General LeMay's Circus - A Navigator's Story of the 20th Air Force in WWII

Author: Earl Snyder
Publisher: Exposition Press NY
Edition: First
Cover: Hardcover w/Dust Cover
Signed: Yes
Published: 1955
Bomb
Siged by Earl Snyder

More Reference Books

Synopsis: Earl Snyder's unique memoir provides a navigator's perspective on the revolutionary strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Twentieth Air Force against the Japanese home islands during the final phase of World War II. As a member of one of the B-29 Superfortress crews that transformed strategic warfare, Snyder offers detailed insights into both the technical challenges of long-range precision bombing and the tactical evolution that made the B-29 campaign devastatingly effective. Snyder begins with his training as a navigator, documenting the intensive preparation required to operate the world's most advanced bomber across the vast distances of the Pacific theater. The book chronicles the massive logistical effort required to establish B-29 bases across the Mariana Islands, describing the transformation of remote Pacific atolls into sophisticated air bases capable of supporting sustained strategic bombing operations. The narrative provides detailed coverage of the initial high-altitude precision bombing campaign that began in late 1944, examining the technical and tactical problems that made these early operations largely ineffective against Japanese industrial targets. Snyder's perspective as a navigator provides unique insights into the navigation and bombing challenges posed by Pacific weather conditions, including the jet stream that scattered bomb patterns and the frequent cloud cover that obscured targets. The book extensively covers the revolutionary tactical shift orchestrated by General Curtis LeMay, who abandoned daylight precision bombing in favor of low-altitude incendiary attacks designed to destroy Japan's dispersed cottage industry housed in wooden structures throughout urban areas. Snyder provides firsthand accounts of the devastating fire raids that began with the March 1945 attack on Tokyo, describing the navigator's role in guiding bombers through intense anti-aircraft fire to deliver their loads of napalm-filled incendiary bombs. The memoir doesn't avoid the moral complexities of these operations, examining the psychological impact on aircrew members who witnessed the destruction of entire city districts and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The author addresses the technical evolution of bombing procedures, including the development of radar navigation techniques and formation flying methods adapted to low-altitude operations. Snyder provides insights into crew relationships and the psychological challenges of flying long missions over heavily defended targets, describing how men coped with the stress of repeated combat exposure. The narrative includes detailed coverage of specific missions, drawing from navigation logs and personal records to recreate the experience of flying combat operations in the world's most advanced bomber. The book examines the strategic impact of the B-29 campaign, showing how systematic destruction of Japanese cities and industries brought the empire to the brink of collapse before the atomic weapons were employed. Snyder concludes with reflections on the campaign's effectiveness and its role in forcing Japan's surrender, providing both personal perspective and strategic analysis of this revolutionary application of air power. This unique navigator's account serves as an invaluable firsthand record of strategic bombing operations that fundamentally changed the nature of warfare.

General LeMay's Circus - A Navigator's Story of the 20th Air Force in WWII, is one of the many primary source materials in the Army Air Corps Museum collection.