B 29 Bockscar - Boxcar nose art: Fat Man silhouettes depicting the four Pumpkin Bombing missions (black) and the atomic bomb dropping on Nagasaki (red symbol, fourth in a row of five symbols)

Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the US Army Air Force B-29 bomber that dropped the Fat Man nuclear weapon on the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the second - and most correct - nuclear attack in history. Boxcar, one of 15 Silverplate B-29s used by the 509th, was built at the Gln L. Martin Aircraft Plant in Bellevue, Nebraska, now Offutt Air Force Base, and delivered to the US Army Air Force on 19 March 1945. It was assigned to the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group at Woodover Army Air Field, Utah in April and named for Captain Frederick C. Bach.

B 29 Bockscar

B 29 Bockscar

The boxcar was used in 13 training and exercise missions from Tinian and three combat missions dropping pumpkin bombs on industrial targets in Japan. On August 9, 1945, a Bockscar piloted by Maj. Charles W. Swee, commander of the 393d Bombardmt Squadron, dropped a "Fat Man" atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki with an explosive yield equal to 21 kilotons of TNT. About 44% of the city was destroyed; 35,000 people died and 60,000 were injured.

B 29 Bockscar

After the war, Baxker returned to the United States in November 1945. In September 1946 it was donated to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The aircraft was flown to the museum on September 26, 1961 and restored to its original markings (the nose art was added after the mission).

The boxcar is now on permanent display next to a replica of the Fat Man at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio.

Boxcar in Dayton before it was moved indoors. In the Nagasaki mission it flew with no nose patch and triangular N tail markings rather than the circular arrowhead shown here.

A boxcar with a makeshift triangular N tail on August 9, 1945, the day of its atomic bomb launch.

Bockscar (the Plane That Ended Wwii) — Weekend Adventures

Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, Victor No. 77, was one of 15 silverplate B-29s used by the 393d Bombardmt Squadron of the 509th Composite Group. The Bockscar was built by the Gln L. Martin Company (later part of Lockheed Martin) at its bomber plant in Bellevue, Nebraska, located at Offutt Field, now Offutt Air Force Base. A Block 35 aircraft, it turned into a silver plate and was redesignated "Block 36".

Silverplate included extensive modifications to the B-29 to carry nuclear weapons. The fuselage section between the bomb bay doors and the bomb bays was removed to create a single 33-foot (10 m) bomb bay. British suspensions and bracing were attached to both axle types, with the gun-type suspension anchored in the rear bomb bay and the implosion type in the front bay. Weight reduction was achieved by removing gun turrets and armor plates. These B-29s also had an improved ZIN, the R-3350-41. The Silverplate aircraft showed a significant increase in performance over the standard variants.

Delivered to the US Army Air Force on March 19, 1945, Bockscar was assigned to Captain Frederick C. Bock and crew C-13 and flown to Wdover Army Air Field, Utah in April.

B 29 Bockscar

The name Chaos for the plane, and painted on it after the mission, was a pun on the name of the plane's commander.

Bockscar B 29 Bomber Plane Signed & Inscribed By (4) With Charles Donald Albury, Fred J. Olivi, Charles Sweeney & Frederick Ashworth (psa Loa)

It left Woodover on 11 June 1945 for Tinian, where it arrived on 16 June. It was originally assigned the Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 7, but on 1 August was given the triangular N tail markings of the 444th Bombardmt Group as a safety measure, and its Victor was changed to 77. 444th flight to avoid.

The boxcar was used in 13 training and exercise missions from Tinian, and dropped pumpkin bombs on Japanese industrial targets in three combat missions, including the Bock's crew bombing Nihama and Musashino, and First Lt. Charles Donald Albury and the C-15 crew bombing Koromo. .

The mission involved three B-29 bombers and their crews: Boxcar, The Great Artist, and The Big Stink. Boxcar was flown on 9 August 1945 by Crew C-15, which normally operated The Great Artist; Piloted by Maj. Charles W. Swee, commander of the 393d Bombardmt Squadron; and co-piloted by First Lieutenant Charles Donald Albury, flight commander of the C-15.

