B-29 AIR RAID BOMBING IN TOKYO FILM NARRATED BY RONALD REAGAN "TARGET TOKYO" 74382
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Narrated by then-actor and later President of the United States Ronald Reagan, TARGET TOKYO presents the story of the first bombing raid on Tokyo by B-29 Superfortress bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces flying out of Saipan. B-29 crews are followed from their training staging at Grand Island, Nebraska to their bombing embarkation point on the island of Saipan. From there, the B-29 attack on the Nakajima aircraft plant outside Tokyo is depicted.
The story of the first bombing raid on Tokyo by B-29 Superfortress bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Crews are followed from their training staging at Grand Island, Nebraska to their bombing embarkation point on the island of Saipan. From there, the B-29 attack on the Nakajima aircraft plant outside Tokyo is depicted. What this film doesn't mention is this raid was a technological success, but a strategic failure. Through no fault of the air crews, few bombs hit anywhere near the target.The culprit was the jet stream which made high-level conventional bombing accuracy nearly impossible.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...
Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...
My father was a pow captured on bataan in the Philippines...on August 6 1945 he along with his comrades were waiting outside of the lead mine where they were forced to perform slave labor...this was 80 miles from Hiroshima... He saw and felt the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb...he thought a munitions factory had been hit...3 weeks later the Japanese gaurds started to abandon the camp he was in...many of them committed suicide...a few days later American transport planes flew very low over the camp and dropped many duffle bags full of rations and fresh baked bread with tubs of butter...my father said the bread was still warm...after 3 1/2 years of starvation it was the best food he had ever eaten..
The world is going to be so pissed off when it's found out why we really went over there.
Hats off to him. I'm glad he made it home. I guess you are too.
@@EQOAnostalgia why?
Your dad sounds like he was a good man.. I wish I could sit down and talk to him I love to hear good real story's from ole folks... Boy I bet he had some good stories to tell.. I swear those was some good ole days... Shame we was not alive back then...!
@@CC-te5zfsooooo what exactly were they fighting for then?????????
For those wondering, in the beginning when Reagan says that the B-29 was as long as a corvette, he's not talking about the car (which didn't come out until 1953).
He's talking about what the car was named after, a class of medium sized warships..
Something new I learned.
Wow
A corvette is smaller than a destroyer.
Obviously
Every body knows corvette’s weren’t invented until the early 50’s
My grandfather worked on these in the Army Air Corps. Watching this makes me understand more why he was so proud to work on these, and makes me miss him. Never start to care about this stuff until I joined the Marines out of high school. I wish I had more time to talk more about these, but I'm grateful for the time I did get before he passed. He was always a hero to me. RIP Pop Pop Thomas ♥️🇺🇸 You'll always be a hero and a role model to me.
At 14:15 you'll see the nose art of "Waddy's Wagon" which participated the first B-29 mission to the Nakajima plant. Six-weeks later on a subsequent raid on Nakajima and still near Tokyo, Waddy's Wagon voluntarily fell out of formation to guard and guide a crippled B-29 back to base. The other B-29 had been rammed, losing speed and altitude, and was being finished off by the enemy. In the following action Waddy's Wagon and the entire crew was lost trying to defend the other crew. The plane's captain was a NFL player who had already survived the required 25 European Theater missions piloting B-24's but volunteered for B-29 re-training and Pacific deployment. Today the sacrifice would certainly result in the Medal of Honor, but back then heroism was a standard expectation, and no one aboard the Wagon received so much as a commendation.
You might want to read exactly what the criteria of the Medal of Honor is. What that crew did was honorable but it didn't fall under "above and beyond the call of duty" Curtis LeMay was known for chewing out aircraft commanders for doing that in fact.
So this comment is an opinion and not a correct one.
" Today the sacrifice would certainly result in the Medal of Honor, but back then heroism was a standard expectation, and no one aboard the Wagon received so much as a commendation."
Somehow I don't believe that voluntarily leaving the formation to commit suicide by meeting a straggler's fate was in the standard expectation of call of duty. @@navblue20
@@navblue20 Curtis LeMay was an asshole and sacrificing yourself for fellow military members is in keeping the highest military tradition. The bible says John 15:13 "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
Time is crazy. I remember as a kid watching old war documentaries with my grandpa. I used to think how old these guys seemed in the footage. Im going to be 45 this year. All these guys seem like kids now when I see videos like this. Getting older is very strange sometimes. I have immense respect for these guys. They were all men at such young ages.
You think 45 is old, you young whippersnapper you!
Had an uncle that was 16 when he enlisted. All the WWII Veterans are a breed apart and tough as boot leather. I salute each and every one of them. My dad and two uncle's in the navy. All came home.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@Martin Cohn god bless America
It's like watching Perry Mason and realizing everyone is 20 years younger than I am now. And they still look older.
You think of what 17 and 18 year olds were asked do during WW 2 and look at the ones around you now and wonder if they can even tie their own shoes today
Ms Sato was a high school student back then. On April 10 1945 on her way home, she smelled of something strange, something like kerosine. Soon countless numbers of Boeing 29 Fortress appeared out of nowhere and started bombing. To be more exact, they were incendiary bombs. On that day alone, more than 100.000 people lost their lives. Luckily enough, she survived. After WW2, she became a nurse and had worked at Japan Red Cross in Tokyo until retirement.
March 29th 1945 I do believe.
Dad met his B29 in India, mined Rangoon Harbor, then moved up to Chengdu(sp?) where they dropped more mines on another harbor I forget which. Then off to Tinian. He said the first 100 feet of altitude they gained was flying off the end of a 200' cliff at the end of the runway. They constantly flew with 115% bomb load. Dad was really glad when the bomb was dropped, there had not been any crews that made it the full tour. All were killed. It had become accepted that all would die before they ever saw home again. A pretty darn fatalistic view of real life.
