The Atomic bombing of Germany 1945

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The Atomic Bombing of Germany 1945



Part I

13 February 1945

RAF Marham, Great Britain

At 9PM a field order arrived from 8th Air Force headquarters at High Wycombe (codename:”Pine Tree”) to the 509th Composite Group. The field order stated that tomorrow, 14 February 1945 the 509th, in conjunction with other units of the 8th Air Force would attack the city of Dresden. The field order was merely a formality. The 509th, under the command of the recently promoted Colonel Paul Tibbets, already knew it was going to attack Dresden. The bomber group had officially been formed two months ago for the purpose of dropping an atomic bomb on either Nazi Germany or Japan. In fact it was Colonel Tibbets who had notified Pine Tree of the target selection.

The 509th Group flew Silverplate B-29 Superfortresses. These were B-29s modified to carry an atomic bomb. The group was actually part of the Manhattan Project, America’s ultra secret atomic weapons program. The 509th consisted of a mix of Silverplate B-29s, normal B-29s and C-54 cargo planes. The group was actually split into two detachments, Detachments (“Det”) A and B. Seven modified Superforts were in England with Col. Tibbets. Seven other Silverplates were deployed to the Pacific island of Tinian. There they were preparing for a nuclear strike against the Japanese.

The 509th Composite Group Det. A was for administrative and operational security reasons part of the 73rd Bombardment Wing. The 73rd was the only B-29 Superfortress bomber outfit in England. It had arrived in England in September 1944 commanded by Brigadier General Emmett O’Donnell. Officially the 73rd was part of the 20th Air Force under the direct command of General Henry “Hap” Arnold, commander of the entire USAAF. The USAAF’s other three operational B-29 combat wings, the 58th, 313 and 314th were currently in the Mariana Islands bombing Japan as part of the 20th Air Force. The 73rd Wing was initially supposed to be a separate unit, the XXI Bomber Command. It was soon decided that it would be easier for the B-29s to be integrated into the operations of the 8th Air Force already in England.

Operation Matterhorn and Project Heavyweight

In 1941 the Army Air Force planned on deploying the then unbuilt B-29 Superfortress to England. This was changed in the summer of 1942 with AWPD (Army War Plan Division) 42. Due to production and development problems it looked like the B-29 would be unavailable for immediate service in Europe.

In January at the Casablanca Conference President Roosevelt expressed the idea of basing long range bombers in China. Roosevelt wanted to use long range bombers to attack the Japanese home islands. He also wanted to show support to Chaing Kai Shek in the war against the Japanese. The Allied Joint chiefs of Staff felt supporting an air offensive against Japan from China would be a logistical challenge. The Japanese had overrun Burma in 1942 cutting off China from overland supply. The only way to keep China in the war was by flying war supplies over the Himalaya Mountains

In November 1943 Allied leaders were going to meet at the Cairo Conference. As President Roosevelt was preparing to attend the conference he received a message from Brigadier General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. Groves informed the President that an atomic bomb would be ready no later than the end of 1944. General Groves suggested that definite plans be made to use the weapon against Germany and Japan.

In October 1943, Brigadier General Kenneth B. Wolfe had developed Operation Matterhorn. Matterhorn was the plan to base a force of B-29s in China for the purpose of bombing Japan. At the time the operation would be the only way the Americans could strike at Japan itself, which was President Roosevelt’s wish. Matterhorn was projected to go into effect June 1, 1944. Hap Arnold considered it a temporary fix until the Mariana Islands were captured at a date still to be determined. President Roosevelt was going to announce Operation Matterhorn at the Cairo conference but now the situation changed with news of the availability of an atomic bomb.

Both Arnold and General Groves now believed it that the best course of action would be to have some B-29s in England as a contingency for use against Nazi Germany. At the time it was still believed that the Germans were making progress on their own atomic weapons program. One of the purposes of the Manhattan project was to counter the Germans. It was also becoming obvious that the B-29 would be the only American bomber capable of carrying an atomic weapon. Right now only 100 bombers had been built. The AAF needed to supply combat wings for service against Japan and also to deliver nuclear weapons. In keeping with the “Germany first” strategy there was now a way of knocking Hitler and the Nazis out of the war.

George Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff was not too happy with Operation Matterhorn sided with Arnold. Marshall convinced the President to move the Matterhorn deployment from China to the Mariana Islands. From there the United States would begin an air campaign against the Japanese empire. A B-29 combat wing would be deployed to England to be available in case it was needed. In order to placate the Chinese more air transport units and B-24 bombers would be sent to the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. Churchill was told of the planned deployment at Cairo. He endorsed the idea of very long range (VLR) bombers in England. Churchill however hoped that the bombers might be used against targets in eastern Europe, especially Poland if possible. He wanted to show support to the Poles. Stalin was informed of the Superfortresss at the Tehran Conference two days after the Cairo meeting. He was not informed of the atomic bomb. Stalin was very interested in the B-29. Unknown to both Churchill and Roosevelt, Russian intelligence knew about the plane and about the Manhattan Project as well.

Project Heavyweight became the codename to move the B-29s to Great Britain. In December 1943 an advance party was sent to England to survey airfield sites. The rest of the 8th Air Force bombers were stationed in Norfolk, England so the Superforts would join them there to simplify logistics. RAF airfields at Marham, Sculthorpe, Lakenheath were selected. North Pickenham, an airfield under construction for the USAAF was also selected. Construction of an airfield at Milisle, Northern Ireland was halted and construction assets were to be moved to Norfolk. Construction began in January 1944. Arnold wanted the airfields completed before an invasion of France scheduled in the spring of that year. The project became a priority for USAAF Aviation Battalions already in Britain.

To be continued........

 

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Part II

The Manhattan Project

In August 1943 a scale model of the “Fat Man” bomb was dropped from a Navy TBF Grumman Avenger. This test took place at the Naval Proving Grounds in Dahlgren Virginia*. This test was arranged by Naval Captain William “Deke” Parsons, head of the Manhattan Project Ordnance Division. The test of the Fat Man bomb prototype was a success. In February 1944 Parsons repeated the test again. This time the testing was done at Muroc Army AirField in Southern California. The next month in March another scale model Fat Man bomb was dropped, this time from an actual B-29. Data from the March test was sent to Boeing so modifications could be made on the B-29.

In the Spring of 1944 work began on the modified B-29s now called “Silverplates”. This caused some controversy for the USAAF. In March Hap Arnold was fighting what became known as “The Battle of Kansas”. Arnold was trying to get the production level of combat ready Superforts up to make the number of bombers he needed. Every Silverplate B-29 now made meant one less B-29 being sent to a combat bomber wing.

In Los Alamos, New Mexico work continued on a Plutonium bomb. On Monday May 8, 1944 a rehearsal for testing the atomic device was held. Robert Oppenheimer, lead scientist for Manhattan wanted to make sure that the implosion type bomb would actually work. There were also concerns that a test would be wasting millions of taxpayer dollars as well as plutonium. Oppenheimer planned to use the rehearsal to test all procedures needed to detonate the device. That Monday 108 tons of TNT laced with radioactive material was successfully detonated*.

On Friday August 4, 1944 at 0302MT the world’s first nuclear explosion took place in Los Alamos. That same day another historical event took place. In the city of Amsterdam in Nazi occupied Holland, Anne Frank and her family were arrested by the Germans.



*OTL the test in Virginia was for the failed “Thin Man” prototype.

*I moved up the original Trinity rehearsal exactly one year and a day.

 

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Part III

From: “The Allies and the Atomic Bomb” Time Magazine 1995

“The Summer of 1944 has recently become considered one of the most controversial periods of World War II. The United States successfully tested a nuclear weapon on August 4, 1944, yet the first bomb was not dropped on Nazi Germany until February 14, 1945. On one side you have supporters of the Western Allie’s decision. They feel that Hitler would not have surrendered if the bomb was used right away. The Japanese would also have not been intimidated by one nuclear bomb being dropped on their ally.”

“On the other side are those who feel that Roosevelt and Churchill let the war against Nazi Germany go on longer than necessary. They note that in August 1944 the Germans liquidated the Lodz Ghetto and sent that of the Jews held there to Auschwitz. Also that month the Warsaw Uprising began. Some modern day Poles (both former communist and non-communist) consider not using the bomb against the Nazis that autumn one more betrayal by the western powers.”

