"The Last Mission", a History Channel Documentary

[porcupine]

Anyone who despairs of the dumbing-down of television programming (eg "Nat Geo") might enjoy this incredibly well-made documentary about the mission that ended World War II - and I'm not talking about the bombing of Nagasaki.  Days after the second atomic bomb was dropped, with the Japanese still not surrendering, 134 B-29s of the 315th Bomb Wing were sent to destroy an oil facility in Northern Japan.  But the attack itself wasn't what did it: on the way, the bombers passed over Tokyo and were spotted, triggering a power blackout that foiled the coup d'etat that was underway with the intention of preventing the Emperor's broadcast of surrender.

I caught the last few minutes of it last night, and it's been a few years since I saw the whole thing so I don't recall the details of the beginning of the film.  It's based on a book written by one of the crewmen on one of the planes (the Boomerang).  It's meticulously researched, the re-enactments are totally believable, the archival footage is great, and the story is almost unbelievable - except that it really did happen, including the Boomerang almost not making it back to base on Guam after almost 17 hours in the air.

If you're a nut about military history, you need to watch it.  If you love a well-made documentary of any subject, you need to watch it.  It's about ten years old now, but the Military History Channel re-broadcasts it every so often, including several times today.  It's also available on DVD.