Episode Details

James Scott introduces General Haywood Hansel, an intellectual strategist tasked with using the expensive and "buggy" B-29 Superfortress to destroy Japan's industrial capacity in late 1944. Hansel is a pioneer of high-altitude daylight strategic bombing, a theory suggesting that precision strikes on refineries and bridges can collapse a modern economy like a "house of cards." However, the European campaign proved this strategy was often a long, painful slog rather than a quick fix. Hansel faces immense pressure from General Hap Arnold, the commander of the Army Air Forces, who is desperate to prove air power can be an independent, war-winning arm. Arnold, suffering from multiple heart attacks due to the stress of competing with the Army and Navy, views the war against Japan as a "blank canvas" for the Air Force. Consequently, Hansel is expected to bomb Japan out of the war to avoid a catastrophic ground invasion. 1/8
1945 OPPENHEIMER AND GROVES