My uncle was captain of the Hap Arnold Special, which later had to emergency land in Vladivostok. On one mission over Japan,
the primary mission was aborted for some reason, and the alternative mission was to bomb a Japanese Harbor. So, they flew to
the Harbor, spotted a ship in the harbor and did their best to drop their bombs on that ship. The didn't know if they were
successful. Weeks later, my uncle was told to report to a navy captain who was visiting their base. Navy captains are higher in
rank than Army captains, and my uncle thought he was in trouble. The Navy captain told him that he was in a submarine, outside
of that harbor, watching through the periscope as the Hap Arnold Special appeared from over the mountains to fly over the harbor
and dropped their bomb load. He told my uncle that he was visiting to tell the Hap Arnold crew they sunk the Japanese ship.
Hardly "just" fatalistic if you're still on the losing end of the range of statistics
November 1944 was the same month my Dad reached France. Piloted 56 missions in an A20 and B26. Those B29 engines! I hear a one-propellor plane fly over now and can only imagine what a hundred B-29s must have sounded like.
Or a thousand B17s or B24's, would have been wonderful sight!.
Yeah, an Elephant walk, a sight to behold.
Sounded like the “thunder of the gods.” I heard the sound bombers flying over head as a kid at Glenview Navel Air Station. Sounded like the roar of continuous thunder.
@@JDAbelRN or 100 Lancasters or wellingtons!
@@strawberrymilk4978 laf, yes :). I’m an American with a Lancaster crush.
Something about Reagan's voice is so calming, it's a very soft but a serious tone.
I think his voice was the best part of the film.
I remember
Robert Morgan Captian of the Memphis Bell B17
25 missions over Germany, I met him before he died ,he was just about 90yrs old then, I was about 65 & still flying, he was a Great guy, great pilot,
25 missions,... almost no crew made that. Flying in a tin can at daylight... Always wonder that men did this again and again.. BRAVE MEN!
I am curious after 25 missions in Europe, how many more missions did he and his crew fly in Pacific theater
@@AlexZhouBerkeley look on Wikipedia!
My grandfather was a photographer during WW2 based on Saipan and then Guam and he was on Saipan when those bombers came in. I still have his pics of alot of these planes.
Those pics will be a really rare item, it must be brilliant to be able to see those photos wow 👍
In 1981 I was an 18 year old sailor who was graduating from P-3B radio operator school in Moffatt Field, CA. For graduation the new pilots, navigators, radio operators and flight techs had to do an extended navigation flight. We flew almost the same path the video shows. California to Hawaii to Guam to Okinawa and home. What a great time I had in the Navy. If I could do it again I would in a heartbeat.
Thank You For Your Service Sir.
@@tracymesser296 it was truly my pleasure.
So would I, shipmate, so would I. 👍🏽⚓🇺🇲
@@josephveedock7815 Were you proud of the civilians killed in this video though?
@@Steubenville_PoPo no, and what does that have to do with reminiscing about my service in the Navy, ya twerp?
I lived in Tokyo in 1993-97. I was looking for an apartment to rent and someone recommended to me a Japanese realtor who could speak English. It was a man about 55 or so years. He did help me. We talked about life, etc. I mentioned the Mount Fuji - who beautiful it is. The man said: “You know, I had seen Fujiyama from downtown of Tokyo in 1945”. I was surprised - how could it be, impossible, there are too many buildings, they screen the view of the mountain - I told him. He chuckled bitterly - there was no buildings - he said - I was a small boy, and we slept over night in a bomb shelter. When I wakes up in the morning, and went out on the street, there was no street, nothing, smooth plain with rubbles and smoke. I looked around and saw a very white bright spot on the horizon. I asked my mom what is it that? And she said - this is the Mount Fuji. I grew up in USSR and we were not educated at all about the war between US and Japan. And it was the first time when I learned about the air raid on Tokyo after which the city was completely eliminated/burned. I was shocked, I knew of course about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but nothing else. Let such things will never happen again! God bless friendship between people of US and Japan!
Was born in Tokyo, Tachikawa when dad was stationed there. Mom came over after he was settled, they lived off base, mom taught on base (the English school) and dad was a scoutmaster for the troop on base. He said they used to go outside of Tokyo proper to camp in the areas “people went to during the bombing to try to escape it”. This was just 20 years post WW2 so he met many a person who remembers going out to Hikawa and Kanotoen to be safe, they vividly remembered watching the city burn from there.
Interesting other note, he remembers news locally of WW2 soldiers still manning their post in other areas like Okinawa and the Philippines. Many of them refused to surrender until being given orders, by a Japanese officer, to surrender. From what I’ve read the last one to surrender was in 1974 in the Philippines.
@@c1ph3rpunk I lived in Kunitachi, pretty close to Tachikawa. My kids went to American elementary school run by catholic priestess with teachers who were wives of American pilots from Tachikawa airbase. I met quite a number of the pilots in the school-parent meetings.
@UCBW1xmtDAmc7xi7UGlQ4_mw The Japanese people shouldn't get sympathy.Because these people"s support to war，the Japanese army start the wars around the world.From Pearl Harbor to Asia.In 1937，nanjing，the capital of China,just one city!just one.The Japanese.army killed more than 380000 Chinese!!!If having no bombs to Tokyo and nuclear weapon,the war will be Continuing,more innocent people will be killed
Hi
I remember Johnny Carson's 1974 monologue about the last surrendering soldier in the Philippines:
"They took his picture with a Nikon camera and recorded him with a Sony tape recorder and then tried to convince him that Japan had lost the war."
"When we've done some more fighting, we'll do some more talkin. "
Now THAT'S a mic drop.
smartass talk from an officer. He must have liked the clean war from the sky.
@@gwayne919 I didn't take it as either a mic drop or smartass though. I thought he was saying that he wanted to prove themselves before they start talking. Basically "let us walk the walk first." Thats how I heard it.
@@jamesbelshan8839 That's exactly what he meant.
I don't know what the hell the guy above you was thinking.
@@gwayne919 Clean War? Who the hell lied to you?
Tell you what which is better the fact you can duck in a foxhole or a building on the ground or the fact that you get hit by flack and you don't have your shoot on you got four to five miles to think about how you're going to die when you hit the ground?
I was a hospital corpsman and my brother-in-law is Air Force. He was an officer he saw two of his good friends die over there. Take your clean War crap and stick it.
Mr Reagan was a very good narrator. Calm and clear.
Calm and clear. Just as he was when as governor of California he addressed the unacceptable situation of those dope-smoking, draft-dodging, no good long hair hippies taking over university campuses and starting trouble out on the streets.
A liar cut a head a truly a queen Apolonia Pecana Putin, kindly falling down a classmate Enrile Pecana Putin and Jorlan Carullo came from Bicol Colloge a mistress a japanese ajorlancarullo alummnia Enrile Pecana Putin
A good actor with a special voice and skilled vocal timing. Hence his assignment to make propaganda films during the war. Might make a great President some day.
B-29 was the first bomber to have a pressurized cabin. Could fly 30,000ft Plus. The crew didn't have to freeze to death with high altitude runs
It may have been the first long-production run bomber with a pressurised cockpit but it wasn’t the first bomber. A DH9A bomber adapted for the US flew with one in 1921 and in the 1930s the Germans flew many JU86 bombers that had pressurised cockpits, albeit mainly using them for reconnaissance.
@Dalesmanable did u bother to read the very first sentence. No where does Thom say the B29 was the 1st bomber ever made. U put that together lol.
@@TrapperAaron er, you should be the one listening and reading. What is Thomas’s first line? Sheesh ; clearly my first sentence implies “with one”. Read and digest my second sentence.
My dad fought in the Pacific…. a very young Marine. He would not talk about his experience. He was also a “China Marine” for a year after the war had ended. I discovered this (the China experience) when I obtained his military records after his passing.
"Body longer than a corvette": mind you, he's talking about a kind of anti-submarine vessel, not a sports car built by GM.
Thank You for the info. I new it couldn't be a car, and I don't use foogel. Good Day.
@@charlesdobbs4570 Nope
Which is even weirder, since WW2 corvettes are much larger than a B-29
@@JamesCalbraith You are correct, the Allied Corvettes of WW2 ran around 200' long, whereas the B-29 was only 99'. The Gipper had to be referring to Corvettes *prior to 1800* as they averaged around 50 - 60'. The 19th-century sailing Corvettes were a comparable length to the B-29(around 100'), but the steam-powered Corvettes of the same era were similar in size to the 20th-century ones (~200'). I know the narration may seem a bit misleading, but keep in mind that this film is a classic example of WW2 propaganda.
@William Nelson Having been in the navy i knew he was not talking about a car
My father was a gunner on the DAUNTLESS DOTTY (A Square 1), piloted by Robert Morgan. The very first B29 to bomb Tokyo. I met Morgan the year before he died, and we compared stories. As we all know he flew 25 missions in the Memphis Belle in Europe, then was to be limited to 25 more on the DOTTY out of Saipan. However he sneaked one more in (for 26), and was then grounded and sent home. My father (and the rest of the crew) flew 34. The DOTTY was then sent home as war-weary, but crashed into the ocean off Kwajalein Island on the way. Someone commented on Morgan's three wives - when we met he introduced wife #5.
Many people commented about the loss of lives in the fire bombing and the atomic bombs. I can only say that it took all that (and nearly more) to get the Japanese to stop fighting. By that time they had armed all their citizens with weapons and axes and shovels and hoes with the hope of killing an estimated million more American and British soldiers when they stormed ashore. Go read the history.
Spectacular, thanks for a super bit of history.
5 wives... talk about a real hero! :D
i had a japanese born coworker who mentioned with pride the intention of using women and child to fight off the invaders - but when she whined about the atomic bombs killing women and children - i asked why it was okay for them to kill american soldiers - but not to be killed by american bombs - she immediately walked away
What a pity man.
You go read a history how terrible the atomic bomb was. After long years you lived, you have never got the chance to learn about humanity.
Fucc ya pops liar .....wu-tang!
This mission was the first time we really noticed the Jet Stream. High altitude bombing from the B29's was incredibly inaccurate. Subsequent missions were done at much lower elevations (under 10,000 ft).
Well made film. Not triumphalist. But thoughtful. Nothing to glorify but just grim work that needed to be done. Two never returned. That hits home.
Not triumphalist? Thoughtful? This was the propaganda of its day. Grim work indeed.
@@seantynan1 there is no doubt it was propaganda but understated. Not Soviet victory after victory but even showing B29 losses. Thats very smart.
Ronald Reagan served in the US Army reserve from 1935-1942 (cavalry units), and the US Army Air Forces (propaganda unit) from 1942-1945. He had the rank of Captain. So your credits should read; narrated by then, Captain Reagan, USAAF, of the 118th AAF Base Unit, and later, President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the US Military. Cheers.
Maybe some day in the future people will be watching a video narrated by Trump about the various successes in the Middle East.
Cavalry not calvary
@@alukuhito Bush & Obama*
Many Americans such as Jackie Robinson all the way through Yes Regan were more valuable being famous visiting bases and talking about war bonds. Even many decorated Soldiers and Marines were pulled to non combat units to push war bonds or do radio tours. You were still a dod employee and trained and could be activated.
@@SkeletonWord if he could bounce a b ball 🏀 does that make him good like Obama? Cause he was on his college team .
the great episode, I like voice Mr. Reagan . Thank for this rare video.
What a great voice. His voice changed very little even after 40 years after ww2 to his Presidency. The VOICE OF CONFIDENCE!🇺🇲🇺🇲
@@JDAbelRN rather the voice of a professional actor, no?
that great generation has almost died off, but never forget their great sacrifices so we could be free, support your veterans, they fought for you.
The Great land of America,
Built by these great our American war HEROES !!
Thank you for your dedication and professionalism .
Amen, brother.
9. 11
My dad was the Bombardier/Navigator on the B29 , 'Piece O' Meanness. They flew from Guam in which he said the Japanese still lived on the island. They flew bombing missions over the industrial city north of Tokyo, Kawaguchi. His job was to take over the controls on the bombing run and drop the bombs. I have some bombing photos with the location of, 35 degrees 48' N / 39 degrees 44' E at 21,000 feet.
39 degrees E is in Syria. 139 degrees E is in Tokyo.
@@mbak7801 lol
@@mbak7801 that's an even longer flight!
Give us all that living history partner 👍
my father was gunner in 462nd, (HELLBIRDS). on Tinion Island. Tail sign was a U in a triangle. miss his stories.. love ya Dad.
We thank him for hus service
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Dark Leap
Chapter 9 MacArthur Parents and Children Invade the Philippines
Invasion of the Philippines by white Christians
José Rizal and the Philippine Independence Movement
US replaces Spain in Spanish-American War
MacArthur parent and child who annihilated the independent army
Filipinos rejoicing at Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War
Chapter 10 Differences between the Empire of Japan and the imperialism of the Western powers
The Empire of Japan was an empire for defense, not aggression
The threat of the white empire south of Russia
Invasion of white powers called Triple Intervention
Why was the Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed?
Why was Japan's proposal to eliminate racial discrimination swayed?
America's desire to abolish the Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Washington Naval Treaty plot
Chapter 11 The Empire of Japan does not have "colonial rule"!
Japan was the last fort in Asia
Japanese colonial rule is not "colonial rule"
A Korean national textbook that writes crap about Japanese rule
"Japanization" education based on the idea of racial equality
Queen Yi Bangja, a Japanese royal family married to the Korean royal family
Hakko Ichiu is Japan's ideal that "the world is a family and all human beings are brothers."
There are eight million gods in Japan, the country of Yamato
Chapter 12 Japan does not invade China
"War of aggression" was defined by the United Nations in "December 1974"
Japan's advance into Manchuria is not an aggression
Japan acquired Manchuria's interests in the victory of the Russo-Japanese War
In China, hizoku were assigned to various places
Protection of Japanese residents in Manchuria
Manchukuo of the Five Races Under One Union
Japan's advance into the continent does not violate the "Paris Warless Treaty"!
The China Incident is not a war of aggression in Japan!
Chapter 13 "Co-conspiracy" of the first strike by the United States
We need to know more truth
The pilot of the Chinese aviation unit was an American camouflaged "veteran"
Was it the United States or Japan that started the war?
Engagement with the Japanese Air Force
Set up an aviation business in China
President Roosevelt responds to China Lobby
It was the United States that was conspiring!
Shenort's "Japan Bombing Plan"
President Roosevelt proposed the Lend-Lease Act to Congress
US economic blockade against Japan and attack on transport vessels
The book of the cause of the war between Japan and the United States
Chapter 14 The day the president deceived the American people
Betrayal by the president
Eight items to cause Japan to wage war against the United States
Haunting of cruisers for provocation purposes
Commanders-in-Chief of the United States Fleet rebels against Roosevelt
McCallum utilizing cryptanalysis
"Ambush in Pearl Harbor" was an American trap!
Empire spy being swam
The Pacific War is America's "war of aggression"
Chapter 15 It was Japan that destroyed the British Empire!
The delusion and truth of the Greater East Asia War
Lecture at the 70th anniversary of the Greater East Asia War
Japan stabbed by the British Empire
An Englishman who appreciated the Greater East Asia War
The Greater East Asia War was the Asian Liberation War
Great achievement of "Sky God Soldier"
Asians delighted and welcomed the Japanese army
Japan, tell the world the cause of the Greater East Asia War!
For the immortality of jyapanSpirits
@@glennmandigo6069 may god rest his soul and may he find peace.
My dad was a radio operator in the 319th based on Guam. I regret not asking him more questions about his service before he passed away.
Occasionally he would break into his Morse Code...dee..dee..dot...dee.,,dot,,,dot...dee...dee I had no idea what he was saying. vbg
@@Cainer444 You are the son of massacrer.
I grew up watching Ronald Reagan on black and white TV in the 50’s host GE Theater. He would give a short introduction at the start of each weekly show. Good voice and good speaker.
Great documentary. At 8:46, when the planes arrive at Saipan, no narration, no music. It feels like you were there, watching them land.
My dads two cousins were B17 pilots based in England, bombing Germany. Both survived.
Thank you, men, and especially President Reagan!!!
The guy that sicced the rich on everyone?
@@patmccormick9972 Reagan's Greatest Acting Job was when he convincer the Middle Class that the Poor had All the Money!
Yes, thank you Ronnie for making those films during wartime. Not everyone is robust enough to stand the rigors of war.
Почему этот Рейган полез в политику?Озвучивал бы себе фильмы,так нет поперся в президенты,теперь вот еще один " президент" - клоун Зеленский
I was born on Saipan in 1958 while my Dad was stationed as a Navy physician there. When I was 3 months old he was transferred to Guam where we lived for a year. According to my parents, the islands were little changed over what they were in 1945. I was born and raised in a quonset hut, and my Dad used to perform surgery in one, with geckos running all the floor. I am 66 now and it is on my bucket list to go back to both Saipan and Guam and set foot upon the sand from whence I came
it wasn't a war that we Japanese could win. the gov at the time was completely insane and waste valuable soldiers like damn shit.
anyway, I'm glad to live this time and age that Japan and America are doing well each other.
war is sucks
America and Japan: Friends for the long-term. :-)
@@johnb5558 An empire like the US has no friends, only partner of benefits, wich will be changed if they arn't useful anymore. Sure, this concerns not the civilian people, like you and me but the gov's.
Don't underestimate the honorable Japanese people. Although not the civilists but the gov and military were responsible for war, the japanese civ's had the most victims and suffered enormous pain that such acrocity what America did to them won't be forgotten. They accept the circumstances but internally there's a fire of rage burning, feed by the wrath of the shame America brought over them and if sometimes this fire breaks out, their revenge will be horrible, to make everyone know that no one should dare to treat this nation like that anymore. Remember the Roman Empire, they also subjugated many people and their arrogance dominated large areas of the ancient world but after rise the fall began and the subjugated people took revenge.
