Which plane bombed nagasaki

Although the city manufactured engines and torpedoes and was an important port, it was also home to an Allied prisoner-of-war camp, which made it less attractive. And, from a targeting perspective, it had difficult topography.

Hiroshima and Kokura had their industrial and urban areas concentrated on relatively flat ground—ideal for the intense blast pressures produced by an atomic bomb. Nagasaki, however, was a city within valleys, divided in two by mountains, without a large, coherent center. Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Kokura were the first four targets chosen, with Niigata as a runner-up.

Soon thereafter, following a round of firebombing, Yokohama was removed from the list; the U. Kyoto was later excluded, too, because of its cultural importance. This left Hiroshima, Kokura, and Niigata. Nagasaki was never reserved.

In fact, it was bombed conventionally no fewer than four times before the Fat Man was dropped, including a little more than a week before Operation Centerboard II began. The city was not added to the list until the day before it was finalized. Bockscar arrived at Nagasaki at A. Tinian time, by which point it had been in the air for nearly eight hours.

To have any hope of making it to a friendly airbase they would likely have had to drop the Fat Man into the ocean. Nagasaki had clouds, too. The prescribed aiming point was the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, which covered an area about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide at the mouth of a valley, along an inlet from the ocean.

I got it! Control of the aircraft, and of the ability to drop the bomb, was turned over to him. Forty-five seconds later, the Fat Man was released. Bockscar banked, to put distance between it and the imminent inferno. The Fat Man detonated at two minutes after noon, sixteen hundred and forty feet above the ground. According to the readings that had been collected at the Trinity test , three weeks earlier, in New Mexico, this altitude would maximize the destruction done to light wooden buildings the sort that civilians lived in.

Eddie G. Under Sweeney's command, 'Bockscar' took off a little before dawn, from Tinian island in the Marianas with orders to attack the Japanese city of Kokura.

Once over Kokura the attack was aborted due to excessive cloud cover. There was a break in the cloud and the B29's bomb aimer was able to visually acquire the target, Nagasaki. The 'Fat Man' atomic bomb exploded at Sweeney flew 'Bockscar' on to Okinawa where it refuelled before continuing to Tinian island. Charles Levy. Ralph D. William C. Robert J. William L. New York Times reporter. Crew C regularly assigned to Necessary Evil flew the plane.

Major James I. Hopkins, Jr. Aircraft Commander. Norman Ray was the crew's regular aircraft commander, but he was ill and did not participate in the mission. Francis X. Richard F. Martin G. Thomas A. Sidney J. Radar observer. Leonard Cheshire. William Penney. Robert Serber was supposed to fly as a scientific observer and camera operator, but he forgot his parachute and was not allowed on the mission.

Weather Reconnaissance over Nagasaki. Crew B-8 regularly assigned to Top Secret flew the plane. Crew C Luke the Spook participated in training missions. Crew A-5 flew three combat missions. Thomas J. Rowe, Jr. William E.

Bobby J. George A. Lee E. McLenon , Cpl. Roy K. Balliet , Cpl. Donald E. Piehl , Cpl. Calvin B. Popwell , and Pfc. Hinginio A. Bockscar was flown by a modified Crew C on the Nagasaki mission. Clayton , Sgt. Robert L. McNamee , Sgt. John L. Willoughby , Cpl. Robert M. Haider , and Pfc. Rudolph H. Crew B-9 flew five combat missions, including the Hiroshima bombing mission. Ground crew: Sgt. Steve C. Lizak , Sgt. Leonard W. Markley , Cpl. Jean S. Cooper , Cpl.

Winfield C. Kinkade , Pfc. John E. Jackson , Pfc. John J. Lesniewski , and Pfc. Harold R. Crew A-1 flew six combat missions, including the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing missions in which they flew in Full House.

Hammond , Sgt. Steve J. Kinosh, Jr. William B. Reedy , Cpl. Donald D. Fockler , and Pfc. Mario A. Charles J. Baker , Pfc. Kenneth L. Baxter , Sgt. Pasquale Lazzarino , Cpl. William F. Jellick , and Cpl. George I. Albury, Second Lt. Olivi, Major Sweeney Staff Sgt. Buckley, Master Sgt. Kuharek, Sgt.