The Journey of Flight.pdf - Valkyrie Cadet

Chapter Chapter Chapter 4 4 - - - Air Air Air P PPower
P Power
ower Goes Goes Goes to to WW
War W ar
General
Curtis LeMay
The Chance-Voight
Corsair helped win air
superiority in the Pacific
Theater of Operations.
(EAA)
areas, like they were in Germany. This made precision
bombing almost useless.
The job had to be accomplished by blanket bombing.
Unfortunately, this also meant that civilian casualties
would be inevitable because the Japanese homes
were located in and around these industries.
On March 9-10, 1945, Tokyo was attacked. It was a night attack with 334 B-29s flying low at 7,000
feet with a total of 1,667 tons of bombs. The result was the most destructive air raid in history. Widespread
fires created a firestorm that destroyed 15 square miles of the city. More than 83,000 people were
killed and another 100,000 were injured.
The firebombs were very destructive. Since Japanese homes are traditionally made of wood with
paper walls on the inside, they burned quickly. Many of Japan’s larger cities were literally burned off
the map. In total, 32 square miles of the most important industrial areas of Japan were destroyed.
The new strategy worked. Only 22 B-29s were lost during the raids. This meant that the loss rate
dropped from 6 to less than 1.5 percent. The dramatic change was primarily due to the ineffectiveness
of the Japanese fighters at night. Once again, flexibility was the key to air power’s success. Low-level
nighttime bombing successfully replaced high altitude daytime bombing. By mid-summer, the bombing
of Japan had brought Japan on the verge of economic and moral collapse.
Atom Atom Atom Atom Atom Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb FF
Forces FF
orces orces orces orces Sur Sur Surrender
Sur Surrender
render render render
In order to force the Japanese to surrender, plans called for an invasion of the Japanese Islands.
However, the Japanese were tenacious fighters. They rarely surrendered, as the Allies found out during
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