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Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943....
 B-29 bomber
Bomber

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, primarily by dropping bombs on them....
 that dropped the "Fat Man
Fat Man

Fat Man is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m....
" nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion....
 over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, the second atomic weapon used against Japan
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear warfares near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of President of the United States Harry S....
.

The name painted on the aircraft after the mission (shown here) is a pun on "boxcar
Boxcar

A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads....
" after the name of its aircraft commander, Captain Frederick C. Bock
Frederick C. Bock

Frederick C. Bock was a World War II pilot who took part in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Nagasaki in 1945 with The Great Artiste. The B-29 was used for scientific measurements of the effects caused by the nuclear weapon....
.

ockscar was flown on that day by the crew of another B-29, The Great Artiste
The Great Artiste

The Great Artiste was a United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber , assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Operations Group, that participated in the atomic bomb attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nagasaki....
, and was commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney
Charles Sweeney

Major General Charles W. Sweeney was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and the Aviator who flew the "Fat Man" atomic bomb to Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945....
, commander of the 509th Composite Group
509th Operations Group

The 509th Composite Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and as the 509th Operations Group, is a current unit of the United States Air Force....
's only bomber squadron, the 393d
393d Bomb Squadron

The 393d Bomb Squadron is part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It operates B-2 Spirit aircraft providing strategic bombing capability....
.






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Bockscar
Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943....
 B-29 bomber
Bomber

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, primarily by dropping bombs on them....
 that dropped the "Fat Man
Fat Man

Fat Man is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m....
" nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion....
 over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, the second atomic weapon used against Japan
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear warfares near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of President of the United States Harry S....
.

The name painted on the aircraft after the mission (shown here) is a pun on "boxcar
Boxcar

A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads....
" after the name of its aircraft commander, Captain Frederick C. Bock
Frederick C. Bock

Frederick C. Bock was a World War II pilot who took part in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Nagasaki in 1945 with The Great Artiste. The B-29 was used for scientific measurements of the effects caused by the nuclear weapon....
.

Atomic bomb mission

Bockscar was flown on that day by the crew of another B-29, The Great Artiste
The Great Artiste

The Great Artiste was a United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber , assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Operations Group, that participated in the atomic bomb attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nagasaki....
, and was commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney
Charles Sweeney

Major General Charles W. Sweeney was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and the Aviator who flew the "Fat Man" atomic bomb to Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945....
, commander of the 509th Composite Group
509th Operations Group

The 509th Composite Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and as the 509th Operations Group, is a current unit of the United States Air Force....
's only bomber squadron, the 393d
393d Bomb Squadron

The 393d Bomb Squadron is part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It operates B-2 Spirit aircraft providing strategic bombing capability....
. The Great Artiste, which was the assigned aircraft of the crew with whom Sweeney most often flew, was slotted in preliminary planning to drop the second bomb, but it had been fitted with observation instruments for the Hiroshima mission.

Bockscar had been flown by Sweeney and crew C-15 in three test drop rehearsals of inert "Fat Man
Fat Man

Fat Man is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m....
" assemblies in the eight days leading up to the second mission, including the final rehearsal the day before. Rather than move the instrumentation from The Great Artiste to Bockscar, a complex and time-consuming process, the crews of The Great Artiste and Bockscar switched planes. The result was that the bomb was dropped by Bockscar, flown by the crew C-15 of The Great Artiste.

There was confusion over the name of the plane because an initial eyewitness account by reporter William L. Laurence
William L. Laurence

William Leonard Laurence was a Lithuanian born United States journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for the New York Times....
 of the New York Times said that the second bomb had been dropped from The Great Artiste. Laurence, who accompanied the mission as part of Bock's crew, 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
Enola Gay

The Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first Nuclear weapon, code-named "Little Boy", to be used in war, by the United States Army Air Forces in the attack on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945, just before the end of World War II....
, none of the 393rd's B-29s had yet had names painted on the noses, and unaware of the switch in aircraft, Laurence assumed victor 77 was The Great Artiste.

Kokura
Kokura

is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyushu, Japan, guarding, via its suburb Moji-ku, Kitakyushu, the Kanmon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu....
 was the primary target, but when Bockscar arrived at its rendezvous point off the coast of Japan the third aircraft of its flight (the photo ship Big Stink
Big Stink

Big Stink was the name of a B-29 Superfortress participating in the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Operations Group, it was used as a camera plane in support of the bomb-carrying Bockscar, to photograph the explosion and effects of the bomb, and also to carry sci...
) was not present. After fruitlessly waiting 40 minutes, Sweeney and Bock proceeded to Kokura but found it obscured by clouds. Sweeney had orders to drop the atomic bomb visually if possible, and after three unsuccessful passes over Kokura, conferred with weaponeer Commander
Commander

Commander is a military rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the military, particularly in police and law enforcement....
 Frederick Ashworth
Frederick Ashworth

Vice Admiral Frederick L. "Dick" Ashworth was a United States Navy officer who served as the weaponeer on the B-29 Bockscar that dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Nagasaki on August 9, 1945....
 (USN
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
). They agreed to strike the secondary target, Nagasaki.

