Hiroshima...65 years later

Jon Skagfeld · #1 08-08-10, 02:18

Did any MLUers catch the back to back programs on History channel?

B&W, they were a dramatization of events leading up to the dropping of "Fat Boy" and "Little Man" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.

Great original shots of B29s doing their thing, interspersed with the dramatization.

Last night, "Fat Boy", after sufficient testing, was transported from Los Alamos, New Mexico to the coast for furtherance to Tinian for its ultimate fate.

What is fascinating is that the convoy had a Jeep in front with a crusader shield and unit square on the lower windshield( this would be consistent with post-war domestic Canadian SMPs). I'll be damned if there wasn't a C15 and a C60 following the Jeep allegedly transporting the atomic bomb!

A later scene showed a Jeep rolling into a HQ area (Curtis LeMay's?). This veh had a unit sign with "67" as Unit sign.. Obviously a different Jeep, but obviously Canadian marked.

Sic transit gloria!

Can I stand to be corrected that no Canadian vehs, especially CMPs, were operating in New Mexico during the testing of the A bomb?

Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) · #2 08-08-10, 02:28

It was a Canadian television production. They rented what they were offered - the only question is who rented them? Oh yeah, and who was the dumbass technical advisor?

Not a bad program otherwise... I was expecting a total anti-war, anti-American thing, but they seemed to do a pretty good job, ie the Japanese started it, took it to barbaric lengths and would have dropped the same on us in a heartbeat if they'd had it (as would the Nazis). I have to say I'm rather sick and tired of the WW2 apologists - the other guys started it and behaved abominably, but we finished it. End of story.

RHClarke · #3 08-08-10, 02:50

Jon and Geoff,

One of the more interesting and tragic side stories relating to the use of "the bomb" during WWII was that of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis (CA-35). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35) for the story of this ship's life and death.

Imagine, four and a half days afloat in shark infested waters...

Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) · #4 08-08-10, 03:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by RHClarke

Jon and Geoff,

One of the more interesting and tragic side stories relating to the use of "the bomb" during WWII was that of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis (CA-35). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35) for the story of this ship's life and death.

Imagine, four and a half days afloat in shark infested waters...

I'm quite familiar with the USS Indianapolis' fate... read the book (and saw the movie well afterwards). I can't help thinking that their fate was shared by many others who were never rescued in time, whether it was in shark-infested Pacific waters or in the ice-cold North Atlantic. Either way, a very nasty business.

Jon Skagfeld · #5 08-08-10, 05:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by RHClarke

Jon and Geoff,

One of the more interesting and tragic side stories relating to the use of "the bomb" during WWII was that of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis (CA-35). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35) for the story of this ship's life and death.

Imagine, four and a half days afloat in shark infested waters...

Did I get it right from the dramatization that, by a quirk of fate, Truman "should" have been aboard Indianapolis?

Jon Skagfeld · #6 08-08-10, 05:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball

It was a Canadian television production. They rented what they were offered - the only question is who rented them? Oh yeah, and who was the dumbass technical advisor?

Not a bad program otherwise... I was expecting a total anti-war, anti-American thing, but they seemed to do a pretty good job, ie the Japanese started it, took it to barbaric lengths and would have dropped the same on us in a heartbeat if they'd had it (as would the Nazis). I have to say I'm rather sick and tired of the WW2 apologists - the other guys started it and behaved abominably, but we finished it. End of story.

Wonder if fellow MLUer Dean Owen was involved in this production?

cletrac (RIP) · #7 08-08-10, 06:02

On that Canadian show Love Hate and Propaganda they talk like the Americans were real nasties for fire bombing Tokyo and dropping the two A-bombs! They go on as how the ongoing propaganda was the real reason for these actions and no mention is made of what the alternatives would have meant. It's too bad Canadian TV can't take a more realistic approach.

Jon Skagfeld · #8 08-08-10, 08:24

Oh, dear, Dave: Musn't talk about our Communist Broadcasting Corp like that!

Dean (Ajax) · #9 08-08-10, 12:38

Jon, I was not involved in this program...Been working on "The Kennedys" for sometime and before that I was working on "Dream House".

I never seem to get the Military shows..but then again, most are made on a shoe string.

Dean

REL · #10 06-09-10, 08:21

Striking how dumbed-down these recent "documentaries" are compared to what was made 20 to 30 years ago.

But then a lot of 20 somethings don't know who was on what side in WWII anyway.

After the Valour and the Horror, Canada; a People's History and similar anglophobe drivel, I no longer bother to watch CBC/NFB pablum.

These are the people who "inserted" a black and a woman into the Avro Arrow design team. After all, we can't let people know it was all done by white guys!