History’s deadliest bomber | B-29 Superfortress
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2023
- With the dubious honour of being history’s deadliest bomber and the only aircraft to drop a nuclear weapon in combat, the B-29 Superfortress is arguably the most important, and controversial, aircraft in human history. Its story is one of ground-breaking innovation, human daring, unimaginable destruction, and decisions that would dictate the course of the twentieth century. This is the B-29 Superfortress.
Content Warning: distressing accounts of bombings and POW camps from survivors.
Read more about Britain’s history of nuclear weapons here: www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-hi...
Would you push the nuclear button?
www.iwm.org.uk/history/would-...
See our B-29 up close, visit IWM Duxford. Plan your visit:
www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-dux...
Explore and licence the film clips used in this video from IWM Film: film.iwmcollections.org.uk/my...
This video also contains archive material from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
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My father was a USAAF B-29 navigator in the Pacific 1944-1945. He died in 2016 age 94. I have his original flight jacket with squadron insignia.
My family are Friends of Doc since 2015. My (then 16 year old) son and I toured FIFI when she visited Boire Field in Nashua NH in 2018.
Hey hey i was there in nashua, beautiful plane fifi is
For many men, and that includes my father and all my uncles, WWII was the high point of their lives. I know it sounds ridiculous, but their generation, who had lived through the Depression, saw the fanatical onslaught of the Nazis in Europe for what it was: the victory of evil incarnate over democracy, and America was the first democracy to unite itself into the most powerful industrial and military force on the planet.
No way these guys were going to sit around and watch the British democracy crushed under the Nazi boot. And when they got into action, many Europeans had to eat their words when they had declared Americans too soft and pampered. From the Battle of the Bulge in Europe to the ruthless dug-in defenses that had to be conquered where, island after Pacific island, the Marines in man-to-man combat defeated the Japanese in their own empire, the world was made aware of the dangers involved when threatening this seemingly pleasure-seeking culture. Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
I went to an air show last April and received the honor to see one of these fly. As a life long fan of the b17, the b29 is truly a magnificent looking aircraft and something special to see fly.
yeah fr, i love the 17 and the 29 aswell
Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, DSO and two bars, DFC, (Len, to his friends) was the most highly decorated RAF bomber pilot of the war. After observing Nagasaki, he left the service and pretty much by accident founded the Cheshire Homes. Having been awarded the highest military honour, he was subsequently given a peerage for his work in conflict resolution. A truly inspiring man.
Yes, always known as Leonard Cheshire, never Geoffrey.
My parents used to work at one of the Sue Ryder homes (his wife). I lived there a few years too, as a child. Edit: Meant to say - LC and his wife had experience of DPs in Europe and their first few homes had a lot of DPs in. The one where I lived was full of Eastern Europeans. Only when they started dying out in the 80s and 90s did they start replacing them with UK people.
@@alanhopgood1888 I asked my mum about this earlier tonight. She met him a few times, and his wife, as my parents worked at a Sue Ryder home for years. She said nobody called him Leonard on the staff. Everyone called him GC. Group Captain. Although of course GC are his initials too but people still referred to his rank decades after the war.
"Right down to its flush rivets" shows rivet with button head.
For being a “war museum”, they make lots of mistakes -_-
For being a “war museum”, they make lots of mistakes -_-
For being a “war museum”, they make lots of mistakes -_-
For being a “war museum”, they make lots of mistakes -_-
My Dad was a B29 pilot flying out of Saipan during WWII. He flew the Tokyo night raid. One thing not often mentioned and perhaps not widely known was that the B29s were loaded with both incendiary and high explosive bombs. They made two passes... first dropping incindiaries, then circling back 20 minutes later and dropping the high explosive bombs to disrupt fire fighting efforts in the city. Yes, it was brutal... but it was an overall brutal war and no countries military was more brutal and ruthless than Japan's.
You mention and are correct that part of the problem was the Japanese cottage industry that served their war machine. Small factories were widely distributed all over the city and intermingled wirh residential areas, not concentrated in industrial zones as they typically were in Germany and many othet countries.
You also correctly noted the B29 was prone to engine fires. They would overheat if forced to idle too long waiting to take off, but once airborne still required constant, careful monitoring by the flight engineer.
Dad was not involved in the two atomic bomb raids, which were flown out of adjacent Tinian island. The thought at the time was that while the use of atomic bombs was horrendous, the casualties from them would pale in comparison to the losses tjat could be expected on all sides if an invasion of Japan was necessary. It was projected that unless a quick unconditional surrender was forced upon Japan, the war would last years longer, the US would have triple or more casualties, and the cost in Japanese lives could be as high as 10 million. Keep in mind that these were people who were climbing into airplanes loaded with explosives and deliberately sacrificing themselves by diving into Allied ships. On their own soil they could be expected to fight even more brutally in defense of their country and emporer. The Allies had some idea what to expect, after the difficult and costly captures of the Japanese islands Iwo Jima and Okinawa. An invasion of mainland Japan itself would have been exponentially more difficult.
Another factor that probably contributed to Japan's surrender was the Russians declaring war on them the day after the first atomic bomb had been dropped. Up until then, Russia had been neutral toward Japan. In addition to the atomic bombs, Japan faced another foe with millions of battle-hardened soldiers advancing upon them from the East, while the rest of the Allies would likely have invaded from the West. As it was, the Russians and Japanese primarily faced off against each other in Manchria.
After WWII Dad mustered out for about a year, but was invited back to the newly formed US Air Force where he flew and instructed on B29, its tanker versiob KB29, B50, KB5O and even an occasion al B36 (which makes even B29s look small). We lived in England in the late 1950s, while he flew refueling missions for jets patrolling Cold War borders.
very true comment, your father a Hero, my respects
Thank for sharing. Special man your father
Kinda sucks when the war you started comes to your doorstep.
Think about it.
What does "Think about it" mean?@@garryferrington811
The Japanese crying victim after they murdered our boys at Pearl Harbor
Been a while since you guys uploaded thanks for the video
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.".
Thats a fancy way of saying they effed around and found out
That's what Napoleon said about China. "Behold China, she is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep. When she awakens she will destroy the world."
I have a picture taken next to that B-29 during FL2006! The B-29 was the basis for a long family of aircraft sharing parts or design philosophy. The follow up B-50, the C-97, the Stratocruiser, the Supper Guppies and, oddly, the Tu-95 Bear.
This is a very good video. Among other things, it correctly describes the shift in tactics from late-1944 high-altitude high explosive bombing to 1945 incendiary bombing.
To a first-order approximation, this was a shift from USAAF 8th Air Force tactics to RAF Bomber Command tactics in Europe.
This includes the issues so well described of the impact on civilians of incendiary area bombing.
In effect, the USAAF in the Pacific moved away from the tactics it had championed in Europe and adopted the incendiary area bombing championed by the RAF.
I'm surprised that the Imperial War Museum presenter didn't make this obvious point.
Japan was a completely different theatre of the war. There was minimal british presence unlike in Europe. There was no “shift” in tactics. The United States started fire bombing because britain wasn’t there to do it. Be careful of giving credit where no credit is due.
@@CncrndCtzn It's well documented that the B-29 force started doing high-altitude HE bombing. This did not produce the results desired, partly due to jet stream phenomena that were not yet well understood. Curtis LeMay was brought in to take over. He had led much of the 8th AF effort in Europe and certainly observed the RAF Bomber Command tactics there. In his autobiography, he also points out that Japan's cities were very exposed to these RAF fire-bombing tactics (e.g., decentralized factories and lots of wooden buildings).
From a purely military effectiveness point of view, this change can be understood and defended.
From a "rules of war" point of view, understanding the change is challenging. The initial American position in the strategic bombing campaign in Europe *includes* an aversion of unnecessary civilian casualties. By early 1945, there were at least three reasons to reconsider that position. First, with every addition year of the war, the willingness of various militaries to compromise military objectives to avoid additional civilian deaths decreased. Second, as noted, Japanese cities / industry seemed ideal for the RAF tactics. Third, Americans despised the way the Japanese had treated both civilians and their military enemies during the war. This partially (but only partially) distinct from American propaganda that dehumanized the Japanese. (Having grown up in the 1950s, I recall lots of Loony Tunes reruns from the 1940s in the early years of after-school TV.)
This is very important history. To state the obvious, there was a shift in American tactics in early 1945. RAF Bomber Command tactics were used with great effectiveness despite the mass civilian casualties that were understood and accepted. And, of course, this shift made the July 1945 decisions on using the atomic bomb "easier".
Amazing how advanced this design was!
How is it Boeing's built in the 1940's can keep the doors from falling off while on a combat mission, but modern Boeing's can't ?
The US spent 50 percent more to build the B29 than we spent on the A atom
@@paddyjoe1884good question
More amazing is that just 30 years prior, (not even a full generation) airplanes were basically flying kites with engines..
I think this video has extremely balanced content. I think it is a great video every time.
毎回の事ながら極めて秀逸でよく短くまとまった動画だと思います。
空襲については、日本の平和学習や歴史の授業で良く触れる点なので、こうしたことが兵器や核戦争と繋がった動画になっているのは個人的には凄く奇妙な(勿論それはおかしなことではないのですが)感覚でした。
私の祖父も東京大空襲のおり市民として逃げまどっていました。彼は結局自分の体験を語ることはありませんでした。恐らく耐え難かったのでしょう。
勿論日本の帝国主義や侵略戦争の事を考えれば、短絡的な被害者意識に浸るのは許されないことであります。ただ、個人的に、あの空襲の罹災者の声を一人でも動画が紹介してくれた事に感謝したく思います。
All good stuff, apart from 'Marinarus' Islands? Might have been worth re-recording that bit. Also, Geoffrey Cheshire was known by all, then and since, by his second name Leonard. I've never, ever, heard him referred to as Geoffrey.
Marinara's islands? Not only useful for a base for air-ops, but also a great source of tomato sauces.
Well, it certainly wasn’t as perfect as made out to be, it definitely had some issues, a couple quite notorious. It’s also rather difficult to fly, very heavy on the controls.
I’ve flown in Fifi, twice, and plan on doing Doc next year, it’s an incredible experience but I prefer the B-17, flown in that as well. I’ve also seen Enola Gay and Bockscar, up close, they’re quite majestic but the real Memphis Belle put tears in my eyes.
I have been in the Doc, but did not get to fly in it. It was sad how few people were there to see it. An amazing piece of history.
Probably better than B-24s though, I've heard the controls are so heavy pilots would push the yoke with their feet.
very informative video, many thanks to all involved in its production
@12:12 The Norden Bombsight was over-hyped, but calling it "terrible in comparison" is foolish, because the British bombers lacked the electric autopilot that made effective high-altitude bombing possible at all. In point of fact, the electric autopilot integrated with the Norden bombsight is what allowed planes to do things like land safely even after the front of the plane was smashed, and the pilot decapitated; and yes, that actually happened.
All the heavy bombers after 1943 had this setup, and while crews resisted ceding control to the machine, well, here's a quote from Colonel Archie Old after the Vegesack raid: "We had it on automatic pilot; that's where you could do the best piloting because the bombardier is flying the airplane. Some of my lead crews, I would have to threaten to court-marital them if they didn't do that because they thought they could fly it better. They couldn't. It was all geared together."
Even near the end of the war, Harris was pushing for an autopilot like the US bomber had, and didn't get it; if the British system were far superior, why would he push for something worse?
Viewed this fantastic aircraft at Duxford 10 years ago . (!!!!) For me to gaze up at the engineering of the under carriage alone was awe inspiring . To think of the destructive power of this aircraft was humbling . This aircraft could cruise at 350mph at above 30,000ft . It's first flight was December 1941 , the Lancaster was December 1940 , however the bomb load of both was a staggering 22,000 lbs ! However the cruising speed of the B29 was equal to the Spitfire !!!!
"Marinaras" islands? I here they make good sauce there.
Hear.
Lot of good points, but I don’t see how they could possibly conclude the B29 was an upgraded B17… they were barely similar aside from both having 4 engines and lots of guns.
Very different the Manchester becoming the Lancaster.
Couldn’t agree more: the B-29 was an upgraded B-17. Sheer nonsense. Also agree with another reviewer’s comment that the Doolittle Raid was not infamous in the least. And the old saw: if the Japanese had the B-29 and the atom bomb: how would they have used it against us? Or the Germans against Britain. A flawed video.
Hello, Mariannas native here, It’s pronounced Ma Ri a nas. We are not a tasty Italian sauce.
Americans know. We have an im
How come the name of the second B29 that dropped the A bomb on Nagasaki is rarely mentioned? I only learned that it was called Bockscar a few months ago.
I have heard it before, but the name is far less memorable than Enola Gay. It's just one of those things about history, inadvertently some details fade away in short-form content.
That's the nature of history. How many people can name the second human to fly in space or for that matter the crew members of Apollo 12. Also, I think it is spelled 'Boxcar'.
Both are mentioned quite often in my experience
@@barrylenihan8032 Its Bockscar
@@barrylenihan8032 It's Bockscar.
Leonard Cheshire not Geoffrey Cheshire
All these IWM videos have a lot of errors
Geoffrey Cheshire? Leonard, surely!
Looks like it’s Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire so looks like both are correct.
Apparently his full name is Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, but he was always known as Leonard.
I'd like to know more about the B-29 aircraft in your museum. When was it received, where was it ferried from, total flight time, and so on? It's worthwhile knowing since there are only two airworthy examples, and not too many in museums.
I believe it came from one of the boneyards in a US desert. I've seen footage of the engines being started with fire trucks on standby. It was flown over the Atlantic to Duxford. This is all from memory of one visit and one watching of a film so I may be wrong.
Nah, they spent the time talking about how victimized the poor Japanese were.
ruclips.net/video/fLkWBEOAMVI/видео.html
Here you go. I have fond memories of this aircraft as I was an aviation mad keen teenager at the time, loved visiting Duxford but had no idea a B29, no less, had flown in from the USA until my dear Grandmother told me one day out of the blue - 'Oh you might be interested to know...'
ruclips.net/video/fLkWBEOAMVI/видео.html
@@goodfes Thank you!
Great presentation, head and shoulders above the rest. keep them coming !!
There is a gorgeous example on display at the New England Air Museum at Bradley Field in Connecticut. I did volunteer restoration work on her back in the 1980's.
Thanks IWM. Always interesting. 👍
It wasn't just the USMC that seized the Marianas. The Army's 27th and 77th Infantry Divisions were there as well.
The Army always showed up pretty much at the end of those island battles and did mop up work. McArthur used the USMC like cannon fodder.
Tell that to the soldiers on Okinawa that did most of the hard fighting against the Japanese early in battle.
The US Marines were always able to catch the limelight for their Pacific campaigns. The US Army contributions have been embarrassingly downplayed. It was too big a war to make everyone a ‘star’. The B-24 Liberator, the Italian campaign, the Burma campaign, the US Army in the Philippines, and other ‘forgotten’ components of the war would make a whole series of books. I had great uncle who was Marine corpsman at Tarawa and another who was a GI in the Italian campaign, the ‘glamor’ may have been different, but the hellish experience was the same….
"4:11 Boeing fitted the B-29 with four right R 3350 Duplex Cyclone radial engines.
These supercharged 23,200 HP engines were the most powerful piston engines in production,
but they were notorious for overheating, with devastating consequences."
Where did that 23,000 figure come from? Can you cite a reference? 😎
Must be a mistake: it should be twenty-three-hundred. 🙂
First that mistake, then marianas pronounced "marinara", followed by the correct pronunciation. Poor production work.
Turbo supercharged would have been the term of the day, they were NOT just supercharged like most fighters.
@@mo07r1 R-3350's have both a 2 stage internal supercharger and turbochargers on B29's. This is a common mistake due to the naming convention of the time that you mentioned, I see it made in discussion about P47's also. This is further complicated in the R-3350 family due to later civilian and military R-3350 variants using turbocompound another similar but different form of exhaust gas recovery. Instead of using the exhaust turbine to boost intake and manifold pressure it is mechanically linked to the crankshaft to boost output power allowing recovery of ~550 shp.
If you guys know all this stuff then why are you here?
B29 was a delivery system. It was the bomb that was dangerous.
@PBFoote-mo2zr true, but the bomb could have been flown in any aircraft that could lift it.
Well said 💯👍
As unfortunate as it was... manly More lives were saved by ending the war.
🙏☮️🌎
Well put together documentary.... Roger..,. Pembrokeshire UK
"Infamous 1942 Doolittle raid" should be FAMOUS.
Love the absolutely shameless soviet knockoff.
11:11
They did the same with Concorde - check out the Tu-144!! 😁
right down to the flak patches.
Well presented documentary.... very interesting.... thank you.... Roger... Pembrokeshire
Interesting, @12:05 this is the first criticism of the Norden bombsight I've heard from a technical perspective.
Thanks for this 👍✈️🇳🇿
They use to come to Vernam Field, Jamaica on training missions.
Thank you for your presentation.
Outstanding clip on the B29 history.. am looking forward to visiting Duxford in 2025 August. Only had time to visit IWM in London in July 23. Did visit Lakenheath and Mildenhall bases but had to get back to London late in afternoon. I do have the guidebook. Great history. Still serving as USAF civilian employee.
Duxford is near Cambridge. Also close is the cemetery at Madingley. I suggest you visit both places.
Love this channel ❤
What was “infamous” about the Doolittle Raid? The word ‘infamous’ refers to something that is notoriously bad, wicked or having a negative reputation. It signifies a strongly negative public image.