As a descendant of Dresden survivors I can feel with the japanese people. Also the gov there (esp. the "Führer") was teribbly insane but the civilians had to pay for. Democratic nations like to give the civ's complicity on the war but I think no one of theese people can really imagine how life is in a dictatorship, how you are inimidated by the gov and if you don't go with them you have to fear enormous penalities, most resulting in death. I don't know if America ever did to Japan, but the British apologized for Dresden and supported the rebuild of a destroyed famous building. Their civilians also had to suffer from German air raids over London. America with its
Boy I'd sure love to have you as a pen-pal !
Greetings from your closest ally - U.S.A. !
Well for Japan…. It was worth a try. Another Pacific war is coming…. This time with China. Get ready. They are.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, WW2 was something I prided myself in knowing a lot about, but I had no idea that any of the Memphis Bell's crew went on to fly B29's over Japan.
Memphis Bell ain't B-29
Around 15:20,as the planes were taxing, I thought I saw a C-82 Packet.
@@javiercasado8202 I would just scream my own name.
*Belle
@@barryhopesgthope686 Yes.
One of the best documentaries ive seen
I lived in Japan for over 11 and 1/2 years. one of my older students was a survivor of the Tokyo air raids. I'm an American and she was Japanese of course. she told me that she holds no grudge against America, but as long as she lived she will never forget the smell and the glowing red sky... she also told me that she was very sad because after the war no one paid attention to Tokyo. People poured out their hearts and their money for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Tokyo stayed in ruins until the 1950s.
genocide plain and simple
@@descartesdonkey4291 The aim wasn't to eradicate a race. It was to end a war.
What about Godzilla he paid attention to Tokyo
@Legion 57 they deserve it at that time I guess, so they will surrender and prevent great bloodshed on an invasion
He who sides with Nazis...
I remember my father telling me stories about the war in Japan. He was in the UNITED STATES Army Air Corps.
My Dad was B29 tailgunner, my thumbnail pic is him at the sights, korea vet. He also said he felt like a greyhound bus crewboy most of the time, and hated having to walk the props thru.. guam,.. he hated leaving the island because there was a sign on the runway that said, point of no return. at that point you were committed, if it failed off, the cliff!! thats it! also was on scene at a few crashes. said they were horrific.
@666MikeRochip hey i wanna come to nz
My grandfather was a tailgunner on 29's in Korea. He was on Okinawa at Kadena AFB. Do you know what squadron your dad was in?
The B-29s' engines were inadequately cooled and were a maintenance nightmare.
Indiscriminate bombing on non-combatant civilians is war crime.
@@Funica11 Payload was a large camera.....
18:00 FYI None of the Doolittle Raiders crashed in Japan. Crews crashed or bailed out
over China except 1 crew diverted to Russia due to poor gas consumption. Two crews
captured in China by Japanese. Three executed, 5 imprisoned in Japan. One died, other
four released at end of the war. Three well enough to go to USA, one George Barr was
hospitalized, eventually returned to USA. In his mind he was still a prisoner. He didn't
know for sure the war was over and we had won until Jimmy Doolittle arrived at Barr's
hospital bedside and told him. Then Dooloiitle told the hospital administration who
George Barr was. Told them to get him in a uniform, some cash in his pockets, and
get him rehabilitated.
This was 24 November 1944 with 111 B-29s but started to discover this conventional altitude bombing didn’t work due to jet stream winds. Altitude incendiary bombing was soon tried but without the massive results found in March 1945 dropping incendiaries from low altitude.
The Lemay treatment. HE followed by primitive napalm from 4000ft..
The M69 used small amounts of napalm ejected from tubes to start fires - the M69 was developed to be dropped on Japan long before Lemay was in charge, his contribution was doing it from low altitude.
This film makes it seem as if they were successful! They hit nothing of value that day or the bombing raids to come for some time.
@@hubriswonk consider those raids like a local band playing a few sets for an opener for the big name star band.
@@oilsmokejones3452 You are absolutely correct
My dad was on Guam at a B 29 base. The letter "L" was on their plane's tails.
m grandfather had 21 missions over Germany and France in a b 17 and then was transferred to Saipan were he had 16 daylight missions over japan where as he said " we burned it to the ground!"
We certainly did. Half of each city big and small and smaller. Hundreds of cities. Then we nuked them twice.
@Martin Cohn
_'The Final Countdown'_ (1980) with Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross, Charles Durning and Martin Sheen.
Good flick. 👍
Beautiful to have historical info for generations after generations. Thank you. President Renald Reagan
Good old Ronald Reagan. Stepped up and did what he could, and did it well.
Eh...he was a elitist looking to make other rich elites at the expense of everyoen else.....just another piece of trash.
Reagan didn’t enlist. He stayed safe in Hollywood and made stupid war propaganda films like this garbage so idiots like you would feel proud to be an American. Reagan was a stooge for Wall Street bankers. An idiot who read his cue cards and pretended to run the country.
Back in the day, we smoked in the cargo space near the out flow valves.
I c someone else has been a veteran and done some cool stuff. I got some more #### 2 tell u come Back.
My Father-in-Law was a tail gunner that flew out of Saipan with the 498th Bomb Gp. He participated in this raid and many more. He never got over his dislike of the Japanese. 14:34
It's very important that the narrator actually become the President and one the of stronger military under his leadership beyond the wars is amazingly awesome! Also the distance is like going from the east to west US mainland borders except for Alaska and Hawaii along with our territories! It's awesome to call these men one of our heroes of that day!
He was a terrible president. Sold out to drug runners and death squads. He was a racist, sexist pig who, like trump, thought the American people were too stupid to notice his treason.
