First, the U.S. command didnt really seem to understand what LeMays campaign was doing to Japan. the moral challenges of modern american history. I enjoyed this short book thoroughly, and would have been happy if it had been twice as long. Their assurance, their journey gets provided a little bit too late for it to have any substantial bearing on the war. Emphasizes just how technical breakthroughs are typically made use of in means they were not indicated. If yo. The Bomber Mafia Audiobook by Malcolm Gladwell - hoopla Because even though his bombing caused more than 500,000 Japanese citizens to lose their lives, it prevented a land invasion which undoubtedly would have cost many more deaths than that. Those fools can really do some damages if you capture one in the kisser. A second shell hit the radio compartment, cutting the legs of the radio operator off at the knees. Hes more of an intellectual explorer than a disciplined academic. After the undeniable horrors of the Great War, a group of Army Air Corps generals spent much of the 1930s brainstorming ways to use airpower to make war bombing more strategic while keeping casualties to a minimum. [16], The book was met with mixed reviews upon release, with four mixed reviews, one positive review, three pan reviews, and two rave reviews as of November14, 2021[update] according to review aggregator Book Marks. Curtis LeMays approach brought everyone Americans and Japanese back to peace and prosperity as quickly as possible, he writes. LeMays solution was to saturate Tokyo with napalm bombs, killing as many as 100,000 people in about six hours, and then to go on and firebomb dozens of other Japanese cities, killing thousands upon thousands, sometimes when the target cities were of little or no military value. Overall casualties in the war were not minimal, and victory did not come significantly more quickly. The print has its merits of being able to take your time to know the history of . The pilot kept flying.. I thought he was pretty thorough but obviously if he's written a book he must have thought it worthy of a more even in depth look. In the late 1930s, they shared a philosophy that with the new Norden bombsight, bombing could be done more effectively, hitting the enemys vital military targets (called choke points). Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. I have read up on LeMay, he did in fact tout a theory that killing civilians by carpet bombing was a winning strategy, that it would destroy the morale of the citizenry. and Terms of Use, 2023 Hachette Book Group | Terms of Use | Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? son. How the WWII 'Bomber Mafia' Lost the Short-Term Battle But Won the The problem here was there above Japan there was a 140 mph (125 knot) jet stream, which played havoc with the bomb sight and precision bombing. Some apps may require users to copy their URL and paste it directly into the app. The British strategy was known as area bombing, which amounted to creating as much damage as possible over a wide area. Malcolm Gladwell on the Hard Decisions of War - New York Times He advocated the close coordination of air and ground forces, with an emphasis on medium bombers and fighter bombers. A fourth shell hit the cockpit, taking out the planes hydraulic system. The Listeners Guide is only available from Pushkin Industries when you buy The Bomber Mafia. It's true: The audiobook breaks conventional audiobook standards, as this is a well-produced audio experience. Upon release, The Bomber Mafia was met with mixed reviews, with reviewers praising its audiobook version but criticizing the book for a lack of accuracy and for being light on details. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. [19] Publishers Weekly stated "this history feels more tossed off than fully fledged", though Gladwell "provide[d] plenty of colorful details and pose[d] intriguing questions about the morality of warfare". Hansell was not the moral opposite of LeMay. The US Bomber Mafia agreed with Baldwin only in that the bomber would prevail in its mission. No new apps to download, no subscription fees. We could have surrounded their ports, mined their harbors, Japan has no energy natural resources, that is why they invaded Maylaysia and the Borneo oil fields. His thinking was that it would be better to force the enemy to surrender early, as a prolonged war would cause more suffering. Do you know if the book had more/different material than the podcast? Yet he also concludes that in the long run, in the years that followed, the idealistic Hansell was right to believe that an air campaign based on precision strikes was possible. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. WATCH SEGMENT. On the eve of the Second World War, a band of visionaries at Maxwell Air Force Base tried to reimagine modern warfare. Members of the "Bomber Mafia" produced the two airpower war plans (AWPD-1 and AWPD-42) that guided the wartime expansion and deployment of the Army Air Forces. Perhaps bombing debate this is old hat to many of my readers. [1] Hansell concurred that both the theorists and the authors of the AWPD-1 war plan (of which he was both) made a serious mistake in neglecting long-range fighter escort in their ideas. The derogatory term "Bomber Mafia" was used before and after World War II by those in the military who did not share their belief, and who were frustrated by the insistence of the men that the heavy bomber should take a primary position in planning and funding. In The Bombing plane Mafia, he hones in on a specific period of history. Tap the link to open your audiobook purchase in your podcast app. Once Japan became secluded on their mainland why not just create a complete blockade of the whole nation? [3], This theory was first espoused by Italian General Giulio Douhet, though his ideas included the terror bombing of population centers that the American theorists eschewed. For those of us who had family waiting to invade, whatever the reason(s), it was very welcome. Tap the link to open your audiobook purchase in your podcast app. [18][19][20] James McConnachie of The Times stated "for a book that is not a war story, this one is brilliantly, brilliantly told". The Bomber Mafia isn't an honest or earnest look at what experts have written and thought about America's air campaigns during WWII. If you have actually ever attempted to toss a can from a moving automobile into a whip can you would understand the math/physics behind it. Why? Malcom Gladwells book Talking to Strangers is a very good book that ties together LeMay was instead, in the words of the military historian Conrad Crane, the Air Forces ultimate problem solver. As Gladwell tells it, the practical problem was how to win the war as quickly as possible. Maybe so. [9], When the United States entered World War II, the Bomber Mafia's doctrine proved of little military use and costly in implementation with the realities of current technology under real-world combat conditions. These pilots dreamed of more humane ways to