Is it the view of the Imperial War Museum that the Doolittle Raid should be considered this way?
The word ‘infamous’ or ‘infamy’ appears several times in this video. It’s sloppy and not up to your standards.
I think, sadly, they are just ignorant of the meaning. The BBC disgracefully described the Dambusters 1943 raid as 'infamous' a year or so back.
the revisionism.
Great video! Watched the documentary on RUclips of Its Hawg Wild flying to the UK from the USA. Ot was amazing to see!!
Radar used for high altitude bombing daytime bombing was so bad that it was abandoned for nighttime bombing at low altitude. It wasn't "innovative".
WWII US Bombers channel has a lot of related information.
While pointing out the "moral issues" involved with using Atomics on Japan, no mention was made of the fact that said use of Atomics is estimated to have saved the lives over hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers, and over a million Japanese.
Please leave the moralizing to the philosophers---just give us the facts please.
maximum projected allied casualties from operation downfall was 46,000. most estimates said 20,000-26,000. These figures don't include Japanese civilians, but the point stands. the bombs killed 129,000-226,000. Most were civilians. Many died the most horrific deaths imaginable. Japan had already tried to surrender at this point, albeit conditionally (a condition the US refused right up until after dropping the bombs, at which point they granted this condition - the Emperor keeping his position - anyway). The US had the Japanese diplomatic codes cracked and knew how desperate to end the war Japan was even before the USSR entered the war against Japan. The Japanese minister to Switzerland had already asked the OSS about a way to end the war as far back as May. The thinking at the top levels of the US government, as shown by such sources as Truman's own journal, was that Japan would surrender shortly after the USSR declared war on Japan - a supposition which proved correct and which demonstrates that the idea that the expectation was that the bombs were necessary to secure a surrender is inaccurate (and indeed it is largely born of US Truman administration propaganda after the fact).
I would recommend the documentary White Light/Black Rain as well as the following books:
Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History, Kai Bird & Lawrence Lifschultz
Hiroshima, John Hersey
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, Diana Preston
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race, Priscilla Johnson McMillan
You've left a 0 out on those numbers and then some lmao. If you think it would take 20k casualties from invading ALL OF JAPAN against an absolutely fanatical populace with a sizeable stockpile of weapons you are an idiot. @@bumbyonline
@@bumbyonline then why did they produce so many purple hearts that they were still awarding them 80 years later during the global war on terror?
Incorrect, estimates for operation Olympic were in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 allied casualties. @@bumbyonline
@@bumbyonline So what you are saying that the US projected that they'll have less casualties during the mainland invasion than they did in Okinawa?
Good info about the B-29, Thanks.
Damn I really wanna go to the Marinara's islands
Could I get some chicken Parmesan to go with the marinara islands? 😂
😂😂
Informative presentation. Excellent content covering all aspects of the bomber and it's affect on both crews and civilians. Well done!
If you subscribe to the UK
the remote turret control computer system never ceased to amaze me.did the Japanese down the B29s with their flak or night fighters.the B29 seemed so impervious to the WWII fighter planes.did the B17 B24 and B29 use the same bombing sight?when was the interview with the B29 POW gentleman filmed?
By the time the 29’s flew over Japan there weren’t many fighters, or more importantly, pilots left in Japan. From the numbers I’ve seen most were downed by AAA fire. But being up as high as they were, it’s harder to hit them with tracking of the time, especially over Japan.
The firebombing efforts were more deadly than the atomic weapons used. It’s almost inhumane what was done during those campaigns, but as they say, war is hell. It’s creepy reading the source material on how they tested the ‘burn it’ technique, they wanted the most destruction possible, scientific death dealing.
Jup some we're shot down but not much
500 B29s were lost during ww2 to all causes mechanical fighters flak
The Japanese Army Air Service shot down a number of B29s during the war, but they struggled greatly against the combination of overlapping fire of the guided remote weapons and the if I remember correctly, P47s which were used for escort, if I remember correctly, mostly the M and N models. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese actually possessed the capabilities to down bombers at the 25-30000 ft altitudes of the B29 late into the war.
@@violet9214 P51s were escorts.
Have an uncle I never met. He died during the war. Trained to fly both the B-17 and the B-29
Beautiful old bird! Has the amazing opportunity to fly in “Doc” on of the last few airworthy ones!!
B-29 was a heavy bomber in WW2 but was reclassified as a medium after the war because it was dwarfed by the B-36.
I forgot which US General was it but when remarking about the fire bombing of Japanese home islands he said "If we lose this war, I will be tried as a war criminal"
That was how devastating these bombers were when use en mass
Why did the guns have to be removed to carry incendiary bombs? I see no direct need. Of course you can carry more with the weight of the guns gone, but that's not the same as "have to be removed".
Less weight for carrying more. Guns and Gunners where left at home to save weight, and at those altitudes, they where not necessary.
@@mypl510 Right, but that just lets them carry more incendiary bombs. The video implied it was impossible to carry them with the guns and gunners onboard, I was wondering about risk of igniting the incendiaries onboard the aircraft.
@@owensmith7530 No risk, just removing what was not needed, and the weight replaced with more stuff to drop, That's it.
they werent removed because of the need to carry more, but because they largel werent needed at night so the wieght saving could be used for something else.
@@thurin84 * they largely weren't needed at night * Main reason was weight-saving for increased bomb loads, but not being needed assuaged crews' fears . . .
The remote Marinaras Islands, part of the Puttanesca Archipeligo in the sea of Carbonara.
Bailed-out B29 crewmen were badly treated, brutalised and killed in Japan and some of the same happened in Germany to B17 crew. I've never read of bad treatment to downed Luftwaffe crews in UK but USSR would have been different. Rescued crewmen at Midway were bound and thrown back into the sea.
General Patton had the most appropriate philosophy on war-winning tactics.
When the narrator cites the B-29’s carrying the nuclear bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki, she fails to mention that the B-29 was not sufficiently flexible to accommodate those big nukes. But one WWII heavy bomber was, and with a minimum of alterations. The bomber that carried the Dambusters and turned the Battle of Britain into a nightmare for the Germans at a time Britain was completely alone against the Nazi onslaught. The heavy bomber that destroyed Germany’s best-defended cities, the Lancaster, changed the course of WWII Europe. But few know that when the Manhattan Project was able to produce the nuclear weapons so primitive by today’s standards, it was assumed the Lancaster would carry them.
And it would have, until the U.S. high command got wind of it. From the get-go, they insisted an American bomber score the decisive victory that would save the lives of thousands of GIs had they been forced to attack the Japanese mainland. And so a B-29 was virtually dismantled to carry bombs that were physically smaller than the “tall boys” dropped by the Lancs that sank Germany’s last, ultra-defended battleship Tirpitz, hidden in a Norwegian fiord.
Truly, history belongs to the victors.
I am used to aviation vids showing the wrong aircraft than the one being discussed but even the IWM apparently is prone to these errors. B17 bombers are displayed when clearly the narrator is discussing B29s (05:14). B17 shown, then a B29 and then again a group of B17s.
They are making a lot of factual mistakes in the script too…
Marinara Islands? Really? That's Mariana Islands.
What most people don't realize is that the atomic bomb did not do near the death toll that the incendiary bombing in Tokyo did, it's rather humorous to see people having an absolute fit about atomic bomb this an atomic bomb that yet they don't seem to realize that the Tokyo bombing was actually far more questionable then the bombing of to military targets that the atomic bomb was used on. All of this being said I have no problem with any of the bombing that was going on, Japan needed to be convinced that the war was over, it worked, and it's saved More Than A Million Lives
Yes sir... My late Momma told me that, she was born in 1931 and as a little girl she lived in the dark days of WW2 😭
It's not so much the bomb itself, but the radiation poisoning.
@@Poliss95 Incorrect, the death toll takes that all into account, it's still not even close.
I would strongly suggest watching the documentary White Light/Black Rain if you still believe that. Much of what is told about the use of the bombs in the west is straight up falsehood. The million lives figure is pure fiction - the worst, most extreme military estimates of the cost to the US troops in Operation Downfall were 46,000 (obviously this does not include civilian casualties) and most estimates were in the 20,000-26,000 region. That is a lot of lives - but its nowhere near the million statistic parroted today and nowhere near the 129,000-226,000 mostly civilians killed by the bombs, many of them dying the most horrifying deaths imaginable.
Nor was the bomb the key to Japan's surrender - Japan had already tried to surrender. They in fact tried to surrender before the Soviet Union had even declared war on them (though the US did know that such a declaration was imminent, and also were sure that Japan would surrender not long after a Soviet entry into the war as seen in Truman’s own journal). The surrender which was offered was conditional at the time but Japan was at this point looking to end the war on as favourable terms as possible. As far back as May 1945 the Japanese minister to Switzerland had asked the OSS for a way to end hostilities. Even the unconditional Japanese surrender that was finally accepted arguably had less to do with the bombs and more to do with Soviet military actions in the same timeframe that more seriously affected Japanese military capability. The claim the Japanese would never give up under any circumstances is racist orientalism, the “warrior culture that don’t know how to give up” used to justify the bombings. The only Japanese condition was that they be allowed to keep the Emperor, and while the US demanded an unconditional surrender right up until the dropping of the A-bombs they quietly forgot this sticking point and allowed the Emperor to keep his position anyway.
Recommended reading:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, Diana Preston
Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History, Kai Bird & Lawrence Lifschultz
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race, Priscilla Johnson McMillan
Hiroshima, John Hersey
@@Poliss95 it was both that and the fact that the abomb was such a force multiplier. an incendiary raid required hundreds of airplanes and thousands of men while the abom required 1 plane with 1 crew.
Talks about flush rivets contributing to aerodynamics… proceeds to show NON flush rivets to drive home the point lol… other than that minor concern, another wonderful video from IWM.
They make a lot of mistakes…really need to be more discerning with what video clips they use, along with checking facts from someone more familiar with the aircraft…She said it had 23,000hp? She has no clue what she’s talking about, just reading a script. Dude said the B29 was an upgraded B17? Way off. It was disappointing imo.
"Cottage industry". Japan had dispersed war production into civilian houses and neighborhoods. They were legitimate targets.
People today( including me) have no concept of the situation that this plane was introduced into. Japanese planning was always to make it too costly for ‘soft’ British and Americans to take back the territory the IJN had seized. When these efforts didn’t work, the plans became increasingly severe. In my mind it took Both the repeated Nuclear bombing plus the sudden massive Soviet attack in Mongolia on August 9 , within 11 hours of each other to FINALLY force the military hardliners in Tokyo to contemplate surrender….. The imperial Japanese government cared even less about its’ civilians than the Allies did.
Why does the narrator refer to the Doolittle raid as infamous? Bombing the capital city of an enemy that bombed you without declaring war is somehow infamous?
Add the statement: "dubious" honor of dropping the first war ending atomic weapon. Wokeism at it's finest.
I agree a poor choice of phrase which is compounded by the description of the B29s that dropped the atomic bombs as going down in infamy for their involvement in this. Ultimately the Japanese were never going to surrender given their defence of Iwo Jima etc. The allies were not going to condemn soldiers on both sides and civilians in vast numbers to die through an amphibious landing on the mainland and subsequent urban combat.
The atomic bomb was necessary to end the war and its use should not be considered ‘infamous’ it was a means to an end
Just because the attack on Pearl Harbour was described by the US President as 'a day of infamy, does not mean that there were not other days of infamy during WW2.
In fact there were many such instances, including the indescriminate fire bombing of cities intended to kill and terrorise civilian populations without any military objectives in mind.
@@Mr_Springy exactly, the Japanese were fanatics
Also when you look at the the atrocities they committed it was the best option and ultimately probably did save lives on both sides
Many English people have trouble with definitions. Another one is "notorious," which is often confused with "famous." Americans are worse, though.
