J HflRIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY ilflBil'd ^,i ^ MIJ. GEN. CHlhllfS W. SWffHfy, O.S.l.F. (Beff wIlUlMfSJ. miONUCCI and MIRIBN K. INIONDCCI yS S25.DD CAN. ...
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ilflBil'd
^,i
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MIJ. GEN. CHlhllfS W. SWffHfy, O.S.l.F. (Beff
wIlUlMfS J. miONUCCI
and
MIRIBN
K.
INIONDCCI
yS S25.DD CAN. $32.DD
n
August
Pacific,
on the tiny island of Tinian
9, 1345,
twenty-five-yEar-uld American
a
in
Army
the South Air Corps
Major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard SupErfartrEss.
command
in
of his first
one devised specifically to bring necessary conclusion.
a
In
a long
capable of a
combat mission,
and terrible war
fully
combat
armed weapon
—
situation
of destruction never before
level
human
the history of the
in
a
in
B-29
to
the belly of his bomber, the
Bock's Car. was a newly developed,
had never been tested
a
weapon
dreamed
bomb whose
race.. .a
a
that
of
terrifying
aftershock would ultimately determine the direction of the twentieth century and change the world forever.
WAR'S END The
command
last military officer to
an atomic mission, Maj.
Gen. Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having
been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. His book icle of
the
months
is
an extraordinary chron-
of careful planning
and training; the set-
backs, secrecy and the snafus; the nerve-shattering final
seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what the most significant single event
employment
of atomic
in
modern
memoir, an insider's look
history: the
an intensely personal
into the cockpit of the
and an important historic document. War's of a truly
f/yrf
is
its
Bock's Car.
captures the
remarkable time, while offering
sober and insightful appreciation of the mission,
and
arguably
weapons during wartime.
At once a breathtaking adventure,
hopes and fears
is
its
purpose
devastating effect. Neither apology nor whitewash,
compelling
living
histof7,
vividly written.
It
is
a
it
essential
reading for anyone who cares about the past, the future... and the truth.
IMCAR'S
I
An [Yewilness Accounl ol
AmeriGO's lasl Alomic Mission
Maj. Gen. Chaims W. Sweeney, U.S.A.F. with James A. Antonucci
AVON BOOKS
(Ret.)
and Marion K. Antonucci
^
NEW YORK
The photographs on pages 1 through 7 of the insert are courtesy of Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney. The photograph of General Sweeney on page 8 of the insert is by James A. Antonucci.
AVON BOCKS A division of The Hearst Corporation 1350 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York 10019 Copyright
©
1997 by James A. Antonucci and Marion K. Antonucci
Interior design
by Kellan Peck
at http://AvonBooks.com ISBN: 0-380-97349-9
our website
Visit
which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information
All rights reserved, in
address
Avon Books.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:
Sweeney, Charles
W.
W. Sweeney and James
War's end / Charles Marion K. Antonucci. Sweeney, Charles
operations, American. ethical aspects. 5.
4.
W.
—United
States.
Army
— Personal —Biography.
Printing:
REG.
U.S.
American.
Antonucci, James A.
96-48526
CIP August 1997 PAT. OFF.
AND
FIRST EDITION
10
I.
— —Biography.
III. Title.
Printed in the U.S.A.
RRH
Air Forces
narratives,
States
Antonucci, Marion K. D790.S968 1997 940.54'4973—dc21
AVON TRADEMARK HECHO EN USA.
—
United
II.
Avon Books
2. World War, 1939-1945— Aerial Atomic bomb United States Moral and
3.
World War, 1939-1945
6. Generals
First
&
cm.
p. 1.
A. Antonucci
987654321
IN
OTHER COUNTRIES, MARCA REGISTRADA.
* •
I
dedicate this
and
book
to
my
children and grandchildren
to future generations of
understanding of their history.
Americans who seek an
**
As
the fiftieth anniversary of the end of
World War
proached in 1995, hundreds of people of letters
all
II
ap-
ages sent
me
of well-wishing and newspaper articles about the war
in the Pacific. Veterans often shared firsthand accounts of their experiences.
had been
POWs
the people
who
Many
in Japanese
camps.
shared with
me
about the war in the I also
want
to
about the mission
Jim passed away
thank the I
I
needed.
As
I sat at
I
wish to thank
to all
me of
their interest in the facts
late
Kermit Beahan
—Fred Bock,
consulted
in 1995.
Some
who wrote
Pacific.
or a date or an event,
what
of the veterans
I
When
I
needed
—whose notes
and Jim Van
Pelt.
to confirm a place
could count on Fred and Jim to have
things never change, even after
fifty
years.
on the last day of the 1995 reunion of the 509th Composite Group in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Don Mastick came over to my table and shared with me a remarkable incident he had witnessed shortly before my takeoff breakfast
vu
Acknowledgments
viii
Kokura when the Project Alberta technicians were assembhng Fat Man. Later he graciously provided more detail, which to
I
included in the book's opening chapter.
thank
I
Don
for shar-
ing this experience with me.
My
thanks also to our editor at
Avon
Power, for recognizing the importance of ously
championing
its
Books, Stephen
this story, for vigor-
and
publication,
S.
for
shepherding
it
through the process to publication. I
also
wish to thank our
literary agent,
Jim Homfischer,
of The Literary Group International in Austin, Texas, for the
enthusiasm and dedication he brought to his continued
Finally,
I
and
for
good counsel. offer a special tribute to
one of our
military's great leaders
ever met.
was honored
I
this project
General Paul
and the
that he chose
extraordinary undertaking.
me
W.
Tibbets,
finest pilot I
have
to participate in this
FORElMf<
When
grammar school, I remember for Armistice Day assembly they would drag in some poor I
was a kid
in
guys from the Spanish- American they had experienced.
Now Vm
War
to
tell
I
old
us about what
the old guy doing the telling.
The war is World War II. At twenty-five years of was the only pilot who flew on both atomic missions Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
the
age, I
—over
piloted the B-29 carrying the instru-
ments to Hiroshima on the
right
wing of the Enola Gay.
I
watched as the Enola Gay's bomb bay doors snapped opened
and the 9,000-pound uranium bomb was fell free, I
if it
We
works,
remember, was its
As
the
bomb
thought, 'It's too late now. There are no strings or
cables attached.
But
released.
it
can't get just
back, whether
it
it
works or
might end the war." None of
entirely sure of
what
that
not.
us, I
bomb would do
—
to
target or to us.
Three days
later, I
commanded my
first
combat mission,
to
Nagasaki, this time carrying a live 10,300-pound plutonium
IX
Foreword
X
bomb, a weapon
had never been
that
an airplane before
it
was loaded
into the
bomb bay
of the Bock's
The Japanese military and World War II came to an end.
Car on the evening of August surrendered six days
from
tested free faUing
later,
1945.
8,
was as simple and as complicated as that. We had a job to do, a war to end. I never questioned President Truman's decision to use every weapon at his disposal to end the bloody conflict nor do I now. Nor did most It
—
who
people then,
lived through the escalating terror of that
now-distant war in the Pacific. after the
war where
"What problems
"How
it
whether
I
feel for the
believed the
But that was over
remained mostly
remember
reporters asked
sions like?"
does
I
fifty
silent
me, ''What were the mis-
did you run into during flight?"
war
bomb
to be over?"
I
was never asked
should have been dropped.
years ago. For those
fifty
years
I
about the war and President Truman's
decision to use atomic weapons. In part this
my
press interviews
was because of
deep respect for and deference to General Paul Tibbets.
I
believed that as the leader of the 509th Composite Group, he
should be spokesman for our crews and our missions. I
want
to take singular credit for events that
because of the
efforts
Nor
did
were successful
of thousands of people. Also, as
I reflect
upon the relative obscurity of the Bock's Cat^s crew since the war ended, I believe that the deeply ingrained culture of secrecy that surrounded our missions every waking minute has remained instinctively with me and with my crew. To this day,
—
when our group
gathers for
its
annual reunions,
we
never talk
about the bomb.
Speaking out about our missions never struck urgency.
I
did not doubt for a
spoke for themselves.
Who
moment
me
as
that the historical facts
could question that the forces
had brought the war upon us were our actions vanquished foes
evil?
who were
an
Who
who
could doubt that
guilty of unspeakable
WAR^S END
xi
of conquest, foes
who
refused to surrender even after unprecedented destruction
was
brutalities against
humanity
in the
name
upon them from the skies in the unrelenting B-29 firebombing missions over Japanese cities? Such persons emerged in the summer of 1994. With the fiftieth anniversary of the war's end approaching, rained
I
found myself feeling outraged and betrayed when not only
our national museum, the Smithsonian Institution, but some
American historians as well attempted to change the history of the war in the Pacific. Suddenly I was hearing that Americans had been the aggressors and the Japanese had been the victims. The exhibit of the Enola Gay originally proposed by the Smithsonian an exhibit that would be viewed by millions of Americans who would undoubtedly accept it as a factual representation of the war ^was for me the final insult to the
—
—
To quote from
truth.
most Americans, most Japanese,
war was a war
this
it
the script of that planned exhibit: 'Tor .
.
.
was a war of vengeance. For to defend their
unique culture
against Western imperialism." I
had occasion
to read not only the original script of that
planned exhibit but several of the rewrites that followed. They
minimized casualty estimates
grossly
for
an invasion of the
Japanese mainland, one of the factors that had driven President
Truman's decision phasis
on
to drop the
bombs. They placed greater em-
alleged Allied racism against the Asians than, for
example, on the hundreds of navy
tombed
Some
in the
of those
men who had been
USS Arizona at the bottom men were trapped for days
en-
of Pearl Harbor. before they died.
Forty-nine photographs were to be exhibited showing the suffering Japanese victims of the war,
and only three photographs
of wounded Americans. This selection of exhibits was puzzling, given that the history of the war in the Pacific was also synony-
mous with
Corregidor, Bataan,
Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and
Sai-
— Foreword
xii
was a
war camps of kamikazes, and of the
history of Japanese prisoner of
pan.
It
sites
of unspeakable inhumanities
—
infamous medical experiments conducted by Japanese doctors
on
live prisoners
learning
Were Americans, one might
of war.
ask upon
the facts, compelled to be brutalized until the Japa-
all
nese were ready to say, We'll stop?
One
who
day, those of us
witnesses to
it
What, then,
—
will
no longer be here
will future generations
war
role in the
fought the war
in the Pacific?
—who were eye-
to set the record straight.
be told about America's
Who
will
be
left
to give
an
accurate firsthand account?
The question
is
why would present-day historians sacrifices made by so many for all of
troubling:
choose to minimize the
us and call into question the motives of the United States in using atomic
bombs
point that nuclear
end the war?
weapons
are a
Is
it
menace
to
make
the greater
to the world?
They
But that truism does not excuse "reworking" the
clearly are.
war
to
in the Pacific to
cal philosophy. It
accommodate and advance anyone's
politi-
does not justify bad scholarship's creating
pseudohistory. I
began
to focus
my
outrage by speaking out against any
revision of events as they actually
the war.
I
happened
in the context of
decided to write this book. I've been asked,
"Why
now?" "What's your purpose?" My purpose in writing this book is not to chronicle an aging veteran's memories about what a younger generation may see as ancient history. Nor is it to recite the horrors of World War II in the Pacific as a means of denigrating the Japanese people.
To
the contrary, Japan has been a stable
United States since the end of World
and valued
War
II.
I
ally
believe
of the it is
in
our national interest to maintain that alliance and to strengthen the
economic and military
doing
so,
it is
ties that
bind us together. But, while
equally important to recognize that Japan and the
WAR^S END
xiii
world are better places today because Japanese fascism
failed to
conquer Asia, and that in victory, the United States was benevolent and not vengeful. I certainly
do not
of nuclear weapons.
offer this
my
It is
book
as a celebration of the use
hope
fervent
we dropped
be another atomic mission. The bombs
were primitive the I
in 1945
comparison to nuclear weapons today. As
in
man who commanded
the last atomic mission,
I
pray that
retain that singular distinction. I
am
we who serve
sence
memorializing
my
lived the events of history
and report upon the
—
story because I
is its
history. It
is
facts.
memory
ten, or
have learned that
have an obligation to pre-
The
soul of a nation
that collective
what every generation thinks about a
that there will never
—
memory which
itself
and
its
its es-
defines
country.
It is
not to be tampered with, or recklessly revised, rewrit-
changed.
Fifty years
ago
we
fought the empire of Japan, whose Impe-
army and navy wrought suffering and death wherever they tread. Since that time for more than half a century the Japanese have ignored their culpability, brutality, and ultimate rerial
—
—
sponsibility for the events that flowed
World War
11.
An
from
their
conduct during
entire generation of Japanese are ignorant
of their history in this regard. If we forget history, to rewrite or distort history,
we
to the detriment of both our nations
Unlike Germany, which acknowledged
World War
II
and
we
attempt
only contribute to the Japanese
—
amnesia
if
for the atrocities
it
its
and the world.
responsibility for
committed during the
war, Japan, with the aid of some American historians, persists
was the victim of circumstances. This mindset forecloses any genuine prospect that the deep wounds suffered by both nations and by Japan's Asian neighbors can be healed. Only the truth heals. in the fiction that
I
it
thus offer this book, not only to future generations of
Foreword
xiv
schoolchildren
World War
II,
ness account.
I
who
will
gather in assembly to learn about
but also to the greater assembly.
hope
it
the events that defined
It is
may add some meaning and World War 11.
Maj. Gen. Charles
W.
my
eyewit-
context to
Sweeney, U.S.A.F.
(Ret.)
June 1996
**
The bomb
sat in
cradle in the assembly hut, six inches off
its
the concrete floor at highest.
Ensign
Don
its
lowest point, sixty-six inches at
its
Mastick walked into the hut and saw Ar-
Machen straddling the rear end of the 10,300-pound plutonium weapon, working feverishly to file down a hole in the bomb's tail assembly, which was suspended in front of him thur
from a block and ''Hey,
tackle.
cowboy, what the
hell are
you doing?" Mastick
hol-
bomb assembly technician. Sweat poured down Machen's forehead, even though he was in the only air-conditioned building in the Pacific. He was lered to the
racing against time, and filing through the .2-inch-thick alumi-
num
was proving to be excruciatingly difficult. The Bock's Car, the B-29 that would carry this weapon to the target in its bomb bay, was scheduled to take off in a few hours. The tension and exertion were taking their toll on the young scientists and technicians of Project Alberta who anxiously plate
1
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
2
watched Machen's progress. They were the representatives on Tinian Island from the Manhattan Project who were responsible for the assembly, arming,
board the Bock's
Car.
Any
and loading of the weapon on
delay might cause the mission to be
scrubbed, a prospect they did not want to entertain. lives
hung
in the balance.
"Son of a
bitch," whispered
Machen
sweat, trying to keep his eyes clear.
He
as
Fat
Man
two
spherical halves
had been
carefully set into the
had been bolted
gressed slowly and methodically
weapon, which contained
B and
on
fifty-three
he wiped away the
didn't hear Mastick.
Earlier in the day, the delicate internal
position
mechanism of
bomb
together. this
casing and the
Work had
nium.
A
hundred pounds of Com-
around an eleven-pound sphere of pluto-
in the Pacific theater,
Man
the
sat.
compound
most
even without the pluto-
single spark could detonate the explosives,
a flash, destroy the entire building
pro-
complicated nuclear
nium. This quantity of high explosives made Fat
bomb
the
Baratol, high-grade explosives, laid out in a
precise configuration
powerful
Too many
in
and
in
which the assembly
—
—
The tail assembly **the California parachute" which would allow the bomb to drop on a predictable and stable trajectory, was about to be attached to the bomb's skin as the final step before transport of the bomb to the loading pit on the flight line. But as Machen had moved the tail section to jigger it into place, he was stunned to see that the upper hole on the tail didn't match its counterpart on the casing. They weren't aligned! Although the holes were off by only a fraction,
maybe
a hundredth of an inch,
it
was enough
to
keep the bolt
from going through.
Maybe
it
was
a mechanic's error.
Or maybe
the heat
and
humidity on Tinian had caused the metal to warp. But whatever the reason, after two billion dollars' worth of research by
WAR^S END
3
the best minds in the world, years of top secret military plan-
and the combined
ning,
efforts
of hundreds of thousands of
people, at the eleventh hour a technician
and brute force
rat-tail file
was
relying
to finish assembling the
on a $1.98 first
pluto-
nium bomb that would be dropped from an airplane. This was to be the first of many surprises and near misses that would plague my mission to Nagasaki and test the dedicaand
tion
I
skills
my
of
hadn't gotten
on August
6.
flight
much
crew and me.
sleep since our return
Colonel Paul Tibbets had told
from Hiroshima
me on
that evening
would command the second atomic mission, on August 9, if a second drop was necessary. With barely enough time to recover fi-om and reflect upon the Hiroshima mission, my crew would be flying another atomic strike in less than three days. It would be my first combat mission command. I sat alone on a hilltop overlooking the massive runways on the northern tip of Tinian. The sky overhead was ink-black. Not a star was in sight. In a few hours we would be taking that I
off fi'om these runways.
completing the
no
final
concrete-filled
The men from
assembly of the Fat Man. This would be
''pumpkin" of the
dropped from our B-29s over the several months.
Project Alberta were
sort
salt flats
Our cargo would be
we had
practice-
of Utah for the past
live,
with an expected
explosive yield calculated to be equivalent to at least 46 million
pounds of TNT. This
bomb would be
the
first
weapons system ever used by
had not been extensively field tested. Only one other plutonium bomb had ever been detonated, and
the United States that
that
had been a
static test in the
bomb sitting secure on a tower, connected a command center several miles away near Alamofew hours, we were going to drop a similar weapon
Southwest with the
by wires
to
gordo. In a
middle of the desert in the
— Ma
4
J.
Gen. Charles
from an ai^Jlane, where
would
it
W. Sweeney free-fall
from 30,000
feet
with no wires attached. Although the scientists had ingeniously designed the physics package to
bomb
ten feet long
and
fit
within the confines of a
none of them was sure
five feet across,
what the bomb would
They expected it would be more powerful than the uranium bomb, the Little Boy, dropped over Hiroshima. But that was about it. How much more powerful? They weren't sure. Some thought it was possible our airplane would be blown out of the sky. Others speculated that a exactly
do.
chain reaction that could destroy the world might be triggered.
A
few weren't even certain
began going over
I
bets's
it
my mind
in
mission to Hiroshima.
weather
—not a cloud
would work.
It
every step of Colonel Tib-
had gone
like
—no
fighter
Bomb away
within
in the sky. Perfect execution
intercepts or antiaircraft fire at the target.
seventeen seconds of the scheduled release
on the
target.
Then
clockwork. Perfect
—and
a flawless return to Tinian.
a bull's-eye
It
was up
to
me to live up to his expectations for this crucial second mission. He had chosen me to carry it out. I had to succeed. "We must make the Japanese believe we can keep them coming every few days told
me. In
until they surrender," the colonel
truth, there
was no
third
bomb behind
had
us ready
to go.
There had been no word of surrender from the Japanese
bombing of Hiroshima, so I knew that our hope of quickly ending the war depended on this mission. After witnessing the blast at Hiroshima, I believed Japan would finally after the
surrender. But her military
glorious
and
seemed prepared
suicidal defense of the mainland.
closer to the invasion of Japan,
to continue in a
We
were getting
which was scheduled
to begin
on November 1, and the prospect of hundreds of thousands more American casualties in an invasion was not just some abstract concept to
me
—
it
was a sobering
reality.
WAR^S END I
5
focused on the steady flow of B-29s taking
runways below
"bff
from the
into the darkness for their firebombing missions
over Japan. The burned-out hulks of the planes that never it
off the
runways.
My By
ground on
A
lot
mind I
home,
too.
men had
my
last trip
friend Colonel
had gone through Jim had
died in them.
my
back to
drifted
sheer coincidence,
whom
shadows of the
earlier missions lay in the
of good
made
home
in late 1944.
Jim McDonald, with
school before the war, was
flight
completed twenty-five B-17 missions
just
over Europe with the Eighth Air Force. There were very few
who
B-17 crews
knew
survived the twenty-five-mission rotation.
I
would soon be going overseas, and since I had no combat experience, I was anxious to learn what advice my old that
I
pal might give me.
We
met
for dinner at the Parker
House, on the comer of
Tremont and School streets, on a snowy evening in downtown Boston. Jim was six years older than I. He had been just below the
maximum
age and
I
just over the
minimum
age
when we
entered flight school in the spring of 1941. Jim had advanced to
become a lead
pilot in
Europe, which meant that he led the
formations of bombers into the target. skill,
It
was a job
that required
courage, and maturity.
We were
seated in the ornate, mahogany-paneled
ing room. Waiters in crisply starched aprons the thick carpets without a sound.
drinks
and
sirloin steaks.
going into combat with a
At one
bomb
Jim and
point,
I
I
told
main
moved about on reminisced over
him
I
would be
group. Secrecy precluded
mentioning anything other than conventional
din-
my
aerial warfare. I
asked him what advice he could offer me. Anything special should know?
He '
Any
mistakes
thought for a
'Promote your
men
We both laughed.
I
should avoid?
moment and as fast as
I
then answered with a smile,
you can."
Then he turned
serious, leaned in
toward
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
6
me, and
second time. Never!
target a
time, they'll get fire
slow cadence
in a precise,
you
"Never go over a
said,
they didn't get you the
If
first
the second time around with antiaircraft
or fighters."
The
B-29 lumbering down, laden with a
sight of a
test aviation fuel
gling to
make
it
and incendiary bombs. into the air.
moment, then hung
for a
ocean.
me
on the runway below pulled
activity
A
It
It
back.
I
caught
load of high-
full
appeared to be strug-
was overloaded.
It
did get up
in the air before plunging into the
burst of flames erupted in the darkness.
The sounds
of explosions punctuated the night.
Rescue boats stationed offshore sped instantaneously to the scene. Standby
emergency vehicles moved
in.
There would be
they could do to stop the napalm spilling from the explod-
little
ing ordnance from fueling the It
was not the
fire.
or the last B-29
first
I
would
see crash
on
would be added to the a war we had not started and did not
takeoff at Tinian. These ten Americans statistics
of the war
—
want. ''No second runs," tions.
But
first
things
I
murmured
first.
my
I'd
aloud, as
if reciting instruc-
have to get the plane into the
would be rolling down one of these runways with a bomb and extra fuel that would put our airplane thousands of pounds over the manufacturer's specifications for maximum takeoff weight. With all that weight, air.
In a few hours
crew and
we'd barely have enough runway for
I
to reach the proper air speed
liftoff.
Further complicating matters, our bomb, because of
complex detonation system, would be armed when loaded into our
bomb
bay, unlike the Little
was Boy, which had
been unarmed on takeoff The Enola Gay could have wall and the us, a crash
bomb
its
it
hit a brick
probably would not have detonated. For
on takeoff could vaporize
my
crew, Tinian, and
WAR^S END me. But as dence that
I I
down on
looked
would
would
I
were about to
start at the
I
had
moment
total confi-
and on
to
target.
stood up to leave. At that
crew and
the runway,
get the airplane into the air
Kokura, Japan, our primary I
7
moment
I
had no idea
confi-ont a series of
that
my
problems that
of takeoff and continue until our
forced emergency landing at an unplanned location ten hours later
—any one of which could have doomed us and our mis-
sion and hundreds of thousands It
was time
to go.
more
in a
prolonged war.
**
The single event that changed my life
happened on a sunny,
summer
cloudless Saturday afternoon in the
of 1939 in Quincy,
Massachusetts.
Like most of
my
generation,
I
didn't give
much
thought in
1939 to the troubles that were building "over there" in Europe
The important pursuits of my life were in the U.S.A., which was secure and stable. For almost half of my twenty years, one man had been president. He was a reassuring presence who had brought us through the Great Depression. For this, he was idolized by my parents and their working-class friends and neighbors. His picture hung over our dining room and
in Asia.
buffet, next to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, where Mr. Roosevelt
watched over our family dinners every Sunday afternoon. One day
in the not-too-distant future,
my
mother would hang an-
other picture on the opposite wall. She E.iston Post,
can
flag
and
it
would show
five
would
cut
it
out of the
marines raising the Ameri-
over Iwo Jima. But for the time being, "America First"
8
WAR'S END
9
was the refrain, which was fine with me. And even if worse came to worst on the Continent, I figured we could always shore up the English and French and let them fight their own war.
My
fiiend
McCauley had
Charlie
twenty-one, and with the
other ideas.
new peacetime
drafi:,
it
He was
was only a
matter of time before he would receive personal greetings from
him to a preinduction physical for the army. But Charlie didn't want to be a gravel scratcher. "Fm not going into the infantry," he insisted when we talked President Roosevelt inviting
about the
draft.
Toward in
"I'm going
be an
to
air cadet."
was planning
that goal, Charlie
an airplane on that sunny afternoon
me
wanted
him
to tag along.
to pick
me
up.
Our
I sat
on
my
to take his in
first
ride
Quincy, and he
front porch waiting for
two-story, wood-shingled house
not unlike most of the houses on our
street.
was
In our neighbor-
hood, just ten miles south of Boston, almost everybody knew
everybody
else.
played with
my
Charlie lived two streets over. His brothers brothers.
During the summer, we
all
congre-
gated on the street to play kick-the-can or to toss bubble cards from the curbstone after rubbing for
added weight, investing
World match
Series
game.
I
them with candle wax
in each toss all the gravity of a
was watching
when
across the street
gum
just
such a championship
Charlie pulled up in his father's
car. I
seat.
hopped down the Nice automobile.
front steps
A
and got
into the passenger
shiny 1935 gray Plymouth four-door.
