SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO I PUBLISHED A BLOG ABOUT THE DEADLIEST CONVENTIONAL AIR RAID EVER, USING THE NEWLY INVENTED NAPALM BOMBS. AS THE DEAD TOLL OF THIS FIREBOMBING RAID ON TOKYO EXCEEDED THE DEATH TOLL OF EITHER OF THE ATOMIC BOMBS, WE CAN THINK OF IT AS THE DEADLIEST AIR RAID EVER. AND YET THE MEMORY […]
Tag Archives: I Saw Tokyo Burning
FIREBOMBING RAIDS ON TOKYO during the night of March 9-10, 1945
The firebombing raids on Tokyo, codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, were low altitude incendiary bombing raids ordered by General Curtis LeMay. The first wave of planes was followed by a procession of bombers sowing death until dawn, touching off devastating firestorms: almost 17 square miles of the city were reduced to ashes. Estimates of the number killed […]