Operation Downfall — The Campaign to Conquer Japan Would Have Dwarfed the D-Day Landings

Operation Downfall - The Campaign to Conquer Japan Would Have Dwarfed the D-Day Landings

IT COULD BE called the world's greatest battle... that never happened. Operation Downfall, the codename for the U.S.-led mission to capture the Japanese homeland in 1945 and 1946 never did take place.

Wild Rides – Seven of the Strangest Bomber Raids of WW2

Wild Rides - Seven of the Strangest Bomber Raids of WW2

IT HAD ONLY been 132 days since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor when the United States brought the war to Emperor Hirohito's doorstep. On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers took off from the carrier as the vessel and a small escort fleet, codenamed Task Force 16, secretly steamed to within 650 miles of the Japanese home islands.