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Finished Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945 . Really good look at the air campaign against the home islands of Japan. It starts with the Doolittle raid and ends with the supply drops to the POWs after the surrender. Tillman is sympathetic to the reasons LeMay changed to the firebombing tactics used to burn Japan's cities to the ground. He basically says that the technology wasn't mature enough for a precision attacks like Europe. Even there he says percision attacks were a misnomer to say the least. He also covers Navy operations over the home islands from Feb '45 on.
He doesn't have anything good to say about the Japanese high command. He states that the service rivalaries in Japan made those in the US seem like mild disagreements. It made there air defense efforts ineffective to say the least.
He also goes into the decision to drop the Atomic Bombs. He states that Truman could not have not dropped them, given the state of the nation at the time. He also goes into Japanese documents that support the decision, Basically the gov't of Japan was going to commit national hara-kari, no matter what. Even after the bombs dropped, the cabnet was not going to surrender. It did however convince the emperor that he had to stop it.
Interesting tidbits - The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had never been tested. Combat operations continued after the atomic bomb missions. After the Nagasaki raid, there were no more a-bombs available, the next ones would have been available sometime in September. The Japanese beheaded several captured air crew after the surrender announcement.
Excellent book, fairly quick read.
Currently reading Nelson DeMille's new John Corey thriller The Lion.
He doesn't have anything good to say about the Japanese high command. He states that the service rivalaries in Japan made those in the US seem like mild disagreements. It made there air defense efforts ineffective to say the least.
He also goes into the decision to drop the Atomic Bombs. He states that Truman could not have not dropped them, given the state of the nation at the time. He also goes into Japanese documents that support the decision, Basically the gov't of Japan was going to commit national hara-kari, no matter what. Even after the bombs dropped, the cabnet was not going to surrender. It did however convince the emperor that he had to stop it.
Interesting tidbits - The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had never been tested. Combat operations continued after the atomic bomb missions. After the Nagasaki raid, there were no more a-bombs available, the next ones would have been available sometime in September. The Japanese beheaded several captured air crew after the surrender announcement.
Excellent book, fairly quick read.
Currently reading Nelson DeMille's new John Corey thriller The Lion.
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