] Hamburg, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki as single events.^[24][25]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo