PREVIEW: #LEMAY: B-29: From a two-hour conversation with author James Scott re his book, Black Snow, re the relentless determination of USAAF Curtis LeMay to complete his mission and take care of his air crews no matter what obstacles he met. More of th
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2024
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
1945 B-29
Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb by James M. Scott
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Snow-Curtis-Firebombing-Atomic/dp/1324002999/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1X64JYW3Z1OT9&keywords=BLACK+SNOW+JAMES+SCOTT&qid=1674137497&s=books&sprefix=black+snow+james+scott%2Cstripbooks%2C61&sr=1-1
Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is John Bachelor, conversation with James Scott, the author of many books about World War II history, |
| 0:07.5 | but in particular the most recent Black Snow, Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo and the road to the atomic bomb. |
| 0:17.4 | Conversation with James turned on Curtis LeMay, the man who invented the idea of low-level bombing by B29's with incendiary devices |
| 0:29.6 | that created a firestorm over Tokyo in March of 1945 far more damaging than any other |
| 0:37.6 | bombing had ever made against Tokyo and arguably competitive with the atomic weapon that was not used on |
| 0:46.2 | Tokyo. However in this instance we're talking about Curtis LeMay problem |
| 0:51.3 | solver and here's James to tell the story of when Curtis LeMay was in |
| 0:57.0 | Asia dealing with Down B29 pilots and how he needed indigenous people's help and what they wanted for. |
| 1:04.9 | James Scott, the book is Black Snow, Curtis LeMay, the fire bombing of Tokyo and |
| 1:09.2 | the road to the atomic bomb. |
| 1:11.2 | Much more of this later tonight. Yeah, so that's actually when LeMay, but right before he gets to the Mariana, |
| 1:16.1 | he spends a little bit of time in India and China, flying, commanding B29s that are going against targets in deep in southern Japan. |
| 1:23.6 | And so LeMay at that point is he, and again, |
| 1:27.5 | he's such a pragmatist. |
| 1:28.6 | So he's trying to get for crews that go down in the jungles. He needs to be able to rescue them. |
| 1:35.5 | And so he goes the natives, he reaches out some of these native tribes and they say, well, you know, we need your help and they don't want money they want opium and so |
| 1:44.0 | LeMaye is exasperated subordinate comes in and he says you know we can't we can't pay |
| 1:49.6 | him an opium you know what are we gonna do here and LeMay said if they want opium, you're going to pay them in opium. And you |
| 1:54.7 | guess, well, how are we going to log that for accounting purposes? And so they come up with the idea that they'll just put fertilizer. |
| 2:01.0 | And so, but for LeMay, again, it was, I'm not going to let bureaucracy get in the way of the results I need. And the results I need here are, I need indigenous help to get my air crews back. And if they want to open, we will give them opium. |
| 2:14.0 | Because we've got these trained pilots and airmen, we need them. |
| 2:18.0 | And again, problem solver. |
... |
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