Charlie had elbow-greased the shine as the price of borrowing the car.
I
noticed that he seemed a
little
nervous. "Hey,"
I
"maybe he's afraid of actually going up there." "You know," Charlie said as we headed in the direction of Dennison Airport, "you really ought to think about being
thought,
an
air cadet, too.
You've only got one year
left."
Because
I
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
10
was
buddy,
his best
keep pushing
my
But
my
not
me
it
seemed only
to enlist in the air corps with him.
were elsewhere
priorities
immediate concern.
reached draft age, and a the I'd
Charhe would
right that
It
lot
The
in 1939.
was
draft
could be another year before
I
could happen in a year. Certainly
combined armies of England and France could stop Hitler. read that France had the biggest and best-equipped army in
And
the world.
As
either.
the sun hadn't set
for Japan,
on the
How
States.
few
yet,
six
could Japan
Thus armed with the confidence of a twenty-year-
old kid in safe and predictable surroundings, friend to
Empire
Asia was an even more distant place,
thousand miles away from the United threaten us?
British
fly.
It
would be an
exciting
way
I
to
encouraged
my
spend his next
years. I
was working on
high school
I
my
future, too. Since graduating
had moved up
from
in the wholesale leather business
become a salesman covering western Massachusetts and New York State. For an ambitious young man, it was a great
to
My
job with limitless opportunities and good commissions. boss,
me I was a bom salesman. But I felt, bom anything. All I had to do was keep
Jim Kelley, told could be a
really, I
focused on
my
of humor.
To eam a
goals, get along with people,
bachelor's degree,
and keep a sense
was taking evening
I
business courses at Boston University and Burdett College. For
now,
I
would leam
business.
My
life
my
trade. Later,
was on
I
would
I
have
my own
course.
''What do your parents think about you flying airplanes?'* I
asked Charlie as
most comer of the
we approached airport.
the fence marking the outer-
Dennison was a
adjoined the Squantum Naval Air Station.
private airport that It
was only a
post-
age stamp with a half dozen or so open-cockpit airplanes.
"My
dad said he doesn't know anything about
flying,"
WAR'S END Charlie answered. ''He said
mother
is all
When
11
looks dangerous to him.
it
My
upset."
I'd told
my
where Charlie and
father
were going,
I
he'd just said ''Be careful." Although he had never been in an airplane,
was
I
confident.
Even during
found work. to close his
When
the depth of the Depression he always
everyone stopped building in 1929 he had
plumbing and heating business, but he managed
pick up odd jobs and do a to start
He was
sure he wouldn't be afraid of flying.
up a business
contracting until he
little
We
again.
weren't rich, but
was
we
to
able
weren't
poor, either.
we moved from Quincy into our own home. In 1926
a rented house near
was the second
I
downtown
oldest of six
Our home was dominated by Catholicism, patriotism, and belief in hard work and individual responsibility. Education was valued as a privilege. My mother children, five boys
and
and one
girl.
father encouraged us to be the best our abilities allowed.
When
I
was a student
at St.
John's Elementary School,
I
won
the Greater Boston Spelling Bee at Faneuil Hall three years in
a row.
my
I
remember
that
my parents
were so proud they showed
gold medals with the red, white, and blue ribbons to just
about every Irish
man and woman
in Quincy. I
still
have and
treasure those medals.
My
father used our
Sunday
dinners,
when he had
audience and our undivided attention, to teach us
by quoting the Bible or favorite fable
watching a
the
man
the
wind and
take the coat
the sun. But the harder the
Then
My
the sun were
walking along wearing a heavy coat.
the sun began arguing over
the coat to him.
full
lessons
us one of Aesop's fables.
was the one where
man who was
The wind and
make
telling
life's
a
off.
"I'll
the sun tried.
off," the
wind
told
the tighter the
man
held
blow
vmid blew, It
which of them could it
smiled and shone. Soon
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
12
the
man began
cordingly,"
My
my
taking off his coat. ''Now, learn your lesson ac-
would
father
would
father
also
tell
who came
Jack Sweeney,
say.
to
us about our great-grandfather.
America from County Cork
1850 with the wave of immigrants tato famine.
my tile
"When young
would say, Mill met him at
father
hundred
men
to
work
who were
in
escaping the po-
Jack Sweeney arrived in America,"
owners of the giant Lawrence Tex-
''the
They were looking Grandfather worked
the docks. in the mill.
a week, ten, twelve hours a day, for ten dollars."
for
one
six
days
One
winter
afternoon Jack Sweeney decided to use his ten-minute break to
run across the
and began
street for a
to sweat in his
wear he wore to ward
A
few weeks
later
owed money
still
father
would
The
city
quick beer.
He
union
the heavy
suit,
off the cold
and
rushed back to work
woolen under-
draftiness of the factory.
he died of pneumonia, a young man. "He to the
company
store
when he
died,"
my
say.
named of Lowell was named
of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was
after the
The adjacent city after the Lowell family, who also owned mills. I was bom in Lowell on December 27, 1919, in the house of my maternal grandmother, Mary "Minnie" Murphy. In those days, young Irish brides didn't go to the hospitals to have their babies. They went home mill owners.
to their mothers' houses.
My were
all
no time
first
job, at the age of ten,
was
as a paper boy.
We
expected to work and contribute to the household. In I
had a lock on
all
of the routes in our area and
knew
Around that time my father also started letting me go to work with him after school and on Saturdays as his "assistant." It was fun being with him. On the way to a job he would tell me about his father, Jack Sweeney. "Your grandfather was the best plumber in Massachusetts in his day," he would remind me. "He installed all of
many
of the families
I
delivered
to.
WAR^S END the plumbing
and heating
13
and Webster when the school was being plained,
**is
where the wealthy
pare for Harvard.
He
built.
for Stone
Exeter," he ex-
families send their sons to pre-
was Andover Academy." I
did such an outstanding job there, he
asked to do the same thing for Phillips
was
Academy
at Philhps Exeter
pretty impressed.
When
I
was
fifteen I
landed a plum job as a caddie
WoUaston Golf Club. Wollaston was cessful
and
politically
fi"om the exclusive
''the
at the
club" for the suc-
connected Irish of the time. Excluded
Brahman
clubs, the Irish created their
own
men of accomplishment. The tribal character of Boswas very much alive then. For me, the tips were great, and
clubs for
ton I
observed valuable lessons about the ways of business and
being polite and courteous pays dividends;
first
life:
impressions are
lasting; trust is crucial to relationships. I
caddied for Massachusetts governor and former mayor
He was
of Boston James Michael Curley. a spellbinding raconteur
foursome.
I
who was
a big tipper and
always the center of every
also caddied for the future Francis Cardinal Spell-
man, a gracious and charming man. These men of prominence were heady company Bishop Spellman
Wollaston was in
at
The last time I saw 1935. Ten years later I
for a fifteen-year-old.
would meet him again on Tinian Island
in the Pacific.
was only a thirteen-minute ride from Wollaston by steam commuter train from South Station, so quite a few leather company executives were members of Boston's leather
One vice company after I
district
the club.
president. Bill Kelley, offered
his
finished high school.
me
a job at
The problem was
that
was headquartered in New York City. When I graduated from North Quincy High at seventeen, my mother wouldn't let me take the job. "New York is too fast a town for a young boy," she insisted, despite my
his
company, Salomon and
pleas.
So
I
Phillips,
didn't go. Luckily for
me, though, about three
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
14
months
later Bill's brother
Jim
set
up a Boston branch and
offered
me
a job handling a few small accounts in Boston.
was on
my
way.
I
up to the road leading to the Squantum Naval Air Station and turned at the entrance to Dennison Airport. A sign offered a five-minute airplane ride for two dollars. Charlie pulled
We
bought two
tickets
and headed toward the
A
strip.
open-cockpit biplanes were parked along one side of the
On the
other side
He was
the pilot.
few
strip.
was a small wooden building where we found wearing overalls that looked
a flying
like
suit,
a leather jacket (civilian), and a fitted leather helmet with gog-
up on
gles raised
"Ready
to
his head.
go up?" he asked.
"Sure," Charlie answered.
We
followed the pilot to an airplane that had yellow wings
and a blue body. There was a and a
rear
The
seat
pilot
wide enough
single seat for the pilot in the
for
two people
in the front.
asked us, almost as an afterthought,
ever been in an airplane before. "Just relax.
and easy," he the ocean,
said.
"A
few turns around the
and then back. Nothing
to
I'll
field,
if
we had
take
it
nice
out toward
worry about," he
as-
sured us.
We
climbed onto the wing and into the front
seat.
"Fasten
the belt," a voice called from the rear.
"How
high are
we
going?" Charlie asked.
"About a thousand hour
feet.
We'll do eighty, ninety miles an
." .
.
"Wow." The
airplane taxied out to the center of the field
toward the other end, gaining speed.
As we climbed up tion
away from
lifted off the
started
ground.
into the clear blue sky, a feeling of ela-
overwhelmed me.
breaking
We
and
the
I felt
the air rushing by.
bounds of the earth
filled
The sense of
me
with awe.
WAR»S END I
looked
then
left,
right. I
15
had a wondrous perspective of the
earth below. Familiar places were unfolding as a single whole. I
could see
all.
it
And we were
climbing into the space
still
above. Effortlessly, the airplane banked gently to the sense of place and being expanded. All too soon
ground
to the
would never be Charlie
flying.
weight of gravity pulling us back
ftill
strip feeling weightless, feeling like I
back into the
to get
the
was
My
as the pilot brought the plane to a landing.
stepped onto the
life
I felt
I
left.
air.
looked up
I
at the
I
wanted
sky and
knew my
months
to prepare
the same.
McCauley and
I
studied for four
exams. English, history, physics, ge-
for the air cadet entrance
ometry, trigonometry. The physical and academic requirements
were rigorous. All through school percent of
my
I
had ranked
college preparatory class.
I
in the top 10
had studied advanced
mathematics and taken four years of Latin and French. The
academic exams would take eighteen hours over two days. felt I
could handle them.
for the physical
I
was was in I
good shape.
We
arrived at the
army base
ber 1940 to take the exams, the
intended to wings.
exam ...
one hundred and eighty pounds, and
six-feet-one,
pretty
As
I
A
weed out
many hurdles that were of young men competing for of
first
the majority
had happened
lot
South Boston in early Octo-
in
in a year. Hitler
and
Stalin
had
carved up Poland. Russia had invaded Finland. The Wehr-
macht and Luftwaffe had swept through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and Romania. England stood alone. The Battle of Britain raged as daily accounts of the bravery of the
back the Luftwaffe. Yet
would I
get involved,
look back,
I
I still
at
read the
Royal Air Force in beating
didn't think the United States
and neither did
am amazed
we
how
my
friends or family.
oblivious
we
all
were.
As
Maj. Gen. Charles
16
A
month
later, I
received a letter from the
informing
me
ing Cadet
Program and had scored
that
I
had been accepted
50 percent of those taking the
who
W. Sweeney
test
War Department
into the Air
Corps Fly-
Some
in the top 10 percent.
hadn't passed, and of those
had, a few failed to meet the physical standards. Charlie
McCauley had passed cient weight"
the
exam but
requirement.
meet the
failed to
He was
"suffi-
underweight. Since the
army allowed one postponement of enrollment, I decided to wait until my pal and I could go together. I requested a postponement to April 1941. Ironically, Charlie never did meet the weight requirement and was eventually commissioned in the
Army I
Signal Corps.
wasn't twenty-one
My
to join.
yet, so I
father signed, but
sure whether she worried that
needed
my
agree. First
I
mother would
my
flew. In fact, hardly
ever been in an airplane.
parents' signatures
we might go
she was terrified at the thought of
knew no one who
my
I tried
I'm not
war or whether
to
flying
not.
an
airplane.
She
anyone she knew had
every approach to get her to
Then
stressed the security of the military.
her I'd have a prestigious position as a pilot
—
I'd
be an
I
told
officer
and a gentleman. She
didn't budge. Finally
had
would never be happy. Without another
to
fly.
If I didn't, I
I
told her that
I
word, she signed the paper. Then, for the next few weeks, she cried every night at the kitchen table, questioning
done the
On
right thing
and pleading with
me
if
she had
to reconsider.
a cool April day in 1941, just before noon,
my
mother
saw me off at Boston's Back Bay Station on Dartmouth Street. I was leaving for Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I had never been out of New England. I had bought a worsted wool
and
father
double-breasted glen plaid suit at for the trip.
My
style.
Brothers in Boston
mother had picked out a sky-blue
she said, matched the color of
of
Hyman
my
eyes.
I
silk tie that,
looked the height
WAR'S END About
17
thirty other cadets-to-be gathered
on the platform,
clustered in small groups with their families. Precisely at
an army sergeant barked around him
for us to listen up.
As he
in a loose semicircle.
stepped forward and were given a
of the group
who seemed
The men formed
we
called our names,
ticket.
man
of eager faces, he pointed to a
noon
Surveying the mass
standing toward the rear
to be older than the rest of us.
name?" the sergeant demanded. *'Jim McDonald, sir." Jim was twenty-seven and soon to be my fast friend. Unbeknownst to us all, he would also soon complete almost as many bombing missions as he had years. The sergeant grimaced. "Well, McDonald, you're in charge of this group. It's your job to make sure they all get back on ''What's your
the train at each stop."
"Yes,
sir."
The sergeant grimaced
me
or any other
living."
With
noncom
piece of advice. Don't call
I'm no
'sir.'
that he left the platform
recesses of the station.
bama and Primary The
"A
again.
We
we
New
train,
headed
for a
into the for Ala-
our group numbered one hundred.
cent
would wash out of
the
York, Baltimore, and
picked up a few more cadets
until
I
work
and disappeared
boarded the
train stopped in Hartford,
I felt
I
School.
Washington. At each stop
months.
officer.
Of
this
group, 50 per-
program over the next
excited, exhilarated,
and
fearful that
I
several
might
fail.
thought nothing could be worse.
On Wednesday,
a day and a half after we'd
Van de Graaf
arrived at
noncom went through
left
Boston,
Field in Tuscaloosa at nine p.m.
the cars
and rousted us onto the
we
A
plat-
form. Portable lights illuminated the area with a yellowish
As
was overcome by the acrid smell of sulfur coming from a local paper mill and the stifling humidity of the sultry Alabama night. Being dressed in a wool
glare.
I
stepped off the train,
I
— Maj. Gen. Charles
18
would make a good
help.
But
at
officers
and
several upperclassmen stood along the
didn't
suit
W. Sweeney
least
I
first
impression.
Three
A
edge of the platform looking stem.
whose to our
as us.
—ordered us left.
A
form a
to
voice
—
couldn't
I
tell
and drop our bags
straight line
seemingly simple task for such intelligent fellows
However, a great deal of bumping and confusion ensued
before
we
and a
significant realization.
could stumble into something resembling a line
We
collectively recognized that
we were in for something totally new. From that moment on, we would go everywhere in formation, we would do everything would be expected, independence
as a unit. Conformity
couraged. This
way
the
is
of the military.
in every soldier the truth that all
each other
—that
we
our
It is
a
way
lives are
dis-
that instills
dependent on
are engaged in a serious business with
serious consequences.
As
instructed,
I
had brought only the
clothes
on
my
back
and a change of underwear. Picking up the small overnight bag,
of
I
was marched with
moments
I
So
habit, I
At
far I
thought
A.M.
was doing
I
every other cadet.
like
and tucked away
to our barracks
had no trouble
five
unit to the barbers. In a matter
looked remarkably
were quickly marched night.
my
pretty good.
deep
drifting into a
we were
startled out
We
for the
As was my
sleep.
of our slumber. ''Move,
move, move!" reverberated throughout the barracks. There was a heaviness in the air even at that early hour that promised
another hot, humid day. Standing in the got
my
bearings. There
each accommodating
fifty
I
double-bunked cadets, our group and
with the result that
to visit those facilities
of dawn,
were four one-story wooden barracks,
a group of one hundred upperclassmen. five toilets,
first light
on
that
many
first
Each barracks had only
of us did not get a chance
morning before being herded
WAR^S END outside.
We
and order
learned to solve this problem through cooperation
—which was the intent of the
Each barracks appeared was spick-and-span. to the army.
and
We
to
exercise.
have been newly constructed and
were on a
civilian field
under contract
Because the army had very few experienced
certainly not
enough
mary School, our pilots.
19
and evaluate cadets
to train
instructors
would
What we were unknowingly
pilots,
at Pri-
also be contract civilian
part of
was a major buildup
of the mihtary orchestrated by General George Marshall. He, in
most of
contrast to
contemporaries,
his
recognized the
inevitable.
Unlike military bases and
no supply
depot.
We
airfields, this civilian airfield
would be required
had
to purchase our uni-
—two of khakis, a underwear, and a pair of shoes —from a purveyor recommended by the
forms
hat, socks,
sets
local
ant in charge,
lieuten-
who happened
to
be a local boy and a cousin
of the store's owner. For the next three days, however,
would
drill
in our civilian clothes.
around in the hot Alabama sun breasted
this
He
in formation, the sergeant
walked slowly down
stopped by me. Leaning in close, in barely a whis-
"Yes, sergeant,
'Take I
it
off!"
it
outfit
it.
and held
it.
But the sergeant meant
The thought of dropping
jacket onto the dusty field caused
me
my
to hesitate.
reaction. After a barrage of invective that froze
the jacket sHpped from
stood,
warm?"
he bellowed.
to get rid of
The
a bit
is."
slipped off the jacket
was
meant marching
worsted wool double-
in a
he asked in a soothing voice, "Isn't that
per,
I
me
suit.
As we stood the line.
For
we
my
brand-new
The wrong
me
in place,
grasp.
sergeant stepped back and surveyed the scene. There
navy blue suspenders holding up
my
pants.
I
Maj. Gen. Charles
20
''Son, are
up
like
you some kind of jackass or
I
could respond, he barked that
Now my
ers lay in a
beautiful
new
suit jacket
My
heap beside me.
getting off to a rocky start. I'd I
are
you
just dressed
one?"
Before off.
W. Sweeney
take the suspenders
I
my
and
suspend-
stylish
transition to military
wanted
to get noticed
was and so
life
—
had.
The seemingly endless, monotonous marching began on the airfield ramp in the blazing sun. We were harassed without letup. As I marched, my pants kept falling down. Each time I grabbed them the drill instructor yelled for me to put my hands by my sides. Somehow I managed to keep my hands beside me and still hold up my pants. I knew we were being tested, that it would be tough. It was part of the ongoing ritual of
cut
But
it.
I
was going
weeding out those who couldn't
be a
to
pilot.
we purchased our uniforms. When we arrived back at the field, we were issued our flying suits. We would begin flight training Monday morning.
On
Saturday afternoon
Primary School was the place to find out aptitude and temperament to be a pilot.
if
a cadet
Some
had the
cadets
would
wash out immediately. Others might not wash out until after a substantial amount of flight time. We were being evaluated at every stage. Some of the criteria were objective and easy to understand. Some of them were highly subjective on the part of the instructors. They were looking for pilots that can't be quantified or even explained.
and others
you
didn't.
Being a
pilot
is
—
for a quality
Some guys had
what you
are,
it
not what
do.
On Monday morning ordered.
man
He and
I
I
reported to
my
flight instructor as
walked out to an open tandem-cockpit
PT-17. The pilot sat up front, the student in the
Stearrear.
WAR^S END
21
There were dual controls in the front and rear cockpits.
A
gos-
port allowed the pilot to talk to the student, but the student
couldn't speak to the pilot. There
was no radio
no means of communicating with the ground.
was
to air discipline
maintain defined
My
traffic
instructor
patterns of precise position
He might have been
and bearing he was
attitude
and
had
to
altitude,
landing.
went through the basics
mechanical manner.
adherence
Strict
required. All airplanes in that area
on takeoff and
particularly
in the airplane,
and
in a clipped
a civilian, but in his
identical to the drill instructors.
There were no reassuring words or pleasantries, just the unspo-
ken imperative: Pay your
depends on
life,
Charlie's It
and
my
was a wild
know whether goes.
and
I
attention;
I
This would be the
it.
Dennison
flight at
ride,
your future here, not to mention
and
and
and banked.
I
would be
it
was afoot or on horseback,
The
hills.
didn't
saw
trees
suddenly broken by the instructor's
commanded,
us back to the field."
Take us back were and
Not
I
and rose and dived
voice coming through the gosport. "Sweeney," he **take
airborne.
as the expression
in the air. I just
airplane dipped
My reverie was
time since
—even though
loved
I
had no idea where we were
fields
that
first
to
to the field? I didn't
guy wanted
this
mention that
in front of
I
me
know where
to take
had no idea what
him back to
the hell
we
to the field?
do with the controls
me.
Again: "Sweeney, don't you
know where you
are?"
Then without warning he flipped the airplane upside down. "Look down, you stupid bastard. The field's right below us." This was part of the routine. In the beginning they harassed us. Later they
would be more
soothing, wanting to bring along
any cadets they thought had promise. For the next ten weeks the cadets flew in the
morning and attended ground school
in
— 22
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
the afternoon.
It
move
was
my
a cadet along. In
Surrounding the main
were four auxiliary
side,
up
totally
to the instructor
how
advancement came
case,
airstrip, in
airfields
—
fast to
rapidly.
the neighboring country-
well, not exactly airfields.
They were open pastures the government had rented from local farmers. Over these fields I practiced takeoffs and landings, flew traffic partems, and perfected other basic flying maneuvers like the Immelman. Named after a German pilot, this maneuver required sudden acceleration, then a turn up over the top
was upside down, and then a
so that the plane
the airplane quickly right side
the plane
on
me
that brought
Two
was the
my training,
The
off.
the instructor flew to an auxiltheir practice, the pilots
would
their first solo flight
didn't concern me.
I
Make
what
and eased the
aimed the airplane
throttle forward.
on the patterns and my setting and my approach speed.
I
I
lifted off. I
to
landing, he greeted
me
in the proper
was
throttle
flying!
to
do
He
I
it
letting
went
again.
me
fly.
with a big grin and a hand-
shake. Later, as a sort of graduation present, he took
wildest ride to date.
to
made my approach. The
waved me off and gave me the signal Then he waved me off two more times. He was
ironically,
I
for him.
watch the
instructor
—
was
I
reminded myself
airspeed, to
through the designated patterns and
are
to
idea that
Make an approach and watch
focus
my
me
told
a series of banking turns around the field
Sitting at the controls, I
On my
For me,
be.
concentrated on the
instructor carefully explained
in a particular pattern.
direction
a maneuver
The instructor stepped out and up front. I was exhilarated. The
my own
would be on task ahead.
when
day.
take the controls
Take
down through
where we landed. As was
never told cadets
do.
it
split S, I rolled
heading in the opposite direction.
weeks into
iary field,
that
up again. For the
back and took
its
bringing
roll out,
introduced
me
to
what
me on
real pilots
not conformists, but thinking individuals
who
WAR^S END push themselves and
23
their airplanes. It's a strange
in the military that the very qualities that
make
a great pilot
chafe against the rigidity of the military structure. feet off the
ground, through
trees,
dichotomy
We
flev^ six
under bridges. None of
this
approved army procedure.
w^as
Our ranks were
Some guys never
thinning out.
got over or
learned how^ to control the nausea they experienced in the
Others couldn't master the basics of
flight.
And
opinion of the instructors, just didn't have
The
pilots.
made
I
training got
more
it
air.
others, in the
in
them
be
to
intense.
through Primary School and was shipped off to
it
Basic Training at Gunter Field in Montgomery, Alabama.
We
received the government-issue slate-blue uniforms flying cadets
wore.
We now
received for
my
my
looked, thought and acted like military men.
first
squadron.
"command";
My
the sixty-man group
duties
and
I
The Basic Training and
conditioning,
was appointed sergeant major
were to maintain
officers.
intensified
military tactics.
discipline within
implementor of the orders
act as the
and commands of the squadron
I
—
^relentless
marching, physical
The upperclassmen tormented
us constanfly. They were worse than the
drill instructors.
This
was understandable, because although they had gone through the
same
thy for us, elite
you might assume, would have some empathey now considered themselves to be part of an
training and,
group that wanted to maintain
Our
day
first
at
its
elitism.
Gunter was memorable.
great physical condition
and
We
were
all
in
pretty sure of ourselves. Perhaps
to disabuse us of this idea, the drill instructor took us out onto
the
parade
grounds.
marched and
Under
drilled in close
the
blazing
formation for
summer sun, we hours. Some men
passed out and were taken to the infirmary. Yet our shared exhaustion and
communal
gether. Everything
we
suffering
were drawing us closer
to-
did was precise and undertaken as a
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
24
unit,
we
not because
one. That night
I
thought about
ached Hke
it
but because
we now were
never ached before. The pain
I'd
my joints and muscles was extreme. It was the worst night of my Ufe. But I still had no reservations that this was precisely in
where
me
I
wanted
to be.
These
trials
and
tribulations
would make
stronger.
The
much
flying
was heaven.
We
got to
fly
the Vultee BT-13, a
heavier airplane with a closed two-seat
a radio, and above
all else,
tandem
cockpit,
Our study of aviation became Night training was the most excit-
speed.
more advanced and detailed. ing. The first time up, we went with we were on our own. Sent up into
the instructor. After that, the blackness,
we bored
holes in the sky in predesignated zones to get comfortable flying
without reference to visible landmarks or a horizon.