What, exactly, was "infamous" about the 1942 Doolittle raid? 05:27 I hope you don't think "in" is an intensifier and you're using "infamous" to mean "very famous."
100,000 people kiled in 1 raid. Burned alive. Unimaginably horrific.
The Japanese had a horrific encounter we cannot even imagine. We are talking about civilians not soldiers. Americans have no idea of loss of ordinary people compared to the ones they bombed
Cue the violins for the Japanese people. They started the war, they were brutal to prisoners, civilians in occupied territories, etc. -- rape of Nanjing, Bataan Death March, etc. Operation Meetinghouse saved lives.
@@jeffestrada6857 The 110k US military killed by the Japanese were ordinary citizens before they were forced into a war the Japanese started.
@@brocklanders6969the crimes of the Japanese army doesn't justify the indiscriminate killing of women and children. We should be able to admit that the intentional killing of women and children is always wrong without justifying the crimes of imperial Japan.
@@d.jparer5184how come I never see people like you complaining about the civilian bombing of Germany?
The Japanese high command knew the war was lost but failed to surrender. They didn't surrender because they would have lost face. The responsibility for the masses of civilian dead was theirs and only theirs.
It was touch and go for the B29 it was very nearly a Lancaster that delivered the bombs.
The B29 as first seen in service had the main spar running through the width of the fuselage necessitating two bomb bays. When the decision to deploy nuclear weapons was made these were found to be incompatible with the B29. The only other aircraft capable of carrying this ordinance was the British Lancaster, during the whole of the operational phase a number of specially selected aircraft and crews were held in readiness to carry out the mission. The Americans not wanting to submit the operation to the British pushed the Boeing Aircraft Corporation to modify the B29 to carry the required load, a formidable task, achieved only just in time to credit the USA with the operation.
Funny to see that some brits still stuck to their beloved war myths(:-)reality really is a cruel thing!
@@michaelpielorz9283 Check your facts pal, a number of Lancaster Aircraft and Crews were on standby to carry out the mission if the B29 modifications were not completed.
I love that museums like the one in Duxford exist to preserve the history of all of the different types of allied planes that were flown and i'm glad that the B-29 is represented there. But the fact that our government sent a flying B-29, although barely airworthy to be placed in a museum never to be flown again is an absolute disgrace. At the time there were only two B-29's flying in the US and even now there are only three. Why the hell they didn't send a B-29 that had been on static display somewhere and didn't need to fly to the museum will always make me angry to think about. This B-29 Hawg Wild should have had it's restoration finished and be flying over the US to this day in air shows and such instead of sitting idle in a museum. This was a B-29 that could still fly and therefore should have been treated as a national treasure and restored to flight here in the US. Nothing personal against the Brits or the Duxford museum but they should have received a non airworthy airplane to display. This is just one example of planes that should have been kept here flying instead of being given away to never fly again in other countries. Can you imagine the answer we'd get if one of our museums asked for a flying Lancaster to be put in an American museum never to be flown again lol.
5:47 nice uncensored radar dome.
The B29 cost 50% more than the A bomb
Many regard this plane to be the most advanced of the war.
That was very interesting.
"Dubious honour"?
Those bombs dropped by the B-29 saved untold American and Allied lives.
And believe it or don't, many Japanese lives as well.
Many British lives in particular as they were going to be the second most numerous force in the invasion. So they might want to reconsider their statement.
no they didn’t. that is a propaganda line that falls down the moment one actually reviews primary source material frankly
@@bumbyonline incorrect. they produced so many purple hearts in expectation of casualties that they were still awarding them 80 years later during the global war on terror.
2300 HP engines. Not 23,000. That’d be fun though.
What a machine🇺🇸 God bless America.
Lancaster crews included a chief engineer. This wasn't new on tje Superfortress
Que emoção deveria ser voar uma aeronave dessa. Pro meu gosto é avião mais lindo que existe.
It needs to be said, the Superfortress is a beautiful plane, easily the most beautiful strategic bomber of WWII. But it's terrible too, a terrible weapon, with a terrible record, not in the sense of being a bad performer, but in the sense of causing so much death. There's something unforgiving about the story of the B-29.
Did the Doolittle raid actually hit targets in Tokyo? I thought it was a raid on the Japanese Home islands, but not on the capital itself.
Yes, it was Tokyo. We were sending a message to the emperor and his underlings that they were not immune to attack.
Cue the violins for the Japanese people. They started the war, they were brutal to prisoners, civilians in occupied territories, etc. -- rape of Nanjing, Bataan Death March, etc. Operation Meetinghouse saved lives.
11:40 British airman stating he wasn’t impressed with the B-29 Superfortress is laughable at best and envious, bitter at worst. The truth of the matter is, the United Kingdom had nothing anywhere near the performance the B-29!
23.000 hp per engine? Tjat cant be right
More deadly than a 737Max and a damn sight prettier.
The probably apocryphal story about the USSR copying the B-29 was that the engineers were so frightened of some political blowback if it wasn’t the same, that they duplicated an aluminum patch on the fuselage.
The IWM is almost always on piont but with this one .. they are way off. Commonwealth troops sufferd way more for longer periods then any civilians did durnig any of the raids on JAPAN by the B29's . Also Japan was not a signatory of the Geneva convention like Italy and Germany . But all of this has nothing to do with what and why the B29 was so important to the war effort .. and how it would have provided so much support to ENGLAND if Normandy had been a failure.
If Normandy had been a failure then Berlin would have been turned to glass.
Please check your sources/data for the HP of the engines... you say 23,000 HP each but that must be the total HP of all 4 engines. Thanks for a great video otherwise.
Decimal point is in the wrong place, 2,300 HP emergency war rating.
I would call the Arado 234 Blitz the most advanced bomber of WW2.
