Latest news with #AlliedInvasion
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- General
- Yahoo
80 years after Nagasaki, Hiroshima: Ohio's connections to atomic bombs that ended WWII
The United States dropping an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945, hastened the end of World War II. Japan formally surrendered less than a month later. Ohio has more than one connection to the end of the devastating war. Here's what to know. Dayton's Air Force museum houses Bockscar, plane that dropped Nagasaki atomic bomb Fat Man Three days after the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Bockscar dropped the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Russian forces invaded Japanese territory the same day. The devastation of the two bombs coupled with the threat of a full-scale Allied invasion set Japan on the path to surrender. It signaled its intent to surrender on Aug. 10, and the country formally surrendered on Sept. 2, according to the National World War II Museum. Bockscar, a B-29 Superfortress, has been housed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton since Sept. 26, 1961. World War II B-29 bomber Bockscar by the numbers Bockscar was one of 15 specially modified "Silverplate" B-29s assigned to the 509th Composite Group, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. While most B-29s were armored and heavily fortified, Silverplate B-29s retained only a tail machine gun turret and had their armor removed to save weight so that the heavy atomic bombs of the time could be carried over a longer distance. 357 mph top speed 220 mph cruising speed 3,700 miles range 33,600 maximum altitude 133,500 weight in pounds (maximum) 99 feet long 141 feet, 3 inches span 27 feet, 9 inches tall Who flew on Bockscar during the mission over Nagasaki, Japan? Major Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commander 1LT Charles Donald Albury, pilot 2LT Frederick J. Olivi, co-pilot Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator Cpt. Kermit K. Beahan, bombardier Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer Cpl. Abe Spitzer, radio operator Staff Sgt. Edward Buckley, radar operator Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner Staff Sgt. Ray Gallagher, assistant flight engineer/scanner 1LT Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures CDR Frederick Ashworth, weaponeer LT Philip M. Barnes, assistant weaponeer Additionally, The Great Artiste (observation/instrument plane), Big Stink (camera plane), Enola Gay and Laggin' Dragon (weather reconnaissance), and Full House (backup strike plane on Iwo Jima) flew alongside Bockscar on its mission, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Columbus the eventual home of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbetts Then-Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. flew the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, dropping the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy" that ushered in the age of nuclear warfare. Tibbets attended the University of Cincinnati before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1937, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Tibbets advanced to the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force before retiring from the military in 1966. He started an air taxi company, Executive Jet Aviation, in Columbus and died in the city on Nov. 1, 2007, at the age of 92, the Dispatch writes. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio ties to Hiroshima, Nagasaki atomic bombs that ended World War II
Bloomberg
06-06-2025
- Climate
- Bloomberg
What D-Day Tells Us About How Tech Goes from Niche to Mass
Today is the 81st anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of France that began the liberation of Western Europe. I always mark the date, but this is the first time I've been able to commemorate it so personally: Last week, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of hiking the Normandy beaches stormed by those unimaginably brave American, Canadian and British soldiers. Like most who visit, I've tried to imagine how they must have felt. Unlike most, I suspect, I also spent the walk thinking about weather forecasting. Why? The first and most important decision of D-Day wasn't made on D-Day. It was made two nights before — based on the weather forecast. And the role it played has something to teach us about how revolutionary innovations change the world.
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
The Man Whose Weather Forecast Saved the World
'If he had got the forecast wrong,' Peter Stagg said from his home an hour from Bordeaux, 'I could have been sitting in German France — not France France.' Mr. Stagg was speaking about the pivotal role his father, Group Capt. James Stagg, played in liberating France from Nazi occupation. The elder Mr. Stagg was not a general or a foot soldier, but in the final hours before one of the most consequential moments of World War II, he was the man everyone was waiting on. On June 6, 1944, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered more than 150,000 Allied troops to storm the beaches of Normandy in one of the largest seaborne invasions in history. But hours before, Eisenhower's eyes were fixed not on the battlefield, but on the skies. More precisely, on the weather report laid out before him. And the meteorologist who had created it, described by his son as 'a dour irascible Scot,' had to get it right. 'The weather forecast was a go or no-go,' said Dr. Catherine Ross, a library and archive manager at the Met Office, the weather service for the United Kingdom. 'Everything else was ready.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