Ten weeks came and went in a flash. More of our comrades washed out. A common problem for some was the occurrence of
'*
ground loops." In a ground loop, the
has gone
right,
that the flight
He
is
pilot lands, everything
but he has a lapse in attention and assumes over,
when,
in fact, the props are
still
turning.
up ever so slightly on the controls, and the airplane spins about one hundred degrees. If he's lucky, that's all that happens. More often than not, he might catch a wing on the lets
ground and damage the
aircraft.
Ground loops
are gross errors
of coordination.
My Advanced
Flight Training took place at Barksdale Field
in Shreveport, Louisiana. Barksdale
was a multiengine
school.
About 25 percent of the cadets were assigned to multiengine schools (bombers) and the rest to single-engine schools (fighters). The extent of the overall military buildup was now obvious. Having survived ten weeks at Primary and ten weeks at Basic, I now had the luxury of being able to observe my surroundings. Everywhere I looked was a beehive of activity. Barksdale had been created to meet the training demands
"
WAR^S END new
for
Of
might be
army
course, the
airplanes, but
Up
had Gunter and Van de Graaf.
pilots, as
time the army had had three training
West.
25
still
facilities scattered in
even the most hardened soldier thought they
useful.
permanent housing, a golf course,
complete with
field,
and commissaries.
clubs,
There was an active bomber wing assigned to the
and
still
the
wasn't sure what to do with
Barksdale was a regular army air corps
were
to this
—the formations,
part of the military
military discipline
tribulations subsided.
—
had made
it.
We
schedules,
the harassment, tormenting,
^but
We
strict
field.
All that remained
and
was
completion of Advanced Training and a commission in the Air
Corps Reserve.
Although we were pilots
—and
all
still
that that implied.
cadets were offered deals
mance
convertibles
dollars a
new
world looked on us as
cadets, the
by
With a reputation on
high-perfor-
down and
seventy-five
local car salesmen
—twenty-five
month. The parking
dollars
as ''sports,
lot at the field
was a
sea of brand-
convertibles.
We mostly
trained in B-lOs, B-12s,
we
and B-18s— all
obsolete.
But
flew the Lockheed Hudson, a state-of-the-art patrol
Long Beach, systems in the Lockheed Hudson had been specifications. The planes were delivered to
plane with an unusual design, manufactured in California. All the
designed to British us,
we
logged three hundred hours of
and then they were flown
Canada and then before shipment sale of
weapons
shipment to
The reason we flew
simple. Congress
to Britain.
time in each one,
to the Northeast for
to England.
was
flight
the planes
had not authorized the
Under Roosevelt's Lend-Lease Pro-
gram, only used war materiel could be legally delivered. Once
we
put three hundred hours on the Hudsons,
it
was
give the "used" airplanes to the British via Canada.
legal to It
was a
Maj. Gen. Charles
26
"happy coincidence" were of
the
that
W. Sweeney
instrumentation and systems
British design.
Halfway through training graduation.
would be a
I
I
my
received
assignment for
would take
ferry pilot. I
after
delivery of
Hudsons and A-20s, the "Boston Bombers," at the Lockheed and Douglas factories on the West Coast and fly them to shipping points in the Northeast. It was a cream puff assignment. would be a commissioned officer in the army air corps, share an apartment in Laguna Beach, and fly around the country, I
getting paid for
more.
I
My first
what
must admit a class
loved to do.
I
couldn't have asked for
certain swagger crept into
was scheduled
mass and
breakfast, a
afternoon
when we walked
my
gait.
to graduate in five days.
time, the officers' golf course
ately see that
I
was open
to us. After
group of us played a round. into the lounge.
We
It
For the
Sunday
was
early
could immedi-
something was wrong. The conversation
at the
bar was animated as a tight cluster of officers crowded around a radio.
An
I
couldn't
officer noticed
bombed I
make out what
my group
was saying. and said, "The Japs
the announcer
standing there
Pearl Harbor."
was stunned.
middle of the
I
instantly visualized Hawaii, sitting in the
Pacific.
The Japs might
attack the Philippines.
That would make sense. But not Pearl Harbor. Reality quickly set
in.
We
were
at war.
No
one
at the field
Each of us was issued a weapon and assigned guard duty. Sabotage became the main concern. Anything was possible, even an attack on Shreveport. Security at the field was increased. A panic initially gripped the country. Rumors spread and multiplied. Phone lines were jammed. It took me a day to reach my mother, in Boston. She was terrified. Although an invasion on the West Coast seemed more likely, one rumor had a German bomber force heading for the East Coast to wipe out major cities. It seemed far-fetched that
knew
exactly
what
to do.
WAR^S END
27
any airplane would have that range. But the
who knew? Maybe
Germans had been working on a secret airplane. Reports of actual damage at Pearl were sketchy. It would be
several
weeks before the government acknowledged the actual
Most of our
calamity that had taken place.
Pacific fleet
thousands of sailors lay at the bottom of the harbor.
men had been entombed
in their ships
were
craft carriers
left
it
was
Some navy
where they could not
be reached. Their clanging, a sign they were for seven or eight days before
and
still
silenced.
alive, lasted
Only
three air-
between Japan and the West Coast.
And
with each passing day the news grew worse as the Japanese
moved
against our forces in the Philippines.
On December
My
earlier orders
12,
1941,
my
class
graduated as scheduled.
were canceled. One other classmate and
were assigned to the Jefferson Proving Grounds Indiana.
The
rest
for overseas duty.
single gold bar
my
chest, I
of Indiana.
on
in
I
Madison,
my class was assigned to units preparing On the morning of December 14, with a my right collar and a shiny set of wings on
of
boarded a
train to start the
war
in the cornfields
**
Jefferson Proving Grounds was art facility situated
a brand-new state-of-the-
near the banks of the Ohio River.
It
was
designed for the testing of conventional iron bombs, rockets, fire
bombs, and howitzer
shells
—heavy ordnance
from big guns or dropped from
aircraft.
A
that
was
fired
one-hundred-square-
mile reservation, the base employed about 950 civilians from the neighboring towns
Grounds
in
and
transferees
Maryland. Fifty ordnance
from Aberdeen Testing
officers
and
enlisted
men
ran the firing and drop ranges. The ordnance officers were reserve officers
who had been commissioned
and 1930s. The captain recall reserve.
He was
all
during the 1920s
in charge of the airborne testing
was
about forty-five years old and had served
World War I. He was a fine fellow, but, to put it politely, he was out of touch with the advances in aircraft, not unlike most of the army in 1942. He would be replaced by Major John Waugh, who was a career
in the
army
air
corps during
pilot officer.
28
WAR^S END Jefferson
command
overall
West Pointer from a
a
ell,
was under the
29
distinguished military family.
had supervised the construction of every grounds.
As
of Colonel Cab-
detail of the
He
proving
part of the general buildup of the military, the
army had purchased
the land in this area long before Pearl
Harbor, and Colonel Cabell had been directed to build a mod-
em
facility
to
supplement
the
famous Aberdeen
Grounds. The newest and best equipment and the features
were incorporated into every
Testing
latest safety
detail of the reservation.
Because the army had bought not only the land but everything that stood
on
it,
there were several beautiful houses scat-
tered about the base. Colonel Cabell selected thirty of the
homes and moved them to would become the residence area
more
outstanding
a part of the reservation
that
for
its
officers.
He
laid
out the houses in a horseshoe design and created a perfectly
manicured neighborhood that could have rivaled any exclusive neighborhood in the country. This was a comfortable place to be. Five other officers and I
shared one of these homes.
different
Our accommodations were
from the conditions most of our friends and classmates
were experiencing. But as a second lieutenant, of assignment. In
meant
I
decided
vastly
fact, I
could do this
my
was where
was glad
to
part for the I
I
had no choice
have an assignment that
war
effort.
Someone had
belonged.
Bob Van Dusen, of Rochester, New York, my classmate from Advanced Training, and I were the only test pilots at Jefferson. This meant we were about to get a lot of flight time in
advanced
fighters, tests.
aircraft
—B-24s,
B-25s,
A-20 bombers, and P-47
Waugh left it mostly up to us to run the command was, ''So you boys know what you're
and Major
His only
We
him we did and went on our way. The procedure for testing was simple. Random samples of
doing?"
assured
munitions were taken from the production lines
at the factories
Maj. Gen. Charles
30
W. Sweeney
by government inspectors and were shipped to us. Civilian technicians assigned to the proving grounds or representatives from the manufacturers briefed us about the specifications acteristics
of what we'd be testing. The samples were then
loaded into the appropriate
aircraft or
racked under the wings,
depending on the nature of the ordnance. The
would proceed
cians
Bob
range.
and char-
or
I
civilian techni-
to the observation area adjoining the drop
took up the load and dropped or
fired
as
it
briefed.
The
flight testing
ensured proof of function of ordnance
already extensively tested prior to full-scale production.
to demonstrate that, straight off a mass-production line,
was
would perform
the ordnance
and produce a
pected, cial
Our job
when exspecification. Of spe-
as intended, detonate
blast yield within
concern was premature detonation in or under the
which might
aircraft,
signal a design or manufacturing defect. Fortu-
nately, that never
happened
at the
proving grounds while
I
was there. Given our rigorous and thorough testing of every type of bomb that might be used by an American pilot, it would have been incomprehensible to me in 1942 that in three and a half years,
on an
island in the Pacific,
plane carrying the largest
bomb
the United States military that
an airplane prior to
When we
its
I
would take
ever dropped in a free
had never once been
two
weren't testing ordnance,
In the ity.
states
air, all
You seem
of being
—when he's
may
fall
tested
by
from
I
would take every op-
flying
fly.
For a
pilot there
and when he's
not.
things are possible. There's a sense of invincibilat
times to be free of the laws of gravity.
live to challenge yourself
This
air-
planned detonation.
portunity to get into an airplane and just are
an
off in
and take your machine
appear reckless to the uninitiated.
to be careless, or to
And
make mistakes because of
You
to the limit. it
is
reckless
a lapse in judg-
— WAR'S END But
merit.
not reckless to push the envelope in a calculated
it is
way. Like an
and mental
31
artist,
a pilot not only uses the necessary physical
he
skills for his craft,
is
also driven
by
intuition.
was intuition that drew me under the Madison Milton Bridge. The air corps' main materiel depot was located in Da)^on, fifty miles north of the Ohio River. I flew there regularly. On the hundred-mile stretch of the Ohio between Cincinnati and Louisville, I would see a single bridge crossing guess
I
it
the river at Madison, Indiana.
afternoon, as
on
I
my way to
approached the bridge from
Dayton,
took
I
One
stood out like a beacon.
It
my A- 17
thousand
five
feet
My airspeed
into a dive.
picked up nicely to 170 miles an hour. Approaching the bridge, I
gauged there was maybe a
water, give or take a few
room
to spare,
feet.
I
clearance above the
flew under the bridge with
and immediately took the airplane
climb to about three thousand calling out to
fifty-foot
me. Joy
is
feet.
the only
That bridge had been just
word
to describe
But one man's joy can be another man's
who were on
ians
same
into a sharp
my
terror.
response.
The
civil-
the bridge at the time didn't experience the
and they made
life-affirming thrill I did,
that clear to the
base commander.
Colonel Cabell cut straight to the point. "If you that's a loss for the
money and If
you
kill
kill
yourself
army, which invested a good amount of
time in training you. But we'll get over that
Mom and Pop
loss.
and the kiddos driving over a heavily
traveled bridge in Ohio, your death will pale in comparison.
Do
I It
make myself
clear.
Lieutenant?"
was, under the circumstances, a mild reprimand. Nothing
went
into
time
I
my
did stop. But the
come me and
was still flying. And temptation would occasionally
service record,
whoosh
—
I'd
and
I
be under that
damn
After a while, either the townsfolk got used to
it
for a
over-
bridge again. or the colonel
accepted this idiosyncratic behavior of one of his
pilots.
Maj. Gen. Charles
32
W. Sweeney
work with all of the bombers and fighters at our disposal was making a significant contribution that would save the lives of airmen. That was until Bob Van Dusen came in one afternoon to tell me he had heard that one of our I
believed that our
classmates had been killed in a B-17 over the Pacific.
wasn't
It
whether Frank Sullivan had died in combat or in an accident. There were no details. Frank had been from the certain
Bronx, a great fellow.
flyer
had been aware of the mounting
as
MacArthur
now
next to each other at Barks-
—outgoing, fun-loving. Although
He'd been a natural
dale. I
We'd bunked
casualties in the Philippines
Japanese assault,
tried vainly to blunt the
put a face and a
name on
was dead. Living and working
the finality of
it.
My
I
pal
could
Frank
Sullivan
more.
It
for three
in Indiana didn't
had been
didn't feel right. I
months.
And
seem enough any-
at the
proving grounds
even though second lieutenants are the
lowest form of hfe in the military food chain, petition
my
assignment.
immediate superior. Major Waugh,
He
listened patiently to
my
decided to
I
for a
combat
request for reassign-
why I thought it was a wise use of my skills. He promised me he would look into it. A week later he called me back in and told me I had ment
to a
combat wing and
been promoted
With
that,
first
heutenant. Everyone at the proving
was doing a superior job. They couldn't me. As for a transfer, now was not a good time.
grounds thought afford to lose
to
to the reasons
I
he dismissed me.
I'm not sure to
this
day
if
my
to
my
made
the
promotion was related
request for reassignment, but eight
months
later
I
same request and was promoted to captain. I concentrated on my duties. My experience with aircraft and the subtle techniques required to milk the most out of each of them grew daily.
But
if I
made
The
flying business
a mistake in
flight,
is
always dangerous.
chances were
I
could learn
WAR^S END from
my
For
it.
could be
friends
Casualties
fatal.
and classmates overseas, a mistake
among our
air
and airmen
friends
Fate stepped I
had become
in.
knew and
I
my
During
cared
for.
eighteen months at Jefferson,
friendly with the major.
become
to Eglin Field in Florida to
crews in Europe were
among them more and
approaching staggering proportions,
more of
33
He was
being reassigned
director of operations for
Weapons System Testing Grounds. Eglin was a busy, bustling central command. Pilots and crews getting ready to go to Europe, and many of those returning, were cleared the Aircraft
through I
it.
figured that if
I
I
could get to Eglin as a
would have more opportunities
test pilot,
com-
to turn that role into a
bat assignment.
Major Waugh
me know called officer.
if
said he understood completely
an opening presented
me. ''Chuck," he
You want
it?" It
let
Within two months he
"they need a base operations
said,
took
itself.
and would
me
one second
to say yes.
In June 1943, as the war raged on in Europe and the Pacific, I
I'd
drove
down
to Florida in
bought from Major
Waugh
my
1929 Studebaker, which
for fifty dollars,
and discovered
a place that dwarfed Jefferson in every way.
sprawled from horizon to horizon. sat
on what had once been a
vast
Corps of Engineers had
filled in. I
congressman from that
district
vincing the military that this
though most of I
was
fields that
in
it
were under
my
scale
was immense.
swampland, which the
It
Army
learned later that a powerful
had been instrumental
was valuable
in con-
real estate,
even
then sat under several feet of water.
command
ringed
Its
Eglin Field
it.
of the main
field
and the nine auxiliary
All aircraft not assigned to a specific section
direct control. I
had
at
to handle the administrative duties of
my
disposal a huge staff
managing the operation.
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
34
At
the age of twenty- three,
had been given a great deal of
I
authority. I
up a friendship with Major Bemie Swartz. Bemie
struck
had been around
may
tenance subdepot. This
me, he held the keys
to the
were what the military These are skills
and
and was
for a while
in
command
of the main-
not sound impressive, but believe
kingdom. Under
classifies
his direct control
as ''third-echelon aircraft."
need substantial maintenance beyond the
aircraft that
tools of the flight line
crew
chief, or repairs requiring
machine shop. You name it, Bernie had it: B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, P-51s. If it was in the army air corps inventory, it evena
found
tually I
its
way
negotiated a
have to
him
New
him
to be
whenever the
it
bargain with Bemie.
any
spirit
—a
I
heard he had a
Orleans he liked to
visit
test girl-
monthly. I'd
on one of my airplanes going that way moved him, and he'd give me carte blanche
aircraft that
was returned
Someone would
were completed
for that purpose.
in
down
arrange for
to test
little
test the aircraft after the repairs
pilot assigned to
friend
Bemie' s shop.
to
came
off the
maintenance
line before
to service.
was always the same greeting: "Bemie, what do ya have today?" He'd hand me his inventory list and I'd look for an It
aircraft I
hadn't flown before.
instmctions.
The
I
never bothered with any lengthy
prescribed procedure before any pilot could
take the controls of an airplane
out by someone qualified to
would be
tell
me where
the throttle
Our arrangement
fell
him
to be
checked
fly that particular airplane. I dis-
pensed with the formal checkout. All to
for
was and
way
I
needed was someone
I'd figure out the rest.
outside the usual organizational
Bemie and me. He spent time with the love of his life, and I spent time doing what I loved flying everything I could get my hands on. It was unheard of chart, but
it
worked
great for
that a pilot could accumulate substantial flight time in all kinds
WAR^S END of aircraft
—two- and four-engine bombers and summer
rated to fly them, but by the fly
army
every airplane in the also
I
was
35
short
fly
of hours to push the airplane and
its
take
tions. I volunteered,
it
and so
I
rated to
which with
either real or expected,
up and
is,
was
I
to the fighter section,
a particular airplane were identified, the aircraft, that
of 1944,
—and be
corps inventory.
air
made myself available of pilots. As problems,
fighters
it it
was necessary
to stress
for a prescribed
number
systems to their specifica-
got to accumulate even
more time
The experience was priceless, and the word you need someone to fly something, call Chuck
in these airplanes.
got around: If
Sweeney.
It
doesn't matter
what
it is
as long as
it
has wings.
One of my duties was to assemble and deploy crash investigation teams when an airplane went down in our sector. What most
civilians don't realize is that
military
is
even during peacetime the
a dangerous place. Thousands of
men
are in close
proximity to weapons and explosives. With airplanes, the daily risks are greater.
witnessed a
test
War
only exacerbates the state of that
P-38 go into a vertical dive, lose
risk. I
plunge straight into the earth, leaving nothing but a crater with an indistinguishable mix of debris. I I
saw explosions
human remains and
in midair kill
an
entire
and
its tail,
filled
metal
crew in a
flash.
witnessed crashes on takeoff and landing. Sometimes
we
learned why, sometimes the reason remained a mystery. But the
first
time
I
went
most
to a crash scene left the
lasting
impression. It
was July
1943.
Lockheed had gone
A call came into my office. A twin-engine in shortly after takeoff
auxiliary fields. Fire trucks details of casualties I
ordered
my
were
and ambulances were en
route.
No
available.
aide to alert the emergency
vocate General (JAG)
from one of our
officer, chaplain,
—Judge Ad-
team
photographer, mainte-
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
36
nance
and technical
chief,
and
right outside,
Fire
I
flew
officer.
it
A
small airplane
was parked
directly to the crash site.
and ambulance personnel were there when
them
arrived,
I
was immediately struck by the smell of burning flesh. The airplane had come down in a grove. The left wing had been shorn off and lay next to a tree. It appeared that the airplane had then skidded sideways for about sixty or seventy yards through a clearing. The fusebut there was
lage I
little
had come
for
to rest in a
walked through the
aircraft
to do.
I
heap of rubble
clearing, noting bits
strewn around. Here and there
cap, unrecognizable
the airplane.
the fuselage,
in a stand of cypress.
I
and pieces of the
saw a
flight bag,
a
dismembered bodies of men thrown from
Smoke was
rising
from the wreckage.
which had been blackened by the
had been sheared back
like the lid
reached
I
fire. Its left
of a sardine can.
I
side
looked
The pilot, copilot, and flight engineer strapped in. The pilot's hands were contracted in a on the wheel. All the bodies were charred and smol-
directly into the cockpit.
were
still
tight grip
smoke and stench of their burning flesh drifting toward me. But the true horror was that they had not been burned beyond recognition. I could still make out their features. The pilot's head was tilted back oddly, at a forty-five-degree angle. His face was taut, his teeth bared, his eyes still open. I dering, the
couldn't move.
A
voice broke in behind me. "Captain, the manifest shows
six passengers.
The
controller at the tower said after takeoff
they went into a violent I I
had
to fight
my
left
turn and then a stall."
nausea and
try to reconstruct the crash.
peered again into the cockpit and scanned the
violent
left
But there set all the
turn before the crash. it
was. The trim tab
way
to the
steering the aircraft.
On
left.
interior.
A
was too obvious to be right. setting on the center post was It
The trim
tab assists the pilot in
takeoff, the setting
must be
in the neu-
WAR^S END tral position. is
airborne
does.
It
crash.
it
With
37
the trim tab set to the
once the plane
left,
will veer sharply left regardless of
will fail to gain altitude
The ground
chief
is
and
airspeed.
what the
It
will stall
The
and
supposed to check the trim tab before
turning the airplane over. But the final responsibility
with the
pilot
is
always
pilot.
board determined that the trim tab was
investigative
the cause of the crash.
An
who had
experienced combat pilot
survived countless missions over Europe
made
the fundamental
mistake of not using his checklist. This mistake killed
him and
his crew.
summer
In the
Washington. he needed
He was
pilots.
United States to
from India
was no
of 1943 a two-star general arrived from
The
forming a B-25 wing to go to India, and British
fulfill its
and Chinese were anxious
commitment
to harass the Japanese in
to intensify a
Burma and
secret that within the overall
for the
campaign
Thailand.
scheme of things
It
this
mission had a low military priority. The real action was in
Europe.
war couldn't last that much longer and that it was now or never. I met with the general, explained my desire to volunteer, and was accepted. Orders were cut for me to transit to India by troop ship via the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, to my new base. The trip would take two months. I wasn't used to this type of slow transport, and the I
suspected that the
thought of being
crammed onto
a troop carrier did not suit
me
would finally get into the war. I was to report to Newport News, Virginia, for debarkation at the end of the year. I would have a few months to wrap up my duties at Eglin and prepare to depart, but fate would step in again. Out of the at
all.
blue,
But
my
direction.
I
military career
was
to veer in a totally
unexpected
**
J^N OLD On what
BROMIDE observcs
started out as
an otherwise uneventful day
ber 1943, chance swooped It
that chance favors the prepared.
was highly unusual
down and
wanted
an aide to a commanding general,
for
my
desk.
the old
office. If
was sum-
general's aide standing in front of
The well-scrubbed major wasted no
man
my
to speak to a captain, the captain
moned. Yet there was the
Septem-
favored me.
such as General Grandison Gardner, to come to the general
in
wants extra military police out
at
time. "Captain,
hangar seventeen
afternoon," he stated precisely. *'A B-29's coming in from
this
Seattle.
The area
will
be cordoned off and no unauthorized
personnel are to be within three hundred feet of that airplane."
would take care of everything. What I didn't tell him was that I had no idea what a B-29 was, which certainly piqued my interest. If it had wings and I
assured the major that
belonged to the
air force, I
I
knew about
geant to pull the technical orders on
38
it.
told
my
staff ser-
it.
I
At
all airfields,
opera-
WAR^S END tional
39
manuals called technical orders are on
They provide
aircraft in the military inventory.
detailed infor-
mation on the operation and maintenance of each sergeant returned a few^ minutes later and told
no technical orders an
for a B-29.
No
for every
file
aircraft.
me
The
there v^ere
one had ever heard of such
airplane.
Shortly before two p.m.
I
w^ent
up
in the control tow^er
and
scanned the sky in the direction of the approach. Off in the distance
I
the largest airplane
On
gines.
As
sav^ a small silver dot.
final
its
had ever
I
approach,
calculations: wingspan,
I
150
it
seen,
quickly feet;
drew
and
it
closer,
it
grew
had four huge
into
en-
made some rough mental
length,
100
feet.
This thing
was massive.
The gleaming
silver fuselage glided in like
up
gle puff of dust kicked
down
the runway,
it
as the wheels
a feather.
A
sin-
touched down. Rolling
dwarfed any other olive drab airplane of
was twice as large as the B-17, the Flying Fortress, the largest heavy bomber then in service. It could have come from another planet, its size and appearance were so radically different from the combat aircraft known to me. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in flight. Its majesty on the time.
It
landing took I
to
ran
where
down this
breath away.
the tower,
into a jeep,
magnificent airplane would
through, and for a
to a stop within a feel the
awe
I
moment
few
feet
come
Its
and drove over to rest.
would
sit
unobstructed
—
in flight
MPs waved
stood alone as the B-29 taxied later, I
can
still
stood in front of that polished,
pilot, the copilot,
and the bombar-
in this glass bubble with 180-degree
would later learn that this area was ''greenhouse" by the engineers. It was the first
visibility.
designated the
I
A perim-
nose canopy gleamed with Plexiglas.
could easily view where the
dier
I
of me. Fifty years
experienced as
shiny silver behemoth. I
hopped
guard had already formed as instructed. The
eter
me
my
I
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
40
time the
pilot, the copilot,
same compartment. As I could make out two
and the bombardier were
the airplane turned
bomb
large
was
airplane I
special in every
to a stop, belly,
Another
aft.
the
first.
one This
way.
stood on the tarmac looking up. The plane was like a
beacon sending a
knew
water,
for sure
Staff cars
Waugh
my
just
to fly
specifically to
size,
and come
just ego,
hell or
high
it.
pulled up,
joined me.
it
was youthful exuberance or
it
was
it
was going
I
and sending
single message,
me: Fly me. Whether I
and came
bays under the
forward of the wings and the other
all in
and General Gardner and Major
From beneath
the forward compartment,
out stepped a handsome, jaunty lieutenant colonel dressed in a perfectly
fitted flying suit.
be special
if
My
first
reaction
he had been selected to
was
command
that
this
he must
imposing
bomb bay doors opened and an elevator let down four Cushman scooters and members of the crew. Unbelievable. They carried their own transportation. The
airplane.
rear
Pleasantries were exchanged with the general while the col-
onel introduced himself to the group as Paul Tibbets. His
man-
ner was reserved and soft-spoken, yet he projected an air of professionalism and self-assurance. nel Tibbets,"
I
cars waiting here for
ments. is
just let
politely,
Thank you. We'll need
And
I
want
my
hand. "Colo-
me know. We
have
staff
your use."
