The mention of nuclear weapons is chilling, as the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan in the late part of World War II caused heavy casualties and economic losses to both cities, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives as a result of the atomic bomb attacks. If it were not for these two atomic bombs, Japan might have continued to carry out the so-called "Jade Crush Plan" and stubbornly resisted. After the two atomic bombs were dropped, the Japanese people panicked, and in order to avoid more heavy blows, the Japanese government had to consider the practical problems and announce its surrender through the radio.
What is less well known is that before Japan was bombed by two atomic bombs, Tokyo had already become unrecognizable under the attack of the U.S. Air Force. And the person who commanded the large-scale air raid on Tokyo by the US Air Force was Curtis Limei. This person is silent in his daily life, and he cannot see joy and sorrow on his face, and he is regarded by the outside world as a "war maniac" and a "killing machine", and it is he who executes the "Li Mei Barbecue" that is more cruel than nuclear weapons, turning Tokyo into a dead and silent purgatory on earth, and more than a million people are homeless.
The taciturn commander
Born into a family of ordinary workers, Curtis Lime joined the army as a pilot at the age of 22 and became a member of the Second Bomber Group in the United States in 1937. From 1938 onwards, Curtis Limei began to shine in his military career, and gradually accumulated rich experience in air combat and superb flight technology. Curtis Limei is very different from the rest of the team, and when others are talking and laughing, he only thinks about how to make a contribution on the battlefield and invest the least cost to get the greatest return.
In the eyes of other pilots, Curtis Limei was a maverick, usually reticent, always feeling cold and inaccessible. Perhaps it was precisely because of this personality that he was able to kill and decide on the battlefield after he became the commander of the American bomber brigade. From 1942 onwards, Curtis Limei made great achievements in commanding bomber brigades on the European battlefield.
Curtis Limei's air raid tactics were crazy, and each time it was strictly required that the pilots on the mission should not dodge in the face of the enemy, but should face the difficulties and put life and death aside. Under his command, each flight formation sent out to carry out air raid missions achieved good results. Moreover, Curtis Limei almost always personally led the team every time he went out, even if he was unwell. For Curtis Limei herself, there is nothing more honorable than dying on the battlefield.
As Curtis Lee's brilliant performance on the European battlefield gained the attention of the U.S. Air Force, he had a new assignment to command a bomber brigade in the Pacific Theater to attack Japan. Since the outbreak of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military and the Japanese army have been fighting in the Pacific theater, in order to force Japan to surrender as soon as possible, it decided to destroy Japan's war preparedness, and Tokyo became the primary target of the US military.
Bombing of Tokyo
In the eyes of the United States, Japan's air defense capabilities are weak, Tokyo is densely populated, most of the houses are wooden structures, and large-scale bombing will surely achieve effective results. After receiving this task, Curtis Limei immediately began to deploy a bombing plan, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties in Tokyo, effectively combating Japan's arrogance, and Curtis Limei commanded the flight formation to bomb Japan.
In fact, as early as the US military base Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese army, the United States had sent bombers to attack many Japanese cities, but the scale of the bomb was not particularly large, and it did not effectively hit the morale of the Japanese army. So in January 1945, the United States decided to appoint Curtis Limei as commander of the 21st Bomber Force to bomb important Japanese cities. Curtis Lee Mei, after learning about the layout of Tokyo in Japan, adopted the pattern of bombing Tokyo at night.
During one bombing operation, the U.S. military dispatched 174 B-29 bombers in just one day to drop a large number of napalm bombs on Tokyo. The B-29 bomber is the most powerful and advanced bomber in World War II, with a climb altitude of nearly 10,000 meters, a total of 5 turrets in the fuselage, and the firepower is very powerful, which can quickly break through the Japanese air defense system. The napalm bomb used by the US military will produce a high temperature flame after the explosion, and at the same time splash napalm around, it has a strong viscosity, once people are stained, it is difficult to remove.
After the attack on Tokyo, many houses and people were stuck by the splash of napalm and began to burn, if you want to use your hands to beat the fire on your body, the more you shoot the bigger the burner, and you can't roll on the ground to extinguish the fire, otherwise the area of napalm sticking to the whole body will become larger and larger, and finally the whole person will die in the gradually spreading fire.
The effects of the air raids
On March 9, 1945, the U.S. Air Force again sent 334 B-29 bombers to attack Tokyo, dropping more than 2,000 tons of napalm incendiary bombs. According to relevant information, the bombing operation affected nearly 41 square kilometers of the area, destroyed more than 260,000 buildings, caused more than 80,000 deaths, and injured more than 100,000 people.
Later, curtis Limei carried out two major bombings on Tokyo in May 1945, dropping a total of 5,800 tons of incendiary bombs, turning Tokyo into a lifeless city, and many people who jumped into the river to escape were not spared. After several large-scale bombings, Tokyo has almost lost the ability to rescue itself, and people can only watch their friends, family and homes disappear in the dense fire. It is reported that these three bombings caused a total of 140,000 deaths in Japan and more than 1 million people were homeless, comparable to the destructive power of the atomic bomb.
In addition to Tokyo, Curtis Limei also commanded a bomber brigade to carry out a large-scale bombing operation against other Japanese cities, resulting in the complete collapse of the entire Japanese air defense force, the number of casualties increased to nearly 500,000, and millions of people were left homeless. By August 1945, Japan was still trying to fight to the end with its last breath, and as a result, two atomic bombs directly ended Japan's idea. In this way, Japan had to announce its surrender.
Curtis Limei's bombing campaign dealt An unprecedented blow to Tokyo, with the economy collapsing and industrial facilities being destroyed on a large scale. He also made great contributions to this and was praised and valued by the United States. Curtis Limei also said that he did not care how many Japanese were destroyed, and that what made him really worried and afraid was the end of the war, so in the eyes of the people, he was regarded as one of the most indifferent "killers" in the war.