quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
...Consider during the Cold War, multiple SAC bases all across the US were prepared to launch multiple nuke loaded B52s (each with multiple nukes aboard) at a moments notice. Then factor in the nuke sub fleet...

Don't forget the AF land-based ICBMs, 1000 Minutemen and 54 Titan IIs at peak.

I really don't think we can comprehend the power of just one of these .... just like we can't comprehend the pressure that Sub was under when it imploded .... I guess nukes are basically a man made product that we created from nature. I was and am still humbled ... back in '95 I was standing on the edge of the caldera of the volcano on the big island of Hawaii and was looking down into the massive hole in the earth probably 1/4 mile deep with folks walking around and read a plaque that said a few years ago there had been a 'slight' event and the floor had risen up 800ft.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
One of the pretty much forgotten facts is we, the US even before dropping the two 'big' bombs on Japan had already out killed both Germany and Japan with bombing of 'civilians'. Look up March 9th and 10th of 1945.... we incinerated 16 Square miles of Tokyo.... best guess is over 100,000 people were incinerated.

The Lefties like to pivot around the fact that the US was the only one to use a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima and Nagaski, thus the US is the most horrible. I then like to ask them their thoughts are on the raids over Tokyo, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Nanking, London, Chongqing etc... all of which either matched or, surpassed the deaths of the two atomic targets.

Most are dumbfounded, some try to split-hairs and others attempt to argue with emotion with no real knowledge or, understanding of the war, the issues and what preceded the usage of the two bombs.

Several reasons for Hiroshima and Nagasaki from what I've seen.... first we had spent a hell of a lot of time and money building the damn things, second it was a hell of a lot easier to fly two planes than the hundreds it took to bomb the other cities.... and finally I saw this mentioned in a YouTube video a few months ago about the option we had to use a British group flying Lancasters to drop the bombs if we weren't able to modify our own bombers in time.... it was noted that those two cities were the only two major cities of any worth left in Japan......

As I'm nearing end of this book in advance of movie, I'm more likely to be distraught by the complete screwing this guy took from the paranoid witch hunt laser focused on him.

This won't help the nuclear energy industry a bit and that's unfortunate; we need it to grow!

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Several reasons for Hiroshima and Nagasaki from what I've seen.... it was noted that those two cities were the only two major cities of any worth left in Japan......

There was a number of cities that were not devastated like Tokyo, which were considered targets- Kokura, Yokohama, Niigata, Yokohama and Kyoto.

Hiroshima was targeted as it was the Japanese Army's HQ for Southern Japan and a big communications hub. OP Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan, was going to come up from the South so, knocking-out key nodes of defense was a priority in shaping the battlefield.

Nagasaki was actually an alternative target, Kokura was the primary target being a principal manufacturing area of munitions and a major transportation crossroads between Kyushu and the main island Honshu. Nagasaki was a major port on Kyushu and served as the backup to the Kokura target.

All the talk about how the various cities geography played a major role, while important, didn't drive the decision and only served to sensationalize a sadistic angle that the anti-nuclear crowd likes to play-up.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Several reasons for Hiroshima and Nagasaki from what I've seen.... first we had spent a hell of a lot of time and money building the damn things, second it was a hell of a lot easier to fly two planes than the hundreds it took to bomb the other cities.... and finally I saw this mentioned in a YouTube video a few months ago about the option we had to use a British group flying Lancasters to drop the bombs if we weren't able to modify our own bombers in time.... it was noted that those two cities were the only two major cities of any worth left in Japan......

Target city recommendations for atomic bombing missions.

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/...tee-recommendations/

B. It was the recommendation of those present at the meeting that the first four choices of targets for our weapon should be the following:

a. Kyoto

b. Hiroshima

c. Yokohama

d. Kokura Arsenal

As noted above, Nagasaki was the secondary target on the mission.

Also note that at the beginning of the document it states that the Air Force would agree to reserve and not attack these targets, so they were deliberately left alone. Not stated here, but the reason was bombing an already bombed out city wouldn’t have had the desired psychological effect. The US wanted to make clear the destructive power they had available.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Several reasons for Hiroshima and Nagasaki from what I've seen.... first we had spent a hell of a lot of time and money building the damn things, second it was a hell of a lot easier to fly two planes than the hundreds it took to bomb the other cities.... and finally I saw this mentioned in a YouTube video a few months ago about the option we had to use a British group flying Lancasters to drop the bombs if we weren't able to modify our own bombers in time.... it was noted that those two cities were the only two major cities of any worth left in Japan......

And I think the real reason was to cow the Japanese into surrendering. Sending one plane with one bomb that flattened one fair sized city was the ultimate terror weapon. And I don't mean to apologize for that in any way. We meant to drive home the point that they should surrender now or be utterly destroyed. (Of course we were out of bombs at that point, but they didn't know that.)

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

...(Of course we were out of bombs at that point, but they didn't know that.)

None in theater. Gen Groves expected to ship a second implosion device (Fat Man) core and initiator on Aug 12 or 13, it would be ready for delivery after Aug 17 or 18. From Richard Rhodes, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."

I'm into this stuff as from 1989-93 I worked at an Army ammo depot in Kure, about 20 miles south of Hiroshima. Plus I worked with nukes a few years earlier at a CONUS army depot.

Just finished a good book with behind-the-scenes details of surrender negotiations at the White House and the Imperial Palace plus the internal bickering. The focus is on Secretary of War Henry Stimson, foreign minister Shigenori Togo, and Gen Carl Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific.

Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II

https://www.amazon.com/Road-Su...399589252/ref=sr_1_1

At 9:20 a.m. on the morning of May 30, General Groves receives a message to report to the office of the secretary of war “at once.” Stimson is waiting for him. He wants to know: has Groves selected the targets yet?

So begins this suspenseful, impeccably researched history that draws on new access to diaries to tell the story of three men who were intimately involved with America’s decision to drop the atomic bomb—and Japan’s decision to surrender. They are Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atom bomb; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who supervised the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, the only one in Emperor Hirohito’s Supreme War Council who believed even before the bombs were dropped that Japan should surrender.

Henry Stimson had served in the administrations of five presidents, but as the U.S. nuclear program progressed, he found himself tasked with the unimaginable decision of determining whether to deploy the bomb. The new president, Harry S. Truman, thus far a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson’s recommendation to drop the bomb. Army Air Force Commander Gen. Spaatz ordered the planes to take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war. After the bombs were dropped, Foreign Minister Togo was finally able to convince the emperor to surrender.

To bring these critical events to vivid life, bestselling author Evan Thomas draws on the diaries of Stimson, Togo and Spaatz, contemplating the immense weight of their historic decision. In Road to Surrender, an immersive, surprising, moving account, Thomas lays out the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings, motivations, and decision-making of three people who changed history.

quote:

Originally posted by Anubismp:
To Blumes point I recommend "Logical Insanity" by Dan Carlin to anyone. He basically describes and discusses the concept of bombing campaigns to that point versus the Atomic bomb.

One of the all-time best Hardcore History episodes, IMO.

Well worth the $2.99, if you missed it the first time around while it was free.

https://www.dancarlin.com/prod...tz-logical-insanity/

Tickets on sale now for those looking to advance purchase and select seats. Even in our area, they've already expanded IMAX schedule from just a 7:30 show time each day to 3 or more. Assuming that was in part due to early traffic on the single seating.

Saturday at noon for me, thank you very much. Mostly pick of the entire seating other than 8 or so sold before me.

^^^^^^^^^

Yes, when I bought tickets last month, most of the seats in each of the IMAX/70mm showings in Dallas were sold, we found some decent seats on a Wed. night. The film is only being shown in a small number of states in IMAX/70mm film; AZ, CA, FL, GA, IN, MI, NY, PA, RI, TX, and TN. 19 theaters total.

Looks like only 1 IMAX in Houston, not far from me, but may look at the Star Cinema Grill instead. Enjoyed Ford v Ferrari & TG: Maverick there.

The film will be in two TX theaters in the IMAX/70mm film format- Dallas and San Antonio. It will be in Houston at the Regal Edwards in IMAX/Digital

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
The film will be in two TX theaters in the IMAX/70mm film format- Dallas and San Antonio. It will be in Houston at the Regal Edwards in IMAX/Digital

Gotcha, saw that the IMAX in Tomball had it, but didn't specify specific format.

Yes, I should have acknowledged that in MS (and anywhere within a 3 hour drive) we don't have access to full 70mm IMAX projection. Instead we just get what is referred to as "LieMAX" imposter of dual 2K Digital integration on a big screen.

Still better than home!

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Look up March 9th and 10th of 1945.... we incinerated 16 Square miles of Tokyo.... best guess is over 100,000 people were incinerated.

That's another one the lefties want us to feel bad about. I think Curtis Lemay said it best in the aftermath:

"We don't pause," LeMay would write, "to shed any tears for uncounted hordes of Japanese who lie charred in that acrid-smelling rubble. The smell of Pearl Harbor fires is too persistent in our nostrils."

The Third Shot

https://outrider.org/nuclear-w.../articles/third-shot