anarchyintheuk -> RE: Why did the Japanese never build any decent heavies? (3/20/2006 11:50:29 PM)
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ORIGINAL: el cid again quote:
ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk NP, I remember reading about them a long time ago. For some reason I thought the raids had caused considerable damage. Insignificant would be more applicable. I was under that same impression as well reading "el cid again" posts earlier... "el cid again" - can you please elaborate on B-29 losses from japanese bombing? This is not well known - it was only disclosed a few years ago - so it is not in the official histories or the famous ones. It was a deeply held secret, and since it was not a story of American success, there was never any incentive to make a big deal about it (like in a movie). But if WE had done it, bet there would be a movie. It was awful because the bombers were armed and fueled and densely backed - some US officer said "a monkey with a hand grenade" would be enough to set them off. [His remark has been attributed to someone at Pearl Harbor! One wonders if it was used more than once?] These were not P-40s, but B-29s, and they had a lot of fuel and bombs. Also, there was much mystery about how they could know what day to do it - and what hour? The bombers were typically hit in the wee hours of the morning if I remember right - lined up waiting for the take off time - but not moving. There was not much place to go - and if any one got hit it was a nasty thing no matter if you were the hit one or not. I believe there is an account of this in English in The Ki-67/Ki-109 Hiryu in Japanese Army Air Force Service. These raids also involved something else unusual - things the "Japanese didn't do." First, they were JOINT Navy-Army raids - using the SAME plane. This is very rare. Some army units were formed up to serve under the command of the other service. Jointness in Imperial Japan! And the Navy was flying Army planes. Unheard of. Their "secret" was to study our operational methods, and use our habits as a basis to know what to expect. They watched the weather planes! Sorry for being late with this but . . . It may not be well known, but it isn't secret. I read about this probably 5-10 years ago. Out of the 7-8 raids listed, I only see one that hit while B-29s were lined up. Considering the number of aircraft destroyed in that raid, the Japanese would have been better off going with the "monkey with a handgrenade" approach. Not much mystery there. It also doesn't take a genious staff officer to calculate the distance from a-b, estimate the speed of an enemy aircraft, ascertain the times that targets are hit and come up with a general idea when the enemy is launching. Not much mystery there either. I don't care about the raids' uniqueness in being a joint Navy-Army event. Coordination or desperation? I don't know. All I care about is its relative effectiveness. It was unique in the sense that the IJNAF/IJAAF may have inflicted more damage than they sustained in an operation that occurred sporadically from 11/44-early 1/45. People did make a big deal about Pearl Harbor, Wake Island relief effort, Phillipines, Kaserine, Sicily air-drop fu's, Salerno. None of those were notable American successes. They were a big deal because they were significant, unlike these raids. At this point in the war the US was probably losing more planes due to operational losses in the Pacific Theater every day, than was lost in total from these raids. Let's face it, if whacking the Hawaiian AF and the PAF on the first day of WWII rates as a standing ovation, these raids don't even rate a golf clap. BTW, at Nuremburg no sentence was assessed against Doenitz for any breaches of international laws concerning submarine warfare. The tribunal lists the primary reasons for this finding as Nimitz's answers to interrogatories and a 5/8/40 Admiralty Order ordering the sinking of all ships in the Skagerrak. Doenitz did not serve 6 years of a life sentence. He was sentenced 10 which he served. He died in 1980.
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