"Bockscar"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar

Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the United States Army Air
Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city
of Nagasaki during World War II in the second – and last – nuclear attack in
history. One of 15 Silverplate B-29s used by the 509th, Bockscar was built at
the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Bellevue, Nebraska, at what is now Offutt
Air Force Base, and delivered to the United States Army Air Forces on 19 March
1945. It was assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group to
Wendover Army Air Field, Utah in April.

Bockscar was used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and three
combat missions in which it dropped pumpkin bombs on industrial targets in
Japan. On 9 August 1945, Bockscar, piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's
commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, dropped a Fat Man nuclear bomb with a blast
yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT over the city of Nagasaki. About 44% of
the city was destroyed; 35,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured.

After the war, Bockscar returned to the United States in November 1945. In
September 1946 it was given to the National Museum of the United States Air
Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The aircraft was flown to the
Museum on 26 September 1961, and its original markings were restored (noseart
was added after the mission). Bockscar is now on permanent display at the
National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, next to a replica
of a Fat Man.

Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, Victor number 77, was one of 15 Silverplate B-29s
used by the 393d Bombardment Squadron of the 509th Composite Group. Bockscar was
built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Bellevue, 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".

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 of gun turrets and armor
plating. These B-29s also had an improved engine, the R-3350-41. The Silverplate
aircraft represented a significant increase in performance over the standard
variants.

Delivered to the United States Army Air Forces on 19 March 1945, Bockscar was
assigned to Captain Frederick C. Bock and crew C-13, and flown to Wendover Army
Air Field, Utah in April. The name chosen for the aircraft, and painted on it
after the mission, was a pun on the name of the aircraft commander. It left
Wendover on 11 June 1945 for Tinian, where it arrived 16 June. It was originally
given the Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 7 but on 1 August was
given the triangle N tail markings of the 444th Bombardment Group as a security
measure, and had its Victor changed to 77 to avoid misidentification with an
actual 444th aircraft.

Bockscar was used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and three
combat missions in which it dropped pumpkin bombs on industrial targets in
Japan, in which Bock's crew bombed Niihama and Musashino, and First Lieutenant
Charles Donald Albury and crew C-15 bombed Koromo.

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 to Okinawa. 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, Bockscar barely
made it to the runway at Yontan Airfield on Okinawa. With only enough fuel for
one landing attempt, Sweeney and Albury brought Bockscar in 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 as Bockscar began 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, Bockscar made a swerving 90-degree turn at 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.

Following the mission, there was confusion over the identification of the plane.
The first eyewitness account by war correspondent William L. Laurence of the New
York Times, who accompanied the mission aboard the aircraft piloted by Bock,
reported that Sweeney was leading the mission in The Great Artiste. However, he
also noted its "Victor" number as 77, which was that of Bockscar, writing that
several personnel commented that 77 was also the jersey number of the football
player Red Grange. Laurence 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 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 was The Great Artiste. In fact, The Great
Artiste was Victor 89.

Type
B-29-36-MO Superfortress

Manufacturer
Glenn L. Martin Company, Omaha, Nebraska

Serial
44-27297

In service
April 1945 to September 1946

Preserved at
The National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio

During pre-flight inspection of Bockscar, 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 Colonel Paul Tibbets and Sweeney therefore elected to have Bockscar
continue the mission.

Bockscar took off from Tinian's North Field at 03:49. The mission profile
directed the B-29s to fly individually to the rendezvous point, changed because
of bad weather from Iwo Jima to Yakushima Island, and at 17,000 feet (5,200 m)
cruising altitude instead of the customary 9,000 feet (2,700 m), increasing fuel
consumption. Bockscar began its climb to the 30,000 feet (9,100 m) bombing
altitude a half hour before rendezvous. 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 with The
Great Artiste, but after circling for some time, The Big Stink failed to appear.
As they orbited Yakushima, the weather planes Enola Gay and Laggin' Dragon
reported both Kokura and Nagasaki within the accepted parameters for the
required visual attack.

Though ordered not to circle longer than fifteen minutes, Sweeney continued to
wait for The Big Stink, at the urging of Commander Frederick Ashworth, the
plane's weaponeer, who was in command of the mission. After exceeding the
original departure time limit by a half hour, Bockscar, accompanied by The Great
Artiste, proceeded to 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 nearby Yawata the previous day 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 Yawata, but the bombardier was unable to drop visually. By the
time of the third bomb run, Japanese anti-aircraft fire was getting close, and
Second Lieutenant Jacob Beser, who was monitoring Japanese communications,
reported activity on the Japanese fighter direction radio bands.

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 to Bockscar's bombardier, Captain Kermit
Beahan, a small opening in the clouds at the end of the three-minute bomb run
permitted him to identify target features. Bockscar visually dropped the Fat Man
at 10:58 local time. It exploded 43 seconds later with a blast yield equivalent
to 21 kilotons of TNT at 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.

The failure to drop the Fat Man at the precise bomb aim point caused the atomic
blast to be confined to the Urakami 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. Of those killed, 23,200–28,200 were Japanese munitions
workers, 2,000 were Korean slave laborers, and 150 were Japanese soldiers.

After the war, Bockscar 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 Army Air Force 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. The aircraft was flown to the Museum on
26 September 1961, and 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, 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".





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