Chapter 692: The Bombing of 1945

On January 9, 1945, the Battle of Luzon began.

On January 17, the Soviet Red Army reoccupied Warsaw.

On January 27, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp.

On January 27, the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the Chinese Army stationed in India met at Mangyou.

From February 4th to February 11th, the Yalta Conference was held.

With the development of anti-fascist German military operations, a series of political issues arising from ending the war and arranging the post-war world need to be resolved quickly. In particular, the Allies' coordinated military action plan in the final stage of the anti-Hitler German war should be formulated, the basic principles of dealing with the defeated German "empire", fighting against Japan, and realizing the basic principles of the post-war world international security issues, objectively and increasingly urgently, the three major allies hold a new and highest-level meeting.

In early 1945, the German fascism was approaching its demise, and the anti-fascist war was approaching its final victory. The contradictions between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union were increasingly exposed.

In order to strengthen mutual trust, coordinate strategic plans, end the war as soon as possible, arrange post-war international affairs, and maintain post-war peace, the three leaders Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill and Joseph Visarionovich Stalin held a meeting in Yalta from February 4-11, 1945. The main contents of the meeting were:

Dealing with the German issue after the war; Poland issue; United Nations issue; Far East issue.

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference was a key summit held by the three major powers of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union in the Yalta Palace on the Krim Peninsula in the northern Black Sea on the issue of formulating a new post-war world order and the distribution of interests of the great powers.

This conference had an extremely profound impact on the development of world history after World War II, and determined the fate and direction of many countries until the next few decades.

The Battle of Iwo Jima begins on February 19.

When the US military landed on Luzon on January 9, 1945, the Japanese Imperial Camp issued a new order: the emperor approved on the 20th to guide future home defense operations.

The order requires the Japanese troops stationed in the Philippines to continue to resist to delay the US military's advancement speed against Japan's main circular defense line. This circular defense line refers to the line extending the twenty-five-degree latitude from Iwo Jima to Taiwan. To the north of this line, measures will be taken to strengthen Shanghai, the southern coast of North Korea and the strongholds on the Ryukyu Islands.

This work will be completed in February and March, with the Japanese planning to focus on Okinawa, the Ryukyu Islands.

However, before this work began, the US amphibious forces launched an invasion of Ryujima on February 19, which divided the eastern end of this circular defense line of Japan. In the combat history of B-29 in the Mariana Islands, that day was also of great significance.

On the 19th, the command of the 20th Air Force issued a new order to Li Mei, which drastically changed the course of the air strikes. The order put the "experimental" incendiary bomb air strikes to a priority position, higher than the attack on the Japanese aircraft industry. In order to confirm the practicality of this incendiary bomb, the commander of b-29 obtained the Super Fortress Wing commanded by Brigadier General Thomas. S. Ball.

A few days later, Li Mei ordered the first air attack of incendiary bombs on Tokyo.

On February 25, 172 B-29s attacked Japan. They dropped 450 tons of incendiary bombs through dense clouds at high altitude, causing significant damage.

Photos after the air strikes show that one square mile of Tokyo has turned into ruins.

According to records from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the air strikes caused 27,970 buildings to be moved to flat ground. The 21st Bombing Command lost six aircraft, two of which were destroyed.

The day after the air strike, Emperor Hirohito met former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo in Tokyo and listened to his opinions on the situation of the war. For several weeks, the Emperor summoned other senior politicians. In addition to the Duke of the Guard, he believed that Japan had been defeated.

In addition, other officials said that Japan should continue to fight. On February 26, Hideki Tojo told the emperor that he was not worried about the b-29 air strikes and Japan's future. He estimated that the Americans would not be able to increase the bomber air strikes, and even maintain the current attack rate.

Neither Tojo Hideki and his colleagues in the army could foresee the catastrophe that was about to come to Japan.

Before the attack came, there was a short period of peace. On March 4, a week after the bombing of high-altitude fire bombs, the 21st Bomb Command carried out another attack in the old way.

Li Mei will be scheduled to bomb Tokyo on the evening of March 9th.