Colonel Tibbets repUed Captain.
stuck out
"I'm Chuck Sweeney, Base Operations
said,
Anything you need,
Officer.
I
"We'll use our scooters,
the usual refueling arrange-
security maintained as long as this aircraft
here."
As
I
observed the
they held this
man
crispness in their
rest
of the crew,
in high regard.
manner
that
it
became
clear that
There was an unmistakable
conveyed
their pride in being
WAR^S END part of his crew.
He was
a
star,
41
no doubt.
I
resolved to get on
his team.
As
and Colonel Tibbets departed,
the group dispersed
hung back. The
was
I
up a conversation with the flight engineer, who disappeared back into the airplane. The copilot, Captain Bob Lewis, walked in my direction. Lewis was copilot
a bear of a man. At six feet
and a stocky
hair,
he had broad shoulders, blond physically imposing, one of
fully occupies the space he's in.
contrast to Tibbets, Lewis
had an
to perhaps learn a bit
I
"Not giving
the airplane and the colonel. I
can get a closer
asked, gesturing toward the airplane.
my
if
me
who had
mother's
life
depended on
Lewis
it,"
a look of disdain and annoyance.
replied,
He was
man
a
important things to do.
had no intention of pressing the
point, although, as the
base operations officer responsible for the security
What
could have.
mation, not a plane.
per-
fit
decided to play to his ego
Chuck Sweeney. Any chance
''Captain,
look?"
more about
I
In sharp
of arrogance that
air
with his physical appearance.
fectly
I
tall,
He was
build.
who
those people
finishing
You
I
fight.
wanted from I
this
arrogant
detail,
SOB was
"Some kind
continued calmly.
guys must be the very best we've got to
monster." That injection of
flattery hit the
mark.
I
infor-
of
air-
fly this
We were now
talking about him.
was handpicked," he responded. "There's a whole wing of B-29s forming at Smoky Hill Air Base, Kansas. Me and the old bull are in charge of the entire testing program with Boe"I
ing," he concluded,
nodding
his
head
in the direction in
which
Tibbets had gone.
An
entire
hadn't even
was
telling
wing of B-29s!
known
me
you form an
an
this
entire
entire
Up
until
two hours before then
grand airplane existed, and
wing was forming
in Kansas.
wing without anyone knowing?
this
guy
How
My
I
do
interest
— Maj. Gen. Charles
42
W. Sweeney
was growing stronger by the minute. 'That's quite imagine. So what do you have to do to get into this
in Tibbets
a job,
I
outfit?"
''Don't even give
a second thought, Captain," he an-
it
swered dismissingly. "To nautical engineering
and
you need a degree four hundred hours
start with,
in aero-
at least
in four-
me
a pa-
thought to myself, "This guy must be one hell of a
pilot,
He paused
engine airplanes."
for effect
and
to give
tronizing, sympathetic look. I
because he wouldn't win any popularity contests."
my
But
reconnoitering had yielded
In wartime, everything
is
possible.
around the requirements mandated didn't
know what
been designed acted. If
was no
I
Tibbets
telling
how
was doing, or what
time as any. In opportunity
I
his aircraft
high or far
I
to act,
fact, if I hesitated, I
might have
him and
I
had
could go.
for a
officers'
club unaccompa-
and then was
as
good a
could squander the only
one-on-one discussion of
plans with the colonel in a relaxed social setting.
over to
way
I
had already resolved
I
Perhaps there was a
for pilots in this project.
That night Tibbets came into the nied.
intelligence.
knew chance might favor me if I my wagon to Paul Tibbets's star, there
to do, but
could hitch
some good
asked, "Colonel,
would you
I
my
walked
care to join
me
for dinner?"
To my happy
rehef,
We took a table
he answered, "Yes."
at the far
end of the
club.
My
first
impression
was confirmed. He was a man who knew exactly where he wanted to go. His speech and demeanor were low-key and measured.
He
talked about his
not in the usual
pilot's
combat experiences over Europe, but
bravado about close
successes. Rather, he talked about the nuts
the art of
it,
his respect for airplanes,
and
calls or spectacular
and his
bolts of flying
knowledge of the
WAR'S END machines he essence of
He
it.
flew.
He knew
flying.
43
Not
how, but the
just the
His love of flying struck a sympathetic chord in me.
my
asked about
background, and
gave him the Reader's
I
Digest version of what I'd done for the past few years, stressing the experience
He
I
had had with
different types
of
aircraft.
turned the conversation to his assignment at Eglin. The
B-29 he'd flown in on was one of two prototypes being tested
by Boeing. The other B-29 would be delivered
come
pretty close in
span was 141 with a
full
feet,
bomb
my
estimates of
its size.
shortly.
The
had
I
actual wing-
3 inches; length, 99 feet; range, 3,800 miles
load.
It
was
the
first
airplane with a pressur-
ized cabin that could really operate at 30,000 feet carrying a
bomb
full
load of ten tons
age of 500 pounds each.
—
forty iron
bombs weighing an
By comparison,
aver-
the B-17 could carry
only six 500-pounders. Over Europe, the B-17 Flying Fortress
was
theoretically capable of operating at 30,000 feet, but practi-
cally,
And
it
performed
peak
at
at these altitudes in
at
about 23,000
feet, fully
loaded.
unpressurized cabins, the crews were
forced to wear bulky flight suits and oxygen masks while working in temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees below zero.
Add
these conditions the ferocious pursuit of the Luftwaffe
and the
withering antiaircraft alties
among airmen
fire
to
over France and Germany, and casu-
in the air over
Europe were climbing
into
the tens of thousands.
Tibbets explained that he
was
at Eglin to test
control gunnery system for the B-29 using
a central
two prototypes
fire
—the
XB-29 and the YB-29, each having a competing system. In the XB-29 the central gunnery system had been manufactured by Sperry; the YB-29 used a General Electric system. The air corps needed data on the performance of each
which one
to purchase.
central fire control
As with
was
in order to determine
everything else on the airplane,
revolutionary. In earher planes, each
gunner manually controlled and aimed
just
one
set
of guns.
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
44
the B-29, a single gunner could control several turrets
With
with one sight and be able to direct
The guns would
target.
Although Tibbets's were
pilots
To
fire
on a
single
slave to the sight. testing
had been given a top
priority,
a precious commodity as the war intensified.
still
carry out his assignment he needed pilots to fly target
airplanes, the
XB-29 and
Here was a chance
asm
for
tow
YB-29 that was coming in soon. made no effort to hide my enthusi-
the
me.
I
to join his unit.
"I
would love
directly. 'T I
the
all
know
outfit, Colonel,*' I offered
be special requirements, but
fly."
was to become familiar to me, he sat a moment, and said matter-of-factly, 'That's
manner
In a
your
may
understand there
can
I
to get into
that
back, thought for
a possibility." I
then realized that
nel, I
I
had
left
out one minor point. "Colo-
should have mentioned that
I
have orders to report to
India with the Tenth Air Force."
'That's no problem," he said without hesitation.
No
problem?
I
didn't believe that in this military
my
orders
could be canceled by any colonel on God's green earth, even
who
a colonel
obviously was part of something big. In James
Michael Curley's Boston ... no problem. In the United States
Army I
.
.
.
highly doubtful. But from the
got the feeling he had the juice to do
into the details,
As we
left
it.
I
Tibbets answered, didn't
and the colonel wasn't giving
the dining hall that night,
ined that in a few weeks entire
way
I
B-29 central control
I
me
need
to get
any.
could not have imag-
would become responsible for the gunnery systems testing program
while Colonel Tibbets attended to other matters.
Tibbets called to
me
a few days
go up to his administrative
later.
He needed an
airplane
offices in Marietta, Georgia,
and
WAR^S END
45
then on to the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas.
make to
and meet him on the ramp
the arrangements
'I'll
told
I
go as your copilot,"
I
I
an hour.
in
Here was an opportunity
offered.
spend some time with him in the environment
maybe show him what
him Vd
I
loved most,
could do.
'Tine," he replied.
took a look
I
at the aircraft roster.
We
had a Martin B-26
would not have been my first choice, but that's what we had. The B-26 was derisively known as the ''flying prostitute" because it had no visible means of support. It had a very short wingspan, which gave it a lot of speed but a small lift ratio. Even for experienced pilots the Martin was a tricky airplane to fly. I had flown it only once before. While the Martin was being fueled I went to the weather office. The noncom on duty started in, "Captain, we got zeroavailable immediately.
zero in fog.
rd
you wait
suggest
until
it
bums
off."
asked to see the report. The fog topped out at about four
I
to six
hundred
Above, clear
feet up.
danger taking
real
It
There would be no
skies.
Landing, however, would be a
off.
differ-
ent matter.
"Captain, I'd strongly urge you to give
Should
bum
off
it
a couple of hours.
by ten or eleven," the sergeant offered again
apprehensively.
knew one
I
asked
me
thing for sure, Tibbets wanted to go, and he'd
to arrange
Therefore,
it.
we were
of discussion. This was an opportunity
I
going. Period.
End
wasn't going to blow
because of some early-morning fog. Uncharacteristically,
"Sergeant, your job is
to
make
is
left
hand me
to
at
mouth.
the
startled
noncom.
the weather report. I'll
make
My job
the decision
your work."
was an overreaction
my
snapped
the decisions about flying. So
and you can go back It
to
I
I
regretted the
moment
the words
W.
Maj. Gen. Charles
46
me
Colonel Tibbets was waiting for
company of
Sweeivey
at the airplane in the
who were
three Boeing civilian technicians
was a gloomy, thick, humid made our walk-around, accompanied by
ing a ride back to Wichita.
We
Florida morning.
hitch-
It
the crew chief.
Deferring to rank and airplane, I said, **Sure,"
**Sir,
my own
why
don't
limited experience with this
you go ahead and
he responded. "I've never flown one."
Our combined experience
This was going to be interesting.
with pit.
approached zero.
this airplane
We
There was an awkward
silence.
Thank God
crew
to start
it.
for the
gentlemen," and started
Once we were
it
climbed into the cock-
Neither of us
chief.
operating procedure, he offered, ''Let
in,
fly it."
me
As
if it
knew how
were normal
turn this over for you,
up.
off the ground, Tibbets
lit
his pipe
and
settled
pouring himself a cup of coffee from the thermos.
My job
was to navigate, his was to fly. He said very little. Even though I was anxious to learn more about him, the B29, and whether he really could cancel my impending ocean cruise to India, I followed his lead and didn't try to engage him in conversation. Looking over occasionally, I saw him puffing away, eyes on the horizon, the picture of contentment.
We
touched
down
with the airplane. Thirty minutes
later
he was back.
That was part
We
taxied
off.
India have been canceled. You're assigned to it.
My
orders
my
had been canceled.
would lead me, but I was of something special. I wanted
where
to stay
As we completed our climb and banked west and on to Wichita he said, ''Your orders to
out and took
toward the
me
in Marietta. Tibbets asked
this
simply and directly. "Thank you,
certain
I
I
unit." didn't
was going
to hoot, but
I
know to be
responded
sir," I said.
We cruised at 8,000 feet. set us on ADF—automatic direction finding. ADF locks on to a radio frequency and the pilot I
WAR'S END
47
to the source of the transmission. It could
flies
FAA
station or a published
As we approached
became undercast
about 6,000
at
guess was that the clouds bottomed out at
We
couldn't see the ground.
Then
down
looked
I
The question
dead.
—how long had looked at
I last
turned,
I
we were by
The only job
my
Here
flat
on our
long's
feet.
The
unit
at the exact
could judge
I
known
my
when
was
same
When
stomach the
ADF
and
figure
using the time /distance formula.
Some
had was
was
to
there
sit
it.
I
location
and navigate
didn't even
—
to
know what
trying to impress Tibbets,
and the
lost.
to get out the
informed him in a
''How
I
got us
I
Reaching over
to get a fix
I
My
out.
brain raced and
ADF. Damn
eye on the
time out
away on
As my
it?
wind speed was.
first
was
been out? Five minutes? Ten?
out, I could fix our last
out where
the
It
and stomach
sorted out the options. If
had gone
copilot.
it
the
big deal.
ADF.
at the
my brain
hit
instant
keep
No
feet.
maybe 4,000
flipped the switch off, on, off, on; nothing.
I
had
was the standard
frequency. This
navigational technique in those days. Mississippi, the skies
be a commercial
maps,
tone, "Boss, the
steadied myself
I
ADF
is
out.
and
I'm trying
position."
it
been out?" he
said,
and resumed puffing
his pipe. it
What
comes. 'I'm not sure."
a picture
I
must have struck studying the map. Taking
a sideways glance at Tibbets, turbed, puffing
"Why
on
don't
I
his pipe.
take
it
I
saw him
Not a
down
sitting there
unper-
sign of anger or concern.
for a look?"
he asked calmly.
We came out from the undercast at about 3,500 feet. Below, the landscape offered few clues. We could have been over KanOklahoma or Nebraska. It was certain we were lost as and it was my fault. Scanning the terrain and considering
sas or hell,
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
48
the options, in
Oklahoma.
I
picked up a
ing to 100
set
we proceeded
we
fly
and could be due north.
north. In the distance,
of railroad tracks and a water tower. Descend-
we made us we were
a slow pass.
feet,
the tower told
drifted south
offered a suggestion that
Tibbets nodded, and I
we had
guessed that
I
The
painted on
letters
in Iowa. Strike two. Navigation
was
was positive that my new future with Paul Tibbets was going up in flames. But if he was upset, he was doing a superb job of hiding it. He broke the silence. "Now we know where we are." proving to be
We
my weak
suit. I
was getting dark. What should have been a three-hour flight had evolved into a six-hour odyssey through the Midwest. We hugged the bottom edge of the cloud changed course.
cover.
On
tower
sat
verify.
our
new
It
course
we
reached Kansas. Another water
on the horizon, and we went down to 200 feet Close but no cigar. Painted in big block letters on
to its
was "Independence." For two experienced pilots, we weren't having a good day. Yet Tibbets was still relying on and taking my suggestions. We had just started our climb back up to 500 feet when it happened: our right engine started sputtering. The oil gauge side
indicated
we were
The Martin was lost the right like a
rapidly losing oil pressure in that engine.
difficult to fly
rock with no
room
to
maneuver. For the I
but in this situation, like any told our passengers in the
With a
had great confidence pilot, I
back
final gasp, the right
wanted
to buckle
engine
quit.
first
of
many
flying feats
I
time
first
we
I felt
in Tibbets,
to be in control.
up and
On
sit tight.
a single engine,
Tibbets gradually nursed the Martin up to 1,500 the
If
engine at this altitude, the airplane could drop
the urge to take the controls.
I
with two good engines.
feet.
It
would witness him perform.
uneasiness about not being at the controls subsided. that he didn't have his safety belt on.
I
was
My
noticed
WAR^S END why
''Boss,
you
don't
let
me
fly
49
just
it,
seconds while you put your safety belt on?
hold
it
for thirty
If the left
engine
cuts out we're going to catch a cornfield."
him the closest presuming he'd want to land this
As he buckled up City,
I
told
airfield
beast
was Kansas as
soon as
possible.
"Nah. We'll press on
to Wichita,"
he said nonchalantly,
taking back the wheel. I
ran the situation through
my
one engine in an airplane that was hard both engines. Neither of us had B-26, except for this
flight.
And
much I
We
mind.
were
to control
flying
on
even with
experience in a Martin
wasn't at the controls. But
did have confidence in this man. If
I
I
wasn't flying, then the
only other pilot I'd want at the controls would be Paul Tibbets.
Of
course,
so
my
I
was
also the
guy who'd gotten us
into this mess,
vote probably didn't count for much.
''Boss,
whatever you want,"
I
repHed matter-of-factly.
un-
would be a waste express doubt. The situation
derstood the gravity of our situation, but of energy to get rattled or even to
I
it
would not improve by my getting upset. We were professionals. Staying cool and focused were the primary tools necessary to fly
through
this
problem.
Darkness was
now
swallowing the
last light
of dusk. Ap-
proaching Wichita, Tibbets took the airplane up to 2,500 for
our
final
approach and started the run
out instead of the normal two.
Wc
would
at
feet
about six miles
start
out high and
more margin on the approach. The tower was alerted that we were coming in on one engine. In sight of the field, he let up on the power a little, throttled back, and cranked in some right trim to help compensate for the lost engine as we came in. I let down the landing gear. The airplane rattled slightly as Colonel Tibbets gradually eased it down, making continuous minute adjustments on the descent. This long to give us a
little
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
50
was
it.
Long,
we had one
short, or just right,
He
shot.
held
up and kept it steady. In the last light remaining of the day, the ground was coming up to meet us. A few final slight adjustments on the stick and we were over the runway
the nose
and
down.
settling
He had made
a perfect landing.
one engine, so he
The B-26
couldn't taxi
on
the end of the runway. Fire
let it roll to
trucks rushed to each side of the aircraft.
Men came
clambering
out and onto the runway ready to douse the airplane with
foam.
I
opened the hatch, and Tibbets climbed down, followed
quickly by the spilled out ''Boss,
white-faced civilian technicians,
three
who
onto the tarmac.
you
business and
town and take care of your airplane and have the engine
hitch a ride into stay with the
I'll
changed or repaired,"
I
recommended, believing
my days No sense
that
with Paul Tibbets had come to an abrupt end. inconveniencing him more.
He as
I
bid
me
a
good evening and disappeared
into the night
stood in the darkness next to the crippled Martin B-26.
I
—and
I
was
devastated.
had.
My
I
failure to
had wanted
to
pay attention
make an impression
to the
of problems that could have gotten us skills
had been reduced
ADF
had
killed.
to leaning out the
led to a series
My
navigational
window
at
200
feet
on water tanks and making judgments about our location by the type of soil below: "Too sandy to be com country, so we must be in Oklahoma." I wondered if my
to read the printing
orders to India could be reinstated.
The next morning the colonel met me at breakfast. ''Chuck, we're taking the YB-29 back to Eglin. Make the arrangements to have the Martin ferried back; you'll fly with me," he said. "Oh, God. This in a
is
brand new B-29."
beautiftil," I
was
still
I
thought.
"I'll
be his copilot
okay.
Tibbets never mentioned the flight to Wichita. Reflecting
WAR^S END on the previous afternoon, that
had kept
I
under
ally
my
my
walked over
had gone
was
and reacted profession-
Making mistakes
in rapid, effective reaction.
con-
Boeing ramp. In a few brief days
to the
flight
deck of the sparkling YB-29,
and preparing
brand-new leather
preflight
check with Paul Tibbets. The only other crew
seat,
engineer from Boeing
who
I
B-29 to actually
into the
flight
I
standing with him.
fi-om fantasizing about getting into a
climbing up into the
was a
was
conduct during the emergency actually might
have helped boost
We
circumstances.
pilot's skill
my
cluded that
considered that he might have seen
cool, stayed focused,
difficult
human. The
I
51
settling
to conduct a
introduced
member
me
to the
operating procedures of the Superfortress.
The ing
back to Eglin was both uneventful and
flight
—although
I
did
make one
Tibbets flew, he never flight to
left
we were
said very
put,
When
the pilot's seat. During our six-hour
in a tenuous situation.
for the next three hours
flights in
interesting observation.
Wichita the day before, I'd thought he stayed in the
seat because
facilities
exhilarat-
little,
he drank
and never got up
on board.
I like
much
to the regret of
my
I
this day,
on
his pipe,
coffee, puffed
to stretch or use the toilet
to occasionally
a bomber. But again,
But on
move around on
long
followed his lead and stayed
aching bladder.
FIlfE
^^UR HEADQUARTERS AT converted truck Inside,
on
we had
trailer
Eglin for Tibbcts's operation was a
backed up against an isolated hangar.
a small office and supply room.
and B-26s
the details of securing B-17s
that
would be used
in testing the
new
to
central
was working tow the targets I
gunnery control
systems in the B-29s, and on developing schedules for the missions.
A
third B-29
would soon begin
was on
its
testing the
way
to Eglin,
and our
pilots
competing General Electric and
The problem I was running into was that we didn't have enough pilots to accommodate the demanding timetable Tibbets had been given. Sperry systems.
I
assigned Captains
to the B-29s.
We
Don
Albury,
would have
to
Bob Love, and Bob Lewis
borrow
copilots for them, as
tow ships. I scheduled myself This seemed reasonable since I had no
well as pilots and copilots for the to fly the
tow
ships.
experience in piloting a B-29. In transition
from the
fact, I
right seat to the
52
left.
hadn't even
made
the
Since our return from
WAR'S END Wichita, seat or
had been relegated
I
from a jump
pilot, this
53
was worse than being grounded.
any airplane on the base
wanted. But
I
growing frustration
tioned when, or even
if,
It
was
For a
like
had grown accustomed
I
my
copilot's
seat in the rear of the cockpit.
handcuffed, especially since
kept
from the
to observing
I
to flying
paid attention and
to myself. Paul Tibbets never
I'd ever
being
men-
in the left seat.
sit
One
afternoon a group of us was sitting at a table on the
officers'
club terrace enjoying a few cocktails before the eve-
when Colonel Tibbets came over and asked to speak with me. As we walked away from the table together, he said, matter-of-factly, "Chuck, why don't you take it up ning meal
We
tomorrow?
we
before
and
I'll
test fire the
start the target runs. It's
system on each airplane
got to be done tomorrow,
be gone for the day."
was
I
have to
command
In
elated.
of a B-29.
more than twelve hours
little
was
It
the biggest event of
my
I'd
be in
life.
**Yes, sir," I replied.
**We can go over your report when
I
get back."
hurried back to the table to share the news with
I
fiiends,
who were
my
anxious to learn what the conference had
been about. *'Hooo-eee," one of the guys shouted, and he patted
me on
the shoulder.
that Tibbets I
in
would have done
had no idea
mind
for
We were
was being asked
I
me
if
that afternoon
as the
there!
what Tibbets might have had
war grew more bloody
scheduled for takeoff at eight a.m.
plan, checked the weather,
and prepared
settled into the left-hand seat. In
sidered that
he were
to take over a job
I
had never
my
in the Pacific. I filed
my
flight
to taxi out at 7:45. I
excitement,
I
piloted a B-29 for takeoff.
hadn't con-
My
copilot
was equally inexperienced. In
theory,
down
power, gains airspeed, and eases
the runway, gives
it
full
if
one points an airplane
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
54
back on the
The
visibility
I
was
the plane should go airborne.
stick,
I
taxied out.
from the greenhouse was extraordinary.
sitting in a technological
marvel, an example of the
supremacy of American science and engineering. The B-29 was not just a collection of incremental improvements to existing simple step in the evolutionary progress of
aircraft design, a
any technology. Incorporating scores of revolutionary advances, it
was a quantum leap
fully
into the future.
pressurized cabin.
had four
It
Wright R-3350 engines, and the trol.
It
feet,
it
giant,
central
first
was capable of carrying
The B-29 had
the
first
thirty-six-cylinder
gunnery
ten-ton payloads.
fire
con-
At 30,000
could cruise easily at a ground speed of over three hun-
dred miles an hour.
It
contained hundreds of
equally important, innovations.
And
with
its
less
dramatic, but
payload capacity
become a truly independent strategic weapon capable of projecting American military action anywhere on the globe. Unbeknownst to the died-in-the-
and range, the airplane was about
to
wool army and navy devotees, who viewed the airplane as a novelty, the modem air force had taken a major step toward independence. In the
on the
fall
of 1943, production of the B-29 was progressing
even before
fast track
associated with any
famous
test pilot
new
all
aircraft
first
XB-29; an engine
crashing into a suburb of Seattle. classified top secret
army
had been worked
out.
The
Eddie Allen and his entire crew had died a
year earlier in the very
ever, the
of the quirks and problems
air
The
and not released
corps
fire
had sent
details of the crash
until after the war.
was committed
to the B-29,
it
were
How-
and pro-
duction proceeded even in the absence of a totally satisfactory flight test
program.
For a twenty-three-year-old captain for the
first
sitting at the controls
time, the geopolitical ramifications of the B-29 that
were swirling around the upper echelons of the military were
WAR^S END of
significance.
little
My job
was
to
55
fly.
Many
of the problems
with the B-29 would be addressed by the testing and training coordinated by Paul Tibbets and our unit at Eglin and later at
Grand
Island, Nebraska.
On
this
defined two-hour mission to test
morning,
fire
I
would conduct a
the central gunnery system
over the Gulf of Mexico.
know
was flying was not only a high-altitude, long-range heavy bomber but it was also the necessary vehicle to deliver a fearsome weapon, a weapon our scientists in the Manhattan Project were laboring against I
didn't
then that the airplane
I
The
the clock to develop before Hitler could.
had begun
after President
project, after
Roosevelt received a
letter
bert Einstein urging the United States to develop
weapon
before the
German
it
from Al-
an atomic
B-29 had not
scientists did. If the
already been in development,
all,
would have had
to
have been
accommodate the physical realities of the atomic bomb. No B-29 ... no delivery system. It has always been a curious coincidence to me that the bomb and the B-29, which together would have such a profound effect on the war and the created to
course of history, developed independently of each other.
