Enola Gay

[Square Wheels]

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

 

 

[Zealot]

Hell on earth. I cannot imagine.

[Nate]

yea, but the casualties from invading Japan would have been 10 times that

 

 

and let's not forget who started the war in the first place

[Olas Nah]

yea, but the casualties from invading Japan would have been 10 times that

 

 

and let's not forget who started the war in the first place

 

Debatable, but clearly the thought at the time. The Japs sure weren't giving up the fight easily.

 

Never will forget. They killed my grandfather.

[Square Wheels]

War is sad.  So many needless deaths, mostly innocent people.

[Former member]

Never will forget. They killed my grandfather.

+1.

They killed my dad's brother.

[jsharr]

Okay, this was not funny either.

[Kzoo]

Okay, this was not funny either.

 

Thank you.

[Randomguy]

Those chinamen had it coming to them, that is the upside. 

[Road Runner]

How come no one ever talks about the other horrors of indiscriminate bombing of cities during WWII?

 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-dresden

 

"On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender."

 

At least we had a semblance of a reason for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[jsharr]

How come no one ever talks about the other horrors of indiscriminate bombing of cities during WWII?

 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-dresden

 

"On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender."

 

At least we had a semblance of a reason for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What the hell are we supposed to do, you googly moran?

 

[Former member]

How come no one ever talks about the other horrors of indiscriminate bombing of cities during WWII?

like the blitz of London?

[Zealot]

How come no one ever talks about the other horrors of indiscriminate bombing of cities during WWII?

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-dresden

"On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender."

At least we had a semblance of a reason for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Because bombing was a standard practice. Dropping an atom bomb was a completely new thing. And the destructive potential of just one bomb was, and still is, astonishing. That's where the press went.

I agree, war is hell all the way around, whether we use slings, swords, catapults and trebuchets, firearms or bombs. Destruction sux no matter the numbers.

[kingtermite]

My grandfather was an aerial photographer at that time. He took the very first aerial photos of Japan after the bomb was dropped. Maybe an hour or a few hours later. He saw his own name in the credits of a documentary once.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

"...and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender."

 

The Germans, whether the German people or the German Army, were not on the verge of surrender in February of 1945.  The German people were either committed to the Nazi party and determined to act out their lot to the bitter end or were afraid to utter the word 'surrender' for fear of the various state police organizations.  Citizens were shot as traitors for preparing to hang white sheets on their houses mere hours before Allied forces arrived. After the purge following the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, the German military had nobody left in a position influential enough to place any part of the military on the 'verge' of surrender.

 

I would agree the German/Nazi state was on the verge of defeat in February 1945 but it, the military, and its people were not on the verge of surrender.