ipl-logo

Curtis Lemay's Role In The Vietnam War

898 Words4 Pages

Curtis Lemay is one of the more controversial figures in the ranks of twentieth century US military leaders. He is probably best known for running for vice president under George Wallace in 1968, or for wanting to bomb Vietnam “back to the Stone Age.” However, the bombers under his command played a pivotal role in World War II, against both Germany and Japan. After the war, he commanded the Strategic Air Command, the US’s group of nuclear bombers that were always prepared to retaliate against the Soviet Union. Lemay was born on November 15, 1906 in Columbus, Ohio. As a boy, he became fascinated with aircraft after seeing an early Wright flyer in 1910. He moved often as a child due to his father’s inability to find and keep a stable job. The …show more content…

He participated in two exercises that demonstrated the power of long-range bombers. In 1937, Lemay navigated bombers to find a battleship off the US’s Pacific coast. In 1938, he completed a similar feat to find another ship, only over a larger area of the Atlantic. When World War II began, Lemay was in charge of the 305th Bomb Group as a major. Due to the US’s lack of supplies at the start of the war, Lemay only had a handful of bombers for a large number of crews. The unit was sent to England in October 1942. Lemay personally led many missions in the lead bomber. The firsthand knowledge that came from this helped his develop several bombing strategies. The most famous, the combat box, consists of twelve planes set up in four triangles set in a diamond shape. The planes fly at varying altitudes to allow their weapons to cover as mush area as possible. Lemay was promoted to brigadier general in September 1943, becoming the youngest general in the army. Six months later, he was promoted to major …show more content…

He took full control of bombing Japan in January 1945. However, the B-29 Superfortresses that Lemay used were unreliable, and the bombers that did make it to the target only had a 5% success rate. Lemay threw out the only precision bombing strategy, and decided on quantity over quality. He armed his bombers with incendiaries, and had them bomb at night. This took away the Japanese antiaircraft guns’ advantage, and caused more damage to the wooden Japanese buildings. The most destructive air raid of the war, the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945, used these strategies. The raid, which used 325 B-29’s, caused more damage than either atomic bomb. Overall, Lemay’s firebombing killed around half a million Japanese. Despite some opposition, most people supported this bombing for two reasons: 1. Most Japanese manufacturing was not centered in one factory like the Germans, but spread out between individual homes 2. The American invasion of Japan was estimated to cause more than a million casualties. Lemay’s bombing, and then the use of the atomic bomb caused Japan to surrender on September 2,

Show More
Related
427 Words | 2 Pages

The strategies of the World War II have been the key to complete missions. In the eyes of many people, the airplanes were one of the essential equipment of the battles in World War II. Also, it was a secret service under the water line of the ocean working like a shadow with targets like Japan supply and combat ships, which were submarines. Submarines were used first to block ships suspecting to have prohibited cargo throughout the British line by the Germans. In addition, they announce to the people aboard to abandon the ship and the submarine sunk the cargo ships.

Read More
2007 Words | 9 Pages

1,000 British civilians died during the war due to zeppelin bombing, but over half of the Zeppelins were destroyed and 40% of crew members perished, so it was decided that the costs greatly outweighed the benefits. However, during World War II, strategic bombing was utilised to great effect by both sides, especially by the Allies during the last years of the war. 75% of Hamburg and 83% of Bochum were destroyed by strategic bombing. In many ways, the Allied Strategic Bombing of Germany becomes the precedent to the use of strategic bombing in many conflicts today because of the mass devastation the Allied strategic bombing of Germany caused during World War II, for example the damage on industrial output and morale, as stated previously. The NATO bombing of ISIS in the Middle-East can be compared to the strategic bombing of Germany during World War II which shows how the latter affected war strategy 70 years later.

Read More
1214 Words | 5 Pages

According to Document G, a memoir of General H. H. Arnold, whether or not the bombs were dropped, the Japanese were already on the verge of surrendering. The United States had already killed about 241,000 people, wounded 313,000, and destroyed about 2,333,000 homes, making it increasingly evident that their decision to drop the bomb was just a selfish and easy manner to end the war. The document also states that the air force was aware that the destruction of most Japanese industries and the prevention of the arrival of the incoming cargo had made it impossible for Japan to carry out a large-scale war. With this fact, the knowledge of their increasing vulnerability was in effect throughout the military and the white house, bringing to light the leverage the United States had going through with the bombings. Overall, the decision to drop the bombs can be viewed as unnecessary as the U.S could have kept fighting knowing that

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

Canadian airmen were among the first into action. Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) squadrons belonging to Bomber Command ’s No. 6 Group had already been involved for several months in bombing key enemy targets in the invasion area: roads, bridges, railways, airfields, and command and communications centers. As the moment to launch the invasion neared, Allied bombers dropped thousands of tons of explosives on German coastal defense’s, approximately 6,000 tons in just the last few hours before the invasion.

