From: J. Forster (jfor@quik.com)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 21:35:43 PST
mark baxter wrote:
> It Brock's Car that dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan, along with the Enola
> Gay. ....
> Mark
A Google search yields:http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/b29mis.htm
The world entered a new era when on August 6, 1945 the crew of the B-29 Enola
Gay released an atomic bomb over
Hiroshima. Major Charles W. Sweeney, commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron,
accompanied the Enola Gay on the
mission, piloting the B-29 The Great Artiste as an observation aircraft. The
devastation caused by the bomb brought no
response to the demand for unconditional surrender, and conventional bombing
raids continued. On August 9th, with Sweeney
at the controls, B-29 Bockscar took off before dawn from the island of Tinian
with a second atomic bomb aboard (only two
bombs were available). To eliminate the need to remove and reinstall complex
scientific equipment from The Great Artiste,
Sweeney and Capt. Frederick C. Bock had exchanged aircraft. Thus Sweeney and his
crew flew Bockscar, while The Great
Artiste repeated its role as the observation aircraft, but with Bock and his
crew aboard.
-John
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