conduct wars. And then they did the same thing to another city. Curtis Lemay as well as Haywood Hansell are opposite ends of a range in the high adrenaline battle Flying force. And was engrossed once again. It is indeed a conversational work, almost garrulous at times, as when he reports that one psychologist has a heartbreaking riff about what one member of a couple will often say when the other one dies that some part of him or her has died along with the partner. However, this chatty style also glides over some important historical questions. A novelty of this book is that Gladwell says it began as an audiobook and then became a written one, reversing the usual process. Visit gladwellbooks.com for moreinformation. Most of his books deal with research into the social sciences, particularly sociology and psychology and have been best sellers. NOW PLAYING. EP13 Gladwell and the Bomber Mafia - YouTube As long as youre comfortable with the numbers of people who were killed during the air attacks described throughout the book. THE BOMBER MAFIAA Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World WarBy Malcolm Gladwell. Sen. Amy Klobuchar Talks the G7 Summit. Relevance; Rating; Price (Ascending) Most Recent; View: Filter. [22] Writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books, professors David Fedman and Cary Karacas state "[a]s a piece of writing, The Bomber Mafia is engaging. We now live in a world where its not too much of an exaggeration to say that a bomber flying at 50,000 feet can tickle a targets nose hairs with the advanced systems we now have in place. It does give you a sense of the futility of war and leaves you feeling like there must be a better way, which is a good message for a 13 yo. After you enter your email address, youll get a unique link. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell. That Japanese cities were bombed beyond those I found out about, in a fashion I rarely want to picture. The destruction was so far beyond anything theyd seen before that the reality of the reports coming in from American bases in the Mariana Islands just didnt register. Por Vs. Para Mafia Game. It's pretty much about the history of how the military went from ground wars to air wars and theoretically . A headwind increases airflow under the wings giving it greater lift. He was hardly a theorist, and especially not someone out to make war more humane. Norden, LeMay, the Air force, DuPont, a complete range of personalities that created methods to make war much more effective, with the hope that this war would certainly be the last. Gladwell argues that LeMays savage firebombing campaign succeeded, and that, combined with the two atomic bombs that followed, shortened the war. Margaritaville at Sea is a 1,680-passenger cruise ship that first started sailing early this year. Later, Saville successfully implemented his ideas in the Mediterranean Theater. [14] Because of his lower rank, he was in no position to challenge the bomber mafia, and instead strove to work around their restrictions on pursuit aircraft. These four instructors, the core of US bomber advocacy, argued that an enemy's army and navy could be defeated intact due to the destruction of industrial and military targets deep within enemy-held territory. The most compelling account is the clash of ideas and the practical options sought to fight on a distant enemy. There was never going to be a land invasion of Japan, I know that that possibility was used to justify nuking them, but I also know that president Truman was not going to be the CIC that sent hundreds of thousands to die for something that patience and strategy could preclude. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine for over 25 years and was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 Most Influential People. This is a preview of the digital audiobook of The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell, available on Libro.fm at https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781735803227?cmp=li. Supported apps include: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcasts, Podcast Addict, Castbox, BeyondPod, Downcast, PlayerFM, Breaker, and RadioPublic. The logistics of sending thousands of men, tanks, artillery and supplies from the western side of Russia to the eastern Pacific side would have been virtually impossible. [1] The bomber mafia's strategic doctrine, changed by war and experience, helped shape the mission of the new Air Force and its Strategic Air Command.[2]. [4][5] In contrast, American theorists devised a strategy of pin-point bombing that targeted the enemy economy and the production of weapons. Gladwell describes the challenges that both faced. The strategic bombing concept, however, was a major factor in the eventual victory and became the first core doctrine of the independent United States Air Force. Was Henry Stimson, Franklin Roosevelts secretary of war, truly responsible, more than anyone, for the extraordinary war machine that the United States built in the early years of the Second World War? The Bomber Mafia | Pushkin Industries Hansell was a junior member of the Bomber Mafia, a group that put its faith in the new Norden precision bombsight. He flew in at 5,000 feet elevation, which was under the jet stream, and under the altitude at which Japanese antiaircraft weapons were effective. You can pay with any major credit cards, as well as Apple Pay on iOS and Google Pay on Android. Andrews staffed the command with like-minded officers such as Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. Revisionist History host Malcolm Gladwell joins Dan to discuss the development of U.S. precision bombing ideas, Curtis LeMay and the firebombing of Japanese cities. General Haywood Hansell was the leader of The Bomber Mafia, a small group within the military that believed an emerging technologyairborne warfarecould make wars shorter and far less deadly. The last chapter deals with the end of the war, as Gladwell examines the moral issues involved in LeMays actions and whether they were justified in the circumstances. Bomber Mafia Daylight precision-bombing advocates Carl A. Spaatz, Muir S. Fairchild and Donald M. Wilson at Maxwell Air Force Base in 1946 The Bomber Mafia were a close-knit group of American military men who believed that long-range heavy bomber aircraft in large numbers were able to win a war. If LeMay firebombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the loss of life would have been similar as to what the atomic bombs caused without the radiation. Group of soldiers arguing that long-range bombers could win wars, Braxton, Leon E.; Wagner, Arthur H. (2012), Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, "Warden and the Air Corps Tactical School: What Goes Around Comes Around. Following numerous casualties from ground warfare in World war, a group people army males focused on producing a bombing system that would certainly be so exact that it could get really specific targets that would cripple enemies while decreasing human loss.