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

US raids on Japan caused about 241,000 deaths, 313,000 wounded people, and approximately 2,333,000 homes to be destroyed. No supplies could be brought in and few industries still stood to help. (Doc B) Therefore, Japan was on the verge of surrender and the bombing was not the most

Read More
1415 Words | 6 Pages

The stories of those who survived their flights are useful in piecing together the various events of the battle. One of the most successful bombers was Lieutenant Richard Best: he was able to hit two carriers on the same day. His success was in part due to his plane being unharmed, due to the sacrifice of the accompanying torpedo squadrons. (PG303). His hits effectively wiped out two Kidō

Read More
1127 Words | 5 Pages

Consequently, over 130,000 Japanese people were killed when the first bomb dropped. On the other hand, this number is insignificant to the amount of Americans the Japanese killed throughout the war and Pearl Harbor. Last, the Japanese citizens were committing suicide. Due to the Japanese honor code when the Americans took over islands or places with Japanese citizens often the citizens would commit suicide by jumping off of cliffs. They did this because they thought it was a better solution then giving into the Americans.

Read More
1692 Words | 7 Pages

James Doolittle was an instrumental asset to the United States, known for the Doolittle Raid and many other successful operations that helped to raise American morale during the Second World War. He is known for the Doolittle Raid, by far his most famous contribution, where he led a bold bombing raid over Tokyo in 1942, which was the first American attack on the Japanese mainland. The greatest impact of the Doolittle Raid was the raise in U.S. morale, for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and was also promoted two ranks from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general, skipping the colonel rank. During World War II, Doolittle commanded the Eighth, Twelfth, and Fifteenth Air Forces, through which he helped to lead Operation Husky

Read More
1790 Words | 8 Pages

In June of 1918, General MacArthur gained the title of a brigadier general. He was the youngest in the Army to ever receive this honor. MacArthur was given command of yet another division, the 84th Brigade, to simply light a fire in them. He goes to the front of their line, pressing the enemy. Soon a flame erupts over their heads, which showed a German machine gun crew.

Read More
314 Words | 2 Pages

By the time of 1945, strategic bombing had a lack of reason

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

Bomber Command Was the strategy of America and Britain, of strategic bombing of critical points of German infrastructure, an effective and valid direction? This is a question that several have asked, and few have tried to answer. There are two historians in specific that have attempted to undertake the task to evaluate the decisions of Britain and the United States with regards to air bombing during World War II.

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

As the war continued, both sides began to use aircraft to drop bombs on the enemy’s location. The first planes that were used for bombings only could carry small attacked from the ground. By the end of the war, faster long-range bombs were built that could carry a much

Read More
1520 Words | 7 Pages

(2) During the war he was tasked in creating a new weapon and by almost the end of the war he had completed the Vengeance Weapon 2 or better known as the V2 rocket. The V2 rocket was the first long distance ballistic missile and it was also the first object to reach the boundary of space. After the war ended he and his group surrendered without a fight and forfeited all his research and plans on the V2 rocket. The US was intrigued by his research and the V2 rocket that when Operation Paperclip was set into motion he was one of the first to be brought over. Once he was here in the US he was tasked this time to send a satellite into orbit before the

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

Flight 19, the name give to a group of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, took off in the early afternoon on December fifth, 1945. The five planes “were scheduled to tackle a three-hour exercise known as ‘Navigation Problem Number One.’ Their triangular flight plan called for them to head east from the Florida coast and conduct bombing runs at a place called Hens and Chickens Shoals. They would then turn north and proceed over Grand Bahama Island before changing course a third time and flying southwest back to base” (Andrews, 2015). Save for one plane carrying two crewmembers, each torpedo had a crew of three men, most of which that had logged three hundred hours of air time in their careers.

Read More
74 Words | 1 Pages

A revolutionary novel, Frankenstein, describes advances and limits in the development of natural sciences while drawing parallels to the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus. Frankenstein follows the plot of creation and punishment evident in the myth of Prometheus, while also using the symbols of light or fire. While Shelly’s Frankenstein is subtitled, The Modern Prometheus, this information doesn’t appear on the cover. In fact, it doesn’t appear until a few pages into the

Read More

More about Curtis Lemay's Role In The Vietnam War

Related Topics

Open Document