Episode Details

High-altitude precision bombing fails in Japan primarily due to notorious Pacific weather and violent jet streams with winds reaching 230 mph, which wreck bomber accuracy. The B-29, which cost $3.7 billion to develop—more than the atomic bomb—is a brand-new, unrefined aircraft prone to frequent engine fires. Crews face grueling 3,000-mile roundtrip missions over a "dark forbidding ocean" with no place to land if they take damage. Early raids, such as those against the Nakajima aircraft factory, prove disappointing, destroying only 1% of the target while Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft guns in "Flack Alley" take a heavy toll on the bombers. This frustration leads to a growing debate about abandoning precision strikes for firebombing cities, a tactic the British already used in Germany. While top leadership initially favored strategic bombing, the massive investment in city-wrecking weapons like the atomic bomb suggests they are open to more radical, destructive changes. 2/8
1953