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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
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Great history share. Having taken off from Guam on bombing missions i can definitely understand, although we never had that many aircraft in one raid.
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LTC John Griscom
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Fantastic post, thanks,
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LTC Stephen F.
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Thank you my friend Lt Col Charlie Brown for posting a historical example of how ineffective bombs were in the mid-20th century.

As a military historian, I had to chuckle at the strange statement "To think of 600 B-29s all taking off to bomb Japan at one time is beyond imagination."

Basic USA aircraft statistics for WWII
• 276,000 aircraft manufactured in the US .
• 43,000 planes lost overseas, including 23,000 in combat.
• 14,000 lost in the continental U.S.

1. Strategic bombing was generally inefficient and not accurate which is why high-altitude carpet-bombing was generally employed because of anti-aircraft capabilities -missiles through fighter/pursuit aircraft tended to be more accurate in eliminating bombers than the bombers were in destroying targets [without a lot of collateral damage].
2. In WWII collateral damage - killing of civilians - was a fact of life since total warfare was being employed on all sides.
3. Strategic bombing by USA in daylight over Europe, by UK and Commonwealth in darkness was generally terror bombing in that instead of pinpoint bombing [currently available] area bombing was employed to blanket an area - Germany tended to put facilities worthy of being bombed in areas in close proximity to civilians [in contrast with their extermination camps.]


The Troubles with Bombing during World War 2
Getting bombed or doing the bombing was pretty much standard during World War 2. But contrary to popular believe, it wasn't all that straightforward. Here we take a look at some of the problems that plagued a bombardier before his final drop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-m7aS5EDfE

FYI LTC (Join to see) LTC Stephen C. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt David A Asbury SMSgt Lawrence McCarter TSgt Joe C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan LTC Greg Henning LTC (Join to see) SGT James Murphy SSG Franklin Briant SFC Chuck Martinez CSM Charles Hayden SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt David A Asbury
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MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
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An excellent explanation of the problems facing our bomber crews!
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