>> and with one of our favorite guest. By dropping bombs with precision onto strategic targets, Hansell believed wars could be won faster and with far less . There is nothing 'inappropriate' in the book, it is simply not about battles and actions. So, he asserts, Curtis LeMay won the battle. The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation and the Longest Night of the Second World War, by Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Co., New York, 2021, $27. [16], The book was met with mixed reviews upon release, with four mixed reviews, one positive review, three pan reviews, and two rave reviews as of November14, 2021[update] according to review aggregator Book Marks. A novelty of this book is that Gladwell says it began as an audiobook and then became a written one, reversing the usual process. It is indeed a conversational work, almost garrulous at times, as when he reports that one psychologist has a heartbreaking riff about what one member of a couple will often say when the other one dies that some part of him or her has died along with the partner. However, this chatty style also glides over some important historical questions. To frame the book in this simplistic binary is to misconstrue the doctrines of both precision and area bombing". Listen to audiobooks in the same place you spend hours listening to your favorite podcasts. [17] Hansell wrote: It was recognized that fighter escort was inherently desirable, but no one could quite conceive how a small fighter could have the range of the bomber yet retain its combat maneuverability. Two new bomber groups were formed in the Pacific: LeMay headed one in India and Hansell led another in the Marianas. LeMay would have no place in a modern air force, his outdated and shallow, callous theories are now considered war crimes, we will never do it again, and we will never sit back and watch it happen somewhere else. Required fields are marked *. [11] The book examines Hansell's replacement by Major General Curtis LeMay,[12] who implemented a series of tactical changes such as ordering bombing at a dramatically lower altitude to avoid the jet stream, removal of most of the bombers' defensive weaponry to increase bomb payload and wholesale nighttime fire bombing with incendiaries like napalm to devastate many of the population centers of Japan. [7] This could lead to a minimum of war-time casualties with new technology such as the Norden bombsight. There are a lot of moral dilemmas to chew on here. I caught Gladwell on CNN last Sunday. Their assurance, their journey gets provided a little bit too late for it to have any substantial bearing on the war. A small number of apps may require users to copy their URL and paste it directly into the app. The book follows the Bomber Mafia, especially Major General Haywood S. Hansell, and the development of a high-altitude precision aerial bombardment strategy in World War II as a means to limit casualties. This Bomber Mafia asked: What if precision bombing could, just by taking out critical choke points industrial or transportation hubs cripple the enemyandmake war far less lethal? The mission failed for several reasons, including clouds that obscured the targets, which had to be seen to use the Norden bombsight. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers The Tipping Point, Blink,Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. Blow them up for existing to us !!! LeMays solution was to saturate Tokyo with napalm bombs, killing as many as 100,000 people in about six hours, and then to go on and firebomb dozens of other Japanese cities, killing thousands upon thousands, sometimes when the target cities were of little or no military value. Gladwell argues that LeMays savage firebombing campaign succeeded, and that, combined with the two atomic bombs that followed, shortened the war. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Chapter 7 provides some background regarding the development at Harvard University of napalm, an incendiary substance that could be used in bombs to create an intense firestorm. Bomber Mafia Questions Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers Margaritaville at Sea is a 1,680-passenger cruise ship that first started sailing early this year. The notion that we were ever going to tolerate a land invasion of Japan is simply not true, we could have cut them off and let their cities crumble. The new discount program will be accessed through the exchange stores or websites, not Home Depot locations. The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell - Audiobook - Audible.com Sort: Relevance. McFarland, Stephen L.; Richard P. Hallion (2008). Tap the link to open your audiobook purchase in your podcast app. The Bomber Mafia | Revisionist History - Pushkin Industries Kurt Vonneguts seminal publication Slaughterhouse five took the allied battle (pointless) of Dresden with the POV of Prisioners of war. We have updated our Privacy Policy [4][5] In contrast, American theorists devised a strategy of pin-point bombing that targeted the enemy economy and the production of weapons. Randall Jarrell captured LeMays blithely brutal approach in two of the most memorable lines of 20th-century American poetry: In bombers named for girls, we burned / The cities we had learned about in school.. 50% Off The Bomber Mafia | Senior Discounts Club Malcolm Gladwells exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war. (For the Japanese the atom bomb was just a more effective way to bomb them, some watching they were used to.) [8], Although flawed and tested only under optimal conditions, the doctrine (originally known as the "industrial web theory")[9] became the primary airpower strategy of the United States in the planning for World War II. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. We won the war when we did because our aircraft carriers were luckily out of Pearl Harbor when it was invaded, we were never going to lose but our task would have become daunting if we had to re-build our aircraft carrier fleet in my opinion Germany invaded Russia for its oil, oil was and is the commodity needed for modern militaries, Your email address will not be published. Also, the air arm tends to be regarded by the other services as suspiciously civilian-ish as in the soldiers one-liner, I have a lot of respect for the U.S. military, and also for the Air Force. But in Gladwells deft hands, the Air Force generals of World War II come back to life as the stirring 20th-century equivalent of Adm. Horatio Nelson and his band of audacious captains from the age of fighting sail. Those fools can really do some damages if you capture one in the kisser. Regardless, it was estimated that there would have been 2 MILLION American casualties had there been an invasion. While one is a celebrated hero, the other was an idealist whose concepts allowed him to be sidelined in the annals of background. But it was news to me. Whats more, the sight itself was less accurate in real-world conditions than during testing. Malcolm Gladwells The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War is a kind of love song to the United States Air Force, which is surprising, because it is the least romantic of our armed services, with leaders who focus on technology, not tradition. Malcolm Gladwell on the Hard Decisions of War, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/books/review/the-bomber-mafia-malcolm-gladwell.html. Thank you for purchasing The Bomber Mafia, an audiobook by Malcolm Gladwell. I immediately thought, Oh yeah? Youll hear the voices of generals, the sound of aircrafts and bombs crashing. Purchase The Bomber Mafia and receive the exclusive Bomber Mafia Listeners Guide a visual document of the making of The Bomber Mafia. World War II had begun in Europe in 1939, and the United States entered in 1941, after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. Malcolm Gladwell and "The Bomber Mafia". And then another. One of Gladwells skills is enabling us to see the world through the eyes of his subjects. Everyone, generals included, hated the mass . Malcolm Gladwells exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war. Did the podcast effect the way you approached the book, or understood it? The system was then implemented in The second world war to varying outcomes. All rights reserved. The additional we obtain from these events the less we appear to appreciate it was a various time and lacking much of the technology we currently take for given. 'The Bomber Mafia' review: Malcolm Gladwell tries a deep - The Star They believed that war could thus be waged more humanely because collateral damage, including civilian deaths, could be minimized and wars ended faster. For those of us who had family waiting to invade, whatever the reason(s), it was very welcome. Malcolm Gladwells new audiobook, The Bomber Mafia,is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war. [12] The teaching of fighter ("pursuit") tactics declined, though Earle E. Partridge and Hoyt S. Vandenberg continued to discuss the role of the fighter. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we dont know. Bomber Mafia is story of efficiency, morality and technology. The Bomber Mafia began as an audiobook, and later transitioned into a print book. The object of war is to destroy the enemy which LeMay understood very well, their morale had nothing to do with it, and ultimately saved millions of lives on both sides due to a invasion not having to happen. This was a ripoff and should have just been a podcast. [6] Though unproven, the major attraction of this sort of strategic bombing doctrine was that a war was expected to be won relatively quickly, with minimal casualties, and that grinding, static trench warfare as seen in World War I could be avoided. Take capers these are certainly not peas. Privacy Policy | It does give you a sense of the futility of war and leaves you feeling like there must be a better way, which is a good message for a 13 yo. They intended the mission to be against military and industrial targets, not populations. Please take a moment to review it. Much of the book concerns the technical and practical aspect. The problem here was there above Japan there was a 140 mph (125 knot) jet stream, which played havoc with the bomb sight and precision bombing. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. The B-29s were capable of making the 3,000+ mile round trip from Guam to Japan. Kennedy stated there were "gaps in [Gladwell's] account", and cites the RAF Bomber Command's attempt at careful bombing as an example. Emphasizes just how technical breakthroughs are typically made use of in means they were not indicated. The book is adapted from a series of podcasts Gladwell created for his show . A fifth severed the rudder cables. Haywood Hansell won the war. The evidence for this, of course, is the ability of todays stealthy radar-evading bombers to drop ordnance from great heights and have them guided to precise points on a given target say, a hardened aircraft hangar or an enemy intelligence agencys power system. I went back and read The Bomber Mafia a second time. The three factors that accounted for 91% of the rankings were (1) total endowment (2) price of tuition and (3) how many white people were on campus. Kelsey formulated a new "interceptor" class of aircraft in order to sustain his idea that a well-armed fighter aircraft could successfully attack enemy bombers, and that, given drop tanks for long range, it could defend friendly bombers all the way to the target and back.