[PDF] Germanys Last Mission To Japan eBook

Author : Joseph M Scalia
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 12,4 MB
Release : 2009-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1612515258

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When U-234 slipped out of a Norwegian harbor in March 1945 destined for Japan, it was loaded with some of the most technically advanced weaponry and electronic detection devices of the era, along with a select group of officials. En route, word came that Germany had surrendered, and the boat's commander suddenly found himself with a rogue submarine, a precious assortment of cargo, and two Japanese naval officers still at war. This dramatic account of the voyage offers an intriguing look at the individuals involved. One of these individuals was Luftwaffe General Ulrich Kessler, who was a member of Von Stauffeberg's Valkyrie conspiracy to assassinate of Hitler. Kessler was aboard U-234 to escape the wrath of Hitler, because he had been tabbed by Von Stauffeberg to replace Hermann Goering as the commander of the Luftwaffe. Scalia draws on U.S. Navy interrogation records, European and Japanese archives, and interviews with former U-234 crew members and other principals to develop a full portrait of the group. He also evaluates the technology of the armament on board, which included 560 kg. of uranium oxide, whose presence continues to provoke questions about a Nazi plan to build an atom bomb in Japan.

Author : Jim Smith
Publisher : Crown
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 35,51 MB
Release : 2007-12-18
Category : History
ISBN : 0307419479

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A gripping account of the final American bombing mission of World War II and how it prevented a military coup that would have kept Japan in the war. How close did the Japanese come to not surrendering to Allied forces on August 15, 1945? The Last Mission explores this question through two previously neglected strands of late—World War II history, whose very interconnections could have caused a harrowing shift in the course of the postwar world. On the final night of the war, as Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, a band of Japanese rebels, commanded by War Minister Anami's elite staff, burst into the palace. They had plotted a massive coup that aimed to destroy the recordings of the Imperial Rescript of surrender and issue false orders forged with the Emperor’s seal commanding the widely dispersed Japanese military to continue the war. If this rebellion had succeeded, the military would have proceeded with large-scale kamikaze attacks on Allied forces, costing huge casualties and just possibly provoking the Americans to drop a third atomic bomb on Japan over Tokyo–and continue to drop more bombs as Japanese resistance stiffened. Meanwhile, in the midst of an “end-of-war” celebration on Guam, Air Force radio operator Jim Smith and his fellow crewmen received urgent orders for a bombing mission over Japan’s sole remaining oil refinery north of Tokyo. As a stream of American B-29B bombers approached Tokyo, Japanese air defenses, fearing the approaching planes signaled the threat of a third atomic bomb, ordered a total blackout in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, completely disrupting the rebels’ plans. Smith and his fellow crewmembers completed the mission, and a few hours later, the Emperor announced the surrender over Japan’s airwaves, dictating the end of the war. The Last Mission is an insightful piece of speculative investigation that combines narrative storytelling with historical contingency and explores how two seemingly unrelated events could have profoundly changed the course of modern history.

Author : Michel Paradis
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 12,34 MB
Release : 2021-06-08
Category : History
ISBN : 150110473X

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A narrative account of the Doolittle Raids of World War II traces the daring Raiders attack on mainland Japan, the fate of the crews who survived the mission, and the international war crimes trials that defined Japanese-American relations and changed legal history.

Author : James Howell
Publisher : Workbook Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 15,31 MB
Release : 2022-05-06
Category :
ISBN : 9781956876574

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The German submarine U-234 left Norway on April 14, 1945, on its last mission to Japan with a cargo of uranium and other strategic military supplies. The cargo included a complete jet aircraft and several tons of documents and plans to build jet aircraft and other German aircraft in a plant to be built in Japan. Japan and Germany had cooperated in their efforts to build the first atomic bomb by sharing precious raw materials and technology. The Allies had effectively blocked thousands of tons of seagoing strategic military supplies, and later in the war, Germany had invaded the previously neutral country of Russia, cutting off the other route for supplies traffic via the Trans-Siberian Railway. At the time, there were no aircraft capable of large shipments of cargo over such distances, and the only option was shipping by the only route left: underwater by submarine. The U-234 was the last resort to ship large quantities of cargo over long distances. Aboard the submarine were forty-five crewmen, a German general, three German officers, and two high-ranking Japanese naval officers. On 8 May, 1945, the submarine was ordered to surrender to the Allies as it plied the cold waters of the North Atlantic. The war had ended in Germany, and the submarine surrendered to the USS Sutton. The surrender of the submarine and its cargo was accomplished with the aid of the Alsos Missions as part of the Manhattan Project. The Alsos Missions continued work in the Pacific to assist the Allies develop and eventually deploy the first atomic bomb.