With
down
the airplane pointed
from the tower, and with
the
advanced the
throttles
released the brakes,
and we
partial flaps,
to takeoff power, 2,600 rpm.
I
runway and clearance
I
eighty knots. up speed. Sixty knots I eased up on the controls and the laws of aerodynamics kicked in. I felt her Hft off the ground. At about 300 feet, with airspeed at 140 miles per hour, I ordered, "Gear up, flaps up easy,"
rolled forward, picking
my
.
.
.
on the horizon ahead. As we gained altitude I decreased power to climbing speed. When we reached 8,000 feet, we leveled off and cruised at 200 miles per hour. It was
keeping
eyes
had ever flown, behaving like a B-25. synchronized the manifold pressure and the propellers,
the easiest airplane
After I
I
I
turned the airplane over to
my
copilot.
Maj. Gen. Charles
56
With everything rpm,
and the props turning
in order
relaxed at the controls and enjoyed the
I
magnificent flying machine.
this
and most powerful airplane beautifully, with a gentle
From an
had ever flown. Yet
I
the snap of a finger.
like
flight in
the biggest, heaviest, it
responded
and precise handling of the this,
controls.
thought, in
I
wondered
I
jet today. I
lit
up a
cigar.
much
like sitting in a
The gunners were
from which they would
Plexiglas blisters,
weapons by remote
control.
At
my
at
deafening staccato
rat-a-tat-tat
sat in total
commercial
stationed in their
and
sight
fire their
the appointed position over the
"Okay
ordered the gunners,
I
we
feet in a fully pressurized cabin,
comfort in our shirtsleeves,
to test fire." Unlike the
of the .50-caliber machine gun
turrets in the unpressurized B-17, the
sound inside our
artificial
environment no longer blotted out the ambient
shirtsleeve
generated by the engines.
and the two
my
looked over to
I
see the tracers trailing away. sight,
was
of
thrill
2,000
at
fortune.
At 30,000
gulf,
It
open-cockpit Stearman PT-17 to
what seemed good
W. Sweeney
left
hum
and could
The bombardier, who had a gun
aft fuselage
gunners, reported
all firing sys-
tems normal. Our mission over the gulf was completed, and started It
home.
was time
to consider
how
to land this
son of a gun.
Although the laws of aerodynamics had "magically" off the ground,
I
had a deeper respect
of gravity, which on our
back so
to earth.
far, so, I
My
our
final
about
instincts
final
for the
this airplane it
at the
down, reduce speed, and approach
We touched down
I
lifted
us
immutable laws
approach, would be pulling us
reasoned, I'd just aim
the wheels were
On
I
had been
right
runway, make sure it
should land.
ordered the gear and flaps down.
and the nose slowly
settled forward. It
not have been a picture-perfect landing, but
it
sure
might
felt like
one.
WAR^S END
57
Those twenty hours observing had paid on, the B-29
The
was
details
numbing. The
my
would
I got.
of managing any testing program can be
mind
aircraft,
I
fly
it
support personnel, ordnance, mainteall
present multiple problems
have to be juggled, coordinated, and,
saged. In the military, redundancy
mundane
task. Triplicate is
Paperwork becomes an end the boss
this point
every chance
airplane.
nance, record keeping, and pilots that
From
off.
must have a
see to the details.
I
is
if
built into
not a measure,
in
itself.
necessary, mas-
And
it
even the most is
a mind-set.
as in private industry,
and competent number-two guy
loyal
became
that
to
number-two guy.
was often traveling to Marietta or Wichita or somewhere. If he had had to be tied to the administrative minutia of the testing program, his trips would have seriously hampered his ability to manage the program itself. Seeing an opportunity to make myself valuable and to demonstrate my loyalty to him, I just assumed the day-to-day administration of the gunnery testing program. As the base operations officer, I had the experience, knew the players at the base, and knew where to get what we needed with the least amount of red tape. The more Tibbets
weight
I
could take off the colonel's shoulders, the easier
I
make his life. And the more necessary I would be to him. The purpose of the new General Electric and Sperry central
could
gunnery control systems was direct the fire
from several
for a single
turrets
on a
gunner to control and
single target at the
same
time. Prior to this innovation, a single gunner fired at a target
from only one
turret.
The
testing protocol
was
simple.
A
tow
plane lined up on the runway. The ground crews spread out a five-foot- wide, forty-foot-long,
waxed-mesh
fabric sleeve
The tow
with a
would drag a cable attached to the mesh sleeve through the sky, and the target would trail behind. Aboard the B-29s, each gun turret target painted in black in the center.
aircraft
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
58
was loaded with ammunition having different colored tips. The B-29s and the tow plane would rendezvous over the Gulf of Mexico. After each run, the target was examined to determine
which
had
turrets
accuracy of
hit
it
and
on the
hits
at
target
what
The
rate
and
different turrets
was
proficiency.
from the
used to evaluate the competing systems.
We
had one XB-29 and two YB-29s
person scheduling the
who
flights, I
flew which aircraft. This
of Although while,
I
I
for the testing.
had complete
was a perk
flying B-29s almost exclusively
lating considerable time in them. Eventually flight
full
advantage
would take out a tow plane every once
was now
was moving program
fast.
would have more
I
for three
air force.
tempo of the war, the B-29 program
In December, Tibbets pulled
weeks and sent
accompanied by a
McCone
the
in a
and accumu-
time in the B-29 than any other pilot in the army
To keep up with
the
discretion as to
took
I
As
me
to
me
off the testing
Birmingham, Alabama,
In Birmingham, the Bechtel
flight engineer.
Modification Center was engaged in adding improve-
ments to the B-29s once they were completed in Marietta
ac-
cording to their original blueprints. The problem for the center
was test
that
it
had a backlog of upgraded B-29s and no
them. Bechtel
B-24s. Boeing
was
McCone 's
pilots
were only
modified B-29s out of Alabama. problems, the center would
When
I
skilled in flying
training Bechtel' s civilian pilots in Wichita,
but the clock was ticking. In three weeks
would be shipped
pilots to
to
fix
combat
My
I
tested fifteen
new
crew would record any
the problems,
and the airplanes
units.
returned to Eglin, the pace for completing the gun-
nery system testing was requiring our group of pilots to average 150 hours a
month
maximum of 100 stress, we set up a
in the air, well
hours.
To
stay
above the desired military
on schedule and minimize
rotation allowing pilots of the B-29s
and the
WAR^S END tow
and
ships to alternate as pilots
We
basis.
59
on a continuing
copilots
could have used more help.
men
But as quickly as young
graduated from
flight school,
they were assigned to combat school for special training. Even
though our project had top
priority, the
need
for pilots through-
out the theaters of operation in Europe and the Pacific was of
more immediate urgency. Allied air crews over Europe were suffering steady and staggering losses. Replacements were a priceless commodity in the economics of war. I asked Colonel Tibbets for more pilots, explaining that our crews' continuous schedule could lead to fatigue and might ultimately affect performance. *lf
to
go through channels," he answered,
**the
war
be over by the time the pencil pushers make a decision."
will
He
I try
decided,
'Tm
going to
call
source of highly trained pilots
an old friend who has a ready
who
could be assigned to us
without going through the chain of command."
How where?
I
could there be a cache of highly trained pilots any-
wondered, but
I
didn't ask.
Tibbets picked up the phone, had a brief conversation, and
announced, **How about
That should take the pressure off
some
tow airplanes? the guys and gi\t them
five copilots for the
relief."
'That's great, boss,"
I replied.
**We could sure use the help.
Thank you." I
told
of
learned what
them
would
tow
Out stepped pilots
five
pilots,
relieve
aircraft.
pilots arrived, a
their blue
new
that the five
flight school,
seat of the
was coming, but
On
them
the others did not.
who were for
some
I
simply
recent graduates
flights in the right
the day the C-47 carrying the
few of us waited
woman—^trim,
at the
neat,
Eisenhower jackets and
ramp
new
to greet them.
and spit-and-polished
slacks.
To
say
looked conftised would be an understatement.
my
in
fellow
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
60
With either in
more
men
the vast majority of
Europe or
in uniform,
miUtary had begun to
in the Pacific, the
effectively use the skills of
its
most of them
women, who were not
permitted by law to engage in combat. Pilots were needed for
from the plants
stateside duty to ferry aircraft
from one
field to another.
to airfields
and
So the Women's Auxiliary Service
was created under the leadership of Jackie Cochrane. Jackie, a famous aviatrix before the war and a pioneer in aviaPilots
both experienced
tion, recruited
wanted
to learn to
which no
gram was
women
pilots
and those who
She oversaw a demanding course
fly.
special favors
in
were requested or extended. The pro-
as rigorous as the
men's and
The
the finest pilots in the country.
it
produced some of
WASPs
flew in
all
kinds
many
lost
their lives in the line of duty. Their contribution to the
war
of conditions to carry out their assignments, and
has never been fully appreciated
effort
even
known
the pilots
Some
—by the
and of
my
cated,
woman
for that matter,
public. This remains a great injustice to
pilots
might have
own
initially
harbored lingering
preconceived view of what was proper
to do, but in short order these proficient, dedi-
and brave
pilots
proved invaluable to the successful com-
pletion of our testing program.
an almost
or,
their families.
doubts fed by their for a
—
fatal incident at
I
would
Denver
just
later learn firsthand in
how
proficient our
new
pilots were.
The lated a
testing
proceeded through the winter, and
mountain of data on the
system. Although others
would do
relative efficiencies of
it
each
the detailed analysis of our
became clear to the pilots system had the edge, a conclusion
data,
we accumu-
that the General Electric
would be confirmed when G.E. received the production contract. The B-29 itself, however, was getting a reputation among some pilots as being that
WAR'S END unreliable
and dangerous.
A
the airplane. Engine
fires,
monplace. The psychological dence was feeding on
Alabama.
them
It
He
them on
the
of the
effect
had become com-
pilots' lack
of confi-
two
WASPs
our unit
an unused
airfield in
that
their
way with
next.
women
two
When
Anniston,
He
out.
trained
were
that they
orders to land at Clovis.
the B-29 arrived at Clovis,
it
taxied
smiling and exuding confidence.
pilots,
clear. If
women
should have no trouble do, but
it
could
monster, then
fly this
either. True,
was a
it
at Clovis
and we had two more
My own
had no more complaints
ft"om his
—a
a B-29 to a modification center
women
modifications to military aircraft at
Denver
airfield
WASPs, Helen
on a
clear,
maintenance crew.
with the
PITOT
shop
pilots I
is for-
had taken
at Stapleton
have an adjustment made. During the war
to
took one of the
—
mod
make repairs and such centers. As my copilot,
companies had been under contract
several
men,
pilots qualified to fly the B-29.
personal experience with our
Denver
men
the problem.
ever fixed in an incident that occurred at Denver.
Field in
The
sexist thing to
was a remarkably simple way of solving
The colonel
to the
in
ramp, parked, and out from the front wheel well stepped
message was
I
pilots to
spread quickly throughout the flying community about
what happened to the
in particular,
word not get When he was satisfied
to fly the B-29.
Word
Mexico, had called Tibbets
selected
in a B-29 to
was important
ready, he sent
a group
itself.
Tibbets had an idea.
and took them
New
about the growing hesitancy of his
to ask his advice fly
who commanded
colonel
of B-29s in training at Clovis,
61
to
Gosnell.
We
arrived at the
sunny day and delivered the airplane I
had
also
been experiencing trouble
system, which measured airspeed and rate of
climb, especially critical for an instrument takeoff or landing.
The PITOT system was not
the reason
I
took the plane to the
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
62
shop, but as long as to take a look at
When we
was
I
there,
asked the maintenance chief
I
it.
arrived back at the field that evening
started snowing.
I
went over the repair
log,
and everything was
PITOT
checked off and in order, including the
had
it
By
system.
the
snow was coming down pretty hard and the backwash from our props made it appear from the cockpit that there was a blizzard outside. Visibility was close to zero. We would make an instrument takeoff and head time
we were
taxiing out, the
we had
north. Because the land rose in that direction, careful attention to our rate of climb or
we might
to
pay
run into
the ground.
We
down
rolled
up speed, the
runway at full power. As we picked became even worse. The snow was
the
visibility
whipping about the nose, creating a
total whiteout. I quickly
glanced over at the copilot's airspeed indicator and saw that reading was different from mine. At that instant the
PITOT
these readings,
I
my
rate-of-climb
couldn't
tell
was not gauge working. Without
I left
the ground.
our airspeed was passing probably eighty knots.
we were
mitted. In the space of a second full
and crash
power and pulled back on into the ground,
It
on an instrument takeoff whether
was climbing or diving once
tained
realized that
system had not been properly repaired.
working, nor was
I
I
I
We
sensed that
were com-
airborne. If
the stick,
I
main-
I
might
which might be rushing up
to
stall
meet
us because of the rise in the terrain. Standard procedure call for
power position two and
left
my
and
told
position two," lips
me
power!" But just long
when my
I
throttle
did what
enough
for
back while the wheels
commanded. The words had
barely
instincts
still
me
to
to do.
I
I
bypassed
that our rate of climb
we were
is
had been trained
are retracting. Reflexively,
'Tower
its
at full
to realize
my
conscious brain
was shallow.
I
yelled, *Tull
power. Helen had hesitated
what was happening.
It
was
WAR'S END The whole
a beautiful maneuver.
seconds, but in that time
had reduced power
as
I
63
incident lasted
we might
had ordered.
maybe
not have recovered I
ten
if
she
can't say for certain
we
would have crashed. But I am certain it was my good fortune to have a copilot whose instincts and presence of mind rendered the question moot. Fifty years
ment or
ago
I
civil rights.
wasn't thinking about the women's moveI
was thinking about completing the job
Paul Tibbets had given me. But in retrospect, in
working with
women
pilots reflects, I believe, a
aspect of military service. That
is:
When
business, he or she quickly learns that is
competence, courage, and the
One morning to-face with
the base,
my
at Eglin in
all
experience
noteworthy
a soldier finds himself
or herself in a difficult situation, which
ner
my
is
the nature of the
that counts in a part-
ability to
work
mid- January 1944,
I
together.
came
face-
childhood hero. Charles Lindbergh arrived on
accompanied by a Boeing vice
to find out about the B-29.
president.
He was
"Hap" Arnold, commanding
there
gen-
army air forces, wanted his opinion. Charles Lindbergh was an American icon, the first international celebrity, more famous at that time than any other living person. The base was buzzing. I had been assigned to take Colonel Lindbergh for his B29 ride. I was, of course, in awe of the man. I met him at lunch at the officers' club, after which we headed to the flight line. The airplane was ready when we arrived. I conducted my preflight walk-around inspection as I had done so many times before. But it was the first time I was walking around a B-29 with a living legend. Still, at that moment we were just two pilots doing what all pilots do before takeoff, visually inspecting the integrity of the nuts and bolts that collectively make up eral of the
an airplane.
Maj. Gen. Charles
64
gestured toward the forward wheel well. ''After you,
I I
W. Sweeney
said.
sir,"
followed him up the ladder and waited on the top
I
remember he turned around and looked down at me and asked, "Which seat shall I take?" 'Take the left seat, sir," I replied. I figured if his unfamiliarity with the plane caused any problems, which I sincerely rung.
I
doubted,
On
I
could
still fly
from the right-hand
side if necessary.
board with us was the Boeing vice president, who,
to-
gether with me, provided Lindbergh with an in-flight narrative of
We
the capabilities of the B-29. to
an hour.
On
flew for about forty-five minutes
our approach back to Eglin
him
advised
I
that the
knew he had flown. He brought the big bird in with no trouble. As he walked away from the airplane, he extended his hand and thanked me B-29 handled identically to the B-25, which
for the ride. I said
When
one
is
it
had been an honor
in the
I
for
me.
company of someone famous,
a tendency not to fully enjoy the
moment
until
it
there
is
has gone.
him about his solo flight over the Atlantic. I had wanted to tell him it was a feat of extraordinary skill and heroism. But I knew my job that day was to assist him in any way I could in learning about the B-29. I was happy I had been given that opportu-
Before, during,
nity. It's
It
and
after the flight, I
to ask
not every day one gets to meet his childhood hero.
was spring 1944. Our
and we were out of a war, unassigned.
No
job.
testing project
We
were
had been completed
in the
middle of a world
one seemed quite sure what
Colonel Tibbets decided to eral
had wanted
Frank Armstrong,
call
who would
to
do with
another friend of later
his.
us.
Gen-
be immortalized in a
novel and a movie. Twelve O' Clock High, for his exploits com-
manding the Eighth Air Force in Britain. General Armstrong was preparing a wing of B-29s for deployment to the Pacific, and Tibbets thought he might perhaps have a mission for us.
**
I WAS BACK
in the heartland of
From
tor of standardization.
America with a new
direc-
title,
the cornfields of Indiana to the
cornfields of Nebraska.
Paul Tibbets had been
Frank Armstrong
at
named
Grand
director of plans for General
Island, Nebraska.
Once
the military
had ordered production of sixteen hundred B-29s even bugs were
still
being worked out, the need for
to train the pilots to fly
them was
as the
flight instructors
pressing. General
Armstrong
assigned Tibbets to oversee the development of a flight instructors'
school.
I
would
identify
and standardize
all
procedures
for the operation of the aircraft.
By war
in
that time
it
Europe had
who had
landed
was
the
summer
of 1944, and the tides of
shifted to our advantage. at
The Allied
Normandy were pushing forward
France without serious opposition. Victory seemed
Some thought learn, at
forces
into
certain.
would come soon. But the world would soon the Battle of the Bulge, that the Germans were still it
65
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
66
would prove lives
German army
Underestimating the will of the
formidable.
to be a tragic miscalculation, paid for with the
of tens of thousands of young American boys.
Much
suf-
fering lay ahead, especially as our full attention turned to the
war
in the Pacific.
For our new assignment,
I
had a
staff
of assistants responsi-
ble for each of the operational areas of the aircraft: pilot, navigator, flight engineer, bombardier, gunners.
step required to fly the B-29 into
its
constituent parts,
had
to
be
Every operational
identified,
and standardized so
down crew mem-
broken
that
bers could be interchangeable from one B-29 to another or from
squadron to squadron. The work allowed ing
up hours
in the
me
B-29 and to develop a detailed knowledge
of every nut, bolt, and weld in the airplane. I
was
was
at the controls I felt like I
were
if it
my
to continue rack-
second
By
this time,
when
part of the airplane
—as
skin.
was uneventful. My wife, Dorothy, and I had an apartment downtown. We socialized with some of the guys who had come up from Eglin, but Paul Tibbets and I saw very little of each other. Our duties kept us both busy. Life at
I
Island
had met Dorothy
hospital
We
Grand
She was a nurse
at Eglin.
—and coincidentally was
fi'om
Wobum,
were introduced by the senior chaplain
Harrington,
who was
also
at the
base
Massachusetts.
for the base, Father
from Massachusetts
—Waverly.
The
Massachusetts connection was perhaps a sign, although our initial
meeting was a
One day
bit strained.
me
accompany him to the nurses' quarters at Eglin to get the altar linens, which the nurses laundered every week for the chapels. As we approached the laundry room, a group of nurses came walking toward us ft"om the ward across the way. Having the genetic wit of any Irishman, Father Harrington decided it would be Father Harrington invited
to
"
WAR^S END good fun
to introduce
me
67
Sweeney," a newly
as "Father
rived priest. Perhaps in deference to the
my
good
father, or
propeller insignia resembled a cross, the group
ar-
because
seemed
to
accept his introduction.
''Good evening, Father," they greeted
me
What
is
attracts
one person
For whatever reason,
my
attention
Dorothy McEleney. Maybe
warm, shy
eyes, or her
to another
it
was
often a mystery.
was immediately drawn
to
the sparkle in her bright blue
But there
smile.
in unison.
was, speaking to her
I
in the person of Father Sweeney.
"Wait a moment. I said,
jumping
into
may,
If I
my new
you a question," with a most solicitous tone.
I'd like to ask
role
"Yes, Father?" she responded.
"Do you
write to your mother every day?"
dering to myself where I'd
"Why
.
.
.
come up with
I
queried,
won-
that one.
almost every day. Father."
"Good. Good. And where
are
you going tonight?"
I
probed.
"To
the movies," she answered quietly.
"Do you have "Yes," she
a date?"
said,
"Is he Catholic?"
now I
I
less certain.
asked in a serious but benevolent tone.
She stammered nervously "I don't
know. Father
pressed.
.
.
.
for
an instant and then confessed,
But he's very nice
—
my
piously,
hand as if to calm her concern and said, "Well, you be careful." She nodded and promptly took
the
chance she got to gracefully
I
held up
first
flee
from
my
presence.
Happily, she was a good sport and quite forgiving started to date.
I
when we
eventually proposed marriage and she ac-
cepted, but with one proviso
—she
wanted
home. In wartime most couples got married because getting leave to go
home was
to
at the
base chapel
With both of leave at the same
difficult.
us in the army, the chance of our getting
be married at
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
68
time was
nil.
But Dorothy was
wanted
insistent that she
to get
married with her family and friends in the church she grew
up
in.
spoke to Colonel Waugh.
I
**I
he
you any
can't give
Chuck. There's a war on,"
leave,
said. *'Sir," I offered,
"I'm scheduled
was
ing flights." Since routine training
no
difference if
for
more navigational
train-
should
make
required,
it
bored holes in the sky over the Deep South
I
or in a northerly direction.
The colonel shook
"Go
said,
his head,
filed
to Boston.
my
training flight plan, arranged
on the crew
to place a certain nurse
we went
visible smile
ahead."
gassed up a B-25,
I
and with a barely
for the mission,
Dorothy was married
wedding gown with her
friends
and family
ways
in attendance.
General Armstrong that
hand was alarriving there, he recommended to be promoted to major. Armstrong
I
endorsed the recommendation and sent at
to ever
Island, Colonel Tibbets's guiding
evident. Shortly after
Air Force
off
in a flowing white
rU wager, though, that she was the first woman spend her honeymoon on board a military aircraft. At Grand
and
Colorado Springs
it
along to the Second
for approval. It
was promptly
returned "Denied," because the quota for majors in the entire
Second Air Force had been the
The denial sent Armstrong into a spin. He knew that within army there was a barely concealed antipathy jealousy,
even
—toward the
—
air corps.
had been an aversion like
filled.
to
One
promoting
MacArthur were notorious
tions to airmen.
manifestation of the attitude
For the general
pilots.
Theater commanders
for routinely officers
denying promo-
who'd
the ranks in the age of the cavalry, the air corps
risen through
was an
intrud-
WAR^S END ing burr in their saddle.
69
They had never grasped
the strategic
value of airpow^er. In Europe, Eisenhower ordered
bomb
railroad trains while
bombing
the factories
LeMay
LeMay
to
argued that he should be
where the locomotives were manufac-
was a battle of wills that would not be resolved until the air corps became independent of the army after the war. So for Armstrong, more was at stake than my little promotion. He had the reputation and the power to throw his tured. It
—
weight around.
A
member
personally called the in the ftiture if
expected
it
—
of his staff told
me
War Department and made
later that it
he
clear that
he sent a recommendation for promotion, he
to be approved. Period.
My
promotion was sum-
marily approved.
The
issue again surfaced
when two seasoned combat
returned from the Pacific and joined
my
staff.
pilots
Those guys had
extraordinary flight experience and had been in
some
pretty
heavy combat. Yet each had been frozen in rank as a
first
army officers raced past them up the chain of command. It was a disgrace that these combat veterans had been repeatedly denied promotion within General MacArlieutenant while other
thur's theater.
I
brought the problem to Tibbets's attention and,
with his permission, to General Armstrong's group operations officer.
Armstrong promoted them both
to captain
on the
spot,
waited a week, and then promoted them to major. Bing. Bing.
The army might have thought the flying machine was not there to stay, but Armstrong was making it clear that a new day was coming for the airplane and the men who flew it. Up to this point, my two and a half years in the military had been a series of assignments unencumbered by excessive supervision from above. Each posting I had been given was just sHghtly outside the usual chain of command, allowing me extraordinary freedom to carry out my assignments. I knew
W.
Maj. Gen. Charles
70
SwEE^fEY
was part of Paul Tibbets's team. I felt a bond with Paul Tibbets and a true sense of loyalty to him, which he reciprocated. He extended me respect and understanding and confidence. The time we had spent together at Eglin became the foundation of our relationship, which without question
this
was because
I
would carry me with him toward Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
we
Grand Island, Colonel Tibbets and I lost our utility airplanes which we had so inconspicuously acquired at Eglin. While we were working at Eglin, Tibbets had been ever resourceful. One late afternoon I greeted him on his After
relocated to
return there from one of his
many
trips to Marietta,
administrative offices were located.
He
taxied
up
where
his
in a brand-
new, twin-engine, ten-passenger Lockheed Vega B-34, a
fast,
versatile airplane.
"Nice airplane, boss,"
"You
think
I
and then added
said,
I
as a joke,
could get one, too?"
good boy,
"If you're a
I'll
see
what
I
can do," he
re-
sponded jokingly. "I'll
him
see that
it
on our inventory,"
gets logged
I
said to save
the trouble of doing the paperwork. All aircraft in the
military
must be accounted
by being
for
officially
inventory of aircraft located at every base.
The
placed on the
airplane then
is
assigned at each base to a wing or squadron.
