July 16th, 1945 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: Berlin: Truman and Churchill arrive for the Potsdam Big Three conference of Britain, the US and the USSR.
JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, 2 Eleventh Air Force B-24s fly
a negative shipping search mission to Shimushiru Island. 4 B-25 Mitchells on an enemy
shipping sweep deck-level bomb and strafe an enemy freighter; 3 of the bombers then bomb
and strafe Torishima Retto, the secondary target.
During the night of 16/17 July, 469 B-29
Superfortresses fly 4 incendiary raids against Japanese cities without loss.
- Mission 271: 119 B-29s attack the Namazu urban area destroying 1.4 sq mi (3.6 sq km), 89.5% of the city.
- Mission 272: 124 B-29s hit the Oita urban area destroying 0.555 sq mi (1.437 sq km), 25.2% of the city.
- Mission 273: 94 B-29s attack the Kuwana urban area destroying 0.63 sq mi (1.63 sq km), 77% of the city; 2 other B-29s hit alternate targets.
- Mission 274: 129 B-29s hit the Hiratsuka urban area destroying 1.04 sq mi (2.69 sq km), 44.2% of the city; 1 other hits an alternate target.
- During the day, five P-47s hit Yanagawa and 96 Iwo Jima-based P-51s hit targets (mainly
airfields) at Kameyama, Kiyosu, Komaki, Okazaki, Suzuko, and Akenogahara; 22 air victories
are claimed; 1 P-51 is lost.
Task Force 37, the British fast carrier unit, under the command of
Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Bernard Rawlings, consisting of a battleship, 4 aircraft
carriers (HMS Formidable, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Implacable and HMS
Victorious), 8 light cruisers and 18 destroyers, joins the US Third Fleet.
A TBM Avenger of Composite Squadron Thirteen (VC-13) in the escort aircraft carrier USS Anzio (CVE-57) and the destroyer escort USS Lawrence C. Taylor (DE-415) sink Japanese submarine HIJMS I-13 at 34-28N 150-55E, about 540 miles (860 km) east of Yokohama, Japan.
Iwo Jima: VII Fighter Command, United States' Seventh Air Force bases the 21st Fighter Group flying P-51Ds at South Field.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Amherst paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.U.S.A.: General Carl Spaatz assumes command of the U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces (USASTAF) on Guam. USASTAF will have administrative and operational control of all B-29 units, plus supporting fighter units, in the Pacific, i.e., the Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands and the Eighth Air Force on Okinawa. To complete this order:
- The Eighth Air Force in England transfers without personnel and equipment to Okinawa and HQ and HQ Squadron XX Bomber Command, which moved from India to Okinawa, is redesignated HQ Squadron, Eighth Air Force.
Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle assumes command of the Eighth on 19 July. The first B-29 wing to be assigned to the Eighth Air Force departed the U.S. on 7 July but does not arrive on Okinawa until after VJ Day.
- Headquarters Twentieth Air Force is moved from Washington, DC, to Harmon Field, Guam and HQ and HQ Squadron XXI Bomber Command on Guam is redesignated HQ Squadron, Twentieth Air Force.
Thus the XX and XXI Bomber Commands are brought to an end as actual establishments and their wings pass to direct control of HQ Twentieth Air Force of which Major General Curtis Emerson LeMay takes command on this date.
Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man's Trail), Alamagordo, New MEXICO: History was made here today in the New Mexico desert when the US tested a new kind of bomb, more powerful than any the world has yet known. In the instant of the explosion, Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the laboratory responsible for the "Manhattan Project", thought of some words from the Bhagavad-Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One." Now, he reflected, man could say like the god Krishna: "I am become death, destroyer of worlds."
Oppenheimer's awe was inspired by the successful explosion of the first atomic device. It worked by "imploding" segments of the element plutonium to form a critical mass in which neutrons would split the atomic nuclei, releasing enormous energy in a chain reaction. In this morning's test experiment, codenamed "Trinity" from a poem by John Donne, the "Gadget", the experimental plutonium bomb, explodes at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, the explosion vaporized the steel tower to which the nuclear device was fixed. Exploding with a force equivalent to 19,685 tons of TNT, it fused sand into glass and sent a mushroom cloud 41,000 feet (12,497 metres) into the sky. All life in a 1 mile radius had ceased to exist. Scientists who forgot to shield their eyes were momentarily blinded by the light, which was visible for 125 miles.
See The Unofficial Trinity Site (Russ Folsom)
Escort carrier USS Bairoko commissioned.
Destroyer USS Witek laid down.