What Was the American Nuclear War Plan? - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
with the atomic Genie out of its bottle in 1945 the United States became overnight the most powerful Nation on Earth able to hurl overwhelming destruction anywhere on the planet or did it in 1945 the ability of the United States to deploy its actual meager Atomic Arsenal was quite limited it took several years and the efforts of one man in particular to transform American capability to deliver a nuclear payload I'm your host David and today we are going to look at the formation and early development of the United States Strategic Air Command this is the Cold War new information new viewpoints and New Perspectives are hugely important in my day-to-day life which is why I am so glad to be working with the sponsor of today's video Magellan TV Magellan TV provides documentaries on a wide range of topics including telling the stories of natural disasters big bang and tunguska looks at the details and debates surrounding the largest explosion ever recorded the 1908 tunguska catastrophe and 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notice but what was Strategic Air Command well put simply it was the branch of the United States Army Air Force then the United States Air Force that held primary responsibility for the delivery of nuclear weapons in the event of War well until submarine launch missiles were developed but we'll talk about that later formed in March of 1946 Sac was designed to be the offensive tool in the event the balloon went up LED for many years by a cigar chomping tactical and organizational genius and guided by the principle of massive retaliation Sac for many people epitomized what the Cold War was all about strategic bombing the use of air power to attack enemy infrastructure including civilian populations was first introduced to the world during the first world war but it wasn't until the second world war that it truly came into its own as a significant factor in how to wage war and one of the real leaders in its development and implementation especially as the war progressed was the United States Army Air Force as the war moved forward new aircraft and new techniques were developed and introduced to ensure that maximum damage was being done to the enemy while minimizing losses this included the Tactical deployment of b-17s in the combat box formation lead units meant to guide other aircraft to a Target Zone in a straight and level flight plan to ensure maximum damage to the Target as well as the mass use of incendiary bombs to destroy urban areas and deprive workers of Housing and infrastructure by War's end the United States was the Undisputed King of the bomber with over 13 000 very heavy or heavy bombers in its inventory and the cruise and Logistics support required to fly and support them the king of these aircraft was the extraordinarily complex and expensive B-29 super Fortress incidentally the 3 billion dollar price tag attached to the B-29 project was the single most expensive military project of the second world war exceeding even the Manhattan Project it was specifically modified b-29s that had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with the conclusion of the war those Silver Plate strategic bombers found themselves at the very pointy end of the stick in the newly developing Cold War of course the massive military demobilization that occurred at the end of the war meant that a lot of the air power which the US aaf boasted was well cut back peace had returned in soldiers and Equipment were no longer needed but as you all already know a new war was already forming even if the majority of people weren't quite aware of it yet with that in mind planes were undertaken to create the United States Air Force as its own independent branch of the U.S military no longer under Army command to prepare for that a restructure of the usaaf was begun in early 1946 to create several major commands in what was to become the United States Air Force prominent among those was strategic error command created on the 21st of March 1946 under the command of General George Kenny whose mission was to quote be prepared to conduct long-range offensive operations in any part of the world capable of intense and sustained combat operations employing the latest and most advanced weapons end quote now in 1946 the most advanced weapon was the atom bomb now Kenny's focus on Sac was not what you might expect for a service preparing for war much of his time was spent focused on his work with the military staff of the United Nations and what time and attention he did give to SAC was largely focused on cutting men and equipment to meet the massively shrinking peacetime budget in 1946 of the now greatly reduced number of strategic bombers what had been called a heavy bomber during the war less than 40 aircraft remained in the U.S inventory capable of delivering an atomic bomb they still had lots of other bombers capable of delivering destruction but it was conventional destruction not atomic and speaking of atomic bombs 1946 also happened to be the Earth that the U.S had a mere 10 in their inventory all the same fat man model that had been dropped on Nagasaki and those bombs were not under the control of the military then in 1946 atomic energy act had placed storage and control of atomic weapons with the atomic energy commission whose civilian board would determine if and when to release control of atomic weapons to the Armed Forces so all the military had to do was fly to the aec Secure Storage site near Los Alamos New Mexico and pick up the bombs right well yes but the bombs weren't stored pre-assembled due to the degradation caused by the acid in the batteries as well as the radiation from the nuclear core instead each of these bombs took a 39-man team two days to assemble then assuming their strike targets were in the Soviet Union the bombers would need to fly to their staging bases in places like England since the B-29 didn't have the range to attack directly from bases in the United States then and only then could nuclear attacks be carried out uh 1948 report estimated that it would take Sac 35 to 45 days to prepare for an all-out nuclear attack so not exactly the rapid response finger on the button instant destruction that we so often associate with the Cold War that comes later so what began to change well by 1948 it was coming out that Sac was in a dreadful state in a major exercise