The Great Artist was designated as the observation and equipment support aircraft for the second mission, while The Big Stink - flown by Group Operations Officer Major James I. Hopkins Jr. - as a photographic plane. The primary target was the city of Kokura, where Kokura Arsal was located, and the secondary target was Nagasaki, where two large Mitsubishi weapons plants were located.

Bockscar Usaf B 29 Bomber 1/72

The boxcar was flown by Swee and crew C-15s in three test-drop rehearsals over eight days, including a final rehearsal on the eve of the second mission with inert pumpkin bomb assemblies.

The Great Artist, the crew's designated aircraft that normally flew with Swee, had been assigned in the initial plan to drop the second bomb, but the aircraft had observation equipment for the Hiroshima operation three days earlier. took place Transferring instruction from The Great Artist to Boxcar was a complex and time-consuming process, and when the second atomic bomb mission was moved from 11 to 9 August due to an unfavorable weather forecast, the crews of The Great Artist and Boxcar were changed. Instead of airplanes. As a result, the bomb was carried by Boxcar, but flown by the crew of The Great Artist's C-15.

During Bockscar's pre-flight inspection, the flight pilot advised Swee that a malfunctioning fuel transfer pump made it impossible to carry the 640 US gallons (2,400 l; 530 imp gal) of fuel in the reserve tank. This fuel has to be transported to Japan and back, consuming even more fuel. Changing the pump takes hours; Moving the Fat Man to another plane would have taken just as much time and was dangerous as the bomb was live. Group commander Colonel Paul Tibbetts and Swee allowed Baxker to continue the operation.

B 29 Bockscar

The mission profile directed the B-29s to fly exclusively to Ardezvas Point, from Iwo Jima to Yakushima Island due to bad weather, and at a cruising altitude of 17,000 feet (5,200 m) instead of the usual 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Increases fuel consumption. Boxkar began his ascent to the 30,000-foot (9,100 m) bombing altitude half an hour earlier.

Bockscar, The B 29 Which Dropped \

Before the operation, Tibbetts warned Swee not to spend more than five minutes in Ardezhvos before going to the target. Bockscar reached rdezvous point and met The Great Artist, but after wandering for some time, The Big Stink failed to appear. While circling Yakushima, weather planes reported both Kokura and Nagasaki within accepted parameters for a visual attack requiring the Ola Gay (which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima) and the Laggin Dragon.

Although ordered not to circle for more than five minutes, Swee continued to wait for The Big Stink and eventually moved toward the target at the urging of the aircraft's gunner, Commander Frederick Ashworth, who was in command of the mission.

Half an hour after the original departure time, Boxcar, an instrument plane, arrived at Kokura, thirty minutes away, along with The Great Artist. Delays in Rdezvous resulted in clouds and smoke from fires that had begun earlier in the day in a major fire attack by 224 B-29s on nearby Yahata.

Covers 70% of the area above Kokura, obscuring the target point. Three bombing runs were made over the next 50 minutes, burning fuel and repeatedly exposing the aircraft to Yahata's heavy defences, but the bomber failed to fall into sight. During the third bombing raid, Japanese anti-aircraft fire was approaching and First Lieutenant Jacob Besser, who was monitoring Japanese communications, reported activity on Japanese fighter radio tapes.

Bockscar: The Forgotten B 29 That Dropped An Atomic Bomb On Japan

Increasing critical fuel shortages led to Swee and Ashworth's decision to reduce power to conserve fuel and divert to the secondary target, Nagasaki. Twenty minutes later the approach to Nagasaki indicated that the heart of the city center was also covered by this cloud. Ashworth decided to bomb Nagasaki by radar, but according to Boxcar's bombardier, Captain Kermit Beehan, a small opening in the clouds at the end of the three-minute bombing run allowed target features to be identified. The boxer visually dropped the Fat Man at 10:58 local time.

It detonated 43 seconds later with an explosive yield equal to 21 kilotons of TNT at an altitude of 1,650 feet (500 m), about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the intended target point, resulting in the destruction of 44% of the city. .

The nuclear explosion was confined to the Urakami Valley as the precision bomb failed to drop Fat Man at the target point. As a result, a large part of the city was

B 29 Bockscar

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