르메이, 핵폭탄, 일본의 항복 선언, 종전

For their charts and drawings they used the only thing they had on Guam, a two-foot-wide roll of butcher’s paper on a frame. Though their presentation seemed smooth enough, LeMay realized, when he looked around at General Marshall, that they had come on a bootless errand. The nation’s most powerful military man was asleep. (175)

- Bootless = useless

 

워싱턴에서 떠나기 전에, Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves를 만났음. (who was in charge of Manhattan Project) 그리고 핵폭탄에 대한 브리핑 받음. 이에 대해 르메이는 나중에, “I took civil engineering [[in college]], . . . [o]ur course in physics was about structures and so forth. It wasn’t nuclear physics. So I knew this would be a big bang, but I didn’t know how big.” (176)

 

6월 말에 Tinian으로 배송될 이미 개발된 핵폭탄은 크기가 커서 B-29를 개조해서 실어야 함.

당시 날씨 알아보려고 비행기를 한두대씩 띄우고 있어서, 한대가 홀로 가면 (핵탄두를 실은 B-29 한 대) 별 관심 내지는 저항을 받지 않을 것이라고 예상되었음. 이 이야기를 Groves에게 해주었고, 그는 꽤나 납득했음.

 

B-29에 핵탄두를 떨어뜨릴 509th Composite Group은 6월 8일 경에는 모두 새 숙소에 적응했고, 트레이닝에 돌입했다. 담당자는 Tibbets.(176)

 

On June 27, Tibbets flew to Guam to report to LeMay and the two men had a conversation in which Tibbets may have been slightly uncomfortable because he was in an anomalous position.

- anomalous: 이례적인

 

By mid-July, however, LeMay was no longer officially in command of this holocaust. On July 10, Hap Arnold issued an order activating his planned reorganization of the Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific. LeMay, with only two stars, didn’t have enough rank to command the huge armadas converging on Japan in preparation for the planned invasion. So Arnold sent four-starred Tooey Spaatz to fill that job, with LeMay as his chief of staff, three-starred Nathan Twining as commander of the Twentieth Air Force, and three-starred Jimmy Doolittle as commander of the Eighth, which was arriving from Europe.

6월 중순 경의 전선 변화에 따라 담당 장군들도 재배치됨.

 

When Spaatz flew into Guam July 20 and officially announced these changes, LeMay found himself surprisingly serene about his new subordinate role. (178)

 

LeMay, twenty years later, wrote, “I did not and do not decry the use of the bomb. Anything which will achieve the desired results should be employed. If those bombs shortened the war only by days, they rendered an inestimable service, and did the men who were responsible for their construction and delivery.” (179)

- decry: 비난하다, 헐뜯다, 매도하다

 

“I think it was anticlimactic,” LeMay later wrote, “in that the verdict was already rendered.” (179)

- anticlimactic: (사건이나 결과가) 기대에 못 미치는, 김이 새는, 허무한

- climax에서 온 단어.

- 결정이 이미 내려져있었기 때문에, 그건 허무한 것이었다고 생각한다. –원자폭탄에 대한 르메이의 견해.

 

LeMay didn’t blame him[Tibbets]. “It was his prerogative to do it,” LeMay said later.

- prerogative: 특권, 특혜

 

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[전쟁이 끝남. 일본의 항복 방송이 들려옴.]

Some happy shouts arose from various directions. Two or three sentries fired off their guns. (180)

 

During the last two months the aircrews had been flying 120 hours a month, as LeMay had predicted, and the ground crews had been working around the clock to keep the planes in the air. (181)

 

전쟁 끝난 밤 그들은 잤고(너무피곤했고) 다음 날부터 포로수용소 위치 확인하고 수감자들 데려오는 일을 하고, 르메이도 함께 했으며, 제 눈으로 B-29가 폭격한 일본의 도시들을 보았다. 

 

LeMay sent out reconnaissance planes immediately to pinpoint the locations of the camps.

-reconnaissance plane: 정찰기를 뜻함. ‘reconnaissance’는 불어인 ‘reconnaitre’ (알아보다, 조사하다)에서 온 단어. Recon이라고 불리기도 함.

 

LeMay’s job in the Pacific was essentially finished now. He flew a C-54 transport plane to Yokohama and attended the surrender ceremony September 1 aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri.

 

미주리에서 했던 항복 선언 때 공군인 르메이도 가서 본 것.

 

Finally, on September 18, LeMay, Barney Giles, and Rosey O’Donnell took off in three B-29s from Hokkaido, Japan, for what they hoped would be a world’s record nonstop flight to Washington, demonstrating to the world the range of America’s awesome Superfortress. (하지만 날씨로 인한 소모가 커서 결국 연료부족으로 시카고에 착륙했고 거기서 재급유 받아 워싱턴으로 갔으며 Hap Arnold가 그들을 맞이해줌)

 

르메이는 전쟁 전후 승진을 정말 초고속으로 했다.

Curtis LeMay가 5년 만에 Captain(대위)에서 Major General(소장)까지 올라갔는데, 계급 체계상 엄청난 초고속 승진...

 

미 공군(당시 육군항공대 포함) 장교 계급 체계:

1. Captain (대위)
2. Major (소령)
3. Lieutenant Colonel (중령)
4. Colonel (대령)
5. Brigadier General (준장, 별 1개)
6. Major General (소장, 별 2개)

즉, LeMay는 5단계나 뛰어올라간 셈. 대위 → 소령 → 중령 → 대령 → 준장 → 소장.

평시라면 이런 승진에는 20년 이상 걸려도 빠른 편인데, 전시(특히 2차대전)였고 성과가 너무 좋았으므로 이런 승진 가능했음.

 

A captain only five years earlier, Curtis LeMay was now a major general and a war hero of such stature that the five-star chief of the Air Force had turned out to welcome him home. (181)

 

Hap은 건강 문제로 은퇴 예정이었고 후임은 Tooey Spaatz로 예정되어 있었음. 르메이와 잠깐 같이 일했던 Tooey는 워싱턴으로 다음과 같은 전보를 보냄:

 

HAVE HAD OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK UP ON BAKER

TWO NINE OPERATIONS AND BELIEVE THIS IS THE

BEST ORGANIZED AND MOST TECHNICALLY AND

TACTICALLY PROFICIENT MILITARY ORGANIZATION

THAT THE WORLD HAS SEEN TO DATE. (182)

 

-       Baker two nine: 29를 지칭하는 phonetic code로, 제29폭격지휘부를 뜻함

 

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