Sorry but heroes don’t melt innocent women and children into the asphalt Lmfao. This war was as grey as it gets. Pure evil became untethered from the depths of hell and ran rampant across the globe. Their were no good or bad guys. Just young humans turning each other into mince meat over absolutely nothing
No GPS or auto pilot back then. These guys were a bread of their own and we owe them a debt of gratitude.
They did have instrument flying, though. My uncle taught that course at Corpus Cristi air base 1942-1945
Actually there was the autopilot.
Bread? I think you meant “breed“.
my bad
@@scottjohnson7780 no knead to apologize ; )
Man that narrator was great, I'd vote for him if he for some reason ran for president
👍👍👏🇺🇸😁
Your father, my uncle my best friends father, teachers, ministers and postmen. Men from every walk of life, these were the men who fought WW2. Growing up in the fifties, these were my heros. And when 1968 came and it was my turn to go, how could I do otherwise.
Thank you for your service sir
May God Bless You and Yours
B-29 high altitude bombing never had the hoped for impact. It was only when Curtis LeMay turned to fire bombs that the B-29 became devastating...
at low altitude and no armament.
@@JBliehall ironic, B-29 was designed as a self protected high altitude precision bomber....it achieved its greatest success as a low altitude fire bomber. The great Tokyo Fire Raid killed more people & destroyed more structures than either the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs
good@@alexius23
This footage is wild!! Still can’t believe it! One of the best war films ever!
I’m only half way through btw
NARRATED BY RONALD REAGAN！！！
He never knows he'd be the POTUS like 40 more years later.
RR was comissioned officer during WW2, tour of duty was the propaganda dept and intelligence🇺🇸
He was just a lovable dummy, a very convincing and popular mouthpiece for the ruthless establishment that runs both of the U.S. political parties, branding the poor as 'welfare queens' while the élite were soaking the taxpayers for squillions ('socialism for the rich').
@@None-zc5vg Still mad he brought down your Bolshevik friends commie scumbag? Boo hoo someone else is smarter and more ambitious than me whahhhhhh!
@@arielcuenca5037 RR originally joined the Army Reserve as a Cavalry Officer in 1937. In 1942 he transferred to the Army Air Force where he served in a unit that made training/morale films like this one. Never served in combat due to poor eyesight. Was a captain by war's end.
excellent & great to hear mr reagan again
You've got to love the guy smoking in the cockpit.
I do not think it is lit!
Commercial pilots smoked in the cockpit in the United States until the early 90s
The B 29 super fortress really changed the war in the Pacific theater.
@Scott Joseph They didn't know about the jet stream at the beginning of the campaign.
@@jimbodickson9124 As long as it wasn't pot..😲😂
"When we've done some more fighting, we'll do some more talking." Spoken as the wing landed in Saipan.
What a perfect example of the phenomenal stoicism that was routine among WW2 American military. A lost age.
They said this was the first raid. Incendiary bombs weren't used on the first raid. That was later after the first raids were not having the impact they expected.
The huge fire from those bombs killed more than the nuclear bomb drops too.
First raid was in 1942
superb documentary - with future president reagan providing a calm narration
My father was a Canadian POW, veteran of Hong Kong and was working in the shipyard at Yokohama from Jan. 1943 to April 1945 and told me of the B29 raids. He said the Japanese were terrified of the big bombers. He was finally transferred out to a mine further north in Ohasi POW camp in April 1945 when the bombing was too intense. He always had great respect for the Americans who finally liberated him Sept. 15, 1945.
It is said, mes amis, that sometime after the first B-29 aeroplatform did a low level recon-mission o'er Tokyo, mes amis, the Empress Nagako (the wife of Emperor Hirohito), wrote in a letter:
“Every day from morning to night, B-29's fly freely over the palace making an enormous noise. As I sit at my desk writing and look up at the sky, countless numbers are passing over. Unfortunately... the B-29 is a splendid plane.”
A narration performance deserving of not only an Oscar (Academy Award) for the actor....but enshrinement in a place of honor on Mount Rushmore as well!
Amen to that. He so deserves to be up there with those other great Americans
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" Well, Gorbachev didn't. The Berlin Wall came down nine months after Reagan left office when East German politician Günter Schabowski announced that East Germans would be allowed to travel to the west. His gaffe lead masses of people to overwhelm the border and the wall came down..
My Father, Col. James B Bowers, was a navigator on those B29’s off Saipan. I can’t imagine making that run and back with a whisky compass and a sextant!
My adopted father was a colonel army air corps WWll. Man what the world had to endure because of the ego of a few nuts. If it's not a lesson I don't know 1 thing that could show us where we're headed. Hopefully the world never lets 1 nut get that far again with rethtoric of hate and fear. Not the world folks.want to live in. Honored to this generation for their sacrifices to keep freedom and democracy as we know it alive. And we pass along to the next generation. So ashamed that the human species has invested so much of it's resources to defend against those that would do us great harm to control us and force us to live under facism communism it's dictator. History has shown us there's only one way for all free men to live it's called democracy. So important we pass that responsibility on to our kids and never forget what our forefathers sacrificed so you could do whatever you wanted as long as it was within our laws. Some folks think they can hang others with a spiders thread so beware of who your leader is. Lot of responsibility on a leaders shoulders especially democracy's. As a private citizen we must do our part to ensure democracy. Voting is ones ultimate reason we exist today as a democracy. To many special interest groups who cuddle up to money property and so called prestige. Thank God he didn't let the biggest con artist in politics win by the insurection. Folks that was no joke and those who are the responsible one expect we should just shrugg that off. I don't think so. What do you think would of happened to orange boy had he run his con game on well generations people in America. The writings on the wall. It's super important for democracy to let the world know no one is the law or above our laws in America. Adults know what's happening and if you want to join some hate group and attack your country cuz some fat orange jerk with his shoe box mentality lawyer working his way for tips to the bottom well suffer the consequences cuz they're coming. Might not be today but for sure in your lifetime if that's worth anything
One of the greatest presidents. Brave pilots. Great documentary.
Love how this started at the training base at Grand Island, Ne. Im from there and have done alot of research on the Nebraska training bases. Many of which later became civillian airports
Go Big Red !!!!!
