Operation MEETINGHOUSE-The Firebombing of Tokyo - Episode 416

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2024

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Seth and Bill take a deep, and horrifying, dive into Mission number 40 from the Marianas and 21st Bomber Command, codenamed Operation MEETINGHOUSE. The raid that occurred on the night of March 10, 1945, was the single deadliest air raid in all of human history. Faced with failure after failure and the mounting pressure of a Japanese Home Island invasion, General Curtis LeMay takes drastic measures to deliver a knockout blow to Japan with his B-29s. Throwing everything that had been ingrained in his training for years, LeMay sends his B-29s in at 5,000 feet at night armed with incendiary bombs to flatten a 12 square mile area of Tokyo. The raid that took place, and the firestorm that ensued, accounted for over 110,000 Japanese lives in a six-hour period. Tune in and hear what the team has to say about the one raid that changed the way the United States Army Air Forces fought the war against Japan. #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #essex #halsey #taskforce38 #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #mastersoftheair #8thairforce #mightyeighth #100thbombgroup #bloodyhundredth #b17 #boeing #airforce wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #oldbreed #1stMarineDivision #thepacific #Peleliu #army #marines #marinecorps #worldwar2 #worldwar #worldwarii #leytegulf #battleofleytegulf #rodserling #twilightzone #liberation #blacksheep #power #prisoner #prisonerofwar #typhoon #hurricane #weather #iwojima#bullhalsey #ace #p47 #p38 #fighter #fighterpilot #b29 #strategicstudying #tokyo #boeing #incendiary

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Hello, and welcome to episode 416 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:44.6	My name is Seth Parrott and historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces
0:47.5	Museum here at Camp Shelby. And with me, as always, is my esteemed co-host, retired Navy Captain
0:51.8	Bill Tote, former skipper of the Fast Tech submarine, U.S.S. Indianapolis Indianapolis, Kamenore, Submarine Squad, and Three in Port Harbor, and many others.
0:57.6	How are you this September the 3rd, Bill?
1:00.8	Well, I'm doing okay, Seth. I came back last night from celebrating my mother's
1:05.4	92nd birthday up in Roanoke, Virginia, and woke up this morning with a sore throat, I'm afraid.
1:12.6	And, you know, I thought saying to you, hey, let's push this back a day.
1:17.0	Today's episode is very, very important.
1:20.1	You know, we promised our viewers that we would share everything honestly with them, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
1:26.1	And today's is certainly ugly but it
1:29.0	needs to be said you know so many comments recently set have been i had no idea and i think there's
1:37.0	going to be a lot of stuff we're going to talk about today where we're going to get people saying
1:41.0	i have no idea that that's the way this went down.
1:46.1	Yeah, I would agree with you.
1:47.1	And unfortunately, I think a lot of the comments are going to, I agree, they're going to be,
1:50.6	I had no idea it was that bad.
1:53.8	I think that's, yeah, I think that's what we're going to see a lot of.
1:57.5	And with that, let's get into it. So the use, and let me just segue
2:03.4	this into what we talked about right before we started recording. Last week, if you watched
2:08.8	our episodes last week with James Scott, we did an overall strategic, how did you put it, Bill,
	...

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