Bombing Japan - Incendiary Bombs Over Tokyo, Part 3

WARNING:  THIS CLIP CONTAINS HISTORICAL FOOTAGE OF WAR AND THE DROPPING OF FIRE BOMBS OVER JAPAN.  IT IS NOT EASY TO WATCH.  PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

As the B-29s raids continued over Japan, the government evacuated people from the cities to the countryside.  Cluster bombs, filled with napalm, left Tokyo in ruins.

General Le May's objective was to stuff a B-29's bomb bay with as many M-69 bombs as possible.  Each bomb contained "38 bomblets.  They were filled with napalm and whatever they hit, they ignited ...The shell would turn into real sharp fragments that were very damaging."

The air battle over Japan - before Hiroshima and Nagasaki - was intense and extremely damaging.  People who were hit by the incendiary bombs were burned beyond recognition. 

See, also:

Bombing Japan - Incendiary Bombs Over Tokyo, Part 1

Bombing Japan - Incendiary Bombs Over Tokyo, Part 2

Bombing Japan - Incendiary Bombs Over Tokyo, Part 4

Credits

Clip from "World War II Battlefront" - segment on "The Last Stronghold (November, 1944)," produced by Madacy Entertainment Group, Inc. (2001).

Clip online, courtesy National Geographic.