The Incineration of Tokyo

I recently read a bit about the difference between the Tokyo Fire Raid (seventy years ago this Sunday) and the major bombing raids against Germany.  I threw together a short piece at the Diplomat on the subject…

The raid was the first major night attack against Japan, and the first raid using low altitude bombing tactics. The Americans anticipated that the Japanese would be unprepared for such tactics, and in any case believed that the fuel savings would enable to bombers to carry heavier loads and inflict much greater damage. Unlike in Europe, the B-29s did not need to fly in self-defending formations. Instead, they could fly in echelon, spaced out only by the requirements of runway space.

This meant that they arrived above Tokyo over the course of two hours, rather than as a single formation. And this meant that the fires that would destroy one of the world’s largest cities began slowly, piecemeal as individual bombers dropped their lethal load of incendiary bombs. The city started to burn slowly, and civil defense authorities did their best. But every few minutes a new bomber arrived, in a new part of the city, with a new load of incendiaries. As Lardas related, the spreading fires reduced visibility and began to endanger gun crews. Communications collapsed.