Mao Anying, a Chinese military officer, was killed by US bombers on 25 November 1950 during the Korean war. A persistent but frequently denied rumour says he was trying to cook egg fried rice instead of taking shelter, and the smoke from the fire exposed his position to enemy forces.
Was bombing in the 50s something where they’d say, “oh look, there’s some smoke from a fire, let’s hit that”? Or was it more like, “ok, this looks like the target area coming up, let’s drop our bombs and hope they hit something useful and explode properly, or at least explode when an enemy finds them during this war”?
I mean, I know WWII bombing was like the latter and at some point they drastically improved precision and communication between ground teams and bomber teams, but had they done so yet by the Korean war?
Even in WWII bombers would visually identify target areas. A valley of suspected enemy positions that is the target area is much less easily confused for the valley next to it if there is a dumbass running a fire.
See also why London’s lights were turned off in WWII.
Overwhelmingly type A. However, at least according to my faulty memory of the literature I’ve read, they were doing some of the initial testing with guided munitions. Mostly focused on bridges, though, which is an odd place for fried rice. Anything else seems like dumb (bad) luck.
I mean… There’s stupid and then there’s stupid.
Was bombing in the 50s something where they’d say, “oh look, there’s some smoke from a fire, let’s hit that”? Or was it more like, “ok, this looks like the target area coming up, let’s drop our bombs and hope they hit something useful and explode properly, or at least explode when an enemy finds them during this war”?
I mean, I know WWII bombing was like the latter and at some point they drastically improved precision and communication between ground teams and bomber teams, but had they done so yet by the Korean war?
Even in WWII bombers would visually identify target areas. A valley of suspected enemy positions that is the target area is much less easily confused for the valley next to it if there is a dumbass running a fire.
See also why London’s lights were turned off in WWII.
Overwhelmingly type A. However, at least according to my faulty memory of the literature I’ve read, they were doing some of the initial testing with guided munitions. Mostly focused on bridges, though, which is an odd place for fried rice. Anything else seems like dumb (bad) luck.