“Japanese right-wing nationalists feel that the Americans were saving the bomb for them all along and that President Roosevelt only ordered the nuclear bombing of Germany after giving in to political pressure. (These same nationalists also say with a certain amount of pride that the Americans feared the Japanese people.)”

 

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Roosevelt’s Decision

On May 15, 1944 the week after the atomic test rehearsal, General Groves attended a meeting at The White House. Also at the meeting were Secretary of War Stimson, General Marshall and Admiral William Leahy, Chief of Staff to the President. General Arnold did not attend because he had suffered a heart attack on May 10th.

General Groves formally informed the President of the upcoming plan for a nuclear test in August. It was at this meeting that President Roosevelt made his decision on how the atomic weapons program would proceed. The atomic bomb would remain for now a top-secret deterrent against the Nazi atomic program. The upcoming invasion of Europe would not be postponed. Groves could not guarantee that the test in August would be 100% successful. Marshall felt that the allies had already invested too much time and resources in the invasion to delay it further and Roosevelt agreed with him. If the Germans retaliated against the invasion with what the President called “unfavorable means” then the use of atomic weapons would be considered. As for the Japanese the President wanted the US Military to start considering the atomic weapons as an alternative to invading Japan. Another meeting was scheduled for after whenever the D-Day invasion and the atomic test in August was made to hammer out a final military plan.

 

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Operation Overlord the invasion of France took place on June 6, 1944 in Normandy. General Marshall and a now recuperated General Arnold traveled to England to meet with General Dwight Eisenhower, allied supreme commander. In addition to visiting Normandy, the Generals also came to brief Eisenhower on the Manhattan project. They also came to brief Churchill on Roosevelt’s decision on the atomic bomb and get his reaction. Admiral William Purnell from the Manhattan Project accompanied Marshall and Arnold.

General Marshall met with Prime Minister Churchill at 10 Downing Street and told him of President Roosevelt’s decision. Churchill felt the bomb should be used as a first strike weapon against both the Nazis and Japanese but for now would back the President’s choice.

Admiral Purnell held a separate briefing for Eisenhower, General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz USAAF, commander of Strategic Air Forces Europe, and Charles Portal, Britain’s Chief of the Air Staff. Hap Arnold also attended. Purnell explained to them the basics of the Manhattan project and asked Portal for RAF support in delivering the bomb if needed. General Eisenhower was told by Arnold that the final decision to use the atomic bomb would be made by President Roosevelt in agreement with Prime Minister Churchill. Eisenhower and Spaatz were also told that the B-29s soon to arrive would be for use against strategic targets as part of the Twentieth Air Force. After the briefing Purnell traveled to East Anglia to inspect the future B-29 airfields.

 

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Part V
On August 8th General Groves returned to The White House for final confirmation of the “military policy for the device”. There were additional members of this conference. Admiral Ernest King,Chief of Naval Operations was there. William Penney, head of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project was there to represent His Majesty’s government. General Arnold was now in attendance along with Brigadier General Haywood Hansell, selected to take command of XXI Bomber Command of the Twentieth Air Force. The XXI Bomber Command would be the B-29 force in Great Britain. Hansell had led the 1st Combat Wing of the VIII Bomber Command over Europe and helped plan the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO). Arnold wanted Hansell to give input into how the new Superfortresses would be utilized to deliver an atomic bomb.

The meeting opened with the President and the other members viewing a film of the nuclear test brought to Washington by Groves. After this Secretary of War Stimson made the proposal that the atomic bomb not be used until enough bombs were produced to strike both Germany and Japan. President Roosevelt agreed with this. General Groves estimated that the Manhattan project could have a dozen Plutonium bombs manufactured by the end the year. He also reported that his scientists were now working on a Uranium bomb that would be ready at the around the same time. Groves closed by stating that a unit was being formed to train exclusively for dropping atomic bombs.

Heywood Hansell now briefed the members of the meeting. He told the members of the meeting that German air defenses were still formidable over Germany. No one had any idea how the B-29 would perform against German air defenses. There was also the fear that the Germans could possibly capture an unexploded atomic bomb. With that being said, his XXI Bomber Command would develop tactics to deal with the Luftwaffe. The Presence of Hansell’s bombers in Britain would not alert the Germans to Allies introducing a secret weapon against them.

