Mission to Hiroshima

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Mission tot. was typical summer weather onthat fateful morning of 6 August1945. Th e sun was shining an dthe trees and flowers were in fulldisplaying their vivid an dcolors. As the people of Hirobegan to stir, ma ny were albeginning to think of how bestcope with the hea t for anotherAlthough the ai r raid si rensd sounded an alert and then anfull forty-five minutesto the arrival of the bombers,

t many had paid much attentionFo r, as in the past, many( 8-sQns as the J apanese calledconcrete buildings still stoodfeet from ground zero in Nagasaki

dropping of Fat Man. (USAF /

A brief account of the 509th Composite Group

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By Joseph F. Papaliairoshi8 -29 Superfortress ENOLA GAY return sto Tin ian after dropp ing the atomic bombon Japan. (USAF/A59476)them ) had flown over and totallyignored their city . Even though sev-eral bomb s had fallen on them dur ing the parlier part of the year, andmass evac ua tion plans had bee n pu tin effect a nd carried out, to the peopit- of Hiroshima the wa r was something that they had heard of fromothers traveling about the countryor read about in newspapers. As thebombers a pproached, some lookedup, but mos t were preoccupied withother thought s. Thoughts not rela tpdto the war or to what had broughtthese planes to their city. Wi thinseconds of the passing of these a ircra ft , th E' city of Hiroshima ceased

to exi s t. For at R: 16 a .m. on tha t d y,wi thjn the ins tant of a bright f1a.o;h ,Hiroshima was reduced to rubblea nd fire. Within the sa me millisecond, many thousands of p{' opl ewere al ready dead or dy ing. Thn't?days late r, on 9 Au gust, the

snml' fa te was to befa ll the city ofNagasaki.T he road to Hiroshima and Naga saki had its beginnin g in December1938, whe n a Ge rman scientist namedOttu Hahn d i"c()ve l'l-d th e fi ssionpr ocess. Th is process , which i::; com

its historic bombing missions to Japan

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monly known as splitting the atom,triggered speculation as to whetherit would be possible to build anatomic bomb. In 1939, a group ofscientists (along with a letter ofsupport from Albert Einstein) ap -proached President Franklin Roosevel t in hopes of convincing him tobegin a program to develop anatomic bomb. These scientists believed tha t Germany was well on theway to developing its own atomicbomb and tha t if they did, Germanywould be in a position to win thewar and dominate the world. Actingupon their recommendation, Roose

"Fat Man," the nuclear weapon detonatedover Nagasaki, Japan. The bomb was 60inches in diameter and 128 inches long.Fat Man weighed about 10,000 Ibs andhad a yield equivalent to approximately20,000 tons of high explosive. (USAF164708)

Crew of BOCK'S CAR, kneeling left toright: S/Sgt. John Kuharedk, Sgt. AbeSpitzer, Sgt. Ray Gallagher, S/Sgt. Buckley, S/Sgl. Albert DeHart. Standing leftto right: Major Charles W. Sweeney, CO393rd Bombardment Squadron and pilot;Lt. Charles Alburgy, aircraft commander;Lt. Fred Olivi, copilot; Capt. KermitBehan, bombardier; Capt. James VanPelt, navigator, and Lt. Beser. (USAF /83305)

Close-up of the nose art of BOCK'S CARtaken at Roswell AFB, New Vlexico, on27 March 1946. (USAF /39807)

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velt appointed an advisory committeeto locate and acquire the neededuranium for the development of thebomb. By 1941, the need for uraniumwas lessened wi th the discovery ofan artificial element known as plutonium. Scientists now ha d a productthat would fission better than U-235(uranium) an d with its discovery,the United States now ha d the potenial to mass-produce it for use inatomic weapons.Progress was slow until September1942, when General Leslie Grovestook over command of the newlyformed "Manhattan Project." As its

administrator, Groves was given almost unlimited powers, to use themilitary, scientific, and industrialresources of the United 8tates, alongwith an operating budget that eventually came close to two billion dollars. The Manhattan Project was actually a coordination of scientistsworking across the United States insuch places as Berkeley, California;Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford,Washington; the University of Chicago and Los Alamos, New Mexico.However, the actual design and construction of the bombs took placea t Los Alamos, under the leadership

of J. Robert Oppenheimer. I t wason 16 July 1945, near Alamogordo,New Mexico, that the first nucleartest explosion, code named Trinity,took place.In September 1944, a full tenmonths prior to the nuclear explosion at Alamogordo, a young Lieutenant Colonel by the name of PaulW. Tibbets was selected to commandthe organization that would drop theatomic bombs on Japan. Tibbets selection was based in part on hisrecord as a bomber pilot in Europe,his ability to command an d his familiarity with the newly developed

