THE FORGOTTEN BOMB - PART 2

9 August 1945 was cloudy over most of mainland Japan as a result of the lingering effects of the typhoon that had passed several days earlier, as well as the monsoonal weather.

On the island of Tinian in the Marianas, a B-29 Superfortress of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Wing, named “Bockscar,” commanded by Major Charles Sweeney, took off from North Field at approximately 0347 hours local time, just before dawn; the bomber was seriously overloaded and used nearly every inch of the 8,300-foot runway to get airborne. It headed almost immediately into heavy weather. The first mission had been easy; this mission would be the opposite.

Sweeney and his crew had previously flown “The Great Artiste” which carried the instrumentation to record the mission of the B-29 “Enola Gay” on the Hiroshima mission of 6 August. This second mission had been scheduled for 11 August, but a forecast of bad weather pushed the schedule forward and Sweeney was now flying the B-29 usually assigned to Captain Frederick C. Bock since there had not been time to remove the additional instrumentation from “The Great Artiste.” Despite the discovery during pre-flight inspection that a fuel tank would not feed, Sweeney felt he had no alternative but to proceed with the mission.

“Enola Gay” had deployed an atomic bomb using uranium-238 for the explosive, known as “Little Boy.” “Bockscar” carried a plutonium bomb named "Fat Man" which was far more powerful than “Little Boy.” The primary target was the industrial city of Kokura, home of the largest munitions plants in Japan. During the nearly eight-hour flight, monsoon winds, rain, and lightning lashed at the bomber; St. Elmo’s fire played along the wings and spinning propellers. Along the way, Sweeney discovered that their climb to a higher altitude to deal with the weather had increased fuel consumption.

Inside, the crew experienced a moment of terror around 0700 hours, halfway to Japan when the bomb began to arm itself with a red light blinking with increasing rapidity on the weapon panel. It was possible it could now explode if they lost altitude. Navy Commander Frederick L. Ashworth, the weaponeer in charge of the bomb, grabbed the blueprints and crawled into the bomb bay with his assistant weaponeer, Lieutenant Philip M. Barnes, to figure out what was going wrong. The two removed the bomb’s casing and scrutinized the switches. After ten tense minutes, Ashworth saw the problem. During the arming process, two switches had been reversed by mistake. Barnes flipped the two tiny switches to their correct positions. The red light stopped blinking.

At 0900 hours, they arrived off the Japanese coast at 30,000 feet. The bad weather prevented a rendezvous over Yakushima, an island off the southern tip of Japan, where they were to meet the escorting photo B-29 “Big Stink,” flown by Major James I. Hopkins, and “The Great Artiste.” At 0910 hours, Bock made the rendezvous but “Big Stink” was nowhere to be seen. Unbeknownst to the others, Major Hopkins was orbiting 9,000 feet above, searching for them. Sweeney circled for 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then for 45 fuel-burning minutes. Valuable time, and more importantly valuable gasoline, was lost. Finally, the two B-29s headed toward the target. High above, Hopkins, frantic over the failed rendezvous, broke radio silence and radioed Tinian, asking (in code) "Is Bockscar down?"

On Tinian the transmission’s first word was dropped. They heard: “Bockscar down.” Despair settled over the 509th’s base of operations at North Field. They believed they had lost the weapon that was finally to end the war.

Approximately seven hours after takeoff, “Bockscar” arrived over Kokura at 0944 hours local time (1044 hours Tinian time). Sweeney and his crew discovered that visibility was obscured by clouds and smoke coming from the nearby city of Yawata, which had been firebombed the previous night. Their orders regarding deployment of the bomb were specific in that it was only to be dropped visually. “Bockscar” made three runs over the city, but the bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan, could not find clearance for a visual drop. As the B-29 finally pulled away flak burst all around; Kokura was one of the most heavily-defended cities in Japan. By 1030 hours local, the gas gauges were tipping toward half-full when Ashworth convinced Sweeney to proceed to the secondary target.

“Bockscar” arrived over Nagasaki 20 minutes later, at 1050 hours. Again, the city was obscured by clouds. The B-29 was now desperately short of fuel and it was soon apparent that they had no hope of returning direct to Tinian and would have to make an emergency landing on Okinawa to refuel. Again, they flew across the city on two fruitless bomb runs.

Sweeney turned for the third run. The fuel situation was now critical - he could now only make it to Okinawa without the bomb aboard. If it couldn’t be dropped visually, the only choice would be to jettison it over the ocean. Charles Sweeney was not about to be the man who returned to inform his superiors that he had dropped the most important, most expensive, most valuable weapon of war ever created to lie unused on the seabed off Japan.

Commander Ashworth was convinced if they did not drop the bomb none of them would survive. He conferred with bombardier Beahan and told him he would take responsibility for the bombing and that Beahan should drop the bomb by whatever means he had. Beahan watched the radar screen. The unmistakable shape of the Mitsubishi Steel Plant in Urakami Valley came into view on the screen. Beahan opened the bomb doors. Ashworth told him “Use the radar.”

At the last moment, Beahan exclaimed that there was a hole in the clouds and he could bomb visually. Sweeney replied, “Okay, you own the plane.” Beahan had only 45 seconds to set up the bombsight, kill the drift, and kill the rate of closure on the target.

“Bombs away!”

Comments are limited to paid subscribers. Why not subscribe and become a part of the community? $7.month or $70/year (a $14 savings). It’s a bargain! You won’t get material like this anywhere else, and these kinds of posts will in future be limited to paid subscribers,