In the Case of Japan, General Arnold asked that the capture of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa be given priority over an invasion of Formosa. Arnold said his bombers would need fighter protection over Japan especially now that they would have to get an atomic bomb carrying Superfortress through. The Formosa invasion was cancelled.

A deadline was set to have the atomic bombs ready for use on Germany in December and on Japan in January 1945. The deadline for Japan was later changed to March 1945 once planning for the invasion of Iwo Jima began.

William Penney traveled to London with a copy of the atomic test film to brief Winston Churchill. Soon after Churchill sent a letter to Roosevelt where he stated he wanted RAF participation in any nuclear attack against Germany. Churchill also offered the use of British Lancaster bombers as a strike aircraft. The Prime Minister also inquired about using atomic bombs to retaliate for German V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks against Great Britain. Roosevelt urged the Prime Minister to be patient. Retaliation against the Nazis would be coming.

In Europe it looked like the war against Nazi Germany might end before the bomb arrived. Privately this is what Secretary of War Stimson hoped would happen. The Allies broke out of Normandy in late July before the first atomic test was carried out. In August Operation Dragoon, the landings in Southern France was carried out. Paris was liberated on August 25th and a German Army was destroyed in the Falaise Pocket. In September the situation changed. The Allied Armies bogged down along the German border. Operation Market Garden failed in Holland. In the east, the Russians stalled in Poland. The Warsaw uprising was crushed by the Nazis and it appeared that Stalin allowed that to happen.

 

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Part VI: B-29s over the Reich

The ground echelon of the 73rd Bomber Wing began to arrive in Great Britain July 1944. Construction was still being completed on the four airfields that would be home to the bomber wing. In fact construction would continue for the rest of the war. Priority had been given to getting the airfields ready for flight operations. Work had also been slowed down by D-Day as aviation engineer units began to deploy to France to build new airfields there. As a result when the ground echelons moved in one of their first tasks was finishing living quarters or spend the winter living in tents

The first B-29 had landed in Britain in March 1944. The YB-29 Hobo Queen visited USAAF bomber stations and was used to test the runways at the B-29 airfields. Hobo Queen later visited the Fifteenth Air Force bomber fields at Foggia as part of a disinformation campaign against German intelligence. The USAAF wanted the Germans to believe that Superforts might also be stationed in Italy. The YB-29 was also testing the feasibility of using B-29s to conduct shuttle raids to Italy. One emergency landing strip was completed in the Foggia airfield complex for the B-29s.

The first bombers of the 73rd Wing arrived in August 1944. Dauntless Dotty flown by Major Robert Morgan, commanding officer of the 869th Bomber Squadron, 497th Bombardment Group became the first combat-ready B-29 to land at RAF North Pickenham. Major Morgan had been the pilot of Memphis Belle, the first B-17 officially credited with completing 25 missions with the 8th Air Force. This would be Morgan’s second combat tour in Europe. Brigadier General Emmett “Rosie” O’Donnell commanding officer of the 73rd Wing flew aboard Dauntless Dotty as co-pilot. O’Donnell was greeted on the tarmac by Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, Eighth Air Force commander and Lieutenant General Spaatz.

The 73rd’s bomb groups were based at the following stations:

500th Bombardment Group (VH)*: Marham

498th Bombardment Group (VH): Sculthorpe

499th Bombardment Group (VH): Lakenheath

497th Bombardment Group (VH) and 73rd Wing Headquarters: North Pickenham

XXI Bomber Command of the Twentieth Air Force set up Headquarters at High Wycombe under Brigadier General Haywood Hansell. Hansell was banned from flying any combat missions over enemy territory due to his knowledge of the Manhattan Project. This order came from Hap Arnold himself

In September all the 73rd’groups were in place. The 479th Fighter Group was assigned to XXI Bomber Command to provide fighter support. The 479th was initially flying P-38 Lightnings but was quickly converted over to P-51 Mustangs. The B-29 crews spent the month of September training for combat over Europe. The 73rd Wing’s first missions over hostile territory were bombing the German ports at St. Nazaire and La Rochelle. On October 2, 1944 the B-29s flew their first combat mission over Germany. The 73rd bombed the Ford Motor plant in Cologne**.

