Comments by "Mike O\x27Neill" (@EllieMaes-Grandad) on "The deadliest bomber in history" video.

  1.  @thurin84  * they largely weren't needed at night * Main reason was weight-saving for increased bomb loads, but not being needed assuaged crews' fears . . .
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  2.  @d.jparer5184  Had you been alive at the time, or more informed by written history, you would know the mindset of the ordinary US and UK people. Fathers, brothers, sons, husbands were at risk of death and actually dying. Ending the war as soon as possible was the name of the game then.
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  3.  @d.jparer5184  * the difference between what we were doing to German and Japanese civilians compared to say the blitz in the UK * That difference was in the amount of effort and the effect of it. "They sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind." The warning to the Soviets was a bonus effect, but Stalin knew anyway. * Japan was going to surrender anyway * Of that there is no doubt, but not to the Soviets, so when? Truman helped them decide. Modern revisionism is not convincing.
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  4.  @colonelreb1014  Twice you came late to the party, but your contribution was most welcome. We did pay for it . . .
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  5.  @colonelreb1014  As I said, help appreciated and paid for. We held the door open for you.
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  6. If Normandy had been a failure then Berlin would have been turned to glass.
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  7. Duxford is near Cambridge. Also close is the cemetery at Madingley. I suggest you visit both places.
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  8.  @violet9214  P51s were escorts.
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  9. Bailed-out B29 crewmen were badly treated, brutalised and killed in Japan and some of the same happened in Germany to B17 crew. I've never read of bad treatment to downed Luftwaffe crews in UK but USSR would have been different. Rescued crewmen at Midway were bound and thrown back into the sea. General Patton had the most appropriate philosophy on war-winning tactics.
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  10. Nobody regularly hit targets with precision at night. It was difficult enough in daylight, save for special missions (see 'Dambusters').
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  11. That's the war on Japan sorted . . . . but USA envisioned war on Germany too. Fortunately, "airstrip one" remained available for the duration. Its early loss was considered a possibility so a long-range bomber was deemed essential and from that the B29 project began. The rest is history . . .
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