Dan Edwards added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

Just wanted to add these to the cause...

-Dan Edwards-

Good pics, Dan! Thanks for posting them

"Lonnie J. Potter" wrote in
message .. .
For the record, Colonel Paul Tibbets [who was promoted to
Glory] appeared at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in
Prescott Arizona some three or four years ago. Although
Colonel Tibbets dropped the first nuclear device on Hiroshima
Japan, it must be noted that Major Sweeney, flying a B-29 by
the name of Bockscar, flew the second atomic strike against
Japan. Although his name is not readily known. It was the
second bomb that was dropped by Major Sweeney that convinced
Japan to give it up. I find it amazing that Colonel Tibbets,
a heroic gentleman, name is known and that Major Sweeney is
not. Maybe we should educate people to this fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar
Bockscar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the
name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that
dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear weapon over Nagasaki on August
9, 1945, the second atomic weapon used against Japan.

The name painted on the aircraft after the mission (shown
here) is a pun on "boxcar" after the name of its aircraft
commander, Captain Frederick C. Bock.

Atomic bomb mission
Bockscar was flown on that day by the crew of another B-29,
The Great Artiste, and was commanded by Major Charles W.
Sweeney, commander of the 509th Composite Group's only bomber
squadron, the 393rd. The Great Artiste, which was the
assigned aircraft of the crew with whom Sweeney most often
flew, was slotted in preliminary planning to drop the second
bomb, but it had been fitted with observation instruments for
the Hiroshima mission.

Bockscar had been flown by Sweeney and crew C-15 in three
test drop rehearsals of inert "Fat Man" assemblies in the
eight days leading up to the second mission, including the
final rehearsal the day before. Rather than move the
instrumentation from The Great Artiste to Bockscar, a complex
and time-consuming process, the crews of The Great Artiste
and Bockscar switched planes. The result was that the bomb
was dropped by Bockscar, flown by the crew C-15 of The Great
Artiste.

There was confusion over the name of the plane because an
initial eyewitness account by reporter William L. Laurence of
the New York Times said that the second bomb had been dropped
from The Great Artiste. Laurence, who accompanied the mission
as part of Bock's crew, had interviewed Sweeney and his crew
in depth and was aware that they referred to their airplane
as The Great Artiste. Except for Enola Gay, none of the
393rd's B-29s had yet had names painted on the noses, and
unaware of the switch in aircraft, Laurence assumed victor 77
was The Great Artiste.

Kokura was the primary target, but when Bockscar arrived at
its rendezvous point off the coast of Japan the third
aircraft of its flight (the photo ship Big Stink) was not
present. After fruitlessly waiting 40 minutes, Sweeney and
Bock proceeded to Kokura but found it obscured by clouds.
Sweeney had orders to drop the atomic bomb visually if
possible, and after three unsuccessful passes over Kokura,
conferred with weaponeer Commander Frederick Ashworth (USN).
They agreed to strike the secondary target, Nagasaki.

A combination of factors including confusion about a
malfunctioning transfer pump made fuel consumption a critical
factor. Ashworth did not want to be forced to dump the bomb
into the sea and decided to make a radar bombing run if
necessary. However, enough of an opening appeared in the
cloud cover to allow Bombardier Kermit Beahan to confirm
Nagasaki and the bomb was dropped, with ground zero being
about 3/4 mile from the planned aiming point. This combined
with Nagasaki's position on the foothills (as opposed to
Hiroshima's mostly flat terrain) resulted in lower overall
casualties than in Hiroshima, with much of the blast confined
in the Urakami Valley.[9]

Because of the delays in the mission, the B-29 did not have
sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo
Jima, so Major Sweeney flew the aircraft to Okinawa, where,
despite being unable to make contact with the control tower,
he made a safe landing with virtually empty fuel tanks.

Airplane history

Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, victor number 77, was assigned
to the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group. One
of 15 Silverplate B-29s used by the 509th on Tinian, Bockscar
was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Omaha,
Nebraska at what is now Offutt Air Force Base, as a Block 35
aircraft. It was one of 10 modified as a Silverplate and
re-designated "Block 36". Delivered on March 19, 1945, to the
USAAF, it was assigned to Capt. Frederick C. Bock and crew
C-13 and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah.

It left Wendover on June 11, 1945 for Tinian and arrived June
16. It was originally given the victor number 7 but on August
1 was given the triangle N tail markings of the 444th Bomb
Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 77
to avoid misidentification with an actual 444th aircraft.

Bockscar was also used in 13 training and practice missions
from Tinian, and three combat missions in which it dropped
pumpkin bombs on industrial targets in Japan. Bock's crew
bombed Niihama and Musashino, and 1st Lt. Don Albury and crew
C-15 bombed Toyama.

It returned to the United States in November 1945 and served
with the 509th at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. It was
nominally assigned to the Operation Crossroads task force but
there are no records indicating that it deployed for the
tests. In August 1946 it was assigned to the 4105th Base Unit
at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field, Arizona, for storage.

At Davis-Monthan it was placed on display as the aircraft
that bombed Nagasaki, but in the markings of The Great
Artiste. In September 1946 title was passed to the Air Force
Museum (now the National Museum of the United States Air
Force) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, but it was
not moved there until September 26, 1961, where its original
markings were restored.

Bockscar is now on permanent display at the National Museum
of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio. This display
includes a replica of the "Fat Man" bomb and signage that
states that it was "The aircraft that ended WWII". This is in
contrast to the display of Enola Gay at the Smithsonian's
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, where little mention is made of
that aircraft's role in WWII.

In 2005, a short documentary was made about Charles Sweeney's
recollections of the Nagasaki mission aboard Bockscar,
including details of the mission preparation, titled
"Nagasaki: The Commander's Voice."

Regularly assigned crew

Crew C-13 (manned "The Great Artiste" on the Nagasaki
mission)

a.. Capt. Frederick C. Bock, aircraft commander
b.. Lt. Hugh C. Ferguson, co-pilot
c.. Lt. Leonard A. Godfrey, navigator
d.. Lt. Charles Levy, bombardier
e.. Master Sgt. Roderick F. Arnold, flight engineer
f.. Sgt. Ralph D. Belanger, assistant flight engineer
g.. Sgt. Ralph D. Curry, radio operator
h.. Sgt. William C. Barney, radar operator
i.. Sgt. Robert J. Stock, tail gunner


Nagasaki mission crew

Crew C-15 (normally assigned to The Great Artiste):

a.. Maj. Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commander
b.. Capt. Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew
C-15) c.. 2nd Lt. Fred Olivi, regular co-pilot
d.. Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator
e.. Capt. Raymond "Kermit" Beahan, bombardier
f.. Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
g.. Staff Sgt. Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight
engineer h.. Staff Sgt. Edward Buckley, radar operator
i.. Sgt. Abe Spitzer, radio operator
j.. Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner

Also on board were the following additional mission
personnel:

a.. Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth (USN), weaponeer
b.. Lt. Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer
c.. 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures





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--
HP, aka Jerry