President Reagan!! Miss him!
If this is the first raid, most of the bombs missed, blown back by the jet stream encountered at high altitudes. Soon they were dropping fire bombs at very low altitudes.
Yep, the high altitude raids were a bust. Inaccurate, off course, visible. The low altitude (300 ft) bomber streams carried more bombs and the hit the target March 9-10, 1945 ... ugly, very ugly, Operation Meetinhouse. 14 aircraft lost, one city devastated.
@@theccpisaparasite8813 In a single raid the city of Toyoyama (if I remember correctly) was 95+% destroyed!!! (I noticed when I looked it up, just like a lot of articles on Japanese cities, it now has no mention about WW2!!!)
@@timengineman2nd714 "it now has no mention about WWII". What is the point you are trying to make?
@@theccpisaparasite8813 Japan is "Sterilizing their history about WW2".
@@theccpisaparasite8813 I am guessing they werent flying at 300 ft over tokyo... 5-6k feet according to what I was reading. Just finish the book "Bomber Mafia" which filled in a lot of details for why all this occurred. I definitely recommend it.
Music sounds like it was lifted from “Flying Tigers” sound track
Michael Chaplin-It was! That Victor Young score is great.
the opening theme i thought was used in the Jimmy Stewart Movie "strategic Air Command" with the B-36s
Operation Meetinghouse, conducted on the night of 9-10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. Of central Tokyo 16 square miles (41 km2; 10,000 acres) were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless.
More killed than at Hiroshima
Yes, but that was bombed during night time.
My grandfather fought in europe in the first and in the Pacific in the second never talked About it only thing he said was he saw things no man should ever see still runs chills down my spine even writing it
My uncle said that, too. God bless those brave men.
The agony and the death that so many people suffered to build this country.
Mine fought in Czechoslovakia in 1938, in France in 1940, and in Northern Russia around Leningrad 1941-1945. He escaped the Courland Peninsula and got back to his home in Munich after the war.
For all we know, he might have seen a death camp.
I'm 62 and as a young man I knew my uncle had been in the Pacific war but he simply wouldn't ever talk about it to me. After he died, I found out from my mother that he'd been taken a POW by the Japanese and simply couldn't bare to discuss what went on. There was no counseling for these guys when they returned. They were just told to forget about it and get back to civvie life, but many suffered in silence for the rest of their lives.
I can't imagine how those on the ground at Saipan related the arrival of the B29s to the strength of their nation. The feeling should have filled a heart to breaking. "My nation, my taxes, my neighbours, our history built these!" Both those airships and what they carried later was mankind at the cutting edge.
Ever been shot at Peter. If you have then you’d understand.
Theese were war machines, build to murder and mutilate civilists. You feel proud of bringing enormous pain to women and children of other nations? What a shame!
@@rootlocalhost6440 - i suppose you tsk-tsked japan too for it's manifold atrocities
@@rootlocalhost6440 yes, they brought salvation to millions of Chinese, Filipinos and Koreans. It's a shame you're so narrow minded. Did you have an alternate plan?
Hearing Reagan's voice reminds me of a time when the U.S.A. had a real president.
I couldnt put it any better...thanks
Who it sure wasn't him.
@Legion 57 For about two more months!
@Legion 57 Right! Wonder where Norcanex has been since January 2017.
That was my line,you traitor !😁
1:25 Gibson enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on Dec. 5, 1933. Fourteen months later he was appointed an aviation cadet. In 1936, he was awarded his pilot wings He retired as a Brigadier General.
I'm curious about the gunners' firing systems. Were the "sights", a primitive version of "television"? I loved the Tail Gunner's array; the centerpiece weapon looked to be a cannon larger than 20mm.
I believe the sights were just a cross. There's vid on Utube. Type in B29 guns. The guns followed the "gunners" movements but accounted for nearly all the variables including wind, both speeds, altitude, etc...... It was a system that seems as modern and complex as today minus the simple line of sight part the "gunner" played. My dad flew all the bombers from 29s to 47s and he said even the early 29 gun computers were very effective. I beleive tail was 2 x 20mm + 2 x 50 cal.
He said it was a sucky plane to fly requiring constant inputs and a very small window of speed vs altitude that had to be maintained. Oh, and they never really solved the engine fire thing.
I’m from Hastings where the Naval Ammunition Depot was located just 30 mins south of Grand Island
0:09～0:22 The scene where the building burns in a fire is not a video during World War II. This is a video of a big earthquake that occurred in Tokyo, Japan in 1923. 19:35～20:49 Imagine a lot of citizens living in a city where many bombs were dropped. From a Japanese living in Japan
like Nanjing?
It is sad that this happened but please remember who started it in the first place. What the US did to you guys was still a huge mercy due to the amount of insane atrocities your people have committed. Do you perhaps know of that? Or you don't because it was erased from your history books? :(
During WWII a "Corvette" was small-ish warship and NOT an American sports car.
It was grand old payback time for all the atrocities and destruction the Japanese Imperial Army committed!
Mostly innocent civilians. All humans, every dead and tortured one of them.
Fun fact: Ronald Reagan is the narrator of this war film.
Real Heroes. It is the great American mind that formed the world. Wth love and affection from Kerala, India.
India is a very favorite culture of mine 👍
Shut up idiot
Imagine sitting watching this in the cinema during the war. It must have been electrifying.
There goes a million dollars on the wing...... a million. Good old days when a buck was a buck. Yea,yea,yea ..... im old. You will be too some day.
The 18,000 'B-24's cost some $90,000,000,000 in today's currency just to build, and almost all of them were bulldozed into scrap soon after the war. Think of what might have been done with such expenditure on peacetime projects.
@@None-zc5vg amen.
@@None-zc5vg tell that to Nazi's in Germany and to the extremist militarists in Japan who were looking to conquer much of the planet to enslave your parents and you. Yes world peace is a great thought, but there are so many regimes with dreams of total control, how do you propose to achieve world peace, by way of giving in to tyrants?
