On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 01:23:21 -0500, "zxcv" wrote:

Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were about 10 kilotons and a B-17 had
a normal bomb load of about 3 tons and I have heard of a formation of 1300
B-17's on a bomb run that would equal around 4 kilotons (3 x 1300 = 3900)
would the devastation be the same as a small A-bomb? or is there some
lessening effect because of the spread of much smaller bombs?


Most figures I have seen would suggest a somewhat higher yield for Fat
Man and (especially) Little Boy.

Given the same yield, however, my guess is that the B-17s (or more
like, B-29s) would do much more damage with conventional weapons, but
that it would have to be distributed among several or many targets.
And none of those targets would be devastated as Hiroshima was.

There was indeed a "thousand-plane" raid over Japan on August 14-15
http://www.warbirdforum.com/lastraid.htm which actually involved about
800 B-29s. I think they struck four or five cities over a period of
more than 12 hours. (The limiting factor was the runways at Guam and
Tinian. For a time there, the early raiders were landing even as the
later ones were taking off.)


all the best -- Dan Ford
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