KURE BOMBING HIT 2 BATTLESHIPS, THREE CRUISERS AND 2 CARRIERS (7/25/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 7/25/45 | W.H. Lawrence, Sidney Shalett, Raymond Daniell, Harold Callender, Pertinax, Arthur Krock, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

[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
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Nimitz Graybook

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from yesterday.

John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from yesterday.

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Japanese Ripped (Lawrence) – 2-3
Halsey Says Blows Open ‘Final Plunge’ – 3
Our Fliers Smash 13 Ships, Bag 45 Planes at Shanghai – 4
Twining to Lead Superfort Group (Shalett) – 4-5
Foe’s Loss Grows in Trap in Burma – 5
Foe in China Tries to Widen Corridor – 6
Big 3 Confer Again (Daniell) – 7
Indemnity in Kind Wanted by France (Callender) – 7-8
Potsdam Evolving Indemnity Pattern (Pertinax) – 8
‘Vigilante’ Moves Curbed in Britain – 8
Errors of Weimar Shown by Author – 8
Cruiser St. Louis Set Naval Gunfire Record at Okinawa after Damage in Battle of Leyte – 9
American Ship Hit but Survives Suicide Plane Attack (photo) – 9
War News Summarized – 10
‘Soft’ Peace for Japan? (Krock) – 12
Kure Strike Goads Foe (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 13
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 14

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/25.htm

July 25th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)

GERMANY: Potsdam: Churchill, Eden and Attlee fly home for the election results.

Potsdam: Truman orders the atomic bomb be dropped on Japan as soon as possible after 3 August.
JAPAN: During the night of 25/26 July, the US Twentieth Air Force dispatches106 B-29 Superfortresses to fly 1 bombing and 1 mining mission against Japan and Korea; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 291: 75 B-29s attack the Mitsubishi Oil Company and Hayama Petroleum Company at Kawasaki destroying 33% of the storage tanks units and other facilities; 1 B-29 hits an alternate target and 1 suffers a direct flak hit over the target and goes down.
- Mission 292: 29 B-29s mine the waters at Nanao, Fushiki, Obama Island, Tsuruga, and Seishin, Japan, and Pusan, Korea; 1 other mines an alternate target.

Off Japan:
- Carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 continue air strikes in the Inland Sea area sinking 7 ships and damaging 6 others including the heavy cruiser HIJMS Aoba; carrier-based aircraft from the Royal Navy’s Task Group 37.2 also attack targets in the Inland Sea area. Carrier strikes are cancelled in the afternoon due to weather.
- The 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers of Task Group 35.3 bombard the Kushimoto Seaplane Base and adjacent facilities on Honshu.
- Task Group 95.8 arrives off Japan; the TG consists of:
USS Chenango (CVE-28) with Escort Carrier Air Group Twenty Five (CVEG-25)
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) with Marine Carrier Air Group Two (MCVG-2)
USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) with Composite Squadron Ninety Nine (VC-99)
USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) with VC-71
USS Suwanee (CVE-27) with CVEG-40

NEW GUINEA: In Borneo, the USAAF supports Australian troops by dispatching B-24s to bomb Pontianak and Kuching Airfields while B-25s and fighters attack a dispersal area in the Jesselton Airfield area.

U.S.A.: Henry Kaiser and Joseph Frazer announce plans to form a corporation to manufacture automobiles. Kaiser is famous for his shipbuilding feats while Frazer is an executive with Packard Auto.

Production begins in 1946 and they manufacture 11,000 cars that year. The company was sold to Willys in 1953.

[PeterPrinciple]

Buried at the end of one article:

My only regret is that the ships don’t have wheels so that we can continue inland after we removed them from the coast.

(paraphrase)

[1010RD]

There was a time when your headline posting would raise my blood pressure. Now I know it’s history. ;-]

[PeterPrinciple]

All this bombing sounds good but it echoes to Iwo Jima and many other islands. The enemy is dug in and it will cost lives.

[chajin]

The IJN Naval Academy was technically on Nomishima, an island right off the coast of Kure, in the island town of Etajima, where it had been since the 1880s. The OCS of the JMSDF (Maritime Self-Defense Force) is still there. It made sense to rendezvous over the site, but the symbolism would not have been lost on the enemy.

[chajin]

The IJN Naval Academy was technically on Nomishima, an island right off the coast of Kure, in the island town of Etajima, where it had been since the 1880s. The OCS of the JMSDF (Maritime Self-Defense Force) is still there. It made sense to rendezvous over the site, but the symbolism would not have been lost on the enemy.

[109ACS]

Three days later, on July 28, 1945, the husband of my third cousin, Lt. Durden Looper, was shot down in his B24 while attacking the battleship Haruna at Kure. He was captured and taken to Hiroshima for interrogation. He was killed by the atomic bomb on August 6th. He was the co-pilot of "Lonesome Lady".

[Hebrews 11:6]

Just curious: why does it seem that we’re all awaiting something? Can’t figure it out...

[Seizethecarp]

That is one tragic story! Saying a prayer for Lt. Looper.

Nice graphic on the plane, BTW! Those men knew what they were fighting for back home, unlike some today, it seems...