"Chuck,
I
think
we want
a while. I'm going to use
be simpler
if
we
leave
it
it
keep
to
as
my
this
one off inventory
utility airplane,
and
unassigned," he replied in
for
would a most
it
convincing manner. Translation:
and
I
want
"No
I
don't want to share this airplane with anyone,
to use
it
whenever
I
want.
problem, boss."
week Colonel Tibbets called me in and told me he had located a B-26 in Dayton that I could get. This one In about a
WAR^S END would
71
my
only pilots in the military then or now, to
own
have control of our This gave lege
we became
also be off the inventory. In short order
was
I
me
utility airplanes.
we had
free time.
some time off and fly flight. As is the custom, I
managed
to
I
was
asked Tibbets
if I
could
Boston ... on another training
let it
be
known
anyone who
that
going in that direction was welcome. Dorothy
lift
to get a couple of days' leave,
and three
privi-
careful not to abuse, but our testing at Eglin
take
needed a
knowledge, to
unprecedented freedom of movement, a
winding down and
the
enlisted
men from
and so we, two
the Boston area headed
officers,
home.
stopped at Philadelphia and then at Mitchell Field on
I
Long
Island.
The weather on
we
After leaving Mitchell,
the
was
the coast
New York or maybe stage in my life when I
area.
Prudence dictated a
turn to
landing in Hartford. But
that
believed a
me from
as hell wasn't going to stop
with
this
perfect.
received a weather advisory of a
Boston
surprise nor'easter in the
way up
mind-set suffer from a
little
getting fatal
I
re-
was
at
bad weather sure
home.
Many
affliction
pilots
known
as
"gethomeitis."
my
Over
what any throat
radio
pilot
came
who
the order to return to Mitchell.
of himself would do.
is full
microphone close
my
to
I
I
did
pressed the
neck and responded,
"Do
not
They said it again as clear as a bell, but "gethomeitis" was now affecting my hearing. I turned the
copy. Say again."
my
radio I
off.
proceeded toward
worse
real fast. Ice
began
plane had no de-icers; Florida. to drier
down I
to
New
Haven. The weather was getting
to build
up on
my
wings.
The
air-
had been intended for local use in The solution to my problem was either to climb higher air, which would rid the wings of the ice, or to swoop below 1,000
was locked
it
feet,
into a preset
where the temperature was warmer.
FAA
altitude that precluded
me
from
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
72
climbing in
this
very busy air corridor where other assigned
mihtary and civiHan
aircraft
were
two hundred miles an hour
feet at
Going below 1,000
flying.
in visibility of less than half
maybe
a mile presented the prospect of catching a steeple or
running into a
Down
I
hill.
went. Because of reduced
vers to free the wings of ice, tion
and
best
I
get
was
I
I
visibility
was no longer
had
positive air traffic controllers
to
Boston Harbor. The
picked up in the
visibility
northeasterly winds.
stiff
were the naval
closest airfields
Logan Air
which
Field,
Dennison Airport
—a
At rooftop
out.
I
was
was only four thousand
feet long.
its
I
located Wollaston
me
swift kick I
luck his
we had
would have tipped
took
I
the ice-encrusted tarmac,
to use every inch of the available if
—
it
Bay
right to the
Without clearance,
Station.
As we touched down on
short runway.
better lengthwise
and the Wollaston Yacht Club, which led
go into the bay, but
Squantum or
For obvious reasons, the
didn't believe in long runways.
were going
the harbor.
the size of the old
Logan because of
Squantum wasn't any
Squantum Naval Air
saw
level, I
postage stamp. B-26s were specifically
prohibited from landing at
So Logan was
me. The
lost
I
air station at
in those days
my maneuof my loca-
knew would grew worse as the snow
pressed on toward home. Out of the haze
Navy
sure
could do was hold a compass bearing that
me
The
and
I
runway.
it
in.
knew we
We didn't
gotten any closer to the end, a
the airplane into the water.
had needed the grace of God
—and
—and both came through. Or, as a
buddies over a few beers, "Superior
some
true pilot skill
great
good
would say
to
and cunning saved
the day." I
such
had, in skill
fact,
done a superb job of
had been the
preme arrogance
in
my
result of a ability as
a
flying.
But the need for
poor decision pilot.
The
bom
truth
is,
I
of su-
could
(i
WAR^S END
73
have been a small headline in the local newspaper the next morning, another
statistic
of pilot error.
Squantum knew me. I had flown in there often. They all thought I had done a great job, an opinion that was not universally shared at that moment. As soon as I walked into the operations hut, the officer of the day handed me the phone. On the line was the military detachment officer, a captain, in charge of Logan. His tone and attitude were frostier than the weather beyond the snow- whipped windows. After formally identifying himself and getting some particulars on who I was, he proceeded to lay me out in lavender. Everyone
at
''You ignored a direct order to return to
New
lowed
tied
me.
at
been
''Civilian traffic has
York," he
up
hour. Everything's been stopped because of you. clearance.
He
We
was, of course, 100 percent
be alive that this
seemed
"Fm mate
had no idea where you were." remained unshaken as
I
to infuriate
a report
filing
threat. I
right.
still
him further. on you," he
But
for over
an
You had no
Rat-a-tat-tat
was
I
bel-
.
.
.
so glad to
his invectives escalated;
said, spitting
didn't respond, only because
I
out the
had no
ulti-
plausi-
ble excuse.
at
Then he said something that triggered an ill-timed attempt humor on my part. "I know you came up to see your girlfriend." His voice
dripped with sarcasm.
"No
sir. I
airplane,"
I
That did because
if I
did not.
I
said evenly. it.
brought It
was
my
girlfriend
with
me on
the
the absolute truth.
"Captain," he said, "enjoy your
have anything to say about
it,
flight
home,
you won't ever
fly
Then he hung up. The next two days at home were heaven. I put the unpleasant military detachment officer from Logan out of my mind. On the way back to Eglin, I made one stop at White Plains, again."
"
New
York, where Dorothy and
had
friend Bill Kelley. But he to
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
74
hoped
I
Miami
left for
Buenos Aires on business. His wife asked
way
I
could see him
When
assured her
arrived back at Eglin,
I
had gone up
know
off. I
to Marietta.
I
I
old
to catch a flight if
would
I
my
to visit with
there
was any
try.
found that Colonel Tibbets
wanted
check in and
to
let
him
was fine and ask for some more time off so that I could see my buddy off in Miami. I got him on the phone and we engaged in some general conversation. Then I popped the question, expecting a perfunceverything
tory yes, having totally forgotten about the unpleasant incident
with the captain from Logan. *
'Chuck,
I
have
in
my hand
a five-page report detailing
multiple violations," he said. Without pausing, he proceeded to read the entire report to
I'm not sure
if
me, word
for
word.
he expected a defense of some kind, but
thought a direct and simple response would save a
he didn't leave a thing
''Boss,
out. It's
I
lot time.
one hundred percent
accurate."
The
decided to
on the other end of the line remained fixed. I press on. "Boss, that night reminded me of the time
you and
were coming around Stone Mountain
silence
I
trying to land at Marietta without clearance.
mad they were when you—
"All right. All right," he relented.
could go
down
to
Without trying analysis, ability
I
He
Remember how
even added that
I
Miami. to
engage in a
must say that
I
lot
of amateur psychological
believe Tibbets respected
under those trying circumstances while
recognizing the foolishness of ness had a
in that storm,
flip side,
my
actions.
at the
my
flying
same time
But that very foolish-
the quality of being able to
overcome a
problem, do the unconventional, and succeed. In combat, that quality can
make
the difference between success
and
failure.
— WAR^S END What
is
foolish in peacetime can
beUeve the incident helped
When we
left
75
become
a virtue in war.
solidify his belief in
Eglin, Tibbets
and
I
me
I
as a pilot.
brought our two
utility
Grand Island, where we naturally expected to keep using them. Sometime after we arrived, however, the base commander inquired of his operations officer why two airplanes were always at his base even though he had no records for airplanes to
them. Taking the judicious course, Tibbets suggested that turn in our utility airplanes while the turning in
was good.
we would have
In a few short months, however,
we
our
own
private air force.
My
most memorable encounter
at
Grand
Island occurred
was assigned to give General Curtis LeMay a complete course in the B-29. The reputations of some men precede them in the same way the fear of a typhoon or other force of nature precedes the cataclysmic event. LeMay was such a man tough, brilliant, and demanding. He expected perfection and tolerated nothing less from his subordinates. As with all such
when
I
large personalities, stories circulate
from person to person that
my
opinion, the most insightful
are part story,
myth and
whether true or not, went
General teeth.
part truth. In
LeMay was
Smoking
is
never without a cigar clenched in his
not permitted near a parked airplane; any
open flame or spark could day
LeMay was
like this:
potentially set off
inspecting aircraft
on
an explosion. One
the flight line.
He
hadn't
bothered to extinguish his cigar as he approached one of the
parked airplanes. The crew chief responsible for politely
reminded
LeMay
this airplane
that his cigar might cause the air-
plane to explode. In his usual gruff tone,
LeMay
barked,
'*It
wouldn't dare," then proceeded to conduct his inspection, confident that the laws of nature didn't apply to him.
Paul Tibbets rang
me up
at
home
late
on a Friday evening
Maj. Gen. Charles
76
to
tell
me
that
LeMay would
be
Force, which
is
land Japan.
want you
I
at the
base on
command
"He's preparing to take
ing.
W. Sweeney Monday morn-
of the Twentieth Air
in the Marianas, to start missions against
personally," he said.
main-
him through the training course ''Meet him at the airplane at oh-eightto take
hundred."
as
As I hung up, I didn't quite focus on the task being assigned much as on the fact that Paul Tibbets had once again se-
lected
me
to carry out
an important assignment. But then the
enormity of training Curtis
day the typhoon would I
LeMay
hit
me. At eight a.m. Mon-
strike.
chief
was
walked around the airplane,
my
arrived at the flight line very early.
already there, and as he and
I
The crew
them up in anticipation of a formal inspection by General LeMay; such an inspection would be customary for a senior officer. At precisely 0800 the army staff car pulled up to the airplane. An aide jumped out of the front passenger side and in a single flowing movement he crew started
to assemble.
I
lined
opened the back door and snapped
men
to attention.
I
called
my
to attention.
Grabbing a handle on the door with one hand and the door
jamb with the other, the general lunged out, cigar first. LeMay was a beefy man, but quite agile. After taking a few steps toward me, he stopped and placed both hands on his hips, ignoring the salute response.
He
all
of us present held as
surveyed his surroundings, his round face
a scowl. His eyes were narrowed as fending matter.
He removed to rest
my
He
if
is
his
set in
focused on some
of-
returned a perfunctory salute.
the cigar from his mouth,
on me. Military protocol dictated
crew
we awaited
that
and I
his
gaze came
speak. "General,
ready for inspection."
"You
got any airplanes in that hangar?" he rasped.
"Yes,
sir," I replied smartly.
WAR^S END
77
''Good. Dismiss your crew. We're not going to
We're going everything
to
sit
you know about
was
in shock.
I
of the B-29.
I
was
I
totally at
LeMay,
had never conducted an extemporaneous
who were
''And bring the
flight
nut,
me
bolt,
ill
home
in the
wasn't so sure.
I
lecture
And LeMay was
while sitting on the ground.
tell
him up and demon-
to take
In the hangar, one-on-one with
reaming subordinates
—every
to
in a loud, clear tone.
had expected
strate the capabilities air.
airplane
this
commanded
gauge, and rivet," he I
and you're going
in the cockpit
today.
fly
on the B-29
legendary for
prepared.
engineer," he added,
moving past me
into the hangar.
We
settled into the cockpit
of a B-29
hangar,
sitting in the
LeMay taking the left seat. For the next three hours he peppered me with an endless stream of questions: "How many generators are
on each engine?" "Where
the fuel feed into the cylinders?"
"How
are they?"
"How
does the cooling system
work?" "What about the hydraulics? ... the brakes short break for lunch
want me
know
to tell
this airplane, to
.
.
and then three more hours. He
him how
to fly this airplane, he
understand the
does
finite
.
?"
A
didn't
wanted
to
mechanics of the
when put together made it what it was. I respected his insight. As commander of the Twentieth Air Force, if he were to use the B-29 effectively, he had to know it. I was amazed at how much I knew about the plane's inner workings. LeMay never said anything one way or the other multiple systems that
about
my
didn't
know
I
performance. if I
was
And
didn't
alive or
must have done a good
airplane.
He
his last
job.
compliment or
dead with him.
He
I
criticize.
I
concluded that
hadn't thrown
me
out of the
words of the day were, "Tomorrow we
go up."
The next morning, perhaps out of some sense of following
Maj. Gen. Charles
78
W. Sweeney
protocol with his instructor, he asked me,
me
to sit?" I
confidently replied, "Sir, take your choice."
had been any doubt, he I
could
my
As
settled into the left-hand seat.
if
there
I
knew
the plane fi-om either the pilot's or copilot's seat, so
fly
relative position wasn't
On the
"Where do you want
this
day we would
morning and one
LeMay
tions with
or no
tell
what he was
his
mind whirring. The day before,
fly
—
listened to
thinking, but
we'd
me.
As we went through
my commentary
comment. He was
as
to
two three-hour missions, one
in the evening.
ous maneuvers, little
important
all
and
business.
I
in
vari-
instruc-
couldn't
could almost hear the gears in
I
sat in a
B-29 cockpit on the ground,
looking out the nose canopy, I'd explained to the general a
phenomenon known craft
as parallax.
On
a B-29, unlike other
air-
of the time, the pilot looked out through the curved Plexi-
glas that surrounded the entire cockpit instead of through the
conventional the pilot in
flat
windshield. This curve caused a distortion for
which images appeared a
little
to the left of
they actually were, especially on the approach If the pilot failed to
when
where
landing.
compensate, he'd actually land off center
from where he thought he'd touch down. The parallax was even more pronounced
boundary
lights to fix his point
the
when
the pilot
was
relying
on
of touchdown. But until a pilot
was a hard concept to grasp. conclusion of the morning mission LeMay landed
experienced parallax,
At
at night,
without incident, a
it
little
off the center line, but nothing to
comment on. As we completed our
night mission, the general began his
approach. In the distance ahead
we
could see the landing bea-
on each side of the runway. To me, it was obvious he was making the same mistake every pilot makes the first time he experiences parallax at night. The closer cons and the boundary
lights
WAR^S END we came
79
runway, the more apparent
to the
it
became
that he
would be off center and would end up landing half on the runway and half in the mud. But he wasn't making any adjust-
As
ment.
the instructor,
over the controls. But
I
could have stepped in or even taken
I
didn't. I let
—
him continue
to
make
his
—
him and me to see how he'd react. We were at a critical moment. In a few seconds we'd be committed and would not be able to pull out. I surreptitiously moved my hands on the controls, ready to take over. I wanted him to benefit from this error, but not to the extent of risking
own
mistake to allow
a crash on touchdown.
be a son of a gun
I'll
had developed, opted retracted the gear. is
an old
many
flying
He
if
LeMay, when he
to give
realized a
full throttle,
it
problem
pulled out, and
did the smartest thing a pilot can do.
maxim:
When
in doubt,
pilots ignore that simple truth
and
It
go around. But so fly
themselves into
the ground.
Around we went, and on
the second approach he landed
dead center on the runway. Although he didn't say he appreciated
my
letting
him
than stepping in and correcting
On
our
formation
so, I believe
learn from the mistake rather it.
day he ordered up three B-29s to do some
last
flying,
which was something
that
would be of
great
importance to him during operations against the Japanese mainland.
We
did fast climbs to 30,000
He wanted
banking maneuvers. sive airplane could
do under
feet,
descents,
what
and
this
mas-
stressful conditions in flight
with
to get a feel for
similarly massive airplanes in formation. It
was moments
feet that
climb from 8,000 to 30,000
an explosive sound ripped through the
window had blown rity
after a rapid
fuselage.
A rear
out due to some minor breach in the integ-
of a seal or perhaps a crack in the window. Whatever
was, the internal pressure blew out the
window with
it
explosive
Maj. Gen. Charles
80
force.
W. Sweeney
Everything that wasn't nailed
down
in the cabin
was
sucked out the hole: paper, cushions, equipment, upholstery on the walls, everything. their safety belts on.
man
out
if
It
was
fortunate that the entire crew
had
The sudden decompression could suck
he wasn't strapped in securely.
my
immediately knew what had happened. Reaching for
I
oxygen mask,
on
strapping
He was
a
looked over toward LeMay,
I
his
No
mask.
questions,
dealing with the situation as
no if
who was no
panic.
bom
inside
hesitation,
he'd been
also
a B-29. Gradually he descended to a lower altitude. After landing, sure
I
and an honor
him good sounded
it
In usual form, he grunted something that
like '*A11 right,
took
I
luck.
some comment about what a pleahad been to fly with him, and I wished
offered
it
kid" and walked
as a high compliment, indeed.
In a few weeks, General tions with that
off.
an
air force
would culminate
LeMay would commence
opera-
of eight hundred to one thousand B-29s in the spring
massive firebombings of Japanese
and summer of 1945
cities in
in
an attempt to force
the Japanese to surrender.
Thus,
away So
I
in
I fully
expected that
I
would
finish the
war tucked
Nebraska or in some other equally uneventful
didn't
make much of
it
when Paul
Tibbets went
place.
down
to
Colorado Springs to report to General Ent. Maybe we'd get another assignment to
somewhere.
test
more B-29s or
train
more
pilots
** SElfEN
)LONEL TiBBETS TOLD US nothing about his
when he
returned on September
would be going
to
was
He made
primitive.
it
1,
new assignment
1944, except that the base he
desolate and, even by military standards, clear that
any of us
who
preferred to stay
with General Armstrong's wing at Grand Island, Nebraska, was free to
do
Those who wanted
so.
Tibbets and
I
worked
closely together during the past year test-
ing the capabilities of the B-29.
him
for it.
as
an
wanted
I
On
officer
go with him were welcome.
to
and a
I
had developed a great
pilot. I didn't
respect
need to think about
to go.
September
11, I arrived at
Wendover
Field in Utah.
It
was desolate and primitive, all right. He could have added that it was also in the middle of nowhere. Bob Hope called it Leftover, Utah. On one side was the Great Salt Lake and on the other an endless expanse of desert. The base itself was surrounded flats.
Our
for miles in all directions
by
stretches of barren salt
quarters were simple tar paper huts
81
and cement block
Maj. Gen. Charles
82
buildings squatting
on concrete
W. Sweeney The temperature would
slabs.
change from scorching heat during the day at night.
When we
to bone-chilling cold
town had a bustling town was one hundred
arrived, the closest
population of 103. The next nearest miles away.
Captain Albury, Master Sergeant John Kuharek, and a few
and
others
who were
were among a small nucleus
I
arrivals of a
group that was to become
What
my
caught
attention immediately
fifteen
was
the
first
hundred men.
that security at the
base was pervasive. Restricted areas were set up and military police were posted everywhere. Barbed wire cordoned off sections of the field. Signs
were prominently posted warning of
the importance of secrecy.
was a ets
missile-testing project,
was a
do with After
at
I
cover.
The
attended an early-morning mass on
to
my
quarters
him. In the military,
all
would
learn that this
had nothing
rockets.
came
an order.
I
true purpose of this base
Wendover, a uniformed
han,
the flight line there
missiles similar to the V-2 rock-
its
being used by the Germans. Soon
project to
At one end of
We
popcorn
it
was
my
first
security officer. Captain
and
invited
me
Sunday
McClana-
to take a ride with
the kind of invitation
you know
is
drove out into the desert. The conversation was
talk: sports,
the weather, stuff that mattered
to either of us at the
moment
got around to telling
me what
but that this
was
filled
little
the time until he
really about.
We
drove
deeper into the vast expanse of the desert, farther from any
remnant of
was a
It
civilization. brilliant,
sunny morning. The sun's glare bleached
the landscape. Nothing just the endless desert.
gent
human
was moving, there were no signs of life, I had to wonder what two fairly intelli-
beings were doing out there in the rising heat.
The jeep slowed and McClanahan surveyed our surroundings. Satisfied that this was the spot he was looking for, he
WAR^S END He
stopped.
He
got out and so did
I.
A
stopped and faced me.
We
83
walked a short
faint whistle of
distance.
wind was
the
only sound. ''Did
you ever read about
he asked in a
By pure
matter-of-fact way.
flat,
coincidence,
had appeared
that
Einstein's theory of relativity?"
had read an
I
article
about the theory
in the Saturday Evening Post in 1939.
I
had
been fascinated by the idea that unlimited quantities of pure energy could be generated from tiny particles of matter those in a piece of
wood
or rock.
answered, ''Yes," and explained the
I
stood
like
article as I
under-
it.
He
reached
down and
picked up a handful of the brownish,
grainy desert dirt and held scientists
it
he spoke.
as
He
told
me
that our
were working on a new weapon, a weapon using
The weapon would be twenty thousand times more powerful than any existing bomb. He never took his eyes from mine as he spoke. He said,
Einstein's theory.
"One bomb handful of
will reduce
an
entire city to this."
dirt into the air.
I
watched as
it
He
tossed the
scattered in the
wind.
There are some moments in
life
that stay indelibly
ded in your memory. This was one of those moments. I
would not
One
forget
—not a
didn't understand the physics
people really did), but
knew
in
ing to knock out
my
plane.
knew
One bomb.
I
(I
would
later learn that
few
certainly understood the implications.
of the terrible losses being sustained by our air crews
Europe while
air
One
I
city.
I
I
single detail.
embed-
crews were
flying
German
my
countrymen.
what amounted industries.
Many
friends, classmates,
And
to suicide missions try-
of the
lost.
in those
and neighbors. All were
them were dying. Thousands of iron bombs
tens of thousands of
Thousands of planes had been
men
— W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
84
had been dropped. But they could not destroy an reduce
entire city
to dust.
it
Now
was McClanahan teUing me
there
what those
that
men could not do, this one bomb could. If he was right, I knew we could shorten the war and end the killing. Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he wasn't. It didn't matter. We were
brave
working on a bigger, better bomb. That was understand.
American
My I
was worth
lives
instincts told
had a
telling
Any weapon
lot.
me
felt I
I
me what
no
The
should just
me
to
and save
of questions, although
him keep coming
let
to
lot
know. He I
let
me,
to
the silence
said nothing
and
sit,
tried to
reaction. silence
seemed
to last a long time, although
He went
probably only a few seconds. this
needed
trying.
perhaps looking for some reaction. give
I
that could bring victory
not to ask a
he wanted
all
on,
"You
it
was
are being told
because Colonel Tibbets has chosen you to train the crews
in the tactics
to safely drop this
and procedures necessary
weapon. To do your job you need
to
know
new
the nature of the
weapon." Again he paused. Again
'The key problem
will
possible as fast as possible. this
weapon
will
I
said nothing.
be to get the
No
aircraft as far
one's quite sure
how
away
as
powerful
be or what the blast will do."
Grand Island I had been testing the capabilities of the B-29. I had more flight time in the airplane than any other pilot in the air corps. It was a magnificent airplane. But it had some disturbing operational For the past year
problems.
It
at Eglin Field
could carry a heavy
twenty thousand pounds
on long missions,
—but
at
and then
bomb
at
load safely
— sixteen
to
high altitudes with these loads
the engines frequently overheated
and the
superchargers stalled, greatly reducing the big bird's perfor-
mance.
And
I
would
learn that, in spite of these problems, the
— WAR^S END scientists,
who were
85
anything but certain of the power of the
bomb, had calculated that the aircraft must get miles from the blast in less than one minute. I *
asked
my
first
question.
"How
heavy
is
to at least eight
the
bomb?"
'Colonel Tibbets will brief you on the information you
need
And
know.
to
never refer to
as a 'bomb.' Call
it
'gimmick' or a 'gadget,' but never a 'bomb.' "
emphasized the word
He
it
a
McClanahan
never.
would be strict beyond any previously known measures. There would be many security people, some in uniform, some in civilian clothes. Agents would stressed that security
be placed within the various they were.
I
was not
to
units.
No
one would know
assume that anyone
else
who
knew about
Even if he and I were anywhere we could never dis-
the project, not even Colonel Tibbets.
alone in a car or an airplane cuss
it.
If I
had a
the weapon,
I
—
training question or a
could discuss
it
debugged building on the base security officer. ate
removal.
''You'll
—
Any
No
problem that related to
with the colonel in one isolated,
—and only
in the presence of a
breach of security would result in immedi-
questions asked,
no explanations given
be out of here and never heard from again."
There would
later
Wendover everyone and make it clear
be a dramatic incident
at
that
would drive this point home to that no matter what your rank or position, a breach of security, no matter how minor, would be dealt with quickly and harshly. Also, my mother would tell me later that our neighbors had been visited by some very nice men from the FBI asking lots of questions about me. She thought I might be in some kind of trouble. I told her it was nothing, just the usual background check for all pilots. To this day I wonder what kind of answers
my
neighbors gave, particularly as
any youthful transgressions neighborhood.
I
I
search
might have
my memory inflicted
for
on the
Maj. Gen. Charles
86
We
W. Sweeney
As we walked, McClanahan said, 'The code name for the development of the weapon is Manhattan Project. Your unit code name will be Silverplate. Never use these two code names together under any back
started
to the jeep.
circumstances."
He
first
if I
had any questions, and
He just motioned me
to ask any.
the
me
didn't ask
and
last
I
to get into the jeep.
time he ever spoke to
me
knew not That was
about the
*
'gim-
mick." Even on the ride back our conversation was popcorn talk.
