ENOLA GAY

[Basket case]

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Vi...ay/Article/195966/boeing-b-17f-memphis-belle/

 

[super-bee_ski]

My father was a B-24 pilot that flew out of Guadalcanal not long after it had been "secured". I can't imagine what the ground troops went through in those island hopping invasions. The Japanese soldiers were committed to their cause and clearly as brutal as can possibly be imagined. The bombs at Hiroshima & Nagasaki made a profound impression on most of their people that lasts till today. I imagine (not having served) that combat gives a person a terribly different view. My father only told me a couple of his combat stories, my neighbor, 82'nd airborn, also said very little. It's too bad that too many of our current politicians don't have a feel for what the committed aggressors (terrorist) mind set is.

Oddly enough
After Hiroshima they Japanese Military Leaders didn't even blink.....
It took the 2nd bomb for it to finally sink in.

 

[Budnicks]

Remember the USS Indianapolis CA-35, after delivering "the Bomb"
she went down after hit by a Japanese torpedo, "so many died"
no report for them being late back to port, because it was all hush hush...
Almost 300 went down with the ship & almost 900 in the water,
only 317 survived, after the sinking, the sharks & exposure...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)

We here remember out of our respect, to the fallen,
it was a brutal world war, they died in the service of US
& to protect the UK, France, Russia & most Europe & China even...
Freaken' ingrates, in Europe "LONDON" you'd be speaking German/Italian
or Japanese maybe, if it wasn't for US & all our brave soldiers that died
for you & your countries cause & protection...
**** those that don't give a rats ***, just want to forget it...

Some of US actually learn from history,
we respect it, so we don't repeat the wrongs...

 

[miller]

Thanks for that, Basket case!

I say it's about damn time. I was allowed to go through the Belle, 30 years ago. There was not one square inch, on the inside skin, of that pure piece of history, that didn't have somebody's initials carved into it. Total lack of respect. I was ashamed.

 

[Basket case]

when we saw her, the outer skin had been striped. It has names all over it. I read in Robert Morgan's book that most of this was done after VE and VJ Day.

 

[miller]

First, I'll say sorry. Don't mean to take away the thunder for the Enola Gay. Different airplane, different war. Different between germans, and japs.

The first time I saw Belle, she was behind an A and P school, in Memphis, after being moved from the 'park'. Only three instruments on the panels, busted, only reason they were still there...the others stolen.
But, off my rant now. Guess I'm a little passionate about the old gal.

 

[hawkeye]

and there's the little trick the Japs did when they would "rescue" our flyers from the ocean, beat them, tie them up, and toss them overboard. A lot of people know of the Nazi treachery, but it's just the last few years we've begun to learn just how bad the Japs were...and the Russians were worse than the Nazis.

My wife's grandmother spent the war in Prague and was there until the mid 60s. Lived through both the Nazis and Russians, she preferred the Nazis.