B29 - "Necessary Evil"

Cub Driver wrote:

"Great Artiste" (reportedly having served some time in SaR) was restored
and displayed at Pease AFB, and moved to Whiteman AFB when the New Hampshire
base closed.

Good grief. I didn't know I'd lived next door to the Great Artiste for
all those years. I do remember seeing a B-29 "on the hard" near the
main gate, but never paid any attention to it.

Pease International Tradeport is still very much with us, though
quieter now than in the days when it was home to the B-52s. I haven't
landed there myself, but I often have occasion to talk to the tower,
which is still wont to tell people: "Check gear down and locked."

The New Hampshire Air Guard is based there with six or eight KC-135s.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9
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Pease was hosting one of the FB-111 wings (379 BMW or whichever) about
the time it was inactivated. Were they noisier than B-52s?

Not sure which came first: the FB-111 retirement, or Pease's
inactivation.

"PosterBoy" wrote in message
. ca...

"Great Artiste" (reportedly having served some time in SaR) was restored
and displayed at Pease AFB, and moved to Whiteman AFB when the New
Hampshire base closed.


"Great Artiste", 44-27353, was scrapped at Goose AFB, Labrador, on September
27, 1949. The airplane displayed at Pease and Whiteman in "Great Artiste"
markings was B-29A 44-61671.



"Straight Flush" became a UFOlogists' delight, purportedly have flown a
crate of dead Roswell crash alien bodies to Fort Worth. Dunno what became
of the SF.


"Straight Flush", 44-27301, was scrapped in 1957.



"Jabit III" was damaged in an accident while landing at O'Hare in late
September, '45.


"Jabit III", 44-27303, was scrapped in 1946.

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

Good grief. I didn't know I'd lived next door to the Great Artiste for
all those years. I do remember seeing a B-29 "on the hard" near the
main gate, but never paid any attention to it.


You didn't live next door to it. The "Great Artiste", B-29-40-MO 44-27353,
was scrapped at Goose AFB, Labrador, on September 27, 1949. The airplane
displayed at Pease AFB in "Great Artiste" markings was B-29A-40-BN 44-61671.

Cub Driver wrote:

These were the targets as per the order given
to Gen. Carl Spaatz, who
was the CO of the Strategic Air Force Pacific:
Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki,
Niigata

Matt, what is your source for this?

To judge by the radio traffic, Spaatz has nothing
to do with
targeting. (It was his headquarters that urged
that Tokyo be bombed.)

I've never heard of Niigata, either as city
or as target. It's very
small--300,000 in 1950. What was there that
made it of interest?

Kokura as I recall had one of the last oil refineries
still
functioning in Japan, and I think it was bombed
in the
"thousand-plane" raid of Aug 14/15, with the
last bombs falling after
midnight local time, when Japan had dispatched
its surrender message
to Switzerland.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com
Day One by Peter Wyden. It quotes the message to Spaatz from Hap Arnold
giving the targets. It also noted that "further instructions will be issued
concerning targets in addition to those above." The order came from Hap Arnold
as Groves wasn't in the AAF chain of command. Niigata was listed as a target
because it simply hadn't been hit yet. Kokura BTW had Japan's largest chemical
weapons production facility (among other industry). It would have been hit
likely on the 16th or later if Fat Man no. 2 had been shipped. Tibbets had
vowed after Sweeney's mission that if a third strike was needed, he would
lead it.

Posted via www.My-Newsgroups.com - web to news gateway for usenet access!

"sddso" wrote in message ...

Pease was hosting one of the FB-111 wings (379 BMW or whichever) about
the time it was inactivated.


The 509th BW operated the FB-111A at Pease AFB.



Not sure which came first: the FB-111 retirement, or Pease's
inactivation.


The 509th BW moved from Pease to Whiteman on September 30, 1990, without
people or equipment. I presume their aircraft left sometime before that.
Pease AFB closed on March 31, 1991, SAC continued to operate the FB-111A at
Plattsburgh AFB until July 10, 1991.

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

From a bit of persistent Googling, it appears that all four cities were
relatively untouched by previous bombing raids which would allow the true

I'd rather see a citation in a book, with sources I can check!

Good point, but the actual source is noted at the top of the page. I'm sure
it could be checked and verified.

Nick

Cub Driver wrote:

From a bit of persistent Googling, it appears that all four cities were
relatively untouched by previous bombing raids which would allow the true

I'd rather see a citation in a book, with sources I can check!

"Downfall," by Richard B. Frank, or "War’s End: An Eyewitness Account of
America’s Last Atomic Mission" by Maj Gen Charles W. Sweeney, USAF, Retired
(He flew the Great Artiste on the Hiroshima mission, as well as Bock's Car
against Kokura = Nagasaki), has details. One of the two, I forget which,
says that Niigata was always considered the least favorite target of the four,
as it was considerably further away from the Marianas than the others. The
cities were set aside from firebomb attacks so that damage would be easy to
assess afterwards, both from the air and later, on the ground.

Guy

Not sure which came first: the FB-111 retirement, or Pease's
inactivation.

I think the 111s went away, and there was only a tanker wing here.
Then they spent a quiet summer repaving the runway; the KC-135s were
moved to New York state. Then they came back. Then they deactivated.
Of course the tankers became National Guard, so the change wasn't
total.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Okay, what was the url again?

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 18:41:22 +0100, "Nick Pedley"
wrote:


"Cub Driver" wrote in message
.. .

From a bit of persistent Googling, it appears that all four cities were
relatively untouched by previous bombing raids which would allow the true

I'd rather see a citation in a book, with sources I can check!

Good point, but the actual source is noted at the top of the page. I'm sure
it could be checked and verified.

Nick


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

In article ,
Cub Driver writes:

Pease was hosting one of the FB-111 wings (379 BMW or whichever) about
the time it was inactivated. Were they noisier than B-52s?

No, they were grounded most of the time.

Also they seemed to fly as individuals, not mass formations. And they
weren't memorably noisy.

Well, other than the one that went into Seacrest Villiage, in '79 or '80.
But no, they weren't that bad.
Like all of SAC, it was all either sitting alert or proficiency
flying. I think they did occasionally deploy 1 or 2 aircraft to
dispersal fields, just to be sure that they;d have everything ready
Just in Case.

When those ole 52s took off, I was living NW of Pease on the runway
centerline, on a point of land. (From the air, this area looks like an
archipelago.) Of course the point was granite, or else it would have
been wiped off by the glaciers. The sound of the 52s would begin in
the cellar, move up to the living quarters, and only after a
considerable time (or so it seemed) did the noise elevate to the sky
where it belonged. If there was a party going on, everyone just
stopped with mouths open and glassy-eyed and waited the five minutes
(whatever) before the possibility of hearing began again.

The C-124s that the NH ANG were flying were rather impressive on the
noise front as well. A different timbre to it, so it didn't seem as
opressive, but loud nontheless,

The KC-135s are actually noisier than I remember the 111s to be. This
was however a relatively quiet summer. Perhaps some of them are
forward-based somewhere?

Back in the day of the Steam Jets (Water-injected A models with
straight J-67s) you could hear the morning trim runs in downtown
Durham. (Student Daze, mid '70s) They gave a new definition of loud.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster