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Bockscar

Coordinates:39°46′55″N84°06′32″W/ 39.781976°N 84.108892°W/39.781976; -84.108892
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Bockscar
Bockscarnose art: the Fat Man silhouettes represent fourpumpkin bombmissions (black) and the atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki (a red symbol, fourth in the line of five symbols)
General information
TypeB-29-36-MO Superfortress
ManufacturerGlenn L. Martin Company,Omaha, Nebraska
Serial44-27297
History
First flightApril 1945
In serviceApril 1945 – September 1946
Preserved atTheNational Museum of the United States Air Force,Dayton, Ohio

Bockscar,sometimes calledBock's Car,is the name of theUnited States Army Air ForcesB-29bomberthat dropped aFat Mannuclear weaponover the Japanese city ofNagasakiduringWorld War IIin the second – and most recent –nuclear attackin history. One of 15SilverplateB-29s used by the 509th,Bockscarwas built at theGlenn L. MartinAircraft PlantatBellevue, Nebraska,at what is nowOffutt Air Force Base,and delivered to the United States Army Air Forces on 19 March 1945. It was assigned to the393rd Bombardment Squadron,509th Composite GrouptoWendover Army Air Field,Utah,in April and was named after captainFrederick C. Bock.

Bockscarwas used in 13 training and practice missions fromTinian,and three combat missions in which it droppedpumpkin bombson industrial targets in Japan. On 9 August 1945,Bockscar,piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's commander,MajorCharles W. Sweeney,dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb with ablast yieldequivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT over the city ofNagasaki.About 44% of the city was destroyed; 35,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured.

After the war,Bockscarreturned to the United States in November 1945. In September 1946, it was given to theNational Museum of the United States Air ForceatWright-Patterson Air Force Base,Ohio.The aircraft was flown to the museum on 26 September 1961, and its original markings were restored (nose artwas added after the mission).[1]Bockscaris now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force,Dayton,Ohio, next to a replica of the Fat Man bomb.

Airplane history

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Bockscarat Dayton before it was moved indoors. On the Nagasaki mission, it flew without nose art, and with a triangle N tail marking, rather than the circle arrowhead shown here.
Bockscarwith temporary triangle N tail marking, on 9 August 1945, the day of its atomic bombing mission

Bockscar,B-29-36-MO 44-27297,Victor number77, was one of 15SilverplateB-29s used by the393d Bombardment Squadronof the509th Composite Group.Bockscarwas built by theGlenn L. Martin Company(later part ofLockheed Martin) at itsbomber plantinBellevue, Nebraska,located at Offutt Field, nowOffutt Air Force Base.A Block 35 aircraft, it was one of ten modified as a Silverplate and re-designated "Block 36".[2]

Silverplate involved extensive modifications to the B-29 to carry nuclear weapons. The bomb bay doors and the fuselage section between the bomb bays were removed to create a single 33-foot (10 m) bomb bay. British suspensions and bracing were attached for both shape types, with the gun-type suspension anchored in the aft bomb bay and the implosion type mounted in the forward bay. Weight reduction was also accomplished by removal ofgun turretsandarmor plating.These B-29s also had an improved engine, theR-3350-41.The Silverplate aircraft represented a significant increase in performance over the standard variants.[3]

Delivered to theU.S. Army Air Forceson 19 March 1945,Bockscarwas assigned toCaptainFrederick C. Bockand crew C-13, and flown toWendover Army Air Field,Utah,in April.[2]The name chosen for the aircraft, and painted on it after the mission, was a pun on the name of the aircraft commander.[4]It left Wendover on 11 June 1945 forTinian,where it arrived 16 June. It was originally given the Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 7 but on 1 August was given thetriangle N tail markingsof the444th Bombardment Groupas a security measure, and had its Victor changed to 77 to avoid misidentification with an actual 444th aircraft.[5]

Bockscarwas used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and three combat missions in which it droppedpumpkin bombson industrial targets in Japan, in which Bock's crew bombedNiihamaandMusashino,andFirst LieutenantCharles Donald Alburyand crew C-15 bombedKoromo.[6]

Atomic bomb mission

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Main article:Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Mission and crew

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The mission included three B-29 bombers and their crews:Bockscar,The Great ArtisteandThe Big Stink.Bockscarwas flown on 9 August 1945 by Crew C-15, which usually mannedThe Great Artiste;piloted byMajorCharles W. Sweeney,commander of the 393d Bombardment Squadron; and co-piloted by First Lieutenant Charles Donald Albury, C-15's aircraft commander.[7]The Great Artistewas designated as an observation and instrumentation support plane for the second mission, whileThe Big Stink– flown by group operations officer Major James I. Hopkins Jr. – as a photographic aircraft. The primary target was the city ofKokura,where the Kokura Arsenal was located, and the secondary target was Nagasaki, where two largeMitsubishiarmament plants were located.[8]

Bockscarhad been flown by Sweeney and crew C-15 in three test drop rehearsals with inertPumpkin bombassemblies in the eight days leading up to the second mission, including a final rehearsal the day before.[9]The Great Artiste,which was the assigned aircraft of the crew with whom Sweeney usually flew, had been designated in preliminary planning to drop the second bomb, but the aircraft had been fitted with observation instruments for theHiroshima missionthat took place three days earlier. Moving the instrumentation fromThe Great ArtistetoBockscarwould have been a complex and time-consuming process, and when the second atomic bomb mission was moved up from 11 to 9 August because of adverse weather forecasts, the crews ofThe Great ArtisteandBockscarinstead changed aircraft. The result was that the bomb was carried byBockscarbut flown by the crew C-15 ofThe Great Artiste.[10]

Kokura and Nagasaki

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During pre-flight inspection ofBockscar,the flight engineer notified Sweeney that an inoperative fuel transfer pump made it impossible to use 640 US gallons (2,400 L; 530 imp gal) of fuel carried in a reserve tank. This fuel would still have to be carried all the way to Japan and back, consuming still more fuel. Replacing the pump would take hours; moving the Fat Man to another aircraft might take just as long and was dangerous as well, as the bomb was live. Group Commander ColonelPaul Tibbetsand Sweeney therefore elected to haveBockscarcontinue the mission.[11][12]

Preserved Tinian "bomb pit #2", where Fat Man was loaded aboardBockscar

Bockscartook off from Tinian'sNorth Fieldat 03:49.[13]The mission profile directed the B-29s to fly individually to the rendezvous point, changed because of bad weather fromIwo JimatoYakushima Island,and at 17,000 feet (5,200 m) cruising altitude instead of the customary 9,000 feet (2,700 m), increasing fuel consumption.Bockscarbegan its climb to the 30,000 feet (9,100 m) bombing altitude a half-hour before rendezvous.[11]Before the mission, Tibbets had warned Sweeney to take no more than fifteen minutes at the rendezvous before proceeding to the target. Bockscar reached the rendezvous point and assembled withThe Great Artiste,but after circling for some time,The Big Stinkfailed to appear. As they orbited Yakushima, the weather planesEnola Gay(which had dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima) andLaggin' Dragonreported both Kokura and Nagasaki within the accepted parameters for the required visual attack.[14][15][16]

Though ordered not to circle longer than fifteen minutes, Sweeney continued to wait forThe Big Stink,finally proceeding to the target only at the urging ofCommanderFrederick Ashworth,the plane's weaponeer, who was in command of the mission.[17]After exceeding the original departure time limit by a half-hour,Bockscar,accompanied by the instrument airplane,The Great Artiste,arrived over Kokura, thirty minutes away. The delay at the rendezvous had resulted in clouds and drifting smoke from fires started by a major firebombing raid by 224 B-29s on nearbyYahatathe previous day[18]covering 70% of the area over Kokura, obscuring the aiming point. Three bomb runs were made over the next 50 minutes, burning fuel and exposing the aircraft repeatedly to the heavy defenses of Yahata, but the bombardier was unable to drop visually. By the time of the third bomb run, Japanese anti-aircraft fire was getting close, and First LieutenantJacob Beser,who was monitoring Japanese communications, reported activity on the Japanese fighter direction radio bands.[19]

The mushroom cloud as seen from one of the B-29s on the mission

The increasingly critical fuel shortage resulted in the decision by Sweeney and Ashworth to reduce power to conserve fuel and divert to the secondary target, Nagasaki. The approach to Nagasaki twenty minutes later indicated that the heart of the city's downtown was also covered by dense cloud. Ashworth decided to bomb Nagasaki using radar, but, according toBockscar'sbombardier, CaptainKermit Beahan,a small opening in the clouds at the end of the three-minute bomb run permitted him to identify target features.Bockscarvisually dropped the Fat Man at 10:58 local time.[15]It exploded 43 seconds later with a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons ofTNTat an altitude of 1,650 feet (500 m), approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the planned aiming point, resulting in the destruction of 44% of the city.[20]

The failure to drop the Fat Man at the precise bomb aim point caused the atomic blast to be confined to theUrakami Valley.As a consequence, a major portion of the city was protected by the intervening hills, but even so, the bomb was dropped over the city's industrial valley midway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works in the north. An estimated 35,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured during the bombing at Nagasaki.[21]Of those killed, 23,200–28,200 were Japanese munitions workers, 2,000 were Korean slave laborers, and 150 were Japanese soldiers.[22][23][24]

Landing and debriefing

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Because of the delays in the mission and the inoperative fuel transfer pump, the B-29 did not have sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo Jima, so Sweeney flew the aircraft toOkinawa.Arriving there, he circled for 20 minutes trying to contact the control tower for landing clearance, finally concluding that his radio was faulty. Critically low on fuel,Bockscarbarely made it to the runway atYontan Airfieldon Okinawa. With only enough fuel for one landing attempt, Sweeney and Albury broughtBockscarin at 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) instead of the normal 120 miles per hour (190 km/h), firing distress flares to alert the field of the uncleared landing. The number two engine died from fuel starvation asBockscarbegan its final approach. Touching the runway hard, the heavy B-29 slewed left and towards a row of parked B-24 bombers before the pilots managed to regain control. The B-29's reversible propellers were insufficient to slow the aircraft adequately, and with both pilots standing on the brakes,Bockscarmade a swerving 90-degree turnat the end of the runway to avoid running off the runway. A second engine died from fuel exhaustion by the time the plane came to a stop. The flight engineer later measured fuel in the tanks and concluded that less than five minutes total remained.[25]

Following the mission, there was confusion over the identification of the plane. The first eyewitness account by war correspondentWilliam L. LaurenceofThe New York Times,who accompanied the mission aboard the aircraft piloted by Bock, reported that Sweeney was leading the mission inThe Great Artiste.However, he also noted its "Victor" number as 77, which was that ofBockscar,writing that several personnel commented that 77 was also the jersey number of the football playerRed Grange.[26]Laurence had interviewed Sweeney and his crew in depth and was aware that they referred to their airplane asThe Great Artiste.Except forEnola Gay,none of the 393d's B-29s had yet had names painted on the noses, a fact which Laurence himself noted in his account, and unaware of the switch in aircraft, Laurence assumed Victor 77 wasThe Great Artiste.[4]In fact,The Great Artistewas Victor 89.[27]

Current status

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Engine controls

After the war,Bockscarreturned to the United States in November 1945 and served with the 509th atRoswell Army Air Field,New Mexico.It was nominally assigned to theOperation Crossroadstask force, but there are no records indicating that it deployed for the tests. In August 1946, it was assigned to the4105th Army Air Force UnitatDavis-Monthan Army Air Field,Arizona,for storage.[2]

At Davis-Monthan it was placed on display as the aircraft that bombed Nagasaki, but in the markings ofThe Great Artiste.In September 1946, title was passed to the Air Force Museum (now theNational Museum of the United States Air Force) atWright-Patterson Air Force Base,Ohio.The aircraft was flown to the museum on 26 September 1961,[28]and its original markings were restored.[2]Bockscaris now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force,Dayton,Ohio. This display, a primary exhibit in the museum's Air Power gallery, includes a replica of a Fat Man bomb and signage that states that it was "The aircraft that ended WWII".[29]

In 2005, a short documentary was made about Charles Sweeney's recollections of the Nagasaki mission aboardBockscar,including details of the mission preparation, titledNagasaki: The Commander's Voice.[30]

Crew members

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Regularly assigned crew

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Crew C-13 (mannedThe Great Artisteon the Nagasaki mission):[26][31]

  • CaptainFrederick C. Bock,aircraft commander, Greenville, Michigan
  • First Lieutenant Hugh Cardwell Ferguson Sr., co-pilot, Highland Park, Michigan
  • First Lieutenant Leonard A. Godfrey Jr., navigator, Greenfield, Massachusetts
  • First Lieutenant Charles Levy, bombardier, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Master Sergeant Roderick F. Arnold, flight engineer, Rochester, Michigan
  • Sergeant Ralph D. Belanger, assistant flight engineer, Thendara, New York
  • Sergeant Ralph D. Curry, radio operator, Hoopeston, Illinois
  • Sergeant William C. Barney, radar operator, Columbia City, Indiana
  • Sergeant Robert J. Stock, tail gunner, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Nagasaki mission crew

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Crew C-15. front row: Dehart, Kuharek, Buckley, Gallagher, Spitzer; back row: Olivi, Beahan, Sweeney, Van Pelt, Albury

Crew C-15 (normally assigned toThe Great Artiste):[26][32]

