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Or the early launching of the B29 strategic bombing 25,000 feet pressurized cabin.
1:02
James the puzzle here is that you introduce that it doesn't work for a very simple thing.
1:09
Weather. How so James?
1:11
Which Japan is an island nation out of the Pacific.
1:15
It has notoriously cloudy rainy weather.
1:18
And so some months, and of course if you're doing daylight precision bombing,
1:24
you need to see in order to be able to put your bombs on target.
1:27
And then Japan and some months has as little as three days of clear weather.
1:32
And the ability to predict those days is a near impossibility.
1:36
And so you've got this terrible weather for bombing.
1:40
And then on top of that, they discover that high up in the heavens ever Japan
1:44
are these crazy violent jet streams.
1:46
For winds blow as much as 230 miles per hour.
1:49
And those are like the winds that batter Mount Everest.
1:52
And of course that the bad weather in the jet stream is just combined to completely wreck
1:57
bomber accuracy. And so those are two of the problems that Hansel faces.
2:02
Another one that he has is the B29 is a brand new plane.
2:06
And as you noted earlier, it's an incredibly expensive gamble that Arnold has taken.
2:11
It costs $3.7 billion to develop this plane.
2:15
That's actually more than the atomic bomb.
2:18
And unlike the B17, which is sort of the dominant workhorse in the European theater,
2:25
where America actually had benefited from fact that the B17 had been around for several years
2:29
before the war began. So we had time to work out all the kinks of the B17s that by the time
2:34
the war began, we've got a reliable platform. The B29 rolls out of the first factories in 1944
2:41
and goes straight into combat. And so of course with any new technology,
2:45
particularly something as sophisticated as the B29, it's got lots of glitches.
2:49
And one of the big problems are engine fires. And so in these are tremendously long missions.
2:56
So I'm in a round trip flight from the Mariana Islands to Tokyo. It was over 3,000 miles.
3:02
To put that in perspective, a bomber crew in Europe could take off from England,
3:05
bomber land, and come back. And it's only 1,500 miles. So it's literally,
3:09
that's just one way to Tokyo. So you've got bad weather, you've got jet streams,
3:14
you've got a sophisticated new plane that has engine fires, and you've got tremendous vast
3:19
distances all over water. Okay, so if you get engine problems or if you take
3:25
flack or fighter damage, there's no way for you to put down. You've got this, you've got this
3:31
dart forbidding ocean there. And so these are just some of the many pressures that are building
3:36
up on Haywood-Hansfield's point. The strategic bombing aiming at the war industry,
3:42
the first missions they're called San Antonio 2 and 3, 1, 2 and 3, these are the operation names
3:48
are against the manufacturing outside of Tokyo. And the disappointment is,
3:55
though they have radar, though they know where the plants are, they miss them. I think that first
4:00
raid only destroyed 1% of the Nakajima aircraft factory, which is turning out in an enormous
4:06
amount of aircraft engines every day. And they're also fighting the fighters that are still
4:12
available to come up after them. My notes says they add 150 air and the aircraft guns available
4:19
and search lights. So the B-29s take a pounding right away, especially from the Japanese air
4:25
defense. At this point, daylight precision bombing, is it a debate here in late 44? Does that emerge
4:35
after the frustration? Yeah, the daylight precision bombing had been actually, it was the strategy
4:42
we'd use all through Europe. And of course, the English, the British have been pressuring us
4:46
to abandon that and come over in Fireball cities. And we, our American commanders in Europe had
4:52
really resisted that. And so those pressures were on Hansel, early on as well, that, you know,
4:58
Japan, I mean, look, it's hard not to watch German cities burn and think, huh, would this work
5:05
against Japanese cities like Tokyo and Nagoya, but Hansel was a true believer in the high
5:11
altitude daylight precision bombing. And these early raids, as you know, were against the aircraft
5:17
manufacturing companies around Tokyo and Nagoya, because America was trying to wipe out
5:21
Japan's ability to replenish its air forces. And that way, we would own the skies because these,
5:28
on these long bombing missions, they can't take fighter escorts with them. So the bombers,
5:32
the only defense these bombers have is their formation and their guns. And so the early missions
5:38
are all designed to knock out Japan's aircraft industry to give America control of the skies.
5:44
And of course, they simply don't work. And the Japanese realized very quickly what the targets
5:49
are were after they start moving their fighters into that area, they move their entire aircraft
5:54
guns. And it makes us that these between nine's coming in over and over and over again,
5:59
against Tokyo and Nagoya, just start taking it pounding. I mean, so much so that the Airmen call
6:05
that strip of that between Tokyo and Nagoya, they call it flak alley because all the guns are now
6:10
centralized in that area to target them. My memories that are one point half on last
6:16
hand. So how long will it take you to wreck them? And he says, give me six weeks. And that's a
6:21
ridiculous amount of time to Arnold. He doesn't have the time, pressuring him right now. The Navy
6:27
has been bogged down in the Philippines. And the Battle of Lady Golf is a qualified failure.
6:34
The two typhoons that hit the Navy, the test force 58, hold, stay its hand for the ability to
6:41
project power into Japan. That will come. But ahead of everyone is Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And the
6:48
understanding that the Japanese are ready to die in place. So the pressure is you've got you've
6:53
got to produce results now because the otherwise the Army is going to take over the Army Air Force
6:59
and they're going to turn you into their target. So the Navy is going to take you over and turn
7:04
you into their targets, which means the airfields or the the fleet. So all of this is weighing on
7:10
Hansel and and a half Arnold at this point. So final minute of this segment, James, I want to
7:18
establish this debate about strategic bombing from altitude and fire bombing that the British
7:26
conduct against Germany. It goes to the highest level of leadership, right? Marshall and FDR
7:35
himself and Leahy, his chief of staff, they believe in strategic bombing at this point. Is that
7:40
correct, James? Yeah, they're pretty hands off for the most part. They really kind of leave that
7:46
too Arnold into the air service on how best to execute the war. But that has been the strategy
7:53
all along. But you do begin to see a shift. I mean, you do look, FDR approves the atomic bomb,
7:59
you know, the development of the bomb, which is a $2 billion bomb. There's no way that's a
8:04
strategic pinpoint type weapon. I mean, that is a city wrecking weapon. So they're they're open
8:10
to these changes. All right, let's go to Curtis Lemay, then, James. Here comes the change.
8:15
The book is Black Snow, Curtis Lemay, the fire bombing of Tokyo and the road to the atomic bomb.
8:21
When we come back, meet Curtis Lemay. I'm John Batch.
8:27
You're listening to CBS Eye on the World with John Batchler.
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