Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
LeMay commanded subsequent B-29 Superfortress combat operations against Japan, including massive incendiary attacks on 67 Japanese cities and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This included the firebombing of Tokyo —known in official documents as the "Operation Meetinghouse" air raid on the night of March 9–10, 1945—which ...
On the night of 9/10 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city.This attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse by the USAAF and is known as the Tokyo Great Air Raid (東京大空襲, Tōkyō dai-kūshū) in Japan. [1]
After this raid, LeMay ordered the B-29 bombers to attack again but at a relatively low altitude of 5,000 to 9,000 ft (1,500 to 2,700 m) and at night, because Japan's anti-aircraft artillery defenses were weakest in this altitude range, and the fighter defenses were ineffective at night.
LeMay assigned one group of about 160 aircraft of the 313th Bombardment Wing to the task, with orders to plant 2,000 mines in April 1945. The mining runs were made by individual B-29 Superfortresses at night at moderately low altitudes. [ 2 ]
Japanese aircraft intercepted the force dispatched against Yawata and shot down a B-29 and five of the escorting P-47s for the loss of approximately 12 fighters. [247] Part of Nagasaki six weeks after the atomic bombing. The second atomic bomb attack was made on 9 August.
The primary mission of the 73d was the firebombing of Japan, flying low-level night missions dropping incendiary bombs over wide areas to destroy Japanese industry and military capability. 497th Bombardment Group 'A' over black square over aircraft number; later Large 'A', number moved to empennage.
Although the Japanese government had already agreed to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and unconditionally surrender to the Allies on 14 August, the United States Army Air Forces had already launched another bombing mission against the Japanese cities of Isesaki, Gunma and Kumagaya, Saitama, and would not call off the raid as the surrender has not yet been officially accepted by ...
Five aircraft were forced back, but the remaining 124 aircraft arrived over Chiba at 0139 hours and commenced a firebombing attack with 889 tons of E-46 230 kilograms (500 lb) incendiary cluster bombs and 230 kilograms (500 lb) T4E4 fragmentation cluster bombs on the central part of the city from an altitude of 3,000 to 3,500 metres (9,900 to ...