  • MajorCharles W. Sweeney,aircraft commander, North Quincy, Massachusetts
  • CaptainCharles Donald "Don" Albury,co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-15), Miami, Florida
  • Second Lieutenant Frederick "Fred" J. Olivi, regular co-pilot, Chicago, Illinois
  • Captain James F. Van Pelt Jr., navigator, Oak Hill, West Virginia
  • CaptainKermit K. Beahan,bombardier, Houston, Texas
  • Master Sergeant John D. Kuharek, flight engineer, Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania
  • Staff Sergeant Raymond C. Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer, Chicago, Illinois
  • Staff Sergeant Edward K. Buckley, radar operator, Lisbon, Ohio
  • Sergeant Abe M. Spitzer, radio operator, Bronx, New York
  • Sergeant Albert T. "Pappy" DeHart, tail gunner, Plainview, Texas

Also on board were the following additional mission personnel:[26][33]

  • CommanderFrederick Ashworth,USN,weaponeer
  • LieutenantPhilip M. Barnes, USN, assistant weaponeer
  • First LieutenantJacob Beser,radar countermeasures, Baltimore, Maryland (Beser flew onbothatomic missions, serving as the radar countermeasures crewman on theEnola Gayon 6 August 1945 and onBockscaron 9 August 1945).

National Museum of the United States Air Force display

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Notes

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  1. ^Official USAAF photo dated 11 August 1945, two days after mission shows the aircraft with no nose art. See"photograph".National Museum of the US Air Force.Retrieved6 May2017.at"Boeing B-29 Superfortress".National Museum of the US Air Force.Retrieved6 May2017.
  2. ^abcdCampbell 2005,pp. 172–173.
  3. ^Campbell 2005,pp. 8–15.
  4. ^abCampbell 2005,p. 222.
  5. ^Campbell 2005,p. 19.
  6. ^Campbell 2005,pp. 113, 139, 142.
  7. ^"Charles Donald Albury dies at 88; copilot on the Nagasaki bomb plane".Los Angeles Times.9 June 2009.Retrieved29 March2013.
  8. ^Sweeney, Antonucci & Antonucci 1997,pp. 193–195.
  9. ^Campbell 2005,pp. 113–114.
  10. ^"Reflections from above".University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.Retrieved9 May2007.
  11. ^abSweeney, Antonucci & Antonucci 1997,pp. 204–205.
  12. ^"The Story of Nagasaki".Retrieved29 March2013.
  13. ^Craven & Cate 1953,p. 719.
  14. ^Sweeney, Antonucci & Antonucci 1997,pp. 210–211.
  15. ^abCraven & Cate 1953,p. 720.
  16. ^Campbell 2005,p. 30.
  17. ^Bradbury, Ellen; Blakeslee, Sandra (4 August 2015)."The Harrowing Story of the Nagasaki Bombing Mission".Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.Retrieved10 November2020.
  18. ^Kleeman, Sophie (29 July 2014)."The Untold Story of How Japanese Steel Workers Saved Their City From the Atomic Bomb".Mic.Retrieved10 November2020.
  19. ^Sweeney, Antonucci & Antonucci 1997,pp. 179, 213–215.
  20. ^Wainstock 1996,p. 92.
  21. ^Groves 1962,p. 346.
  22. ^Nuke-Rebuke: Writers & Artists Against Nuclear Energy & Weapons (The Contemporary anthology series).The Spirit That Moves Us Press. 1 May 1984. pp. 22–29.
  23. ^Groves 1962,pp. 343–346.
  24. ^Hoddeson et al. 1993,pp. 396–397.
  25. ^Sweeney, Antonucci & Antonucci 1997,pp. 222–226.
  26. ^abcdLaurence, William L."Eyewitness Account of Atomic Bomb Over Nagasaki".National Science Digital Library.Retrieved28 March2013.
  27. ^Campbell 2005,p. 184.
  28. ^"Boeing B-29 Superfortress".United States Air Force. Archived fromthe originalon 24 January 2015.Retrieved29 March2013.
  29. ^"Bockscar: The aircraft that ended WWII".United States Air Force. Archived fromthe originalon 23 March 2013.Retrieved29 March2013.
  30. ^"Nagasaki".Michael Puttré. Archived fromthe originalon 3 January 2013.Retrieved29 March2013.
  31. ^Campbell 2005,p. 138.
  32. ^Campbell 2005,pp. 141–142.
  33. ^"The Story of Nagasaki".National Science Digital Library.Retrieved28 March2013.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toBockscar.

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