Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

You guys are better than google.

Discussion in 'Information Requests' started by OpanaPointer, Jan 17, 2011.

  1. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2008
    Messages:
    18,361
    Likes Received:
    5,713
    Can anybody tell me the largest single tonnage of bombs dropped on a single target in one attack? No gaps in the bombing, please, just a straight in-and-out raid.

    Also, the largest area "affected" by a single raid. I'm thinking this would be a fire-bomb raid on Japan?

    Thanks!
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 17, 2011
    #1
  2. sniper1946

    sniper1946 Expert

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2009
    Messages:
    12,560
    Likes Received:
    1,017
    sniper1946, Jan 17, 2011
    #2
  3. Artem

    Artem Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2010
    Messages:
    135
    Likes Received:
    8
    Artem, Jan 17, 2011
    #3
  4. mikebatzel

    mikebatzel Dreadnaught

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2007
    Messages:
    3,185
    Likes Received:
    406
    Pulling these from various pages of Downfall.

    "On the night after the official end of Clarion, February 23-24, Bomber Command mounted it's sole raid of the war on Pforzheim. Coming in low at eight thousand feet, 380 aircraft released 1,825 tons in 22 minutes, leveling 83 percent of the city, a single-raid proportion exceeded only by the Japanese city of Toyama. In the fire and explosions, at least seventeen thousand Germans perished, the third-highest single-raid total for the war in Europe." pg 46
    　
    "... Toyama, the "third largest city on the west coast of Honshu," drew attention for it's ball-bearing and machine-tool industries and the largest aluminum company in Japan. The attack by 182 Superfortresses of the 73rd Wing set an appalling mark for the strategic-bombing campaign. The 1,466 tons of bombs and incendiaries dropped in the raid destroyed an astounding 99.5 percent of the city. of the 127,860 citizens in Toyama, 2,149 died, which is undoubtedly severe in absolute numbers but remarkably low for the near total annihilation of an urban area..." pg 154
     
    mikebatzel, Jan 17, 2011
    #4
  5. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2008
    Messages:
    18,361
    Likes Received:
    5,713
    I'm tracking down one raid on Japan that may have claimed 87,000 lives with 41,000 injuries.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 17, 2011
    #5
  6. Biak

    Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2009
    Messages:
    9,147
    Likes Received:
    2,508
    I haven't had the time to check out all the titles but what you're looking for "may" be in here.

    United States Strategic Bombing Survey: Summary Report (Pacific War)

    I'm still digging.
    Found this on page 16 of "the Air Attack against the Japanese Home Islands" : Does not give a specific mission.

    On 9 March 1945, a basic revision in the method of B-29 attack was instituted. It was decided to bomb the four principal Japanese cities at night from altitudes averaging 7,000 feet. Japanese weakness in night fighters and antiaircraft made this program feasible. Incendiaries were used instead of high-explosive bombs and the lower altitude permitted a substantial increase in bomb load per plane. One thousand six hundred and sixty-seven tons of bombs were dropped on Tokyo in the first attack. The chosen areas were saturated. Fifteen square miles of Tokyo's most densely populated
    Page 17
    area were burned to the ground. The weight and intensity of this attack caught the Japanese by surprise. No subsequent urban area attack was equally destructive. Two days later, an attack of similar magnitude on Nagoya destroyed 2 square miles. In a period of 10 days starting 9 March, a total of 1,595 sorties delivered 9,373 tons of bombs against Tokyo, Nagoya, Osake, and Kobe destroying 31 square miles of those cities at a cost of 22 airplanes. The generally destructive effect of incendiary attacks against Japanese cities had been demonstrated.
    Thereafter, urban area attacks alternated with visual and radar attacks against selected industrial or military targets. In April, an extensive program of sowing minefields in channels and harbors at night was added. In the aggregate, 104,000 tons of bombs were directed at 66 urban areas; 14,150 tons were directed at aircraft factories; 10,600 tons at oil refineries; 4,708 at arsenals; 3,500 tons at miscellaneous industrial targets; 8,115 tons at air fields and sea-plane bases in support of the Okinawa operation; and 12,034 mines were sown.

    Just one more I found; Operation Meetinghouse bombing of Tokyo.
    http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5229.htm
     
    Biak, Jan 17, 2011
    #6

Share This Page