On this day, as I write, 80 yrs ago the Boeing B29 Enola Gay released
the ‘Little Boy’ bomb over Hiroshima, thus entering the world into the atomic
age.
The effect was devastating and even after so many years passing,
the memory stands large. Even though nearly
all living people weren’t born on that day the mention of Hiroshima immediately
recalls ‘The Atom Bomb’.
The Second Bomb
I have recently been aware that while there are many documentaries featuring Hiroshima, there is far less shown (and known) about the second bombing.
When it is mentioned, it seems to be given lip service, almost a forgotten event.
The Development
While the atomic particles for ’Little Boy’ were produced at Oakridge, Tennessee, those for ‘Fat Man’ were processed in Hanford B Reactor in Washington State.
This creation was
the same as that used for the first atomic test at the Trinity site and used
what was called a Plutonium-fuelled implosion device.
Tinian Island
On Tinian Island the
bomb was loaded and the crew of Boeing B29 ‘Bockscar’ were fuelled and prepared
for a more than 12 hour flight to the primary target at Kokura, Japan.
The crew were:
Pilot – Capt. Charles Sweeney
Bombardier – Capt. Kermit Beaham
Weaponeer – Manhattan Project veteran Commander
Frederick Ashworth
After take-off the crew were given a weather update saying the site was clear. When arriving over Kokura more than 12 hrs later, all they had was thick cloud cover. After 45 minutes and three attempts of not being able to track their target, and concern over fuel levels, the course was changed and it was set for the alternate target site: Nagasaki.
Alternate Target
When arriving
over Nagasaki there was thick cloud which had since developed there too. To the
north of the city was a break in the cloud which gave the crew an opportunity to
perform one fly over; after dropping the bomb, from 1,650 ft, at 11.05pm the
bomb detonated over the Urakami Valley, northwest of the City centre.
‘Fat Man’s 21,000
tons of TNT instantly vaporised an estimated 40.000 people, followed by 30,000
more lost to injury and radiation poisoning. The south-eastern area of the city,
with its industrial and governmental buildings, were largely undamaged but
still about 40% of buildings were destroyed.
Divided into two coastal valleys, and the city separated by a range of hills, the uneven landscape weakened the effect of the detonation, causing less damage to the city than the Hiroshima bomb even though ‘Fat Man’ was far more powerful than the ‘Little Boy’ bomb.
The crew felt the
shockwave from the explosion while heading away. They were even lower on fuel
at this point and had no chance of flying the 2,553 kilometres to Tinian Island.
The crew made their way to the Isle of Okinawa where an emergency landing was
performed.