Author : David W. Jourdan
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 249 pages
File Size : 42,32 MB
Release : 2020-06-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1640123202

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In 1944 Allied codebreakers learned the Imperial Japanese Navy had dispatched the cargo submarine I-52 to occupied France with tons of military supplies and payment--in gold--for German assistance. I-52 undertook the mission as part of the Yanagi missions, a military program meant to alleviate Japan's desperate need for military material and technical knowledge. After tracking I-52 from Asia to the Atlantic, the Allies destroyed the vessel in a battle that ended the Yanagi missions and left I-52 an unlikely treasure ship on the seafloor. David W. Jourdan adds to the history of I-52 with a spellbinding account of his efforts to find the sunken submarine. One of the first joint American-Russian research expeditions, the search for the wreck combined a team effort, exhaustive detective work, and a dramatic battle with the sea. The effort paid off when the group found I-52's nearly intact hull three miles down. The expedition also earned an unexpected historical dividend when it uncovered one-of-a-kind recordings of American Avenger torpedo bomber attacks on an enemy submarine. Part war tale and part seagoing adventure, Operation Rising Sun tells the story of the two very different missions to find submarine I-52.

Author : Carter Plymton Hydrick
Publisher : Whitehurst & Company/Jifyline Incorporated
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 26,25 MB
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 9780975985304

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The true story of the Manhattan Project you haven't heard about! On May 19, 1945, eleven days after the surrender of Nazi Germany in Europe, a U-boat was escorted into Portsmouth Naval Yard, New Hampshire. News reporters covering the surrender of U-234 were ordered, contrary to all previous and later U-boat surrender procedures, to keep their distance from crew members and passengers of U-234, on threat of being shot by the attending Marine guards. Why the tight security? Buried in the nose of the mammoth boat, sealed in cylinders "lined with gold," was 560 kilograms, 1,120 pounds, of enriched uranium oxide labeled "U235"-the fissile material from which atom bombs are made. Following ten years of research, author Carter Hydrick presents documentation that demonstrates surrendered German components from U-234 were used by the Manhattan Project to complete both the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki to defeat the Japanese, win World War Two and usher in the Nuclear Age.

Author : Ricky W. Law
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 28,85 MB
Release : 2019-05-23
Category : History
ISBN : 1108474632

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The first English-language study of German-Japanese interwar relations to employ sources in both languages.

Author : Walter E. Grunden
Publisher :
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 16,45 MB
Release : 2005
Category : History
ISBN :

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While previous writers have focused primarily on strategic, military, and intelligence factors, Walter Grunden underscores the dramatic scientific and technological disparities that left Japan vunerable and ultimately led to its defeat in World War II.

Author : Jerome Preisler
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 14,36 MB
Release : 2013-07-02
Category : History
ISBN : 0425253627

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In the waning days of World War II, a little-known battle took place under the frozen seas off the coast of Norway . . . and changed the course of the war. In February of 1944, Germany and Japan devised a desperate plan to escape defeat. The Germans would send Japan a submarine—boat U-864—packed with their most advanced rocket and jet aircraft technology. Japan could then reestablish air superiority in the Pacific, drawing the attention of Allied forces long enough for Germany to regroup. Meanwhile, British code breakers, working with the Norwegian underground, had discovered the plan. But even though they were unable to stop the submarine from embarking, the British submarine HMS Venturer was waiting for it at sea. In a cat-and-mouse battle beneath the waves, they hunted one another, each waiting to strike. The Venturer won the game, becoming the only submarine in history to sink another sub in underwater combat. This is the dramatic, action-packed account of one of the greatest unsung victories in military history, and of a historical moment in the annals of naval warfare.