The B-29's developmental history is problematic at best. The B-29 was the most expensive WW2 program for the United States. Each B-29 had to essentially be built TWICE. The first time it came out of the factory then it went to an Army Depot for rebuilding with all the modifications. The problem was that the practicable engineering design limits for piston engined aircraft had been reached considering the Army Air Corps requirements for long distance high altitude bombing. The problems of the B-29 engines overheating were indicative of this design limit for piston powered aircraft. Workarounds that at best mitigated the overheating problem were eventually found but only under great expensive time stress. The whole B-29 program was a case of just pouring more money down a problem plaged program hoping to somehow solve it under the time stress of a world war. The B-50 variant was a much improved B-29 with completely new engines vastly improved piston engines. But here again, it took the US Army Air Force several years of experimental work with the corporate sector on prototype engines to develop the B-50 bomber variant in the late 1940's. I think it is really important to remember that the General Hap Arnold died of a heart attack just a few years after the end of WW2. Those who knew Hap Arnold said the great stress from the endless problems of developing the B-29 bomber program caused his heart problems that killed him. So the stress to develop the B-29 program highly sophisticated with new technologies, new electronics and new production techniques was a literal mankiller.
The WW2 high altitude bombing campaign over Japan by the expensive B-29 bomber program was a dismal failure considering the results. I have read in lots of history books that less than ten percent of the bombs hit the targets over Japan during these high altitude raids. Bombs were falling harmlessly into the sea due to the jet stream winds. The B-29 bombing campaign from China was a total failure in terms of the tremendous effort and resources poured into it by the US Army Air Force. This failure stemmed in part from logistical shortcomings that couldn't be overcome with flying all necessary supplies over the Hump with transport aircraft. The early B-29 raids out of Tinian also were a major failure delivering mediocre bombing results. The officer that Curtis LeMay replaced in was a competent by the book Army Air Corps officer who did everything he was ordered to do to the best of his ability. General Curtis LeMay knew of the British RAF incendiary raids with Lancaster bombers in Europe under Air Chief "Bomber" Harris.. The B-29's were stripped of their guns with only a tail gunner position, remote controled mechanisms, reduced crew sizes all to make maximum room for fuel and bomb loads. The B-29 was also stripped of much of its pressurized cabin equipment too. The B-29 became a nightime simple stripped down "bomb truck" to deliver incendiary bombs over Japanese urban targets at 5,000 to 9,000 feet. Japanese nightime air defenses were weak. So General LeMay got away with his gamble not because of American Army strategic brilliance but because of Japanese weaknesses.
I am a harsh critic of the B-29 bomber program because it depended upon too many unproven innovative technologies during the stress of wartime. Limited research into a high altitude long range bomber should have been conducted during WW2 but only a few B-29's should have ever been produced for atomic bombing or other special missions. The B-29 bomber programming has created the myth that pouring money down a weapons program will solve our military problems. Much of the cost of the B-29 bomber program was reclaimed later on in the jet age of the Cold War and during the civilian jet age commercial flying revolution in the 1950's. Here is something to consider for a thought exercise. The enormous developmental problems of the B-29 bomber program with its mediocre bombing results over Japan in combat operations should have led to its immediate CANCELATION under normal circumstances.
What could have been done instead of the B-29 bomber program? The US Army strategists and planners should have told the public the Pacific war was going to last into 1946. The following is predicated upon the securing of Okinawa as a base of operations for bombers in June of 1945. It should be noted that Tokyo is 950 miles north of Okinawa with Iwo Jima about 700 miles. Most of the major Japanese urban targets are SOUTH of Tokyo. I think probably close to 70 percent or more of urban targets are south of Tokyo. The US Army had roughly 4,000 B-17 bombers and another approximate 4,000 B-24's in Europe. The US Army adopts the "depot refurbishment" strategy to turn B-24's and B-17's into NIGHTIME BOMB TRUCKS. The Army "depot refurbishment" strategy would have looked something like this:
1. B-17's and B-24's are stripped of all crew positions except a rear gunner, pilot, co-pilot/engineer, navigator/bombardier. The crews are four men or five at most. All guns except the rear gunner position are removed.
2. The B-17's and B-24's have additional fuel tanks put on them internally and externally to increase range. New overhauled engines are put into every bomber. Modifications of the bomb bay area are made to maximize bombload capacity. Extra radio navigation equipment are added to each bomber for nightime navigation at about 5,000 to 7,000 feet in altitude. Pathfinder squadrons with radar on board are organized to mark the urban target. Radio navigation beams act as guides to steer the nightime bomber streams to and from the target. It is conceivable that at least 6,000 to 8,000 lbs of M-69 incendiary bombs could have been carried in these "depot refurbished" B-17/B-24 bomb trucks. I am thinking based on actual US Navy WW2 modifications of the B-24 that ranges could have been extended to 2,500 miles or more. B-17's could have been increased to almost a similar distance.
3. Nearly all of Japanese urban centers could have been burned out just as efficiently with these modified B-17's and modified B-24's flying from Okinawa on nightime missions. The Soviet Union would have happily agreed with Lend Lease aid to give Americans some bomber bases once war was declared in August, 1945 for "shuttle bombing" of targets on northern Honshu and Hokkaido. It is also conceivable that a modified RAF Lancaster with trained British crews from the Tiger Force could have dropped the atomic bomb had this been necessary. However, Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have been destroyed just as completely with modified B-17's and modified B-24's flying from Okinawa and Iwo Jima using proven M-69 incendiary raids. It should also be remembered that US Navy fleet carriers would have been launching heavy strafing and bombing raids on Japanese targets during dayling hours supported by US Army bombers and fighters. So bombing of Japan would have been around the clock 24 hours per day everyday the weather allowed flight. Japan would have surrendered in 1946 with neither an invasion or atomic bombings. Millions of Japanese would have perished from famine, exposure or cremation from incendiary raids. But this reality would have been a Japanese government choice rather than an American atrocity. This statement is especially if the U.S. State Department quietly sent diplomatic notes through the Swiss or Swedish embassies. The Japanese could keep its emperor, elect its own government and face minimal war crimes trials with Lend Lease aid to feed, house and rebuild their country for an immediate surrender.