The next day discussion of
my
I
met with Colonel
"ride" with McClanahan.
an isolated building few chairs
table, a
uncomfortable
A
captain,
silently
—
at the far all
—and a whom
phone on the
assumed
to
no writing implements
to be recorded in
standard procedure for
was no
proceeded to
was a functional and
field.
Inside
wall.
be a security
No
officer,
stood
notes were taken. In
in the
we
room.
I
fact,
clearly under-
room any marmer. This would become
stood without being told that what
was not
We
standard military issue, single
I
end of the
throughout our meeting.
there were
Tibbets. There
many
discussed in this
aspects of our training.
In his usual, low-key, taciturn style, Colonel Tibbets began
by explaining that he had been given broad authority to create
would be outside the usual military chain of command. He would form a composite group that would be almost totally self-supporting. It would have its own an
entire organization that
bomber, transport, military neering, air service,
police,
and base
materiel,
ordnance, engi-
service squadrons.
I
knew he
could requisition any equipment, materiel, or personnel he
wanted from any source anywhere, without any questions being
was unheard of for the military, with its rigid bureaucracy. What was even more incredible was that a lieutenant colonel had this power, which most generals only dream of. asked. This
WAR^S END There was one
problem.
slight
name
Silverplate,
select
any personnel from any
87
.
By invoking
the unit code
Colonel Tibbets had complete authority to
command
in the military,
and
he had decided to take an entire combat-ready bomber squad-
from the 504th Group, based
ron, the 393rd,
braska. These crev^s
and even upset
in Harvard,
would be understandably suspicious from
by, their removal
their
own group
Neof,
just as
was preparing for transfer overseas and their reassignment to the Middle of Nowhere, U.S.A., with no explanation of what they would be training to do. Even though Tibbets had the it
power
what he wanted, he had the insight to know success depended on the loyalty of the men under his
to order
that his
command. That
loyalty in turn required his respect for the
and weaknesses of highly competitive men working
strengths
was
together under trying circumstances. If
I
of the training, the unusual position
should hold would be
I
to be in charge
squadron commander of the bombers. But the 393rd already
had a
whom
commander. Lieutenant Colonel
well-liked
the
men
Tom
Classen,
respected and trusted. If Classen were replaced
Wendover,
after they arrived at
it
could destroy the morale of
these highly skilled crews.
The Colonel had made wanted
tion
I
that
my
loyalty
for
was
to
me
mander. But
to
clear that
my
We
I
could have any posi-
assignment. But
him and
of the situation.
difficulty
was
to carry out
it
that
talked
it
I
I
think he
knew
would recognize the
through.
One
solution
assume the position of deputy squadron com-
this
posed two new problems.
It
would be highly
unusual for the deputy to take over the training of the crews
from the squadron commander, and undermining
Tom
it
might even be seen as
Classen's authority within the squadron.
Second, replacing the current deputy, James Hopkins, might create the
We
same morale problem
as replacing the
looked at the organizational chart.
I
commander.
noticed that a newly
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
88
created transport squadron, the 320th,
was awaiting assignment
of a permanent commander.
The 320th Transport Squadron
existed
on
the organiza-
was to be created who would requisition men
tional chart only. Unlike the 393rd, this unit
out of thin air by Colonel Tibbets,
and materiel
form the squadron. So that the unit could be
to
Major Hubert Konopacki would serve as the interim commander until a permanent one was appointed. ''Well, boss, what if I take the transport squadron?" I asked. "But for it to work," I quickly added, 'T'll need one B-29 and officially activated,
its
crew assigned
to
me
so that
I
can conduct the squadron
many
training. This shouldn't ruffle too
feathers, especially if
sold as very specialized training for a top secret mission."
it's
This arrangement would be incomprehensively strange to a military observer.
The colonel gave me that thin, reassuring smile of his. And so I became the only officer in the air corps ever to command a transport squadron and at the same time have an assignment to a It
became
bomb
squadron.
painfully obvious that
we had
a limited
amount
of time to perfect the tactics of delivery, even while the scientists
were working feverishly
functioning bomb. Although
to
complete development of a
we knew
roughly what the
bomb
would look like and weigh, it was still far from certain that the scientists would be able to fit a working "physics package" into the predetermined shape of the bomb. And, of course, the physical limitations
ments.
We
of the B-29
would be
left little
training for
room
for last-minute adjust-
months
in total isolation to
accomplish a mission that might never happen. to
have a controlled chain reaction
size of a
was one thing of uranium the
It
in a pile
room, and quite another to achieve the same
within the limited confines of a globally shaped
intended to free
fall
from 30,000
feet.
bomb
result
that
was
But our job was only
WAR^S END to be ready to deliver the
89
"gimmick." The
rest
was out of
our control.
From
the beginning
bomb
we
learned as
we
went.
of this weight and shape.
ballistic tables for
a
hooks
ten-thousand-pound weight.
hold
to
its
to trigger the complicated firing
device.
No
bomb.
mechanism
had no
No
carrying
reliable fuses
plutonium
for a
experience in the precise, high-speed, high-altitude,
sharp-banking turns the
No
We
No
critical to
reliable data
our survival
after the release
of
on what the bomb would do, or
would do anything at all. As we went along, we would also be redesigning the B-29 itself to accommodate the requirements of this special mission. even
if it
Those changes would ultimately prove ftil
completion of
my
mission on the second atomic
contribute to saving the lives of
The
essential to the success-
my
force that Albert Einstein
strike
and
crew and me.
had
motion with
set in
his
urgent plea to President Roosevelt in 1939, warning that Ger-
many
possessed the ability and resources to develop a
bomb
of
unimaginable destructive power and that any nation that had such a weapon could rule the world, was reality.
The
atomic
bomb was no
science
Germans and ons,
now
had gone beyond theory
hurtling toward
to fulfillment.
longer ''possible" but ''probable."
the Japanese were both working
and before long the Russians,
Hitler's
hoped
to
God we would
The
on atomic weap-
former
ally,
also possess the basic science. I
An
have the weapon
first.
would
**
It sat on a
dolly beside a parked reconfigured prototype of a
B-29 in the bomb-loading area, in an isolated comer of
A
Wen-
was engaged in a discussion with several other men in coveralls. It was about ten feet long, maybe five feet in diameter, and was painted mustard-yellow. We would soon refer to it and the scores of duplicates we received later as 'pumpkins" because of their shape and color. The pumpkin was a concrete-filled ten-thousand-pound replica of the final exterior design of the first plutonium bomb. In dover.
lieutenant in coveralls
*
eleven months, after considerable refinements to
Los Alamos,
New
Mexico, the
real thing
its
interior at
would take mankind
across the threshold from theoretical physics into the nuclear age.
The parked B-29 was both a reminder of the dual tracks on which our scientists in the Manhattan Project were proceeding and a testament Originally the
to the uncertainty of
bomb was
to
have been a
90
how
best to proceed.
fairly primitive
design
WAR^S END
91
using a uranium core at the end of a long gun barrel.
of uranium would be fired
down
the barrel
and
A particle
hit the
uranium
was basic atomic physics. At design seemed the most practical.
core, initiating a chain reaction. It
the beginning, the
However, the
gun
barrel
scientists
were
still
working out the minimum
dimensions into which they could build a working uranium
bomb. To accommodate the
final
design and provide a yard-
stick for the scientists, the center section of the belly of this B-
bomb bay bomb bay that
29 had been cut out from the front of the forward to the rear of
allowed for a
bomb bay, creating bomb with a maximum
its aft
a single
length of twenty-eight
would get the package for the uranium bomb down to ten feet, which could be loaded into the forward bomb bay. Only one untested uranium bomb would ever be made, and Paul Tibbets would drop it over feet.
Ultimately, the scientists
Hiroshima.
much made the
Later, the scientists solved the technical problems of a
more sophisticated plutonium implosion device that uranium bomb instantly obsolete. But for all the complex physics and sublime engineering represented by the pumpkin, there was a simple and as yet unsolved mystery facing us that morning. How would we get that oversized boulder into the airplane? No one had thought about this rather basic principle: the bomb had to be put into the plane before it could be dropped. A two-billion-dollar weapons system suddenly depended on a group of army officers and enlisted men who, although they were crackerjack ordnance men, didn't know the difference between a neutron and an electron. I introduced myself to the lieutenant and then took a few minutes to assess the situation. Inside the forward
bomb
bay,
a truss had been rigged up to the shelves at the bottom of the
bay with stanchions extending upward. At the
had been welded diagonally from comer
to
top, crossbars
comer with a hook
Maj. Gen. Charles
92
in the center to
hold the
motors had been
bomb on
W. Sweeney side
its
set into the four
by an
comers
eyelet. Electric
top of the
at the
which cables would be attached running from smaller hooks welded to four points on the pumpkin. Assuming that we could get the pumpkin into position under the bomb stanchions, to
bay,
I
had some questions about the
and the
of the hook. But
reliability
integrity of this
first
things
system
first.
we couldn't roll it under the bomb bay with the bay doors open. Nor could we get it past the nosewheel to roll it into place down to the bomb bay. Either way, we didn't have a five-foot clearance. Because of the pumpkin's
The
lieutenant
and
solution for the
and
roll
the
I
came
to a consensus that the only possible
moment was
pumpkin
five-foot diameter,
to
lift
into place
the nose off the ground
below the bomb bay. The
ground crew found a large tarpaulin, which they draped over the vertical stabilizer
damage
the elevators
on the
tail section,
on the horizontal
being careful not to stabilizer.
With
the
wheels securely chocked in place to prevent the airplane from rolling, six or eight
men on
either side of the tail pulled
down
body of the aircraft pivoting on the wheels, the nose rising. Another group rolled the dolly with the pumpkin under the nose section and down to the forward bomb bay. The nose was then lowered, with the pumpkin posion the ends of the
tioned under the
tarp, the
bomb
bay.
Rube Goldberg would have been
proud. Success, however, the
far
from
pumpkin up and connected
motors
To
was
lift
at the this
have to
lift
certain.
We
to the hook.
comers of the stanchions had
had
to get
Each of
the four
own
control.
its
ten-thousand-pound globe, the four motors would simultaneously and at the same rate of speed in
order to keep the pumpkin's weight balanced.
On
our
first try,
pumpkin went crashing to ground. Laboriously, we repositioned the pumpkin and
a cable snapped in midair and the the
still
WAR'S END tried again. Finally
we
got
it
93
bomb bay. At this bomb to the target.
attached in the
would be more efficient to roll the The solution was to build a concrete-lined
rate,
it
with a hy-
pit
The pumpkin would be loaded onto the lift and lowered into the pit. The airplane would be backed over the pit and the pumpkin would then be lifted up into the bomb bay. We made an emergency request draulic
lift,
Army
to the
fications.
months
It
like the
at a gas station.
Corps of Engineers to construct a
would be
—before
ceeded with
lift
my
November
late
was
the pit
our speci-
—approximately
ready. In the meantime,
assignment to
fly test
two pro-
I
drops of the pumpkins,
and the ground crews became most adept the system they
pit to
at loading
them with
had developed.
In late September, the crews of the 393rd
bomber squadron
found themselves in the middle of the Utah
salt flats
without
a mission and with just one B-29 available to them. Tibbets briefed the crews, telling
them
that they
war
secret project that could bring the
were part of a highly to a speedy end.
He
gave them no details about what that project was. Because
were no airplanes
there
for
them
to fly yet,
Colonel Tibbets
immediately gave them ten days' leave to go home.
them he
He
told
would be their last leave for a very long time, and them with one absolute rule not now or ever were they
this
left
—
to discuss the base, the airplanes, the training, or the fact that
they were working on a project with anyone families.
Absolutely no one.
Security
important responsibility they had. ask too
many
questions.
summarily and It
istic
Any
It
was
violation
—including
was the
single
their
most
also best if they didn't
would be
dealt with
decisively.
was already
clear at that point that the defining character-
of the project would be that nothing proceeded in orderly
sequence. There
was
so
much
to
do
in
such a limited time that
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
94
worked out on a
details
had
official
orders activating the top secret 509th Composite
to be
December
weren't even issued until
rolling basis. In fact, the
17, 1944.
Group
The breadth and
complexity of the project and the time constraints were almost
numbing. Organizational
details
were moving ahead on
their
own.
Wendover
Field
men and machines
was
ill
equipped for the massive influx of
was under way. The
that
and
field
its
lary services, designed for a small contingent of fighters,
ancil-
were
demands of a heavy bomber group. By December, over eight hundred officers and other personnel had crowded into the existing facilities, and by the end of January 1945 the number had ballooned to over fifteen hundred. Colonel Tibbets had to create an entire self-contained and self-
unsuitable for the
sustaining unit overnight port,
—
security,
communications,
armament, weather, photography, personnel,
cooks, bakers,
staff sup-
intelligence,
and candlestick makers. Supplies had
brought in and maintenance and
be made on an ongoing
facility
basis. All
to be
improvements had
of this quickly
made
to
getting
monumental challenge. Then, once the organization had been put into motion and staffed, Tibbets had to select the crews, develop unique tactics for delivering an untested weapon that might never come to and in the B-29, which be, train the crews in the new tactics the 509th into operational shape a
was the
still
— undergoing design changes — develop a strategy
weapon
unsure
if
to a target,
a functioning
The clock was was continuing to soldiers, marines,
and coordinate with
weapon could be
ticking, inflict
scientists
to get
who were
delivered in time.
and the Japanese
killing
machine
unimaginable horrors on American
airmen, and sailors struggling in the Pacific at
places like Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Saipan,
Guam,
we would
hear of
Palau, and Leyte Gulf. Back at Wendover, the atrocities our Allied prisoners of
war were enduring. Gen-
WAR'S END Sherman's oft-quoted
eral
depth of the horror.
"War
A more
95
hell" failed to
convey the
appropriate metaphor
would have
is
been Dante's Inferno. Failure for us, then,
end the war was the
A
single focus of
Wendover when verplate official
teristics
name
I arrived.
our entire
effort.
Project Alberta were already at
They served
as liaison
and the Manhattan Engineering
District,
designation for the Manhattan Project.
civilians at this stage
was
to compile data
of the pumpkin and
test
Sil-
a nondescript
The
on the
between
task of these
flying charac-
various fuses being developed
Los Alamos.
No existed.
ballistic tables for
Thus
it
racy. If the
a
would be
flight after release to
it
bomb
would
of this shape and weight yet
critical to
develop
bomb wobbled
be certain where
by
option. Helping to
small group of civilian technicians and scientists op-
erating under the code
at
was simply not an
measure the pumpkin's
bombing accuflight, no one would
ballistic tables for
or tumbled in
land.
Such a problem could be solved
refining the design of the fins to assure a true
and predictable
arc after release. But the refinements could be determined only after repetitive tists.
drops on targets had been observed by the scien-
They could then
calibrate not only the accuracy of the
intended target but also the bomb's
flight
through the
air
under
varying conditions.
We
had three bombing
ranges: Target A, at
Tonopah, Ne-
vada, near the California border; Target B, at the Salton Sea in Southern California, about
one hundred miles east of San
was anchored at the southern end of an oval-shaped lake that ran north and south; and Target C, an abandoned army air corps range near Wendover. Observation posts were set up at each range incorporating photographic cameras using high-speed film and motion picture Diego, where a large white
raft
— W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
96
cameras to record the arc and speed of the bombs' descent to the target.
Perfecting the aerodynamics for a
weight and shape was
changes were being
made
tion that affected the
at
difficult
and
of this
because
especially
first,
to the interior
bomb
exterior
tail sec-
pumpkin's shape and weight. Accurately
dropping a ten-thousand-pound globular-shaped object from 30,000 feet presented
its
own
set
of technical barriers for those
A
trying to harness the forces of the atom. that the safest place to set
up
the cameras
standard joke was
and the observation
crews was right on the bull's-eye because that was the
pumpkin would
the
and make incremental changes
in the
would study
loading area would communicate to
wanted us
which
to
bomb-
the changes the scien-
make. They might request a new
to release the
the target
me
—such as
pumpkin
the
drop protocol or
the fin design. Colonel Tibbets or a technician at the
tists
place
hit.
After each drop, the Project Alberta staff results
last
altitude at
or a change in our approach to
"up sun," ''down sun," or
to allow for better observation.
''cross
sun"
Mathematical data from these
would be preloaded into the Norden bombsight every speed and altitude of the B-29, allowing the
ballistic tests
tables for
bombardier to accurately drop the bomb. (When the time came to carry out live
bomb
drops, scientists
would be on the planes
over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to confirm the accuracy of the data they had compiled from these
tests.)
During the months of October and November we also tested the fuses for the
and
I
would have
to
bomb. As any
air
have a perfect
crew would,
fuse.
Nothing
my
crew
is
more
unsettling than a premature explosion of a conventional iron
bomb under an aircraft. Of course, who knew this was not going be tional
I
was
the only one
on board
anything close to a conven-
bomb.
Shortly after
we began
the test drops, the scientists started to
WAR^S END hang
fuses
on the pumpkin. The
Sometimes the
fuses worked,
97
were not encouraging.
results
sometimes they
perfecting a stable flying configuration for the
when
I
the
my
mission to Nagasaki.
was on approach
of the base.
My
pumpkin
bomb
would remain a nagging problem
fecting the fuses
the day of
didn't.
to Target C,
One still
Unlike
itself,
right
per-
up
to
incident occurred
within visual range
bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan, released
at the
aiming point for the designated
fuse detonated under the plane. If
we had been
target.
The
carrying even
a conventional bomb, we'd have been blown out of the sky.
My
crew and
I
were
at the pick-and-shovel level.
We
had
barely any contact with the Alberta people, even after hours.
I
thought they were billeted in a hotel in Wendover, because
I
never saw them at the
on or
officers'
off the base. I don't
but as
I
told
my
know
club or at any social functions if this
was by design or chance,
crew on day one, "This
we're trying and that's
all
is
something new
the conversation there will be. Just
do your jobs."
The atmosphere of secrecy permeated every at the base.
My
the pumpkin.
crew never engaged in any conversation about
No
comments about where for
it
level of activity
one commented on its
size,
it
—not even innocuous
shape, weight,
might be used. This
what
level of secrecy
any group of men working together so
and outgoing mail and phone
calls
it
might be, or
was very unusual
closely. All
incoming
were monitored and cen-
sored by intelligence officers, regardless of anyone's rank or position.
Reminders of security were everywhere, from a poetic
sign admonishing.
What You Hear Here What You See Here When You Leave Here Let
It
STAY HERE!
Maj. Gen. Charles
98
W. Sweeney
to the less subtly posted restricted areas patrolled
armed
who conveyed
a simple and potentially
message: Stay out unless you're authorized to be here.
lethal
The
military police
by heavily
existence of our
unheard of within a
own military police company was, in fact, bomb group in the air force and added to
the atmosphere of secrecy.
They provided a very
visible
show
of security, armed not only with standard-issue sidearms and
Garand carbines but
also with
Thompson submachine guns and
jeep-mounted .30-caliber machine guns. They weren't there to break up barroom brawls.
As
the influx of
men and
material continued through Janu-
ary 1945, barbed wire sprouted from the ground like tumble-
weed
that
blew across the vast desert expanse that had become
our home.
More and more
stricted areas,
open only
portions of the base
became
re-
to authorized personnel bearing proper
identification.
The only totally secure communications link with Los Alamos was by a single telephone line strung directly from Wendover to Los Alamos over the mountains. There was no regular telephone exchange. The line was patrolled by heavily armed security poHce. God help the fool who wandered near
The phone itself was the single phone debugged room on the base. I later learned that
that line.
in the secure,
the
room had
been lined with lead to prevent bugging or eavesdropping and that the phone was rarely unattended. Neither Wendover nor
by name. Wendover was "Site K" and Los Alamos was "Site Y." Scientists and our personnel going from Wendover to Los Alamos or to Wendover from Los Alamos never traveled directly. They would fly to Albu-
Los Alamos was ever referred
to
querque and then go on to their destination by car or truck.
Whenever our personnel went to Los Alamos via Albuquerque, they removed all insignia identifying them as army air corps and replaced
it
with Corps of Engineer insignia. Neither the
WAR^S END
99
draw any outward conpeople at Los Alamos.
casual observer nor a trained spy could
nection between the air force and the
The B-29s wouldn't arrive until December. By mid-October, B-17s were coming in so that the crews of the 393rd could begin practice bombing and navigational missions to keep their skills honed and be introduced to the demands of long-range navigation. Our actual B-29 missions could involve a threethousand-mile round-trip
flight
over water,
so
navigational
Even a minute miscalculation could result in missing the intended destination by many miles, given the distances to target. By then it was pretty clear that if the mission were ever flown, it would be flown against the Japanese. The Germans were collapsing on both the western and eastern fronts in Europe. Because of the suicidal defense the Japanese were mounting at each island assault, it was uncertain how close to Japan our base of operation would be. While General Eisenhower was training
became a high
priority.
beginning his breakout from the
Normandy beachhead
in
France in June 1944, Admiral Nimitz was launching the invasion
of Saipan,
ground and
another
stepping-stone
drawing American
Of
the 32,000 Japanese
air forces closer to
Japan.
soldiers defending the island, 28,000 died in a futile attempt to
beat back the overwhelming invasion force. Repeated suicidal
banzai attacks by the Japanese inflicted massive casualties on the
American
When
the battle
civilians
honor later,
forces
— 16,000
was
lost,
casualties, including 3,426 dead.
hundreds of Japanese soldiers and
committed suicide rather than surrender and bring
to themselves, their families,
and
their country.
dis-
A month
a few hundred more marines died in a nine-day battle
taking a flyspeck of rock in the Mariana Islands called Tinian.
Later the marines and the army, supported by the navy,
would take the
strategic island of
Iwo Jima,
just
770 miles off
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
100
the coast of Japan, at a cost of 27,000
American
casualties,
owed
including over 6,000 dead. Hundreds of B-29 crews
marines and soldiers and
lives to those
sailors
their
because disabled
B-29s returning from missions over mainland Japan were able to
make emergency Shortly after
me
my
landings at Iwo.
Wendover, Colonel Tibbets asked
arrival at
him for a briefing he was to receive from operations analyst E. J. Workman, then president of the University of New Mexico. Dr. Workman had been developing a profile of to join
Japanese fighter capabilities
at
high altitudes. Inside the secure
room, Tibbets, the ever-present security as
Workman showed
that
up
had a very
and
its
altitude air to
—
accurately. After principles,
pass at a B-29 before being unable
would
in pilots' terms, the fighter
support the aircraft and
sky for not having sufficient
make
fire
on various aerodynamic
make only one
run out of
recover and
listened
that at 30,000 feet, the Japanese Zero
a Zero could
ally
I
and proofs
that high, based
to maintain
and
detailed the mathematical calculations
limited capability to attack a target getting
officer,
lift.
By
fall
liter-
out of the
the time the Zero could
a second climb, the B-29, with
its
LAS
(indi-
cated airspeed) of over 250 miles an hour, would be long gone.
The
total
time that the Zero would be on target would be
less
than one second, assuming the B-29 took no evasive action.
To
take evasive action
verability,
make
and
would
require
altitude. In other
the airplane lighter,
we
maximum
words,
could
fly
speed,
maneu-
less weight. If
we
higher, faster,
and with
could
more maneuverability. After the briefing Tibbets remarked in typical fashion, *'Any pilot
who
can't get out of the
way
for
one second doesn't be-
long in this outfit." After Dr.
Workman
about removing
all
the
left,
the colonel asked
armament
fi-om the B-29
my
opinion
—the
turrets.
WAR^S END
—and leaving
guns, and
ammunition
in the
He
tail.
101
in just the
20mm
explained that the airplane would then be lighter
by about seven thousand pounds, which would
get us the in-
creased speed, maneuverability, and altitude. This
much more I
him
told
thought
was a
it
bomber crews
fighters, Tibbets
would
would be
valuable to the safety of the crews than the guns.
I
position of
cannon
Knowing
terrific idea.
to rely
wondered what
on I
their
the predis-
guns against enemy
thought the crews' reaction
be.
you explain your reasoning,"
'If
they'll see the
He
I
answered, 'I'm sure
advantages."
then asked
to them."
I
me
meet with the
to
would be
pilots
and
"sell the idea
the stalking horse. If the
respond well, Tibbets would
still
be
left
men
didn't
with the option of
trying another approach without having been
directly
con-
fronted by dissent firom the crews.
The 393rd had been reorganized three flight
commanders
into fifteen crews with
in charge of five crews each. All of
the pilots were intelligent
men, and
I
believed that once they
understood the science they would embrace the idea of removing the armament.
I
also believed that even at this early stage
they respected Paul Tibbets 's ability and would accept the
changes
if
he thought they were important. Tibbets could sim-
ply have ordered the changes made, but in this case, he
asking
them
was
something radical and wanted them
to accept
in-
cluded in the process. In the end, the armaments would have to
be removed
if
the mission were to have every chance for
success.
From would
a personal standpoint
get rid of the forward
of space in the cockpit. of
its
As
I
gun
loved the idea because turret,
which took up a
it
lot
big as the cockpit was, the thought
being more spacious and comfortable was music to
my
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
102
ears.
Unlike Colonel Tibbets,
liked to
I
move around
during
flight. I
decided that instead of calling a meeting of
pilots,
flight
a better approach
commanders.
If
would be
they could be
the idea back to their pilots.
we know what they make the
At
all
fifteen
to call together the three
won
first
over, they could take
they hesitated.
"How
do
capability the Zero will have in the future?" "If
high-altitude
improvements before our mission,
we'll be sitting ducks. Big sitting ducks." I let
the conversation
that everyone
and debate continue so
could get his thoughts out on the table. Then
I set
out the two
key considerations. "First,
our mission could very well end the war,"
I
offered.