The raid on Cologne brought to light a major problem for the XXI Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force. Hansell’s bombers had to borrow more fighters from the Eighth for bomber escort. The B-29 Wing also received all of its support from the Eighth Air Force. Generals Doolittle and Hansell agreed that it would be easier to coordinate operations if the 73rd Wing was attached to the Eighth Air Force. They informed General Arnold of their opinions. Arnold reluctantly agreed and the XXI Bomber Command became the de facto 4th Air Division of the Eighth Air Force.

The 73rd Bomber wing achieved good results on its bombing missions that October. General Doolittle was impressed with the capabilities of the B-29. However he felt that one combat wing of B-29s was not making an overall difference. The same bombing results could have been achieved by additional B-17s. General Ira Eaker, Commander-in-Chief of Mediterranean Allied Air Forces felt the new bombers would have been better used to reinforce the Fifteenth Air Force.

Haywood Hansell did not forget that part of his mission was to prepare the way for an atomic bombing mission against Germany. In November he ordered O’Donnell to start experimenting with sending out small sections of B-29s on missions. O’Donnell began sending out F-13s (the reconnaissance version of the B-29) on deep weather-recon missions into eastern Germany. B-29s also started acting as pathfinders for B-17 and B-24 formations.



*VH- Very Heavy bomber

**The October 2 mission was a real Eighth Air Force mission. OTL Mission 658: 110 B-17s bombed the Cologne Ford plant. 1 B-17 lost and 36 damaged.

 

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Part VII: The 509th Composite Group



In December 19444 Detachment A of the 509th Composite Squadron arrived at Marham. The 509th was originally the 393rd Bombardment Squadron of the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomber Wing. The squadron started out with 21 B-29 crews under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Classen. The squadron was “volunteered” for special duty at Fairmont Army Air Base in Nebraska. On September 14, 1944 the 393rd arrived at Wendover Army Air Field in Utah to begin training under a new commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets. The rest of the 504th Bomber Group would eventually deploy to North Field on the island of Tinian.

Paul Tibbets had been selected by Hap Arnold himself to train and lead the atomic bomb mission. Back in 1942, Tibbets had flown on the first bombing mission of the Eighth Air Force over Europe. He was interviewed by General Uzal Ent, commander of the Second Air Force. General Ent had led the August 1943 bombing mission against Ploesti. General Ent told LtCol. Tibbets that he was to prepare for attacking both Germany and Japan. After the meeting with General Ent, Tibbets traveled to New Mexico where he was introduced into the world of the Manhattan Project.

LtCol. Tibbets was pressed for time due to the December deadline set by Washington. He would fly one bomber as mission commander/lead crew. Captain Ted Van Kirk would be his navigator and Major Tom Ferebee would be the bombardier. Both Van Kirk and Ferebee had been part of Tibbet’s B-17 crew in England and North Africa.

LtCol. Tibbets took his new bomber crews on training missions at Wendover to evaluate their performance. The top fourteen crews were assigned Silverplate B-29s. Five crews were assigned normal B-29s. Tibbets decided he would use the extra crews as spare crew members for the Silverplates. Two crews were assigned to fly C-54 cargo planes. The squadron now began conducting “blind” training. They bomber crews practiced dropping “pumpkin” bombs. These were practice bombs made in the shape of the plutonium “Fat Man” bomb. Tibbets felt the squadron needed a lot more training but he was ordered by General Ent to be ready to move to deploy into the combat zone.

On Friday December 1, 1944 the 509th Composite Group was officially born. On Monday December 4, Tibbets and six other crews departed for England as Detachment A. Just like the rest of the B-29 Superfortress program there was a rush to get the 509th into action. Ground crews for the Silverplate B-29s were loaded aboard transport planes for the trip to England or they were flown to the east coast and loaded onto the first available transport ship headed to England. The majority of the 509th became Detachment B and headed for Tinian with the 313th Bomber Wing.

In Los Alamos the Manhattan Project continued to produce atomic bombs. At the end of August there were two plutonium cores. In September and October four more weapons were ready. General Groves ordered all work ended on the building of a Uranium 235 weapon and focus everything on the building of Fat Man bombs. In November Los Alamos switched to over to using composite cores of Plutonium and enriched Uranium (HEU). Three more weapons were produced that month and three more would come in December. By the end of 1944 there were twelve atomic bombs in the US arsenal.

