Things might have gone differently had LeMays predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. The calculation is based on fuel vs weight vs resistance so tailwind wins. Malcolm Gladwell has in his hands a very good story in The Bomber Mafia. Why? Malcolm Gladwells exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war. They intended the mission to be against military and industrial targets, not populations. [18] In The Daily Telegraph, military historian Saul David called the book "error prone" and "bedevilled by the same oversimplification of the world into a single Big Idea that is characteristic of his other work", and gave the book two out of five stars. and Terms of Use, 2023 Hachette Book Group | Terms of Use | The brief Conclusion looks at the bigger picture this story tells about the use of technology. Scientists at Harvard repurposed a failed Dupont Chemical product and refined it into napalm, the most brutal bombing tool devised before the atomic bomb and one particularly suited to cause maximum damage to the wood-and-paper houses of Japan. In The Bombing plane Mafia, he hones in on a specific period of history. Suggestions, Fan Mail, Bones to Pick, and All Other Queries, For Speaking Engagements With Malcolm Gladwell. NOW PLAYING. Kelsey formulated a new "interceptor" class of aircraft in order to sustain his idea that a well-armed fighter aircraft could successfully attack enemy bombers, and that, given drop tanks for long range, it could defend friendly bombers all the way to the target and back.[15]. When he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. Malcolm Gladwell on the Hard Decisions of War - New York Times LeMay replaced Hansell at the end of 1944 and soon began a campaign of terror that eventually visited virtually every major city in Japan. Thank you for purchasing The Bomber Mafia, an audiobook by Malcolm Gladwell. Review and highlights: The Bomber Mafia, by Malcom Gladwell Failure to see this issue through proved one of the Air Corps Tactical School's major shortcomings.[18]. And was engrossed once again. Simply not a subject I seem out, neither do I think I would certainly have liked it as much had I review. The Bomber Mafia isn't an honest or earnest look at what experts have written and thought about America's air campaigns during WWII. [2] In November 1932 when British Lord President of the Council Stanley Baldwin said "the bomber will always get through", he was talking about the terror bombing of cities. In spite of the horrifying damage inflicted by napalm bombs, many Japanese believed theyre what caused the government to surrender. . A Look at Malcolm Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia [5][6], The book follows the story of the Bomber Mafia, a group of American military officers, especially Major General Haywood S. Hansell, as they developed a military doctrine of daylight strategic bombing as a means to defeat an enemy with precision high-altitude aerial bombardment. Take capers these are certainly not peas. In Gladwells account, Hansells relatively more humane approach didnt work. 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). Do Not Steal My Personal Information. Senora Panqueque's Classroom. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell. 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. While one is a celebrated hero, the other was an idealist whose concepts allowed him to be sidelined in the annals of background. This change of commandand what it meant in terms of military strategyis the crux of this book. Those fools can really do some damages if you capture one in the kisser. The US Bomber Mafia agreed with Baldwin only in that the bomber would prevail in its mission. 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. [7] This could lead to a minimum of war-time casualties with new technology such as the Norden bombsight. How the WWII 'Bomber Mafia' Lost the Short-Term Battle But Won the As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Gladwell describes the challenges that both faced. 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. The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill's forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War. Tap the link to open your audiobook purchase in your podcast app. For the first few years, the strongest voice at ACTS against the bomber doctrine was Captain (later General) George C. Kenney who called for the use of air power to attack enemy fighting units on the ground. A small number of apps may require users to copy their URL and paste it directly into the app. Had the war gone on longer, into the winter of 1945-46, he suggests, millions of Japanese could have died of starvation. 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. The book concludes that "LeMay won the battle. One of Gladwells skills is enabling us to see the world through the eyes of his subjects. Your seamless listening experience is powered by Supporting Cast. I was also aware of Bomber Harris who led the fire battle on Germany, and I have actually reviewed exactly how this impacted cities like Dresden. Those large conclusions seemed unsubstantiated to me. Its a history of the dueling philosophies regarding bombing that existed in the US military during World War II. there is a link to purchase . The Bomber Mafia | Pushkin Industries One historian tells the author that Hansell was not the kind of man who was willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people. 