conducted in 1948 only half of Sac bombers managed to take off let alone find their targets a secret evaluation of Sac was carried out led by Charles Lindbergh noted Aviator adventure and generally questionable human being the report found that Sac suffered from poor morale poor training poor maintenance and was just generally unprepared to conduct almost any job let alone the atomic delivery job with which they were tasked General George Kenny was relieved of his command of sack and replaced by one of the 20th centuries more controversial figures General Curtis E Lemay Lemay who had started his military career in artillery briefly anyways had been a usaaf pilot since 1929 and although he started his career as a Pursuit pilot that his Fighters he quickly found his Niche with the rapidly evolving bomber Force being an early pilot of the B-17 by the time of America's entry into the second world war Lemay was already one of America's foremost experienced multi-engined aircraft Pilots before his deployment to Europe Lemay was involved in organizing and training new bomber Crews a skill he would put to use with great effect later in his career once in Europe he demonstrated not only a brilliant tactical mind in terms of the deployment of aircraft on Mission but a cold and calculated strategic understanding of the risk to reward ratio he was willing to sacrifice men and Equipment if it Advanced the war aim of destroying the enemy and bringing about ultimate success in 1944 Lemay was transferred to the Pacific Theater taking over the B-29 program first in the ineffective china-india Burma theater then in the Pacific Theater itself it was here that he was responsible for introducing the strategy of firebombing Japanese cities resulting in horrific destruction and loss of life but likely bringing the end of the war that much closer Lemay was also responsible for the conduct of the missions to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which he very much considered to be just very powerful bombs as opposed to weapons of mass destruction and why is this important well this attitude and approach to nuclear weapons were to heavily influence how Lemay approached his job at Strategic Air Command and how the force was managed but before Lemay went to SAC at War's end he spent some time working in the Pentagon as part of new weapons development and then was made head of the U.S air forces in Europe he was in
charge of all U.S planes in Europe during the Birmingham airlift which was well underway when he got the nod to replace General Kenny what Lemay found at Sac did not sit well at all with the general obsessed as he was with efficiency and effectiveness but he took over a command that on paper was impressive over 50 000 personnel with 837 aircraft it was the details that were the concern Sac had an offensive mission to bond the Soviet Union but over 200 of the aircraft at his disposal were piston engine Fighters a defensive weapon Additionally the inventory showed only 35 b50 bombers a modified longer range version of the B-29 the bright spot was that the B-36 Peacemaker was being introduced into Service as well as the introduction of kv-29s modified b-29s capable of providing air-to-air refueling to other aircraft allowing for longer aircraft flying times so this is probably the perfect time or well as good a time as any to introduce the aircraft we are talking about and although this channel really isn't about military hardware the nature of the hardware really did formulate strategy okay to begin with the B-29 is already stated the B-29 was a creature of the second world war despite its design having begun as early as 1938 with a fully pressurized cabin the super Fortress was capable of flying above 30 000 feet and depending on the altitude and range it needed to fly could carry up to 20 000 pounds of bombs to a range of 3000 miles with this performance it was a continental propeller driven bomber it could be counted on to fly to targets within the same continent if the mission included getting the plane and crew back home again afterwards based on this profile a B-29 flying from a base in the United Kingdom with a nuclear bomb could hit Moscow but would not manage the return flight plans included Landings in Turkey the Middle East and even Ukraine with Crews then needing to try and make their way home starting to replace the B-29 by early 1948 was the convair B-36 Peacemaker the B-36 was a whole other level of aircraft the largest piston engine combat aircraft put into service its design began in 1941 before America's entry into the war its entire concept was to be a bomber capable of InterContinental attack to be able to deliver enormous payloads from the United States against European targets and still be able to return to base the first B-36 was unveiled in August of 1945 and made its first flight a year later initially powered by six piston engines in Pusher configuration the B-36 was underpowered from the outset given the weight of the atomic payloads it was then being asked to carry to offset this by 1949 Ford j47 turbojet engines were added to the airframe primarily used to provide enough thrust and takeoff and then during attack runs the Magnesium overcast as it was occasionally referred was massive with a 230 foot wingspan but with a combat range of almost 4 000 miles it provided Sac with an aircraft capable of flying from North American bases to Targets in the Soviet Union and then theoretically back to base realistically the aircraft was outdated by the time it entered service but it remained the sole long-range strategic bomber option until a purpose-built jet-powered long-range nuclear bomber began to enter inventories in the early 1950s the B-52 the last piece of equipment I'm going to outline is the Boeing d47 strata jet the b47 was the first jet powered strategic bomber to enter service with the USAF although that wasn't until 1951 despite having first flown in 1947. it was classed as a long-range bomber but only had about a 2 000 mile combat range half of the B-36 a visually striking aircraft its swept wings with six turbojet engines mounted underneath the B-47 was designed to fly faster and higher than enemy interceptors like the B-29 the b-47s combat profile in the event of war with the Soviet Union was to deploy from Sac bases strike through targets inside the Soviet Union and then land where they could including turkey and the Middle East over 2 000 b-47s were built providing the