A combination of factors including confusion about a malfunctioning transfer pump 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 Bombardier
Bombardier (air force)

A bombardier , in the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force, or a bomb aimer, in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth of Nations air forces, was the crew member of a bomber responsible for assisting the flight officer in guiding the plane to a bombing target and releasing the aircraft's bomb load....
 Kermit Beahan
Kermit Beahan

Kermit K. Beahan August 09, 1918–March 10,1989 was the Bombardier on the American B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, and was the one who, on August 9, 1945, visually targeted Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, in order to atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki onto it....
 to confirm Nagasaki and the bomb was dropped, with ground zero being about 3/4 mile from the planned aiming point. This combined with Nagasaki's position on the foothills (as opposed to Hiroshima's mostly flat terrain) resulted in lower overall casualties than in Hiroshima
Hiroshima

The Japanese city of is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japan's islands....
, with much of the blast confined in the Urakami Valley.

Because of the delays in the mission, the B-29 did not have sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which makes up the southern end of the Ogasawara Islands. The island is located 1,200 kilometers south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Bonin Islands, one of eight villages of Tokyo....
, so Major Sweeney flew the aircraft to Okinawa, where, despite being unable to make contact with the control tower, he made a safe landing with virtually empty fuel tanks.

Airplane history

Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, victor number
Unit identification aircraft markings

Unit identification aircraft markings, commonly called "tail markings" after their most frequent location, were numbers, letters, geometric symbols, and colors painted onto the tails , wings, or fuselages of the combat aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War....
 77, was assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group
509th Operations Group

The 509th Composite Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and as the 509th Operations Group, is a current unit of the United States Air Force....
. One of 15 Silverplate
Silverplate

Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project for the B-29 Superfortress to enable it to drop an nuclear weapon, Silverplate eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the...
 B-29s used by the 509th on Tinian
Tinian

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands . It is perhaps best known for being the base from which the United States atomic bomb attacks on Japan during World War II were launched....
, Bockscar was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant
Glenn L. Martin Company

The Glenn L. Martin Company was an early United States aircraft company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Luther Martin. The company went through a number of mergers over time and now exists as Lockheed Martin....
 at Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River....
 at what is now Offutt Air Force Base
Offutt Air Force Base

Offutt Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska in Sarpy County, Nebraska, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the United States Strategic Command , the Air Force Weather Agency, and the 55th Wing of the Air Combat Command, the latter serving as the host unit....
, as a Block 35 aircraft. It was one of 10 modified as a Silverplate and re-designated "Block 36". Delivered on 19 March 1945, to the USAAF, it was assigned to Capt. Frederick C. Bock
Frederick C. Bock

Frederick C. Bock was a World War II pilot who took part in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Nagasaki in 1945 with The Great Artiste. The B-29 was used for scientific measurements of the effects caused by the nuclear weapon....
 and crew C-13 and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah
Utah

The State of Utah is a western United States U.S. state of the United States. It was the List of U.S. states by date of statehood admitted to the United States on January 4, 1896....
.

It left Wendover on 11 June 1945 for Tinian and arrived 16 June. It was originally given the victor number 7 but on 1 August was given the triangle N tail markings
Unit identification aircraft markings

Unit identification aircraft markings, commonly called "tail markings" after their most frequent location, were numbers, letters, geometric symbols, and colors painted onto the tails , wings, or fuselages of the combat aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War....
 of the 444th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 77 to avoid misidentification with an actual 444th aircraft.

Bockscar was also used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and three combat missions in which it dropped pumpkin bomb
Pumpkin bomb

"Pumpkin bombs" were conventional high explosive aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II....
s on industrial targets in Japan. Bock's crew bombed Niihama and Musashino
Musashino

Musashino may refer to:* Musashino Terrace* Musashino,_Tokyo...
, and 1st Lt. Don Albury and crew C-15 bombed Toyama
Toyama, Toyama

is the capital cities of Japan of Toyama Prefecture, Japan. It is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan on the island of Honshu, about 200 km north of the city of Nagoya and 300 km northwest of Tokyo....
.

It returned to the United States in November 1945 and served with the 509th at Roswell Army Air Field
Walker Air Force Base

Walker Air Force Base was the largest Strategic Air Command base of the United States Air Force at the time of its closure in 1967. It is located three miles south of the central business district of Roswell, New Mexico, a city in Chaves County, New Mexico, New Mexico, United States....
, New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
. It was nominally assigned to the Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States and nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946....
 task force but there are no records indicating that it deployed for the tests. In August 1946 it was assigned to the 4105th Base Unit at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base adjacent to Tucson, Arizona, Arizona. Davis-Monthan AFB is primarily an Air Combat Command installation with the 355th Fighter Wing as the host activity....
, Arizona
Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, 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
National Museum of the United States Air Force

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official National Museum of the United States Air Force and is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Riverside, Ohio near Dayton, Ohio, Ohio....
) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Greene County, Ohio and Montgomery County, Ohio counties, eight miles northeast of the central business district of Dayton, Ohio, Ohio, United States....
, Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
. The aircraft was flown to the Museum on 26 September 1961, and its original markings were restored before the aircraft was put on display.

