I apologize if these were posted previously, I couldn't find them when I searched.
http://www.alternatewars.com/Bomb_Lo...Bomb_Guide.htm
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I apologize if these were posted previously, I couldn't find them when I searched.
http://www.alternatewars.com/Bomb_Lo...Bomb_Guide.htm
Fantastic photos !
Thanks
The signature at 1 oclock H.P LEMAY well wonder if he is a long lost relly as he shares or I share the same name just like old Iron Arse Curtis E Le May
Amazing photos....... Sealed with putty and mastic too. But it worked - big time!
Absolutely fascinating.
Bob
Can you just imagine if it had not detonated and they had a chance to look at it. (in much the same way as the Germans had a chance to look at a beached Bouncing Bomb incidentally.....) They'd be looking at those rivets, paint and mastic stuff and messages thinking to themselves '.........what's this old stuff they're trying to bomb us into submission with.....' Pass the spanner while I take a closer look inside.......
If that had happened, we likely would have never experienced the Sony Walkman, as radiation poisoning probably would have killed both of the founders of Sony (Masaru Ibuka & Akio Morita) who met while working in the IJN Navy's Wartime Research Committee.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
I saw an interview with one of them many years ago (early to mid 80's), and in 1944-45 both of them were on a task force developing a heat-seeking missile to attack the streams of B29 bombers leveling Japan.
To me it seems reasonable that they (one an engineer and the other a physicist) would have been tasked to reverse engineer and examine the strange object.
Japanese called it ~ PIKADON Light then Thunder
As far as Germany's effort lucky for us in the raid on Arakan which was done to destroy Hitlers quest to build a A-Bomb (a heavy water plant) stopped them as he would have used them quite freely and consider this they trialed launching of rocket weaponry from U-boats quite successfully in WWII.
Also they the Germans invented the first printed circuit well before the Japanese cottoned on (Incorporated in the make up of the aerial mine "George" source Ivan Southal's Softly Tread The Brave) so lets thank our lucky stars we got there first.
But I had read somewhere there was a plot not to let the project happen due to certain erroneous calculations by certain German scientists in the building of it sorta maybe just not right!
Here’s a look inside the cockpit of the B-29 “BOCKSCAR”.
http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/med...20Station.html
It dropped four Pumpkin bombs on Japan and a Fat Man plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...Bockscar-1.jpg
Is that the actual bockscar aeroplane Vince? There's a bit of outrage in the UK national newspapers here today caused by the Archbishop of somewhere apologising for the bombing of Dresden. A former RAF navigator on the raid was interviewed on the news a few nights before and was asked whether he had any regrets about the effects it had. He must have had some Australian blood in him or worked with an Australian crew because he answered with few droll words. They were '.......No, none at all. They shouldn't have started it........'
Love those 360 views. A friend of mine is an engineer, though it was navy, and he'd love to go through that cockpit. I'm sure Harlan finds it fascinating too...with his past background.
You bet it's fascinating to me Jim.
BTW, Paul Tibbets was a CAF member who was often at CAF HQ and you should have heard his responses to news people about if he had any regrets dropping the bomb.
The gentleman was sure feisty!
He also flew the CAF's B-29 which did a re-enactment of dropping the bomb which really upset some news people! ;)
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Tibbets was unrepentant to the end. All the poor hand wringing second guessers asked him if he was sorry about being there, but he was quite clear that he'd do it again. I don't know about the Wiki info, but it sure makes good reading...Paul Tibbets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Yes, Peter. It’s the real BOCKSCAR. The green bomb is a “Little Boy” uranium bomb.
What ever became of the other plane - was it enola something or other........
Enola Gay is fully museum-restored and located in the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles Airport.
Bob
Mr. Tibbets really did fly the CAF B-29 (FIFI) for years at our annual air shows. FIFI is the ONLY flying B-29 in the world now and for many, many years. The CAF saved her from extinction many years back.
It is SO wonderful to see her flying today after all of these many years.
My best friend from the CAF flew her for many years. David Hughes is a neighbor of mine here.
For many years the nose section of the Ruptured Duck, one of the B-25's on the Doolittle raid was at the Air Force museum at Wright Pat in Dayton.
On a similar note to Peter's post about the Dresden raid, periodically someone in the USA will lambaste Harry Truman for dropping the A bomb. I always wonder if they would have been willing to personally apologize to all the American mothers who would have lost sons in the planed invasion of Japan? I believe that the official estimate was 1 million casualties. I don't know the breakdown between injured and dead or if my memory is right.
As of the last accounting I read, the armed services haven't minted any new Purple Heart medals since 1945. In preparation for mass casualties from Operation Downfall, the planned combined invasion of the islands of Japan, 500,000 Purple Heart medals were struck and those have been issued for all the intervening wars and conflicts. As of 2003 there were still 120,000 of those in stock. I understand that units going into Iraq and Afghanistan carried the medals for immediate award to soldiers in the field.
The estimates were 456,000 casualties, including 109,000 dead or missing for Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu alone. Had an additional and subsequent invasion of Honshu (Operation Coronet) been necessary, the estimates moved up to 1,200,000 casualties, with 267,000 fatalities.
Bob