Bockscar
|
Bockscar after its mission against Nagasaki. |
Bockscar, sometimes called
Bock's Car or
Bocks Car, is the name of a
U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 bomber which dropped the second
nuclear weapon ever used in warfare. It released the bomb known as "
Fat Man" over
Nagasaki,
Japan, on
August 9,
1945.
Bockscar was flown on the day by the crew of another B-29,
The Great Artiste, and was commanded by Major
Charles W. Sweeney, commander of the 393rd Bomber Squadron of the
509th Composite Group.
The Great Artiste was flown by the Bockscar crew in a support role.
Kokura was the primary target but when
Bockscar arrived at its assembly point off the coast of Japan, the third aircraft of its flight was not present. After waiting 40 minutes to rendezvous,
Bockscar and its instrumentation support plane proceeded to Kokura but found it obscured by clouds. Maj. Sweeney had orders to drop the atomic bomb visually, and after conferring with weaponeer and bomb commander Cdr.
Frederick Ashworth, flew on to
Nagasaki, the secondary target.
A combination of factors including a possible malfunctioning transfer pump had 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 the bombardier to confirm Nagasaki and the bomb was dropped with ground zero being about ¾ mile from the planned aiming point. This resulted in lower overall casualties than would have been otherwise, with much of the blast confined in the Urakami Valley.
The
B-29 did not have sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at
Iwo Jima, so Maj. Sweeney flew the aircraft to Okinawa, where despite being unable to make contact with the control tower, made a safe landing with virtually empty fuel tanks.
The more-often recognized B-29
Enola Gay preceded
Bockscar in dropping a nuclear weapon on Japan. In the judgement of the USAAF command, the leveling of Nagasaki after the Hiroshima bombing demonstrated the US Armed Forces' willingness and ability to repeat this type of crippling aerial attack over and over again. There were no more atomic bombs immediately available.
Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297,
Victor Number 77, was assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the
509th Composite Group. The name painted on the aircraft after the mission (shown above) has no apostrophe and is painted in all capital letters. It was named after the pilot of its regular crew,
Frederick C. Bock. There was confusion over the name of the plane because initial press releases said that the second bomb had been dropped from
The Great Artiste.[
1]
The Great Artiste was originally scheduled to drop the second bomb but it was fitted with observation instruments and there was not enough time to move the instrumentation from
The Great Artiste to
Bockscar. The crews of "The Great Artiste" and "Bockscar" switched planes resulting in the bomb being dropped by "Bockscar" flown by the the original crew of "The Great Artiste" which had trained for the bombing run. The press release does state that the mission was flown in number 77, which was the
Bockscar.[
2]
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, 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 flown to
Wendover Army Air Field,
Utah, by its newly assigned crew. It left Wendover on
June 11,
1945 for Tinian and arrived
June 17, where it was assigned victor number 7, changed to 77 on
August 1 for security reasons.
It returned to the United States in November 1945 and served with the 509th at
Roswell Army Air Field,
New Mexico, until August 1946, when it went into storage at
Davis-Monthan Army Air Field,
Arizona. It was flown to the
Air Force Museum at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Ohio, on
September 26,
1961.
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.
Crew C-13 (manned "
The Great Artiste" on the "
Fat Man" mission)
*Capt. Frederick C. Bock, aircraft commander
*Lt. Hugh C. Ferguson, co-pilot
*Lt. Leonard A. Godfrey, navigator
*Lt. Charles Levy, bombardier
*Master Sgt. Roderick F. Arnold, flight engineer
*Sgt. Ralph D. Belanger, assistant flight engineer
*Sgt. Ralph D. Curry, radio operator
*Sgt. William C. Barney, radar operator
*Sgt. Robert J. Stock, tail gunner
Crew C-15 (normally assigned to
The Great Artiste):
*Maj. Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commander
*Capt. Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-15)
*2nd Lt. Fred Olivi, additional co-pilot
*Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator
*Capt. Raymond "Kermit" Beahan, bombardier
*Sgt. Abe Spitzer, radio operator
*Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
*Staff Sgt Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer
*Staff Sgt Edward Buckley, radar operator
*Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner
Also on board were the following additional mission personnel:
*Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth (
USN), weaponeer
*Lt. Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer
*2nd Lt. Jacob Beser, radio countermeasures
* Campbell, Richard H.,
The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29's Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs (2005), ISBN 0-7864-2139-8
*
Manhattan Project 509CG Page*
Fred Olivi's perspective on the mission*
US Air Force Museum Archives Gallery Bockscar page*
Records of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing
