The XXI Bomber Command found the weather clear over Tokyo and was able to get a record 86 percent of the B-29s airborne over the primary target. The drop - 1665 tons of bombs from an average of 7000 feet - began after 0100 and continued to rain down on Tokyo for almost three hours. Crew members vividly recall "the glow of fires...visible in the sky." Then "as we closed in on Tokyo we looked upon a ghastly scene spread out before us." Dodging in and out of smoke, they plunged headlong into a dense cloud of black smoke that obliterated the fires from view," but "suddenly broke out of the heavy smoke and a blazing inferno was visible below." It was "a sea of fire and destruction." Others remember "the whole area was lighted as if it were broad daylight when we entered the drop zone. The whole area changed to an eerie orange glow the closer we came to the inferno." The intense heat and severe turbulence caused by the raging fires buffeted the Superforts, in a few cases flipping the giant bombers onto their backs. The turbulence kept increasing during the raid, and later was considered the primary difficulty of the mission. Memorable to many was the "smoke and the foul smell of burning buildings and bodies [that] permeated the plane." The flames of Tokyo, the fire of the defenders, made the crew eager to depart the scene of mass destruction. The glow of the dying city was visible 100 miles away. B-29s returned with underbellies blackened by the soot. The first aircraft landed in the Marianas at 0710 and the last at 1227; the average aircrew logged fifteen hours of flying time.
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(3.5)
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Next, the author provides a history of the genesis of the need for a very long range bomber and the rush to develop and produce the B-29. He describes the pressure under which the developers were working and he highlights the resultant bug ridden nature of the B-29 (in particular its power plant) and what this translated into with respect to bomber losses – 30% due to enemy action and 70% to other causes.
Following the chapter on the B-29 is a chapter titled “The Education of a General” which gives the background on General LeMay and the handful of other generals directly involved in the wartime deployment and use of the B-29.
The remainder of the book describes the sequence of events leading up to the attacks on Japan, the shift from precision to area bombing, the execution and impact of the fire raids, the decision to use the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the aftermath of all of these efforts.
The author does an excellent job of providing the reader with an understanding of all of the aspects of the concept of strategic bombing as practiced in World War II and the consequences of putting that concept into practice. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in 20th Century history. (