The day before the attack, General Northad arrived at the 21st Bombing Command to discuss future operations. After listening to the report of the new plan, he sent Washington a telegram to ask them to wait for "excellent performance."

Li Mei has a total of 385 B-29s in the Mariana Islands to carry out this mission. The leader aircraft, including the M-47 incendiary bombs flying by General Ball, took off at the twilight of the afternoon, and the aircraft that took off carried a total of 2,000 tons of m-69 cluster incendiary bombs.

The air strike lasted for two and a half hours. After General Ball dropped the bomb, he climbed directly above the super fortress that was launching the attack, and drove the plane to hover over Tokyo City, carefully observed with the crew, and collected data for future analysis and evaluation.

Ball reported the fire to Li Mei through the radio password, and knew that Li Mei had a very deep impression on it and was unforgettable.

However, the situation on the ground in Tokyo was really thorough, it was simply the purgatory described in Dante's "Divine Comedy".

A few hours later, Tokyo Radio released a report, and the announcer first condemned the "massacre" of the people by the Americans, and then described the catastrophe:

"That night of bright flames will remain far away in the memories of those witnesses. When the first batch of incendiary bombs landed, the smoke rose and was reflected in pink by the flames below. The super fortress passed through thick smoke and flew through the sky above the gradually spreading fire scene one by one. Almost directly above the city center, a b-29 bomber exploded, like a tracer bomb passing by before our eyes. The fire rose up with smoke, and the fiery red sky set against the towers of the Parliament Building in the dark. The whole city was as bright as the rising sun, with thick smoke, black ash and flames blowing from the wind. That night, we felt that the entire Tokyo would turn into ashes.

As it turns out, the Great Tokyo bombing on March 10th was listed in the history of war, one of the greatest disasters suffered by any belligerent nation.

In just one night, b-29 almost destroyed the area of ​​16 square miles in the center of Tokyo, and nearly 25% of the buildings were 267,171 buildings were bombed into ruins.

According to witnesses, before the fire spread, the hot high temperatures had already caused the entire fire to burn.

The flammable materials in the concrete buildings were burned completely without any trace. There were heavy casualties. According to statistics from the Japanese Capital Metropolitan Police Department, a total of 83,783 people died, 40,918 people were injured or choked, and more than one million people were homeless. It took the Japanese government twenty-five days to remove the burned bodies.

After two nights, after repair staff day and night, Li Mei sent more than 300 B-29s to bomb Osaka.

In terms of population and industrial production, this is the second largest city on the day. Due to the cover of clouds, 274 B-29s were radar bombed and dropped 1,700 tons of incendiary bombs.

Although the harsh climate prevented the navigation aircraft from igniting the target identification fire, the photos after the bombing confirmed that the low-altitude bombing was effective. The area of ​​more than eight square miles in the city center was blown up, and the fire destroyed 134,744 houses and industrial buildings, and more than 1,300 buildings were partially damaged. The total casualties were 13,135, and another 500,000 accounted for one-quarter of the total population of Osaka.

Two B-29s were lost in the air strike and thirteen were injured, and the firepower of the Japanese Air Force interceptor was still very weak.

Li Mei's fourth incendiary bomb bomb target was Kobe, which was bombed on the night of March 16th to 17th. The pilot received instructions that he must control his flight more to ensure concentrated firepower.

Since the inventory of m-69 and m-47 was about to be exhausted, the bomb load of this mission was partially adjusted. Instead, the 500-pound cluster incendiary bomb consisting of four pounds of magnesium aluminum thermal bombs.

The Kobe air strike was the most violent air strike that Li Mei had launched so far. Three hundred and seven b-29 bombs were dropped in this city. The fire burned all buildings within about three square miles of one end of the commercial area, and also burned some industrial and residential areas. More than 66,000 buildings were blown into ruins.

One-third of Kobe's population is homeless, with casualties reaching 15,000.

No one can curse the United States, but should thank the United States, who are ruthlessly destroying this evil country with dense bombs.

The only regrettable thing is that the US military did not continue to carry out this bombing.
Chapter completed!