What was the Enola Gay and what part did it play in the war?.
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The Japanese were not going to allow an invasion no matter how hopeless and futile any defense would be. Remember the Battle of Okinawa where not only the soldiers fought to almost the last man, but there were thousands of civilian suicides.Īn invasion of the sacred home islands would have been much worse. I don't disagree.but that did not prevent the defenders from dying in a hopeless fight. Basically starving and with out fuel they had no fighting capability. Japan was in a similar situation to the many island garrisons that had already been bypassed. The Commonwealth did great wortk in CBI theatre, no doubt about it, but that was not what I was referring to. You have to admit, that the battles of Coral Sea, Midway and the bloody island hopping campaign were largely a US effort.
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I carefully chose my words, about the march to the home islands in the Western Pacific.knowing full well the contributions made by Commanwealth nations in SEA. Its like me saying the American contribution to winning the Second World War was meagre when compared to that of Russia.Įdit - I took so long to reply there have been a couple more posts with which I agree. I think your comparison of American and British contributions to the Pacific War is a little unfair. I`m not saying it was right or wrong, I am just saying there was an alternative. So be it two single aircraft missions or more multi aircraft raids (B-29 losses were down to next to nothing) the same out come was inevitable. With next to no merchant shipping left and surrounded by submarines there was no chance to rebuild or even survive. 6th August 2012 at 23:19 - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00ĭont get me wrong I am not against the use of the atomic bomb or any other weapon that contributed to the end of the war and reduced casualties, I am just of the opinion that an invasion of the Japanese home islands in the latter stages of the war served no purpose other than perhaps revenge. It's just US historians tend to gloss over them I think.
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As were the NZ and Australian forces en masse doing their bit. The British (and in their ranks also Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians and others) were there. And by the time that the US were nearing Japan the entire British Pacific Fleet was fighting battles all the way to Japan, knocking out major instalations that aided the enemy war effort, and the British aircraft were fighting over Japanese home soil, then they didn't do too badly.įunny how the USA seems to have forgotten that the Royal Navy's British Pacific Fleet and its considerable carrier force fought alongside them and took on a lot of the battle in the closing days of the war at Okinawa and mainland Japan.Īlso funny how it is forgotten that the Tiger Force was about to deploy a massive force of Lancasters to being a major stepping up of the bombing campaign.īritish squadrons were also in Australia and had been fighting the Japanese for several years before the end of the war. And considering that theRoyal Navy's Eastern Fleet had been at war with Japan too, taking a huge hit in the forgotten attacks on Ceylon which was made by the same fleet that attacked Hawaii and Australia And all the previous fighting in Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies and various other places And considering that they had considerable Army and Air Forces fighting the Japanese in Burma which turned the tide of the enemy that could easily have taken India and been victorious with such a nation under its grip. I think that considering Britain was proportionately a much smaller nation than the USA, and they had endured an additional three years of war, hardship and heart ache at home, in Europe, in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, in Africa, the Balkans and the Arctic. The Brits were a fairly minor player in the march to the Japanese home islands).