bulk of Strategic Air command's offensive power until as late as the mid-1960s when sufficient B-52 airframes had been constructed so that's the equipment in use by sac in its early years or a very quick overview anyway but the challenges at sack when Lemay assumed command were not necessarily just with equipment they were more to do with the human factor air Crews didn't know what their targets would be Navigators locked up-to-date maps and Pilots were not paying attention to checklists in preparation for takeoff Lemay believed preparation and repetition to be keys to success and he found himself in command of a bomber organization that didn't have a single Bomb Group that was combat ready to demonstrate how ill-prepared air and ground Crews were in January of 1949 Lemay ordered a practice mission that involved everybody at Sac they were ordered to conduct a practice attack on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio the results were telling not a single bomber was able to complete the mission his point proven Lemay began to rebuild the organization he did this by means of several different methods each designed to tackle different problems within the overall command identifying the need to maintain institutional knowledge within units Lemay moved to improve re-enlistment rates which at the time were very low he looked at programs to improve the food served at base canteens even going so far as to hire Gourmet chefs to train Cooks he looked to replace second world war aerobarics with improved access to housing he instituted improved recreational facilities at Sac bases in order to give air and ground Crews things to do during times off duty all of this came together to improve reenlistment rates ensuring that trained and qualified Personnel were always available to ensure higher standards for Sac flight Crews Lemay instituted a near Draconian standard of performance failure to meet and maintain these standards could and often would result in dismissal from SAC meeting and exceeding these standards however could and would result in spot promotions for exceptional results meaning higher pay and better status all of these programs came together to make Sac one of the desired postings in the Air Force a strong bond of camaraderie and knowing that members all relied on each other to be and remain the best the results of these programs were that within a few years Sac practice results went from abject failure to consistent constant success a bomber force that was being built that would do their job correctly the first time every time so why is that important why did Lemay drive his command so hard to meet these high standards well it has to do with the nuclear margin of error in the event of a nuclear war there is no margin of error let me explain a little as early as 1945 with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan theorists began developing ideas on how a nation could win a nuclear Exchange it didn't matter that the US was the only power at the time it was largely assumed that proliferation would happen it was just a matter of how long it would take now the idea of a winnable Atomic exchange was quite logical at the time yields in the atomic age were comparatively low and did not have the widespread Fallout that we become associated to the not yet developed hydrogen bombs so in the event of an atomic war cities could be destroyed but large areas of Countryside where most people still lived would be largely spared from a military perspective there were two choices one a first strike conducted with the idea that enough damage would be done to force an opponent to surrender without retaliation or two be able to respond to an attack with such destructive force that the opponent would no longer be able to prosecute a war and would stand down something called counter Force both of these options provided no margin for error the Attack Force had to be successful in their mission or if the theory falls apart if only half of the Attack Force is able to complete their mission then either a much larger Force needs to be maintained to achieve Mission success or the opponent will be allowed the opportunity to strike back budgetary restraints prevented the first option and unacceptable casualties prevented the second this left Lemay and Sac with one choice be able to complete the mission the first time every time okay so some of you are probably watching this and thinking that I'm skipping large sections of some pretty important topics that are all very related to this including things like NSC 68 that are Revolt of the Admirals the actual attack plans including things like operation drop shot with its intended targets and then what we can only really call Mission creep as nuclear weapons proliferated all of these topics are hugely important when discussing the development of Sac but they would push this episode into something way bigger and way longer than we want on a weekly basis so they will be looked at in future episodes sorry to disappoint you today but they all deserve time and attention to provide a proper contextualized picture so you know stay tuned now that being said by the time the Korean war broke out Sac was well on its way to being one of the Premier outfits in the US military experiencing an organizational and institutional turnaround that top CEOs in the business world could only sit back and envy Sac would continue to evolve and change through the 1950s with the introduction of new equipment not just Delivery Systems but also new weapon types which changed how their mission would be conducted we will also be looking at that in upcoming episodes including the development of not only Atomic and nuclear weapons themselves but the evolution of who maintained control over those weapons which itself allowed for the expansion and growth of the mission of Strategic Air Command we hope you've enjoyed this episode and to make sure you don't miss our future work please make sure you subscribe to our Channel and you have developed a strategy to obliterate your opponent's Bell button while preserving your own Bell button allowing you to press it for ultimate victory please consider supporting us on patreon at patreon.com the cold war or through YouTube membership we can be reached via email at the cold warchannel gmail.com
this is the Cold War Channel and as we think about the Cold War please remember that history is Shades of Gray and rarely black and white
2022-10-04 11:47