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. [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. We won the war when we did because our aircraft carriers were luckily out of Pearl Harbor when it was invaded, we were never going to lose but our task would have become daunting if we had to re-build our aircraft carrier fleet in my opinion Germany invaded Russia for its oil, oil was and is the commodity needed for modern militaries, Your email address will not be published. Captain Claire Lee Chennault, senior instructor in fighter tactics at ACTS, was a vocal Air Corps officer who challenged the bomber mafia for more than a decade; he was forced into early retirement in 1937, leaving the precision bombing advocates unopposed. By stream The Bomber Mafia His scorched-earth philosophy was most evident in the indiscriminate firebombings of Tokyo in 1945 that left an estimated 100,000 civilians dead. In that sense, Gladwell wrote that Hansell "won the war."[21][22]. [12] The teaching of fighter ("pursuit") tactics declined, though Earle E. Partridge and Hoyt S. Vandenberg continued to discuss the role of the fighter. On the one side, there are the Americans who believed that the Norden bombsight and the B-29, which could fly at more than . For those of us who had family waiting to invade, whatever the reason(s), it was very welcome. The kind of indiscriminate destruction that LeMay used to win the war is absolutely a thing of the past, at least for American forces. They believed that bombing strategic targets made sense, and bombing population centers didn't. The Listeners Guide features additional commentary from, Suggestions, Fan Mail, Bones to Pick, and All Other Queries, For Speaking Engagements With Malcolm Gladwell, Hasta la Vista, America: Trumps Farewell Address, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. On both sides. I did know that the British bombed during the night while the Americans seemed to have the much more hazardous daytime raids over Germany. Malcolm Gladwell The Bomber Mafia Audiobook Online. Did the podcast effect the way you approached the book, or understood it? [7], To effect this doctrine, the United States Army Air Corps would need to expend the majority of its resources in amassing a fleet of self-defending heavy bombers, and in the training and maintenance of a great many airmen to fill aircrew and ground crew positions. Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. by . This was a ripoff, I didn't know he had a podcast on this topic, but after listening to the book my immediate thought was "Why did I pay for this book? Fortunately for LeMay, there was another new technology on the horizon. The Bomber Mafia - Wikipedia The bomber mafia succeeded in their goal to have extensive bomber fleets in the US military, but they failed in their wish to achieve pinpoint targeting precision during World War II. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox. His latest book, The Bomber Mafia, deals primarily with the philosophies of bombing during World War II, and has not become a best seller at least not yet. Content Warning: The source text contains historical quotations that use offensive terms for Japanese people. Youll hear the voices of generals, the sound of aircrafts and bombs crashing. After the war, the 20 years of foundational work by the bomber mafia resulted in the separation of the United States Air Force from the Army to become an independent military arm. The author of the book is Malcolm Gladwell, an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. A third option is rarely discussed. As for Vietnam, Johnson and Mcnamara screwed that up by NOT applying LeMay principals and the war should have been ended in 1965 , again saving many lives. I would have been bored with this when I was 11--likely he would be, too. Randall Jarrell captured LeMays blithely brutal approach in two of the most memorable lines of 20th-century American poetry: In bombers named for girls, we burned / The cities we had learned about in school.. USAAC Fighter Projects officer Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey appreciated that a large bomber fleet would be able to perform many military tasks, not just strategic bombing, and felt that the force's doctrine should remain flexible to meet any demand. A fifth severed the rudder cables. I caught Gladwell on CNN last Sunday. [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". No new apps to download, no subscription fees. Curtis Lemay as well as Haywood Hansell are opposite ends of a range in the high adrenaline battle Flying force. The pilot kept flying.. [pdf] The Bomber Mafia By Malcolm Gladwell PDF Download The mushroom cloud of atomic bombs minimizes the function of air campaign which annihilated the cities with a view to damage the morale of the forces. Required fields are marked *. Please simply click here to enter your email address (no additional purchase required) and you will receive the Listeners Guide. However, the doctrine nonetheless became the foundation for the separation of the Air Force from the Army, and the basis for modern airpower theory. A headwind increases airflow under the wings giving it greater lift. This advancement of how warplanes were deployed is rather remarkable. This is an account of a team of elderly minds in the USA airforce who ended up being focused on accuracy battle to decrease innocent noncombatant casualties and also quicken completion of problem by strategically bombing factories and also battle production vital for your enemys ability to continue to combat on.