Text 36539, 49 rader
Skriven 2006-08-10 05:08:30 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
  Kommentar till text 36322 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
Ärende: Frank - take a break (was CELEBRATION!)
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Replying to a message of Carol Shenkenberger to Dan Ceppa:

 CS> And I'm a little confused.  On reading ahead at work today (had a few
 CS> moments  at lunch), the list of targets doesnt include Sasebo.  I'm
 CS> not that good of a  historian but the word here was this was the
 CS> primary (one of the biggest  shipyards) and Nagasaki, about 1 hour by
 CS> train away, was the secondary.  

I believe Nagasaki was in fact the secondary target.  The primary had 10/10
cloud cover when the B29 arrived so they went to the secondary.

 CS> Humm.  It's a natural harbor that can hold it's head up against places
 CS> like  Pearl Harbor quite well.  They are adding more piers.  It's
 CS> best benefit is the  pattern of the land lays in such a way that we
 CS> are a safe harbor for Typhoons,  having only to shift out 1/2 mile to
 CS> anchorage (to protect the pier from the  ship bashing into it) and
 CS> then are sheltered.  Last time, we had several large  commercial
 CS> fishing ships, a tanker, and 2 big transports pull in fast and 
 CS> anchor out there with us.  In true tradtion 'any port in a storm',
 CS> only 1 of  those was Japanese.

Many years ago just before a typhoon hit Okinawa (I was there for several)
I was on my way in to work (at Torii Station, it was preferable to be there
than
in the barracks) and noticed a small freighter had backed into the mouth of the
Bisegawa River (just north of the west end of the runway at Kadena) and had put
out 3 anchors (2 bow and 1 stern).  Obviously he intended to ride out the storm
there,
and apparently he did because I don't remember seeing any wreckage.

[snip]

 DC>> nor now.  Now, Curtis LeMay...  

 CS> Who's Curtis LeMay?

Curtis E. LeMay, General, USAF.  Commanded USAAF forces in the
Marianas (Tinian), which included the B29s that bombed Japan.  He's
the guy that came up with the idea of firebombing Japanese cities.
He's also one of the first commanders of the Strategic Air Command (SAC);
legend has it that the day he assumed command he ordered a full alert with
all bases to report back when they'd reached it.  Several bases hadn't 
reported back a couple of *days* later, their commanders were sacked.
When I was in SAC in the 70s, if it took more than one *hour* to establish
a full alert condition that base's commander would be in trouble.  He was
also - in the 90s IIRC - a fringe candidate for VP.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:2905/3)