@@loanokaharbor8303 I agree..☺️
That all changed when Jimmy Carter put a series of mandatory min wage increases on employers.
I remember in 1976, min wage was 1.75 cents, but gas was like 50 cents a gallon, a brand new car was less than 4 thousand and a 3 bedroom house could be had for about 28k dollars.
By the time the min wage hikes reach 7 dollars an hour, he price of gas was about 3 bucks a gallon, a car was 10k or more, and that same home was 50k.
Inflation was out of control, and you were lucky to have a job.
Especially if you worked in textiles or for the big 3 American automakers.
They had lifted the tariffs, and outsourcing industries was running wild. American industry couldnt compete with cheap Asian labor, and quality of goods was in a downspiral.
The value of the dollar in foreign exchanges was cut in half, and so was the American Standard of Living.
Globalization was ramping up at a lightning pace. So was the importing of cheap labor by looking the other way at illegal immigration coming across our Southern border.
Why, I remember when there were very few illegals in California, and none on the east coast. Migrant Agricultural Worker was a profession, performed with honor, and bestowed with oppurtunities.
Of course these Millenials know nothing about those days, and refuse to listen when their elders tell them what happened.
I was not born but its inportan to look back at the pass and see everything blow me away Thank You very much for shearing!!!
One of the greatest planes ever built.
Imagine suddenly two F-14s show up and lit the Zeroes
@Randy James Tomlinson hehe, The Final Countdown, you meant. Great movie.
The dive of the F-14 in that movie was awesome!!!
You mean splash the zeroes.....
One maybe two
May West!
Iconic bomber!!
For me the B29 was the famors Aircaft that ever build. When i was a little boy, i build this Aircaft as an scale Modell. My dream was one day to fligh with this Aircraft. Now iam 59 and i hope my dream comes thrue.😊😊😊
The breakfast was of eggs and big steak coffee fruits so they could have enough energy
Excellent documentary with just the right tone. "Well bud, what are you waiting for?" That narrator did a great job. His soothing hypnotic voice makes you want to believe anything.
It’s Ronald regan
@@duanesmith8410 Yep, that's why I said it. Politicians are good at making you believe anything they say. Oh, and fun fact: "D"onald Regan was Ronald Reagan's chief of staff.
The Great Communicator himself. "Its been said that politics is the world's second oldest profession. The more I learn about it, the more I realize how much it has in common with the first."
@@MGower4465 I see your point. The most prosperous eventually screw a large portion of the population over their long careers, hehe. I'm still a little miffed at Ronnie and Tip taking away my survivor college benefits in 1981.
Heroes. Every last one of them
So brave what can I say for my 75 years of good life thanks to these Men let’s face it they were that.
There's a video I can't find of the making of a training film for the aircrew.
It showed a huge studio or warehouse with model makers making tiny islands that would be seen on the way to the attack.
A motion controlled camera (the same principle as the Star Wars camera) 'flew' over the model exactly simulating what they would see.
Does anyone have a link to that?
I have seen that video, I believe this was in "Hollywood Goes to War". Hollywood model makers and set designers made scale relief models of Japan exactly how it would look from the air, to bombing crews flying over. The crews were later quoted as saying it looked just like the real thing.
Hollywood set makers also disguised aircraft factories and airfields to look like open land and housing developments so they would not become a target for enemy bombers.
Thank You from Brasil.
Welcome!
I found a music in film was Rachmaninov piano concerto.
I still remember my first trip to the air museum in Dayton Ohio when I walked in and right before my eyes was Boxckscar the B-29 that dropped the big one Nagasaki what a sight I must have taken 20 pictures what a thrill that day was.
These guys had more testosterone in one finger than us modern guys have in our whole body. 3200 miles,....sheesh.
That’s why they called them The Greatest Generation
@@CEOkiller No, that's why Tom Brokaw called them that, not "they".
well done
The 'DRAGGIN LADY' QUEEN OF THE MARRIANAS.
As a kid, I built a large plastic model of a B-29. It was a model of “Thumper”.
Now there are only two that still fly.Fifi,& Doc.
I got to see them at the EAA Fly-In in Oshkosh - what a sight!
Got to see Fifi at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WW II Weekend several years back ..... Got some Great Pictures!
Confederate Air Force went woke and now they're the Commemorative Air Force. What sell outs! No pride or conviction.
@@mikusoxlongius.... They didn't "went woke". The origins of the CAF was Never a "Confederate" Air Force, it was originally the "Confederate Air Corp" which was a "tongue in cheek" name and group that Oscar Harper (from Montgomery, AL) and a few friends who unofficially founded it (in 1953), used among themselves, along with fictional names and all held the rank of Colonel. In 1957 three pilots acquired a P-51 Mustang ($1,500.) from "Gov. Surplus", and in 1958 along with two more pilots (from WW2) purchased two Grumman F4F Bearcats from "Gov. Surplus" for $805. each.
They Unofficially called themselves the CAF / the Confederate Air Force (although based in TX.) and in Sept. 1961 they were Officially Chartered as a TX. Non-profit organization and from there, the whole thing grew into an organization Far bigger than they had originally envisioned.
As time went on and donations, from private & corporate sources became more & more necessary.... it also, as time went on... became harder to obtain the necessary funding to keep everything maintained & airworthy as it was, without having (in more & more peoples minds) the added "stigma" of being associated with a name that many associated with the civil war, slavery, etc..., which they, themselves were in no way ever meaning to represent that era in time in the US, so they officially changed it, while still retaining the official "CAF" designation, which is actually made up of Four different corporations, and was officially designated as the Air Force of Texas in 1989 by (then) Gov. Bill Clements.
It was in No Way, Shape or Form, any kind of a "sell out" to, or from, Anyone, Anyplace or Anything.... your point is baseless and born out of complete ignorance of the subject matter. FYI... "ignorance" (in case you're unaware)... just means a lack of understanding or knowledge of a particular subject matter at hand. It is Not a derogatory statement.