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General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Rafe35 on June 01, 2004, 11:12:22 PM

Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Rafe35 on June 01, 2004, 11:12:22 PM
What was the code name of the Invasion of Japan that never took place?
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: DiabloTX on June 01, 2004, 11:18:38 PM
Olympic.

:D
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: TimRas on June 02, 2004, 12:16:12 AM
Operation DOWNFALL, the invasion of Japan, was in two components scheduled for the Fall and Spring of 1945-46:

Operation OLYMPIC, Nov 1, 1945, after the hurricane season, before winter. General Krueger, Sixth Army, with nine divisions (3 more in reserve) was to invade three beaches in southern Kyushu, the southern-most of the four Japanese home islands. This was to became a giant airbase to support the next invasion phase in the Spring of 1946. The Japanese had correctly predicted our invasion point and had reinforced Kyushu threefold over initial US expectations.

Operation CORONET, March 1, 1946, of Honshu, the main island, with 22 divisions in the Spring after air fields on Kyushu allowed landbased air support. There were to be two prongs:
    General Hodges, with the 1st Army to land east of Tokyo, clear the peninsula, establish air fields, land tank divisions transferred from European, about 30 days, then charge across the plains to take the capital.
    Ten days after the initial landing, LtGen Eichelberger with 8th Army was to attack west of Yokohama, Tokyo's seaport, open Tokyo Bay and block any reinforcement of Tokyo.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Pongo on June 02, 2004, 12:43:38 AM
The bodies would have been stacked pretty high after those battles. Millions?
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Karnak on June 02, 2004, 01:35:55 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Pongo
The bodies would have been stacked pretty high after those battles. Millions?


Certainly millions of Japanese, most like a million+ Americans.  It would have mad D-Day look easy.  We tricked the Germans, but not the Japanese.

The atomic bombs saved a lot of lives, American and Japanese alike.  They also quite likely preserved much of Japanese culture, tradition and historical buildings.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Furball on June 02, 2004, 03:42:12 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Karnak

The atomic bombs saved a lot of lives, American and Japanese alike.  


not to mention Russian, British & Empire troops (among others).
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Rasker on June 02, 2004, 12:33:42 PM
yeah most likely would have been a Russian occupation zone in north Japan, followed by a Japan Wall and a Peoples Repulblic of Japan in the the north.  Heck, mebbe the Korean War would have been fought in Japan. ;)
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Rafe35 on June 02, 2004, 03:34:34 PM
TimRas and DiabloTX is correct, Congrats :aok

BTW, Furball is right about Russian, British & Empire troops (among others) from saving million lives after A-Bomb drop on Japan.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Fridaddy on June 02, 2004, 11:30:29 PM
I read an interesting discussion about this. The entire first wave, the ENTIRE 1st Marine Division was gonna be written off.  This was after the several hundred US Navy "Loon" rockets (German V-1's) that dropped tonns and tons of chemical weapons on the Japanese defenders.

Millions of bodies would be right. The Bomb was the correct decision.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: airbumba on June 03, 2004, 12:00:28 AM
Imagine the conventional bombing...:(   Man, that woulda made a desert outta that place. Considering more civilians died in the fire bombing attacks than the nuke attacks, woulda been real messy.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: Captain Virgil Hilts on June 04, 2004, 08:34:57 AM
Also, the current stock of Purple Heart Medals is actually left over from the stockpile of those ordered for the invasion of Japan. Yes, that is a fact, more Purple Hearts were expected to be awarded in the invasion of Japan than have been issued in the nearly SIXTY years since, including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and both operations against Iraq.
Title: World War II Trivia (002)
Post by: hogenbor on June 04, 2004, 09:14:33 AM
Just saw a documentary about U-234, bringing uranium from Germany to Japan when the war ended for the Nazi's.

It's a horrible, horrible thought, but people claiming that the bomb saved lives, and even saved Japan are most likely right.

It's like killing the cancer by punishing the whole body.