The Last Bomb
- NOT RATED
- Year:
- 1945
- 35 min
- 111 Views
Early in 1945
our B-29s began full-scale
operations against Japan.
1,500 miles to the targets...
and 1,500 miles back.
From bases at Saipan, Tinian and Guam.
Here, 21st Bomber Command
concentrated its massive air power
and planned the ultimate
crushing defeat of Japan,
down to the last bomb.
Here was the beginning
of the end of the road to Tokyo.
After six months of reoccupation,
there were few signs of war along
the quiet summer shores of Guam.
The liberated Chamorrans
were back in their native villages,
American citizens again,
smiling and friendly, unaware that
a miracle had happened around them.
A miracle that moved mountains
of material, equipment and supplies
across the Pacific,
into highways,
into acres of blacktopped airfields.
Nearby, new communities of American
citizens had set up housekeeping
with various types of self-service...
the latest labor-saving devices,
few laundry problems...
and no modern inconveniences.
By midsummer, 21st Bomber Command
was in business - big business.
Under General LeMay's direction,
the enemy with appalling power.
From Guam, Tinian, and Saipan
600-plane missions
increased the bombing weight
100 per cent in two months.
Behind this expanding power
was planning.
The LeMay plan began on the ground,
with maintenance.
Assembly-line technique
from three days to less than half a day.
In shops and hardstands crews work
day and night during the blitz weeks
to keep more B-29s on the line.
By July, LeMay's Bomber Command
is an efficient,
well-drilled machine of destruction.
Here's a vital cog of that machine-
11 men and a bomber.
While they wind up for action,
let's find out where they're going
and some of the things they're going
to do and why and with what.
How do they set up the longest,
toughest bomber mission in history?
in the war room at Guam
with General LeMay receiving a report
on tomorrow's weather in Japan.
Tomorrow's forecast is typical.
Nagoya, eight tenths
cloud above 10,000 feet.
In the east, Tokyo area
will be six tenths at 22,000,
three tenths at 14,000 feet,
closing up solid after 11 A.M...
Osaka and everything west
is completely socked in.
How will the general solve that one?
His B-29s are up against a blank wall
except for an opening around Tokyo.
The old man considers every factor
and makes his decision.
at ten o'clock.
They'll go in under that weather
and bomb at 12,000.
Now it's a question of target selection.
First priority in the Tokyo area
is number 573.
Intelligence informs the general that 573
is already three quarters destroyed.
At the moment 574, still untouched,
would seem more important.
Operations checks
the tactical plan for 574.
General LeMay orders
the required changes, OKs the target
and commits
all executive details to his staff.
Operations, with its deputy chief of staff
and project officer,
goes to work setting up the changes.
In that plans folder
is a mountain of preparation
Intelligence and Operations,
collated facts and figures have
been distilled into tactical plan 574.
Aircraft will assemble as briefed
with three groups of P-51s for escort.
Smoke markers at one-minute intervals
will be dropped to expedite departure
from assembly point.
One squadron each wing
will carry M47 incendiary clusters.
Balance of squadrons,
500 and 1,000Ib GP bombs
fused a quarter second nose and tail.
Altitude of attack, 12,000 feet.
Planes of 314th wing
will carry capacity fuel loads
of approximately
7,300 gallons per plane.
Calibrated airspeed of 210mph will be
flown by all aircraft on bombing run.
Radar landfall 34 50' north and 01 40
east will be the same for all planes
to afford a good
land-water contrast checkpoint.
The Navy has requested to furnish
the following facilities
for air-sea rescue purposes-
three surface vessels
four submarines assigned
to lifeguard duties at positions Y,
two Dumbos to orbit at station Z,
four B-29s will orbit as super Dumbos
at the following positions.
The plan is double-checked.
To supervise
certain aspects of planning,
Lieutenant Colonel Caton,
a former lead crew pilot,
was brought over to staff
as project officer.
This officer's extensive
combat experience
helps to iron out operational kinks.
He will accompany this mission
at assembly point.
now dispatched to the wings.
Takeoff time is flashed to the controller,
who coordinates the vast network
of communications
gathered here at the heart
Here in the control room
status panels and a mission board
are maintained
to show at a glance the up-to-the-minute
details of all daily operations.
Prior to takeoff,
each mission is set up on the board
to afford a visual progress of the flight.
From takeoff to target and return.
Colored yarns, one for each wing,
are laid out to indicate the flight lines,
which pass close to Iwo Jima,
the halfway point.
And proceed as specified
in the field order to the proper target.
Other symbols are used to mark
air-sea rescue positions.
A timetable of statistics for each wing,
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"The Last Bomb" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_last_bomb_12235>.
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