[15]. Because of a review from one of the Goodread friends, I decided to take on the audiobook, instead of the print/e-book version. LeMay was instead, in the words of the military historian Conrad Crane, the Air Forces ultimate problem solver. As Gladwell tells it, the practical problem was how to win the war as quickly as possible. Yes. Almost 100 B-24 planes were lost with only minimal damage done to the ball bearing plant. The setting is Second World War. [1] Hansell concurred that both the theorists and the authors of the AWPD-1 war plan (of which he was both) made a serious mistake in neglecting long-range fighter escort in their ideas. Upon release, The Bomber Mafia was met with mixed reviews, with reviewers praising its audiobook version but criticizing the book for a lack of accuracy and for being light on details. So it is probably too early, far too early, to believe that wide-area, city-destroying attacks that kill large numbers of civilians have become a horror only of the past. The Bomber Mafia A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War Audio Book Free Online Download. A fourth shell hit the cockpit, taking out the planes hydraulic system. This was all in one plane. I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. Rather than focus on industrial or military targets, the napalm bombs spewed all over cities, destroying housing and killing civilians in a most devastating way. USAAC Fighter Projects officer Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey appreciated that a large bomber fleet would be able to perform many military tasks, not just strategic bombing, and felt that the force's doctrine should remain flexible to meet any demand. James Grosjean Strategy Cards (ShopLVA Exclusive), Las Vegas Advisor Membership + Member Rewards, Other Games, Weird Rules, Promos, Side Bets, Podcast - former surveillance operator Junior. On the eve of the Second World War, a band of visionaries at Maxwell Air Force Base tried to reimagine modern warfare. He was and is wrong, killing the elderly, women, and children is not an object of war, its evil and destructive. Once Japan became secluded on their mainland why not just create a complete blockade of the whole nation? Relevance; Rating; Price (Ascending) Most Recent; View: Filter. Very interesting. Bomber Mafia Daylight precision-bombing advocates Carl A. Spaatz, Muir S. Fairchild and Donald M. Wilson at Maxwell Air Force Base in 1946 The Bomber Mafia were a close-knit group of American military men who believed that long-range heavy bomber aircraft in large numbers were able to win a war. Listener's Guide: The Bomber Mafia | Pushkin Industries 4.9 . Many years later a related term "Fighter Mafia" described those within the Air Force that favored lightweight fighters good at dog-fighting instead of heavy missile-firing fighters. The podcast is called Revisionist History, and is excellent by the way. Hes more of an intellectual explorer than a disciplined academic. The Listeners Guide is only available from Pushkin Industries when you buy The Bomber Mafia. Why were the North Vietnamese such a powerful force, because they were colonized for generations and their cities were being carpet bombed by B52s from 40,000, if you kill someones family you should prepare to face their relatives. Group of soldiers arguing that long-range bombers could win wars, Braxton, Leon E.; Wagner, Arthur H. (2012), Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, "Warden and the Air Corps Tactical School: What Goes Around Comes Around. Chapter 3 is about the British and American bombing campaign against Germany in 1943. son. In the late 1930s, they shared a philosophy that with the new Norden bombsight, bombing could be done more effectively, hitting the enemys vital military targets (called choke points). Many historians posit that the primary reason for Japanese surrender was not the use of the atom bomb. To implement these changes, the ACTS instructors began to instill a sense in their students that a separate and independent air arm of the type described earlier by Mitchell, to be called the United States Air Force, was the way forward. This guide is based on the hardcover first edition. Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War is a 2021 book by Malcolm Gladwell that examines the US Bomber Mafia of World War II, which advocated precision aerial bombing as a means to win a war. This was not a standalone event. Purchase the audiobook by using the form on an audiobook page. An exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. InRevisionist History, Gladwell re-examines moments from the past and asks whether we got it right the first time. Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. We now live in a world where its not too much of an exaggeration to say that a bomber flying at 50,000 feet can tickle a targets nose hairs with the advanced systems we now have in place. Malcolm Gladwell - The Bomber Mafia Audiobook - Free Audiobooks Anyone can read what you share. His interview with Fareed Zakaria was interesting, spanning everything from auto-pilot vehicles to U.S. university rankings to a critique of The Little Mermaid (which, thankfully, I have never seen). Por Vs. Para Mafia Game. The most compelling account is the clash of ideas and the practical options sought to fight on a distant enemy. In the end, the book's central flaw resides at the core of Gladwell's supposed greatest strength. Ultimately, though, the Bomber Mafia was right. Copyright 2023 Military.com. One historian tells the author that Hansell was not the kind of man who was willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people. The biggest runs against a strategic target, specifically a ball bearing factory, largely was a failure.

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