Sunday, August 5, 1945. Enola Gay and Necessary Evil.

The 20th Air Force dropped 720,000 leaflets over twelve Japanese cities.  Conventional bombing raids continued.

Gen. LeMay officially confirmed the atomic mission for the next day.

Paul Tibbets named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother.  This was done over the objection of the planes normal designated pilot, Robert Lewis, who wanted to name the plane  "The Pearl Harbor," "The Avenger," or "The USS Indianapolis".  Lewis also wasn't happy about being moved to the co-pilot's seat for the mission.

Lewis would return to civilian life after the war, and died in 1983 at age 65.

The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.  It featured, as many plans did, a buxom woman, albeit one clothed in a bikini, as nose art.

The Chinese 13th Army captured the town of Tanchuk. The Chinese 58th Division took Hsinning (Changchun).

Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was executed in France.

His pro Nazi broadcast had actually dwindled after 1942.

Oddly enough, today would have been Loni Anderson' birthday.  She passed away yesterday.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 4, 1945. Tibbets briefs his crew.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, British Army, Burma, Espionage, Imperial Japanese Army, Music, Operation Silverplate, Railroads, Swing Music, U.S. Air Force, USSR, War Crimes, Weapons, World War Two

Thursday, August 2, 1945. Potsdam concludes.

The heaviest air raid on Japan of World War Two occured in which 800 B-29s dropped 6,000+ tons of incendiary bombs on various Japanese cities, resulting in 80,000 deaths.

Paul Tibbets reported to Gen. Curtis B. LeMay on the upcoming nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

The Potsdam Conference concluded.  The Allies agreed to limit GErman industrial growth and to ratify the territorial changes already imposed by the Soviets.  Henry Morgenthau's plan to make Germany an agrarian society was partially, but only partially endorsed.

Morgenthau was an agrarian at heart. So much so, in fact, that air travel caused him distress due to his viewing of so many roads and cities as an airplane passenger.

The Soviets agreed to enter the war against Japan.

The survivors of the USS Indianapolis were found by air.

King George VI received President Truman aboard the HMS Renown.

Norma Jeane Dougherty, aka Marilyn Monroe, signed a Contract with Bluebook Modeling Agency.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 1, 1945. Laval brought to trial for what many in France had thought or done.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, baseball, boats and ships, Bougainville, China, Collaborators, France, Hypocrisy, It was because of World War Two, Labour Party, United Kingdom, Vichy France, Wake Island, Winston Churchill, World War Two