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B-29. As the commander of this newly formed group, it was his responsibility to select men and equipmentto carry out the tactical phase ofwhat the scientists were building atLos Alamos.Initially, Tibbets and his men (airan d ground crews for fifteen specially ou t[i tted B-29 Superfortresses)trained at Wendover Field, locatedin northwestern Utah. Tibbets personally selected 'Wendover becauseof it s isolation and the need to maintain as much secrecy as possibleconcerning their mission. After several months of intense training andfinal organizational completion, the509th Composite Group was officially activated and thus became thefirst United States Army Air ForceGroup to be organized, equipped andtrained for atomic warfare. Shortlythereafter, crews an d aircraft fromthe 509th were sent to Cuba. Whilein Cuba, the .509th continued to train[or their mission, using the Caribbean and selected islands as targetareas. Bomb drops an d violent highspeed turns away from the area ofimpact were practiced daily. Upontheir return to Wendover, the routinecontinued.

By early .June, 194.5, most of the.509th had transferred to Tinian, an

island which is part of the Marianaschain. The reason for the choice ofTinian was because of its speciallyconstructed long runways and nearness to Japan. During their stay atTinian, the strictest security concerning their purpose was maintained . In order to assure this, the .509thwas isolated on the northern partof the island, in an area which wasenclosed by fencing and patrolled bysecurity forces. No one was allowedto enter without first showing properidentificalion.Initially, none of the B-29s assigned to the .509th were allowedto participate in raids over Japan.Instead, they continued to fly outover safe areas and practice theirsimulated atomic bomb drops from30,000 feet up. Upon release of thedummy bomb, the planes would immediately go into a 1.5.5 degree turnwhich was necessary to avoid thebomb blas t and full impact of thesubsequent shock wave. Because oftheir non-involvement in the bombing over Japan, the .509th was muchresented by other B-29 squadrons,especially since they were losingplanes and men over the empire.Many high ranking officers tried todiscover what their purpose was,only to be rebuffed. Secrecy was so

tight, that not even the officers ancjcrews of the .509th were aware ofwhat they were preparing for. Onlya very select few, including Tibbetsknew the details of the mission. Thesecret was to remain so until ColonelTibbets announced it to his crewwhile on their way to Hiroshima.By the beginning of July, the .509tl1began a series of combat strikesover Japan so as to familiarizecrews with the target areas and tactics contemplated for the final mission and to let the Japanese becomeaccustomed to the s ight of smallformations of high flying B-29s.As final preparatio were beingformulated for the delivery of theatomic bombs to Tinian, the ta rgetcities had been selected. Thpy ereHiroshima, Kokura, Niigata andNagasaki. Kyoto, which was a lsogiven serious consideration, wasst.ricken from the list. The UnitedStates now proceeded in earnes t be-cause it felt that Japan would notsubmit to terms which called forunconditional surrender.On the morning of 26 Jul ', thecruiser Indianapolis docked off shorefrom Tinian and delivere d pa rtsnecessary for the first bomb, fol lo wedby several B-29s from ( ':.ilifornia

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HIROSHIMA (Continued from page 26)bringing the remaining componentsneeded for the final completion ofboth devices. Several days later,while on her way to the Philippines,the Indianapolis was sunk with a lossof life close to 900 sailors.

As final plans were being madefor the first bomb drop, it was decided that in all, seven planes wouldtake part. Three to proceed theEnola Gay ( the plane which carriedthe bomb was piloted by Tibbets andnamed after his mother ) to reporton weather conditions, one on s tandby at Iwo Jima in the event theEnola Gay developed mechanicalproblems and the remaining twowere to accompany the Enola Ga yand take pictures and measure thebomb blast's intensity.In the early hours of 6 August,after three days of delay due to bad

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