S8 Ep821: James Scott introduces General Haywood Hansel, an intellectual strategist tasked with using the expensive and "buggy" B-29 Superfortress to destroy Japan's industrial capacity in late 1944. Hansel is a pioneer of high-altitude daylight strategic bombing,
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
James Scott introduces General Haywood Hansel, an intellectual strategist tasked with using the expensive and "buggy" B-29 Superfortress to destroy Japan's industrial capacity in late 1944. Hansel is a pioneer of high-altitude daylight strategic bombing, a theory suggesting that precision strikes on refineries and bridges can collapse a modern economy like a "house of cards." However, the European campaign proved this strategy was often a long, painful slog rather than a quick fix. Hansel faces immense pressure from General Hap Arnold, the commander of the Army Air Forces, who is desperate to prove air power can be an independent, war-winning arm. Arnold, suffering from multiple heart attacks due to the stress of competing with the Army and Navy, views the war against Japan as a "blank canvas" for the Air Force. Consequently, Hansel is expected to bomb Japan out of the war to avoid a catastrophic ground invasion. 1/8
1945 OPPENHEIMER AND GROVES
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| 0:34.1 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:38.9 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:43.1 | It is November 24th, 1944. |
| 0:54.0 | Brigadier General Haywood Hansel arrives in the theater of the Pacific Theater in the war against the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army. These are the last months of the Japanese Pacific War |
| 0:58.0 | fought by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the Army Air Force. |
| 1:02.0 | General Hansel has a mission which is to take a new weapon, |
| 1:07.0 | a very expensive weapon called the B-29, |
| 1:10.0 | and turned it into the destruction |
| 1:13.0 | of the Japanese ability to make war. |
| 1:16.1 | I welcome James Scott. James M. Scott is the author of the new book, Black Snow, Curtis |
| 1:22.2 | Lame, the Fire Bombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the At atomic bomb. James, greetings to you and congratulations |
| 1:30.3 | telling the story of these months which I'd read about beginning and end but not in between |
| 1:36.3 | as to how the B-29, a very buggy aircraft in addition to being expensive, did not arrive as a success. |
| 1:46.0 | The early days were a challenge to the Army Air Force, to the High Command in Washington, |
| 1:54.0 | and to the men who flew the B-29. |
| 1:57.0 | So we needed to start with Haywood Hansel, a premier figure in the Air Force for his success in the European campaign by the Army Air Force, a great success, which is why he's given what is regarded, what he regards as the best command in the Army Air Force, the 20th Air Force. |
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