bigpigeon.us webpage World Wars > WW II - Strategic Bombing, updated by RAC 25 Aug '19.
Before World War II, strategic bombing advocates theorized that a small number of large aircraft attacking distant targets could effectively alter warfare. Strategic bombing was practiced on a large scale by English and American air forces against numerous targets in continental Europe, and by the United States against the cities of Japan. However, factors such as massive antiaircraft fire forced conventional bombers to fly so high that accuracy with traditional dumb bombs was not possible. Gradually the strategic bombing concept of bombing a specified target with a few planes shifted to that of bombing an area with hundreds of aircraft. As practiced during World War II, thousands of aircrew members died in strategic bombing, along with some millions of civilians in the areas under attack.
Initially this page will consist only of death information for the following individuals who died on strategic bombing missions.
From the Gold Star Avoca webpage:
Before World War II, strategic bombing advocates theorized that a small number of large aircraft attacking distant targets could effectively alter warfare. Strategic bombing was practiced on a large scale by English and American air forces against numerous targets in continental Europe, and by the United States against the cities of Japan. However, factors such as massive antiaircraft fire forced conventional bombers to fly so high that accuracy with traditional dumb bombs was not possible. Gradually the strategic bombing concept of bombing a specified target with a few planes shifted to that of bombing an area with hundreds of aircraft. As practiced during World War II, thousands of aircrew members died in strategic bombing, along with some millions of civilians in the areas under attack.
Initially this page will consist only of death information for the following individuals who died on strategic bombing missions.
From the Gold Star Avoca webpage:
- Roy Marion Pedersen, Jr. - United States Air Force, navigator - shot down over Kure Bay, Japan. Roy Pedersen served with the 7th Air Force, 494th Bombardment Group, 866th Bombardment Squadron. His B-24J flew from Yontan Airfield on Okinawa and was shot down by flak while bombing the battleship Haruna in Kure Bay near Hiroshima. Later that day, Navy aviators in small planes sank the Haruna. While Roy died on July 28 when his plane was lost, the remainder of the crew of nine were taken prisoner. Two survived; the other six were held in Hiroshima and died when the first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945.
- Melvin Chris Thies - United States Air Force, tail gunner, - shot down over Ploiesti, Romania attacking Romanian oil processing facilities.
- Jerome C. Trobough - United States Air Force, flight engineer - crashed from aircraft malfunction near Momote Airdrome, Admiralty Islands after returning from a bombing mission over Yap in the Caroline Islands.