re: 70 Years Ago Today, the U.S. Army Air Corps Made Tokyo Howl

My Grandfather used to tell me a lot of war stories. He said that at first, everyone hated it when LeMay took over. Before LeMay arrived, most - if not all - of the bombing was at high altitude (above 20K). Once LeMay took over, he lowered the altitude to less than 10K, often times down to 5K.

He told of one story when they were doing a night mission and the Japanese Nicks (Ki-45) would come at them head on. Since he was the bombardier, he sat up front. Said it was some really scary shite watching the tracers come at and into the airplane.

He also told of a mission where his plane came back with 408 holes, with one crew member dead and another severly wounded.

He was with the group from the beginning (they started in the CBI theater before moving to Tinian). Had some crazy stories about that, too.