‘SUPERFORTS’ SLASH HONSHU INDUSTRIES IN NEW FIRE BLOW (7/7/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 7/7/45 | W.H. Lawrence, Robert Trumbull, Lindesay Parrott, Roy L. Curthoys, Frank L. Kluckhohn

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Final Operations on Luzon, 3 February-20 July 1945
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Nimitz Graybook

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The first of the following two excerpts is continued from yesterday.

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Billboard Top 10 (or Top 14) for the Week of July 7, 1945

#1 – “Sentimental Journey” – Les Brown, with Doris Day
#2 – “There! I’ve Said It Again” – Vaughn Monroe
#3 - “Bell Bottom Trousers” - Tony Pastor, with Ruth McCullough
#4 - “On the Atchinson Topeka & Santa Fe” - Johnny Mercer, with the Pied Pipers
#4 - “Sentimental Journey” - Hal McIntyre
#5 - “Bell Bottom Trousers” - Kay Kyser, with Ferdy Slim Quartet
#6 - “Gotta Be This Or That” - Benny Goodman
#6 - “Chopin’s Polonaise” - Carmen Cavallaro
#7 - “Bell Bottom Trousers” - Guy Lombardo, with Jimmy Brown
#8 – “You Belong to My Heart” – Bing Crosby, with Xavier Cugat Orchestra
#9 – “Caldonia” – Louis Jordan
#9 – “Sentimental Journey” – Merry Macs
#10 – “I Wish” – Mills Brothers
#10 – “Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well” – Lucky Millinder

[Homer_J_Simpson]

‘Superforts’ Slash Honshu Industries in New Fire Blow (Lawrence) – 2-3
Geiger Sees Japan Ripe for Invasion (Trumbull) – 3-4
Navy Lets Japanese Vessel Take 974 Ill Off Wake Isle – 4
Australians Win Balik Papan Bay (Parrott) – 5
Roll-Call and ‘Swimming Time’ for Japanese Prisoners on Okinawa (photos) – 6-7
Burma Foe Regains Some Ground in Bitter Fighting in Pegu Area – 7
Chiang Sees China Victor in 9th Year – 8
Stalin Receives Mongolian Chief – 8
Forde is Sworn In to Succeed Curtin (Curthoys, Kluckhohn) – 9
War News Summarized – 9
Day’s Communiques – 10
Congress Indians Name Candidates – 10

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/07.htm

July 7th, 1945 (SATURDAY)

JAPAN: HQ XX Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force, arrives at Sakugawa, Okinawa from India. 100+ P-51s dispatched from Iwo Jima to hit airfields in the Tokyo area abort due to bad weather.

Taking off from bases in the Marianas during the late evening hours of 6 July, 517 XXI Bomber Command B-29 Superfortresses make four incendiary and one high explosive attacks on Japanese cities between 0700 and 0800 hours local on 7 July; one B-29 is lost:

Mission 251: 124 B-29s attack the Chiba urban area destroying 0.86 sq miles (2.23 sq km), 43.4% of the city; one other B-29 hits an alternate target.

Mission 252: 123 B-29s hit the Akashi urban area destroying 0.81 sq miles (2.10 sq km), 57.0% of the city; one other B-29 hits an alternate target.

Mission 253: 133 B-29s attack the Shimizu urban area destroying 0.71 sq miles (1.84 sq km), 50% of the city; one B-29 is lost.

Mission 254: 131 B-29s hit the Kofu urban area destroying 1.3 sq miles (3.37 sq km), 65% of the city; one other B-29 hits an alternate target.

Mission 255: 59 B-29s drop 500-pound (227 kg) bombs on the Maruzen Oil Refinery at Wakayama; one other hits an alternate target.

110 Iwo Jima-based P-51s attack airfields in the Tokyo area (Kumagaya, Yamagata, and Chiba); they claim 1-0-0 aircraft in the air and 6-25 on the ground; one P-51 is lost.

Iwo Jima: VII Fighter Command, United States’ Seventh Air Force bases the 414th Fighter Group flying P-47Ns at North Field.

The first B-29 runway has now been paved to 8,500 feet and is in operation.

BORNEO:Thirteenth Air Force B-24s, B-25s and P-38s and RAAF aircraft support Australian troops in the Balikpapan, Borneo area.
U.S.A.: The first Beechcraft A-38 ‘Grizzly’ is delivered to the USAAF at Wight Field, Dayton Ohio.

President Harry S. Truman, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy board the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) enroute to Antwerp, Belgium. Their ultimate destination is Potsdam, Germany for a conference with British and Soviet leaders.

Destroyer USS BASILONE is laid down. Destroyers USS Brownson and Richard B Anderson launched.

[chajin]

For those who are wondering about the delivery strike that keeps being mentioned in these editions, there was a 17-minute color documentary about the 17 days of the strike, entitled, oddly enough, "Seventeen Days." cf. here

[Rebelbase]

A-38 Grizzly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_XA-38_Grizzly

[chajin]

Shimizu, one of the cities bombed on this date, is now a district of Shizuoka City, the capital of Shizuoka Prefecture. The "fishhook" mentioned in the article is clearly visible on Google Maps. Shizuoka is one of two areas in Japan where the leaves for green tea are cultivated, the other being the Uji area near Kyoto. Green tea aficionados debate the relative qualities of Uji vs. Shizuoka teas, much as orange aficionados debate the relative qualities of Florida vs. California oranges. (FWIW, "chajin" means "tea person" in Japanese)

However, instead of going into that today, I will leave the group with a feature-length animation which was being shown in Japanese theatres about this time. "Anime," the animation for which Japan has become famous and which is all the rage among young geeks, is invented long after the war, in part because of the inability of Japanese movie studios to compete with Disney and WB animators. However, old-fashioned cell-by-cell animation was common in the Japanese studios of the time, and during the war a few cartoons were made by Imperial Japanese propagandists to gin up the population.

The movie is Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei or "Momotato: Divine Warriors of the Sea," "Momotaro" being a well-known character of Japanese fiction. You can read the whole story here, but if you don't have the 80 minutes to "enjoy" the whole feature, skip to the last ten minutes or so, to watch how the Japanese portray themselves as Gen. Momotaro vis-à-vis the stupid, bumbling, and cowardly British of the Celebes, and then the final scene where the Japanese, in this case the animals following Momotaro, play at paratrooping into the continental US.

[colorado tanker]

Wow, the Japanese had a very low regard for the British. I suppose that stands to reason given their conquest of Malaya and Singapore was way too easy.

Still, this movie strikes me as delusional. They have lost every battle with us since 1943, their cities are burned out and they are on the verge of invasion. And they still think they can invade the U.S.???

[chajin]

Still, this movie strikes me as delusional. They have lost every battle with us since 1943, their cities are burned out and they are on the verge of invasion. And they still think they can invade the U.S.???

It isn't all that different from the attitudes found in Goebbel's movies of the same time: they had to keep telling the homeland that victory could be snatched from defeat.

[henkster]

I’m ready to take a sentimental journey in my bell-bottom trousers.

[colorado tanker]

Many on this thread will recognize the name John Basilone, the namesake of USS Basilone. Marine Sgt. Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for holding off about 3,000 Japanese in the defense of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. He didn't survive Iwo Jima, however, where he died.

While on leave he married fellow Marine, Lena Riggi, who christened the ship.

She never remarried.

[henkster]

I am not surprised she never remarried. I would not have married her for the reason no man could possibly have lived up to Sgt. John Basilone. I’m sure she felt the same way.