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The John Batchelor Show

RAGE OF THE USAAF MARCH-AUGUST 1945: 7/8: Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb by James M. Scott

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

RAGE OF THE USAAF MARCH-AUGUST 1945: 7/8: 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.

1927 TOKYO BAY

Transcript

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0:54.0

However, back in Guam, Curtis Lemay, who launched these 325 bombers, and everyone on the

1:00.8

Amerianis and also back in Washington is waiting for results. As James tells us, they expected

1:06.6

up to 70% casualties. James, you provide a human scene, Lemay can't sleep, and he and a colleague

1:15.7

go for a couple of Coca-Cola's from his Quoncent Hunt. They finally get word that there's light

1:22.4

flock. What is their first understanding of the raid and how it's going?

1:27.4

You know, and Lemay is sort of always kind of this figure, you know, this sort of reserved guy,

1:31.4

you know, and he admits he couldn't sleep this mission. And so he doesn't, he lingers in the

1:37.7

operations center. And then he's finally, he's just stressed out. He knows that one way or another,

1:43.8

his whole career is going to be defined by what happens on this night, either by disaster or

1:48.8

success. And so it's a lot riding on him. And so he does. He connects with, with his, the press

1:55.6

officials for the 21st bomber command, who's in there kind of waiting to see what the results are,

2:00.7

so that he can release the stories that reporters have put together until Lemay says,

2:04.2

let me get you a coke. And so they jump in his car, head over to his tent, and they grab some

2:10.0

cocks and they sit there. And Lemay is just totally distracted. He's rattling off about what his

2:14.8

experience was like in India and everything. He's doing everything he can to distract him and

2:18.4

to kill time till they get back to the operations hut. And then the first reports start coming in

...

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