 

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Part VIII: Target Selection

From: “The Allies and the Atomic Bomb” Time Magazine 1995

“William Penney, head of the Manhattan Project’s British delegation had always insisted that the bomb needed to be dropped on a city that wasn’t already heavily damaged. He felt this was the only way to properly assess the damage an atomic bomb would cause. Some of the other Los Alamos scientists disagreed with Penney. One group felt the initial use of the bomb should be a demonstration against an uninhabited target. It was suggested to General Groves that the bomb be dropped in the Black Forest of Germany and on an isolated island off the coast of Japan. Another group felt the bomb should be used against a strictly military target. Some scientists suggested using the bomb on one of the isolated Japanese garrisons in the Pacific. Wake Island was considered a promising target due to its close proximity to Hawaii.”

“There was one suggestion that came from Air Marshal Portal. It was sent in a memo to Winston Churchill after the head of the RAF was told of the existence of the atomic bomb. The Prime Minister never forwarded the memo to America. Portal proposed that an atomic bomb be dropped on the German Battleship Tirpitz which was in occupied Norway. Churchill sent a response back that it would be “bad sport to possibly endanger the lives of our Norwegian allies”.

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With the arrival of the 509th Composite Group in England, General Doolittle, Eighth Air Force commander and RAF Bomber Command Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Sir Arthur Harris were finally fully briefed on the Manhattan Project. Both Doolittle and Harris were asked to submit their recommendations for a target list of German cities to General Eisenhower who in turn would forward the recommendations to Washington D.C.

General Groves already had his own target selection committee in New Mexico. The reason the air commanders in England were being consulted was because General Groves understood that there were very few un-bombed sites left in Germany.

Harris proposed attacking the cities of Berlin, Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig. The RAF had come up with a plan in the July 1944 for a massive conventional attack on Berlin known as Operation Thunderclap. Thunderclap was supposed to be a combined assault by the RAF and Eighth Air Force. Harris added the other cities because they were known transportation hubs. Dresden and Chemnitz had also not yet endured major firebombing raids. Ironically General Spaatz chose not to support Operation Thunderclap. He didn’t want the Eighth Air Force being involved in the area bombing of civilians.

Doolittle recommended bombing the German oil production facilities at Magdeburg, the Luena plant at Merseburg and Leipzig. Doolittle felt Berlin should be a last resort target if the Germans refused to surrender after one of the other target cities was hit. General Spaatz agreed with Doolittle and felt the oil production sites should be the primary target.

Both the British and American commanders agreed on one thing: they felt that multiple targets should be hit in one day. If the atomic bombs were dropped one at a time surprise would be achieved the first time. The second time the Germans would do everything in their power to stop a second attack.

On December 16, the Germans launched a counter offensive against the American lines in Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge had begun. By the end of the month the German offensive was smashed. The Allies had been caught off guard by the offensive and now there was a push to end the war swiftly. There were also political reasons for using the bomb now. Winston Churchill now made it clear that he wanted to force the Germans to surrender before the Russians crossed the pre-war German borders. If the Germans did not surrender then he at least wanted to demonstrate to the Soviets that The United States and Great Britain held the upper hand.

In January 1945 Eisenhower sent his proposed list to Washington in the custody of Haywood Hansell. General Hansell presented them at a conference with Hap Arnold and General Groves. These were the recommendations:

1. Dresden (Primary)

2. Chemnitz (Primary)

3. Halle (Primary)

4. Berlin (Primary)

Secondary and targets of opportunity:

1. Magdeburg

2. Leipzig

Dresden Chemnitz and Halle would be the primary targets by default. The three cities were all close enough to each other and Berlin. If one city was blocked by clouds it wouldn’t be a major inconvience to divert to the next one. Most important the Nazi government would be unable to play down the attacks. They would be taking place in their front yard. The RAF and USAAF would save the cities for the atomic bombs. Dresden and Chemnitz would no longer be used as a secondary target for normal operations.

The allied air forces would also cease operations against Berlin. The German capital would be bombed only after at least one of the other three cities. This was to afford the Germans the chance to surrender.

Secretary of War Stimson gave the final approval of the target list and General Hansell was sent rushing back to England.