The point here is the United States could have easily defeated the Japanese ending the war in early 1946 with the bombing program outlined above. No ground invasion of the Japanese Home Islands would have been necessary. The US Navy submarine and Navy fleet carrier blockade of Japan would have caused a famine in 1946. No oil tankers, no vital minerals, no imported foodstuffs imports were making it into Japan by ship. The Japanese merchant marine was completely destroyed in early 1945. So famine from a naval blockade and firebombing from Okinawa based modified B-17's and modified B-24's on nightime incendiary raids could have done everything the B-29's accomplished minus the atomic bombings. It is just the war would have lasted into 1946 but American casualties would have been modest from aircrew losses mostly. The strategy outlined here would have taken more time into 1946 requiring patience. Patience is NOT an American attribute and it often leads to costly boondoggle programs with huge amounts of waste such as the B-29 bomber program. The B-29 bomber program started a long trend of US government subsidies for large corporations on boondoggle dubious weapons programs that continues unabated to this very day.
That's the war on Japan sorted . . . . but USA envisioned war on Germany too. Fortunately, "airstrip one" remained available for the duration. Its early loss was considered a possibility so a long-range bomber was deemed essential and from that the B29 project began. The rest is history . . .
I'm hearing Marinaras islands. Mariana Islands.
Can you do the Soviet TU-95 at somepoint?
Codename : Bear
Purpose : Unleash Tsar Bomba 💣 😏
They only talk about aircraft they have in the museum
No point if the USSR had ever attempted that for re as l the TU-95 would have been renamed “turkey”, the Tsar Bomb was only ever an exercise in genital waving by the Soviets than a credible weapon.
22,300 HP engines? Oops! 2200.
8:37 true
This video is tooo critical of the B-19 and the Americans and too sympathetic towards the Japanese. The Japanese were infamous for torturing and killing millions of people across Asia, especially China. Korean women were forced into prostitution as comfort women. Additionally, Japanese soldiers preferred death to surrender and defeat. There are many instances were they fought to the last man or died by suicide.
It is widely known that only a direct invasion of the Japanese home islands would have resulted in the defeat of Imperial Japan. A direct invasion of the home islands would have prolonged the war into 1946, possibly 1947. The Japanese were prepared to utilize every citizen that could operate a firearm in total warfare. They were prepared to fight house to house, street to street, right down to the bitter end. This type of warfare would have killed millions of additional people on both the Allied and the Japanese sides and would have made the combat experienced by the Americans up to this point in the Pacific theatre look like a walk in the park. The Japanese ignored repeated demands for unconditional surrender until after America had dropped the atomic bombs. Truman made a wise decision to drop the atomic bombs.
The use of the B-29 was essential to America winning the war against Japan. Using the Atomic bombs saved far, far more people than they killed.
Japan had already tried to surrender. The US knew from having cracked the Japanese diplomatic codes that most of the Japanese govt, the Emperor and the civilian populace were desperate for an end to the war. They rejected conditional surrender (only condition being the Emperor keeping his position, something that he was ultimately allowed to do anyway after the bombs were dropped) before the Soviet Union had even entered the war. We know from sources such as Truman's own journal that far from expecting the Japanese to fight on indefinitely the US expected (correctly as it happens) that Japan would surrender not long after the Soviet Union declared war. As far back as May 1945 the Japanese minister to Switzerland had asked the OSS for a way to end hostilities. Even the unconditional Japanese surrender that was finally accepted arguably had less to do with the bombs and more to do with Soviet military actions in the same timeframe that more seriously affected Japanese military capability. The idea that Japan would fight on no matter what is born of racist orientalist propaganda of the "sw*rthy hordes" and the taking of a few remaining generals who wanted to fight on as representative of the Japanese position as a whole by this time.
The bombs did not save far more than they killed. Even had an invasion been necessary, the most extreme and pessimistic casualty projections were 46,000 US servicemen killed (obviously this number does not include Japanese civilians but still it is far from the "a million US troops" statistic commonly parroted today). The bombs killed 129,000-226,000, most of them civilians. Many of these died some of the most agonising deaths imaginable.
Yes, the Imperial Japanese military committed unimaginably vile atrocities, particularly against those they deemed their "racial inferiors." This does not justify the horrific murder of Japanese civilians. Its also not like the US has not committed its own horrifying crimes against the people of Korea and other countries that previously suffered Japanese rule: from the very start the US outlawed the legitimate Korean government formed by the Korean people, the PRK, instead installing a regime of fascist former Japanese collaborators. Then during the Korean War it was US policy to massacre civilians (as admitted in 1999 following an investigation by AP - the policy was authorised in 1950 by then-US ambassador John J Muccio) in a war that would result in the killing of 2-3 million Korean civilians, not to mention the military casualties. Not a single building over two storeys was left in the whole of the DPRK following the war, and the US continues to celebrate this murder annually.
I would recommend the documentary White Light/Black Rain, along with the following:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, Diana Preston
Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History, Kai Bird & Lawrence Lifschultz
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race, Priscilla Johnson McMillan
Hiroshima, John Hersey
I'm not sure if that video is at fault here. If you are only going to talk about the B-29 and its operations, you aren't going to mention all the warcrimes the Japanese did.
Can the video really at fault for not putting some things into context?🤔
@@bumbyonline incorrect as i detail in my other comment to you.
@@bumbyonline This is patently false. It is a revisionist fantasy/myth.
I don’t know why the inappropriate use of the word “controversial”. Nothing said in the video was “controversial”.
The B-29 that dropped the bomb over Nagasaki was named "Bockscar".
It's Leonard Cheshire, not Geoffrey 🤦🏼♂️
They can still level a city if you can not stop it🎉
I love IWN videos and find the suffering of Japanese civilians important to point out. However, there should have been mention of the terrible atrocities that the Japanese were perpetrating all over Asia, and that this bomber helped end.