Current status


Bockscar is now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
National Museum of the United States Air Force

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official National Museum of the United States Air Force and is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Riverside, Ohio near Dayton, Ohio, Ohio....
, Dayton
Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 166,179 at the United States Census, 2000....
, Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
. This display, a primary exhibit in the Museum's Air Power gallery, 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
Enola Gay

The Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first Nuclear weapon, code-named "Little Boy", to be used in war, by the United States Army Air Forces in the attack on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945, just before the end of World War II....
 at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum 's annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly, Virginia area of Fairfax County, Virginia, Virginia, United States....
, where little mention is made of that aircraft's role in WWII.

In 2005, a short documentary was made about Charles Sweeney's recollections of the Nagasaki mission aboard Bockscar, including details of the mission preparation, titled "Nagasaki: The Commander's Voice."

Crewmembers


Regularly assigned crew

Crew C-13 (manned "The Great Artiste
The Great Artiste

The Great Artiste was a United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber , assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Operations Group, that participated in the atomic bomb attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nagasaki....
" on the Nagasaki 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


Nagasaki mission crew


Crew C-15 (normally assigned to The Great Artiste):
  • Maj. Charles W. Sweeney
    Charles Sweeney

    Major General Charles W. Sweeney was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and the Aviator who flew the "Fat Man" atomic bomb to Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945....
    , aircraft commander
  • Capt. Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-15)
  • 2nd Lt. Fred Olivi, regular co-pilot
  • Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator
  • Capt. Raymond "Kermit" Beahan, bombardier
  • Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
  • Staff Sgt. Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer
  • Staff Sgt. Edward Buckley, radar operator
  • Sgt. Abe Spitzer, radio operator
  • Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner


Also on board were the following additional mission personnel:
  • Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth
    Frederick Ashworth

    Vice Admiral Frederick L. "Dick" Ashworth was a United States Navy officer who served as the weaponeer on the B-29 Bockscar that dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Nagasaki on August 9, 1945....
     (USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
    ), weaponeer
  • Lt. Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer
  • 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser
    Jacob Beser

    Jacob Beser, , was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who served during World War II. Beser was the radar specialist aboard the Enola Gay on Aug....
    , radar countermeasures


National Museum of the United States Air Force display

Bockscardisplay
Bockscarandfatmandisplay


See also

  • White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an HBO documentary film that was written, directed, and produced by film director Steven Okazaki and was released on August 6, 2007 on HBO, marking the sixty-second anniversary of the first atomic bombing....
     (2007)


Bibliography

  • Anderton, David A. B-29 Superfortress at War. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Ltd., 1978. ISBN 0-7110-0881-7.
  • Birdsall, Steve. B-29 Superfortress in Action (Aircraft in Action 31). Carrolton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1977. ISBN 0-89747-030-3.
  • Birdsall, Steve. Saga of the Superfortress: The Dramatic Story of the B-29 and the Twentieth Air Force. London: Sidgewick & Jackson Limited, 1991. ISBN 0-283-98786-3.
  • Birdsall, Steve. Superfortress: The Boeing B-29. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-89747-104-0.
  • Bowers, Peter M. Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 1999. ISBN 0-933424-79-5.
  • Campbell, Richard H., The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29's Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-7864-2139-8.
  • Davis, Larry. B-29 Superfortress in Action (Aircraft in Action 165). Carrolton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89747-370-1.
  • Dorr, Robert F. B-29 Superfortress Units in World War Two (Combat Aircraft 33). Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1-84176-285-7.
  • LeMay, Curtis and Bill Yenne. Super Fortress. London: Berkley Books, 1988. ISBN 0-425-11880-0.
  • Mann, Robert A. The B-29 Superfortress: A Comprehensive Registry of the Planes and Their Missions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1787-0.
  • Marshall, Chester. Warbird History: B-29 Superfortress. Osceola,WI: Motorbooks International, 1993. ISBN 0-87938-785-8.
  • Mayborn, Mitch. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress (aircraft in Profile 101). Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1971 (reprint).
  • Pace, Steve. Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, United Kingdom: Crowood Press, 2003. ISBN 1-86126-581-6.
  • Pimlott, John. 'B-29 Superfortress. London: Bison Books Ltd., 1980. ISBN 0-89009-319-9.
  • Vander Meulen, Jacob. Building the B-29. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1995. ISBN 1-56098-609-3.
  • Wheeler, Keith. Bombers over Japan. Virginia Beach, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1982. ISBN 0-8094-3429-6.


External links

  • (film)
  • with aircraft specifications