this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
222 points (92.7% liked)

World News

39165 readers
2020 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

I mean... There's stupid and then there's stupid.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

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.