World Battlefronts: Ten-Day Wonder

The B-29 bosses had got hold of something new and good: large-scale night fire-bombing of Japan's cities. The top planning had been done in Washington under Brigadier General Lauris O. ("Swede") Norstad, chief of staff of the worldwide Twentieth Air Force. Then the details were left to Major General Curtis E. ("Old Ironpants") LeMay, who had the field command and with it, the tactical responsibility, as head of the 21st Bomber Command in the Marianas.

The new technique had caught the Japs by surprise in the first all-incendiary assault on Tokyo, and LeMay wanted...

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