06-08-2015, 04:42 PM
"By 1945 Hiroshima had a civilian population of almost 300,000 and was an important military center, containing about 43,000 soldiers." - http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/hiroshima.htm
It's dropped-out of the hero-centric pat-narrative, but (understandably, in view of the resistance), US soldiers were tired; I've read that there was alot of concern in US command circles, as to the will/ability of the GI's to carry it forward much further.
Similar to Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks line on Kleve - "Then they [Air Force] came to me and said, 'Do you want the town of Kleve taking out?' By taking out, they meant the whole of the heavy bombers putting onto Kleve. "Now I knew that Kleve was a fine old historical German town. Anne of Cleves, one of Henry the Eighth's wives, came from there. I knew that there were a lot of civilians in Kleve, men, women and children. If I said no, they would live. If I said yes, they would die. "Terrible decision you've got to take. But everything depended on getting a high piece of ground. The German troops would have to come through Kleve and we would have to breach the Siegfried Line and get there. Your own lives, your own troops, must come first, so I said, yes, I did want it taking out. But (when) all those bombers went over, the night just before zero hour, I felt a murderer. And after the war I had an awful lot of nightmares - and it was always Kleve." --General Sir Brian Horrocks, interviewed for "The World At War" programme 19, "Pincers, August 1944 - March 1945".
It's dropped-out of the hero-centric pat-narrative, but (understandably, in view of the resistance), US soldiers were tired; I've read that there was alot of concern in US command circles, as to the will/ability of the GI's to carry it forward much further.
Similar to Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks line on Kleve - "Then they [Air Force] came to me and said, 'Do you want the town of Kleve taking out?' By taking out, they meant the whole of the heavy bombers putting onto Kleve. "Now I knew that Kleve was a fine old historical German town. Anne of Cleves, one of Henry the Eighth's wives, came from there. I knew that there were a lot of civilians in Kleve, men, women and children. If I said no, they would live. If I said yes, they would die. "Terrible decision you've got to take. But everything depended on getting a high piece of ground. The German troops would have to come through Kleve and we would have to breach the Siegfried Line and get there. Your own lives, your own troops, must come first, so I said, yes, I did want it taking out. But (when) all those bombers went over, the night just before zero hour, I felt a murderer. And after the war I had an awful lot of nightmares - and it was always Kleve." --General Sir Brian Horrocks, interviewed for "The World At War" programme 19, "Pincers, August 1944 - March 1945".
Martin Luther King - "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Albert Camus - "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion".
Douglas MacArthur — "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons."
Albert Camus - "Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear."
Albert Camus - "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion".
Douglas MacArthur — "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons."
Albert Camus - "Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear."