View Single Post
  #20   Report Post  
posted to rec.boats
Hiroshima Facts Hiroshima Facts is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Nov 2007
Posts: 11
Default Brigadier General Paul Tibbets, RIP

On Nov 3, 9:12 am, " JimH" ask wrote:
"Hiroshima Facts" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Nov 2, 1:59 pm, Chuck Gould wrote:
On Nov 1, 7:38?pm, Tim wrote:
On Nov 1, 3:59 pm, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...article=1&catn...


"...Tibbets, then a 30-year-old colonel.."


WOAH! I think he has the right idea over secrecy in his burial,
though.


Knowing what I know now, I don't know if I could have done his job or
not. Even though it was probablyt he right thing to do, I don't think
it would be a prideful act.


But I wasn't there either.


mixed emotions


We had reduced Japanese naval power to the point where an effective
blockade of the island nation would probably have inspired its
surrender within a matter of weeks...likely without an invasion.


Perhaps, but that wasn't guaranteed. And it wasn't a reason to delay
the A-bombs.


Truman felt it was neccessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of both
the uranium bomb (Hiroshima) and the plutonium bomb (Nagasaki) to
convince the Russians that we had the will and capability to react to
any threat "with extreme prejudice".


Perhaps to some extent, but Truman's main concern was convincing Japan
to surrender.


There was no desire to demonstrate different types of bombs. The only
reason two bombs were used is because Japan surrendered between the
second and third bombs. Had Japan surrendered between the third and
fourth bombs, they'd have been nuked three times.


There was no 3rd bomb ready for use. It was months away from development.


That is incorrect. Japan missed the third A-bomb by about a week.

There were implosion assemblies already at Tinian. All they needed
was a plutonium core to put in them.

On August 11, that core was just leaving Los Alamos, to be flown to
the Pacific for a bombing around August 17-18. However, Japan had
begun to talk about surrendering the day before, and Truman had
responded by ordering a temporary halt to A-bombing to give them a
little breathing room. Groves took that a step further and ordered a
halt to shipping the core. The core only made it as far as the Los
Alamos parking lot before it was recalled.

On August 14, Truman ordered that the core be shipped and that it be
used on Tokyo. However, a few hours later Japan surrendered and the
war was over. Because of the three day delay in shipping the core,
the bombing would have been around August 20-21.

After the third bomb, there would have been a delay of some months,
but not because we lacked A-bombs. The delay would have been because
we would have begun saving them up to clear the beaches just before we
invaded.

Expected production rates would have been another three in September,
another four in October, another five in November, another seven (or
more) in December, and about ten a month from then on.