"Removing the guns is just one of many risks well be facing. Our job will be to get to the target, whatever and wherever it might be. If taking the armament off increases our chances, then based on what we know today, it's the right decision."
No
questions.
"Second,"
I
continued, "no one
the use of airplanes in thinks this it
is
a
good
unanimous
Now
a better strategist about
combat than Colonel
idea, then
work." That pretty
is
we owe him
Tibbets. If he
the loyalty to
much ended
the discussion
had jumped
that hurdle
make
—except
for a
vote.
that Tibbets
and avoided any
reduction of confidence within the crews, he needed to deter-
mine
if
we
could remove the turrets ourselves and patch the
holes without ordering
new
airplanes.
squadron remove the forward
turret
I
had our engineering
and make the necessary
Then I needed to cabin was pressurized
repair to the hole in the fuselage.
strength of the patch altitudes.
when
the
Taking the plane up
to 30,000 feet could
test the
be both
inconclusive and dangerous. Inconclusive because, even
stayed up for hours,
it
would not mean
high
at
if
that the patch
we
was
WAR^S END we would need
secure;
103
to stress the patch for
an uninterrupted
and extensive period of time. Dangerous because it
if it
did blow,
could rip off a substantial piece of the fuselage.
The
equipment was at
a
in
minimum
Denver.
safe
flew the B-29 to Denver, cruising
I
altitude,
and pressurized the
up
At Denver, the doors and openings,
unpressurized.
workers inserted hoses, sealed off
sure
had pressurization
nearest modification center that
all
the
interior of the airplane, bringing the pres-
what
to the equivalent of
In a few minutes the patch blew. Tibbets decided that
new
it
would be
End
airplanes
30,000
at
feet.
of experiment.
would have
to
be manu-
removed and other design changes
factured with the turrets
As long as new airplanes were going to be ordered, he wanted them equipped with the new Curtis Electric reversible propellers that would allow the plane to stop in a shorter distance on landing, with pneumatic bomb
built in
on the assembly
line.
bay doors that snapped open and
on the
airplane,
and with
successfully complete
saving the lives of
my
Having made the verplate"
economy.
fuel injection for better fuel
These changes would prove to be
me
shut, thus decreasing air drag
my
critically
important in helping
mission over Nagasaki and in
crew and me. decision, Colonel Tibbets invoked
and asked Dayton
to order twenty-five
''Sil-
brand-new
redesigned B-29s from Boeing. Boeing selected the Martin plant in
Omaha
for this production. Engineers
clock to design the changes. ing inserted the
for eral
new
When
design into
its
worked around
the
they were completed, Boe-
assembly
line.
The decision confirmed the total independence of the 509th anyone who had any lingering question about it. Like GenFrank Armstrong.
On
the military organizational chart,
the 509th
was
command
of General Armstrong,
''attached" to the 315th
Island to Colorado Springs.
The
Bomb Wing
under the
who had moved from Grand
reality
was
that General
Arm-
Maj. Gen. Charles
104
W. Sweeney
had no authority over the 509th and didn't even know what it was training to do. When word of the redesign order got to his attention, he immediately injected himself and made strong
it
clear that
he was going to Wendover to find out what "those
guys" were doing. Given his experience with the Eighth Air Force in England and the losses sustained by his bomber com-
mand
at the
hands of the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitts, the idea
armament from the B-29s must have seemed insane. In short order he was unceremoniously told that he could not go to Wendover under any circumstances. And that of removing the
was
the end of that.
Except for two
go
to
20mm
war unarmed.
cannons
in the
tail,
the 509th
would
**
The
target was a circle with a diameter of three hundred feet painted on the ground. We were expected to drop the pumpkin into this dot from an altitude of 30,000 feet with an accuracy of impact no more than two hundred feet from the center of the target. All things considered, this was the easy part.
The problem was: once the pumpkin was replaced by the bomb, would we have enough time to get out of there after we released? Without knowing the exact explosive force that would be unleashed or even the true nature of the explosion, the scientists at
Los Alamos offered
would have from the It
their best estimate.
to get the airplane a
survive
eight miles
we
away
blast.
was
left
plish such a
how to accomthe bomb would
to Colonel Tibbets to figure out
maneuver. From 30,000
detonate forty-three seconds after
wisdom
minimum of
To
dictated that
it
was
we
feet,
released
it.
Conventional
physically impossible for the B-29,
105
Maj. Gen. Charles
106
traveling at 320 miles
away
W. Sweeney
an hour ground speed,
in forty-three seconds. If the plane
we would be approximately
blast in forty- three seconds.
were
to continue in a
bomb, given the speed of the
straight line after release of the
B-29,
to be eight miles
five miles
Not enough.
We
away from the could be blown
out of the sky.
was
Tibbets's answer to the problem
of course, would be released before
On
the target. as
the
release,
airplane,
speed, then
fall
it
would
we were
The bomb,
over the center of
initially travel at the
same speed
approximately 320 miles per hour ground
toward the
in a trajectory
a classic geometric formula a
brilliant.
we
all
target. Tibbets
used
learned in junior high school,
from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, that calculates
gift
the distance from a point diately
upon
release,
on a tangent
we banked
If,
imme-
the B-29 into a sharp, rapid,
—going back
diving 155-degree turn
came from
to a semicircle.
in the
same
direction
in a tight arc, or a tangent to a semicircle
—
we we
could take the airplane eight slant-range miles or more away
from the
blast in forty- three seconds,
even though the maneuver
would reduce our altitude by about seventeen hundred feet. It was a totally unheard-of tactic for bomber pilots trained to fly in tight formations into and away from the target. But once Tibbets had devised it.
There were no training
was up to the pilots to execute schools or manuals on this one. We
it,
it
would have to train ourselves. The irony was that once we perfected got the airplane up to twelve miles away in were
was
still
the
maneuver and
time, the scientists
not completely sure that that would be enough. This
to be the
tested live
first
bomb used
from an airplane.
what would happen
in
We
until after
combat
that
had not been
would never know the atomic bomb was
for sure
actually
dropped.
With
the arrival of the B-29s in
November, Tibbets wanted
WAR^S END
107
bombing accuracy and perfection of the evasive maneuver. The first of our new redesigned airplanes would not be delivered until the spring of 1945, but the B-29s available to us would serve the immediate task at hand. Tibbets and his crew and my crew and I led by example in intense practice to begin for
Day
executing the maneuver.
day the crews ran missions
after
over our three bombing ranges in the desert and on the Salton Sea. Pilots
who
tional special training.
best each
man
master the technique were given addi-
failed to
The
and
crews
air
times around the clock. all
was
there to milk the very
could deliver. All elements of the groups
neering, support,
Although
pressure
the crews
—worked
had
It
made good
ciency, of the fifteen crews, three
and
The nucleus of
engi-
and some-
be picture-perfect
right.
progress in improved profi-
began
to
emerge with the
Colonel Tibbets 's crew, Captain Claude
best overall results:
Eatherly's crew,
to
tirelessly
—
my
crew.
the 509th
had been formed when Tibbets
Don Albury and Bob Lewis, flight engineer John and me to join him at Wendover. He specifically
invited pilots
Kuharek,
requested three combat veterans be assigned to him: ebee, his bombardier;
Dutch Van Kirk,
bardier Kermit Beahan,
North tor,
Afi"ica
Jim Van
all
of
whom
his navigator;
Tom
Fer-
and bom-
had served with him
in
and England. Another highly experienced navigaPelt,
of Ferebee and
was brought along on
Van
two crews, one
Kirk.
From
for himself
this core
the
group Tibbets formed
and the other
consisted of Lewis as his copilot, Ferebee,
crew had Albury as
copilot,
recommendation
Kuharek, Van
for
me. His crew
and Van Kirk. Pelt,
My
and Beahan.
The rest of the crews would soon be filled out by Tibbets based on recommendations received from his key people. When he or I was not flying as airplane commander, our copilots, Lewis and Albury, took command of our crews, an arrangement unique to Tibbets and me.
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
108
Our
past experience with testing the B-29 over an extended
period of time gave our crews an advantage over other highly
quahfied pilots Pilots are
who came
through in the training exercises.
by nature competitive. Intensifying
this natural ten-
dency were the isolation of Wendover, the relentlessness of the training,
and the uncertainty about what we were
training to
For the most part the competition was good-natured and
do.
the degree of cooperation
A
plary.
sense of
among
common
all
the personnel
was exem-
cause bound us together in this
desolate place to train for an ultrasecret mission that might end
the war.
Although, as with any group, problems and conflicts would arise, the
colonel kept his focus squarely
weapon
the
fools
—
this goal
to a point, overlook indiscretions
and even
men
To meet
to a target.
tolerate
on one
odd behavior—
^but
—
if
only
if
object: deliver
he would
suffer
they were small, the skills of the
involved justified keeping them.
Being encapsulated in
this isolated place
under heavy guard
and constant surveillance was wearing not only on the men but also
on
who had joined
their families
driven to
Wendover from Grand
cylinder Pontiac coupe
Albury and their car.
first
ming. Dorothy was
enne.
of
I
night out ill
in
tandem with us
pulled into Cheyenne,
in
Wyo-
with a high fever, and our car was on
having struggled up the Rocky Mountains to Chey-
recommended
warm
had
Don
in Florida for $250.
had driven
we
I
Island in a beat-up 1938 eight-
had bought
his wife, Roberta,
The
its last legs,
I
them. Dorothy and
to
Dorothy a time-tested remedy
—a
glass
milk with two shots of straight 100-proof bourbon.
She went out
like a light
and the next morning was
feeling fine.
The Pontiac was another matter. A mechanic at the local service station confirmed what I had already suspected: the compression in the engine was at about 28 percent of what it
WAR^S END should have been. Since the ous,
109
of the
rest
trip
would be
me
asked him to do what he could just to get
I
He poured some
Lake.
less ardu-
to Salt
crankcase and off
elixir into the
we
went, this time descending toward the Great American Desert
and Wendover. Whatever he put
worked. The Pontiac
in there
limped into Rock Spring, Wyoming, that afternoon, the next
day into
Salt
Lake
and
City,
on
finally,
the fourth day, into
Wendover. Living accommodations at the base were Spartan and in short supply. Priority for base housing
personnel with critically needed tled to
accommodations
As an
skills.
to civilian
officer, I
was
enti-
at the bachelor officers' quarters. Mili-
tary dependents, however,
had
had resigned her commission
now
was given
to fend for themselves. after
Dorothy
we were married and was
a civilian nurse at the base, which qualified us for base
Our
housing.
house was a two-room, twenty-foot-by-
first
twenty-foot concrete block structure with a concrete slab floor,
which was how
all
housing
at
had a bedroom and an all-purpose room, you name
move
it.
for heat
at
sibilities,
room, kitchen,
rest
We
and the other
had two coal
liv-
stoves,
for cooking. It was,
by
palatial.
For Dorothy and tough
living
house with two bedrooms, a
ing room, a kitchen, and a bath.
comparison,
We
Later, Colonel Tibbets arranged for us to
into a larger four-room
one potbelly
constructed.
Wendover was
all
the other wives
Wendover. The men
at least
as difficult as those jobs
had been plunked down less sand, dust,
mice,
had
life
was
particularly
their military respon-
might be. But the
in a barren outpost to
rats, bitter cold,
women
cope with end-
wilting heat,
and
isola-
was made more palpable because we couldn't tell our families anything about what we were doing. This kind of secrecy would invite strains for any married couple. The base wives also had to live every day with the reality
tion.
The
isolation
Maj. Gen. Charles
110
W. Sweeney
that their husbands might be sent overseas
never complained or pressed
me
to bring her to this place or
what
why
about I
and
Dorothy
killed.
had volunteered
I
was doing
there. Instead,
she dedicated herself to her job as a civilian nurse at the base hospital.
we were young and resilient. We found a way own fun and entertainment. Dorothy and I invited
Fortunately, to
make our
our friends over for dinner, and they
We
us.
ran dances and
other events at the officers' club. This drew us
confronting our
When we
common
ventured outside of the base, even the town
dead center on the
distant
Lake
together in
condition.
reminded no one of home. Wendover had a It sits
all
line dividing
split personality.
Nevada and Utah,
between Elko, Nevada, 125 miles
itself
equi-
and
to the west,
Salt
City, 125 miles to the east at the southern tip of the Great
Salt Lake.
Half the town was
was wide-open, no holds
When we dining
Mormon
barred,
freewheeling
Nevada
wet.
dined at the local State Line Hotel, one half of the
room
served us cocktails with our meal, but the other
side could not.
To our
wine,
left,
women, and song
mention unrestricted gambling. To our straint.
dry and the other half
These two
cities in
right,
—not
buttoned-up
to re-
one location could have been on
different planets.
The combination of our living conditions and our training drew the crews closer together. Like most airplane commanders, I tended to spend much of my time with my crew. Each
man brought a unique but complementary strength to our common cause. As a unit, we developed unquestioning faith in the character, ability,
Captain testing
Don
program
and judgment of each Albury and
at Eglin.
tempered professional
I
had worked together
He was
—and a
other.
since the
a steady, unflappable, even-
skilled pilot.
I
knew
that
I
could
WAR^S END
111
count on him without question, regardless of the situation. Cap-
Jim Van
tain
With a man
navigator.
me by
assigned to
Pelt,
Jim on
like
Tibbets, excelled as a
my
team
had the luxury
I
of not worrying about anything except flying the airplane. Jim
would guide me to where I was supposed to be and get me home on a true and efficient course. John Kuharek, my flight engineer at Eglin, was reliable and resourceful.
most out of the airplane and was a second pair of
to get the
me
eyes for
He knew how
in monitoring the various aircraft systems in flight.
And finally there was Kermit Beahan, my bombardier. Of all the men I knew during the war, he was the most generous, engaging, and full of life. He had an enthusiasm for life, a zest
—not
for living
any flamboyant or overbearing way, but with
in
a genuine joy that attracted people to him. People liked being
around Kermit. With
you
feel at ease.
his slow, southeast
Kermit was a true
Texas drawl, he made
artist
with a bombsight.
If
bomb to its intended target, he was the man to do it. When we named our B-29, 1 decided to let the crew offer ideas and then vote on it. The name that emerged as it
was
the
possible to deliver a
unanimous
favorite was, in
honor of Kermit, The Great
was a double entendre. Kermit was not only an artiste with the Norden bombsight, he was also an artiste with the ladies. His charm and sense of humor attracted women. They
Artiste. It
loved him.
But Kermit was charmer.
He had
far
more than a
skilled technician or a
survived extensive combat in North Africa
and Europe, had been shot down four times
had once survived a crash landing killed his pilot
and
ences was a slight
copilot. stutter,
and
in combat,
in the African desert that
The only
residue of these experi-
a reminder of the trauma that
fol-
lowed most of the airmen who survived the meat grinder of the air
how
war
steadily
in Europe.
It
was
and calmly he
therefore extraordinary to
carried out his duties.
When
me
Ker-
Maj. Gen. Charles
112
mit leaned over the bombsight, entire
He
world around him.
it
W. Sweeney was
as
if
he closed off the
concentrated on the target with
was happening around minute adjustments that meant
single-mindedness, regardless of what
made
him. His steady hand
the
the difference between hitting the target or hitting something
In those
unintended.
bombs,
we had no
days,
just the skill of
men working
laser-guided
smart
together.
was Kermit whom Colonel Tibbets chose in December 1944 to go to England to consult with the Royal Air Force about a carrying hook for our bomb. The RAF was dropping ten-thousand-pound conventional iron bombs, and Tibbets wanted an assessment of whether their hook could accommoIt
pumpkins we were dropping. Based on what Kermit learned, we requisitioned sample hooks and blueprints from the British. With some modification, this is what we used. date the
I
should note
vacation. During Kermit's
was no
this trip
Germans were showering London with V-2 rockets. For all its starkness, Wendover was at least safe. Claude Fatherly had come in with the 393rd. He was a charmer of a different stripe. A good-looking guy, in the mold
visit,
the
of a hotshot
pilot,
at times, reckless.
he was flamboyant,
Claude liked
to
and
erratic, impulsive,
gamble and was not averse
to getting embroiled in fights with the local constabulary
our security people. Our
outfit's
one scheme or another brewing. a guy you couldn't
No
resist.
couldn't stay upset at him.
I
and
Sergeant Bilko, he always had
He
lived
life big.
He was
also
matter what he did, the guys
liked him.
He was
a fun guy to
be around, to have a beer with, and he always had an original tall tale
to
tell.
experienced
But above
pilot.
He had
all else,
Claude was a seasoned and
the ability to fly with great precision;
during our training sessions, he handled every type of simulated
emergency
situation
I
threw
at
him with competence and
cool.
After the missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been
WAR^S END completed, and while
we were
often remark that he
was going
the atomic is
the one
believe
fabricated the story that he
had witnessed the
story
bomb
make
to
after the war.
dropping of the atomic the blast
on Tinian, Claude would
money off he came close. He
bombings
who
still
113
I
a ton of
over Hiroshima and that seeing
made such an impact on him he went
emerged
ful insanity
in
Texas
after the war. It
was
The
crazy.
part of his success-
defense in federal district court. Claude had been
arrested in Texas
and
tried in federal court for
armed robbery
of a general store that happened to house a United States Post Office.
He
beat the rap and gained notoriety for a while.
press, naturally, picked
And
up
The
his story without ever verifying
it.
year after year the story gained more acceptance with each
reprinting in the newspapers. If
check, they
any reporters had bothered
would have learned
that
witness the atomic blast, he had, in
to
Claude not only didn't fact,
flown one of the
weather planes on August 6 that was nowhere near Hiroshima at the life
of
time of the its
own
blast.
But once in print the story took on a
that persists to this day.
Claude did indeed have
a sad time after the war. But his tale about witnessing the blast is
not true. In true Eatherly
style,
however,
it
did get
him out
of a jam.
Then
was Bob Lewis. Bob had been with Tibbets from the start of the B-29 testing program back at Eglin. He was one of the most experienced and capable B-29 pilots in the air force, there
having benefited from Tibbets 's guiding hand. But unlike Tibbets,
who was
to establish
reserved and self-assured, Lewis seemed driven
an aura about himself as a
fearless
bomber
pilot.
Competition among the crews to score high in their proficiency
was healthy and always coUegial. For Bob Lewis, however, it was more. He wanted to be the best so he could stand apart from all the other pilots. His style wore thin with many
ratings
in
our squadron.
Maj. Gen. Charles
114
W. Sweeney
As Colonel Tibbets became more enmeshed in the overall management of the 509th, Lewis lost what he thought was a
He
special one-to-one relationship with him.
suspect,
at
became more
an unauthorized
Wendover, and
more
later
lieved that he,
when
Once he took an airplane Christmas. As time passed Lewis became a more and
erratic.
home
trip
for
on Tinian,
As
disagreeable fellow.
airplane
incredible as
sounds, he be-
it
and not Paul Tibbets, would command the
we were
the mission
was flown. popular myths that
have surrounded the atomic missions and the
To my knowledge,
historical record.
Sometime
of press attention
when he
own
done!"
A
by Paul Tibbets's
flew
agendas, distorted the
after the war,
reported that
Lewis attracted a
upon
reflective, remorseful,
copilot. Unfortunately,
lot
seeing the explo-
"My
sion over Hiroshima he'd entered in his log,
we
men who
they are the only two from the crews
of the 393rd who, to pursue their
have
strike
training for
Lewis, like Eatherly, also added to the
them.
I
by a more outward show of odd behavior. Over time,
his behavior for
compensated,
God, what
and dramatic remark it
didn't
happen
way. Not only would such a statement have been
that
totally out
Bob Lewis, but, in fact, he said quite the opposite at the time. As heard by members of the crew on the flight deck, and told to me many times thereafter, what Bob actually
of character for
said was, *'My
God, look
entry in the log says only is
that, after the flight,
at that
son of a bitch go!" His written
"My God." What
I
can say directly
Lewis was excited and elated that the
mission had been a success, as was everyone
no expressions of doubt or remorse.
We
else.
There were
had done our
job.
November and into December. All the crews were becoming more comfortable with carrying the ten-thousand-pound pumpkin and gaining more confidence in executing the quick banking maneuver. MeanThe
training continued through
WAR^S END
115 *
more personnel were pouring into Wendover. An endless stream of civilian and military liaisons with the Manhattan Project were coming and going. Each visit of scientists brought some further refinement or new idea to facilitate our mission. while,
This, of course, only
who would
509th that,
added
to the difficulties of those in the
be required to make those changes.
not unlike our surroundings,
we were
seemed
It
operating on a base
of shifting sands.
During the
of December, after Beahan had been
latter part
dispatched to England, an ordnance officer assigned to Project Alberta arrived to
would
a major, sat
Tom was
me
earlier in the
For
ftise.
this test,
Tom
Ferebee
in Kermit's absence.
day about the
fuse.
way he spoke
to
My
first
we were
Tom
officer,
briefed
impression
at his disposal,
before and during
flight.
Tom canopy, the IP, I
new
major seemed to think
that this
particularly in the
the
a
The ordnance behind Albury and me. The officer had
with
fly
test
took his position as bombardier in the front of the sitting
which
made our
over the bombsight. Reaching the
is
initial point,
where we would begin a bomb run,
final adjustments.
We
Tom
and
approached the AP, or aim-
Tom would release the bomb. Prior to arriving Tom had set the series of switches necessary to
ing point, where at the
AP,
activate the electrical circuits to release the
aiming point in his crosshairs, he I
said,
bomb. With the
"Bomb away."
immediately took the airplane into a 155-degree turn as
quickly as
could.
I
''Chuck, the
bomb
Tom
looked over his shoulder and
said,
didn't release."
He'd barely gotten the words out when the ordnance with some expression of disgust,
moved
officer,
clumsily past me,
reached over Tom's shoulder, and pushed the backup manual release lever, causing the
we were
still
bomb
to fall
from the bomb bay while
in a steep turn. Luckily, the
bomb
cleared the
Maj. Gen. Charles
116
W. Sweeney
doors and the side of the airplane and
could just as
fell free. It
have struck the doors or side of the airplane while
easily
were banking
and damaged the
to the right
we
airplane. Five tons
of concrete striking the plane at this angle could have had catastrophic results.
moment
rarely get angry in flight, but at that
I
my
hardly control
deeply offended me. After incident,
doomed
us
all
we had gone
through without an
on
my
airplane,
could have
Under no circumstances should he have
all.
fered with the bombardier
member
what he had done
a guest
stranger,
this
stupidity of
The
rage.
could
I
—
or, for that matter,
inter-
with any other
of the crew or the equipment on board. The proper
procedure in such a situation would be to check the circuits
and go around again. Whatever had possessed this dolt to do such a knuckleheaded thing was beyond me. I don't recall all the adjectives that gushed forth, but
I
know
there
was
little I
didn't call this guy.
When we continued my
landed,
harangue on the tarmac in front of a gathering
crowd. This was the I
lost
my
chased him out of the airplane and
I
and only time during our
first
temper, and in so public a way. Tibbets and
come running down to the something had obviously gone wrong with
other brass had
clear to this
them and everyone within earshot
guy near me,
Having spent
my
my
far.
ing and the atta-boy look.
again.
at
Wendover
I
some
flight line
because
the
made
that
crew, or any aircraft
outrage,
had perhaps gone too remained
project that
I
test. I I
never wanted
ever flew again.
glanced over at Tibbets to see
But
Not
I
it
if I
could see that wry smile break-
surprisingly, although this
for a while,
major
he never came near
me
**
Two SIGNIFICANT EVENTS ficially
my
took
command
Coincided on January
6,
1945.
I of-
of the 320th Troop Carrier Squadron,
command, and advance elements of a small contingent from the 509th were en route to the warmer climes first official
of Cuba.
Because of the need to move
around quickly to top in his organization
men and
secret locations,
top secret materiel
Paul Tibbets included
an independent transport squadron under
command. His organic fleet of C-46s, C-47s, and four-engine C-54s freed him from having to rely on any other commander or justify his transport requirements. This unusual
his direct
arrangement added to the aura of the 509th as something mysterious
and
level of
special.
As with
everything else
we
independence unheard of in the army
bets 's transports ferried scientists to
and
Albuquerque and provided him with
fi-om
did,
it
was a
air force. Tib-
Los Alamos via
flexibility
going to and
from Wendover, Colorado Springs, Los Alamos, and Washing117
Ma
118
ton,
J.
Gen. Charles
D.C. Being independent also
flight
W. Sweeney
we were
plans to conceal where
our
facilitated
filing
of false
actually going,
which
prevented prying eyes from being able to draw any conclusions or
make any
The
connections.
transport squadron proved indis-
pensable to moving our operations and the to Tinian rapidly
and
bomb components
to continuing ferry services
United States and Tinian, Guam, and Saipan. as the
Green Hornet
The
It
between the
became known
Airlines.
transport squadron
had been activated on December
and remained under the temporary command of Major Hubert Konopacki until I assumed the post. At five a.m. on the previous day, in the dense and fog-shrouded forest of 17,
1944,
the Ardennes in Belgium, eight
German Panzer
divisions sud-
denly and furiously sliced through Allied lines along a seventy-
German army had no
mile front. Having concluded that the
wage an offensive. General Eisenhower and his intelligence staff had gravely underestimated both the fanatical reability to
solve of Hitler to fight on, in spite of the obvious futility of
continuing the war, and the will of the their Fiihrer
Wehrmacht
to fight for
and the Fatherland.
The high command,
believing the
war
in
Europe was
just
about over, transported seasoned troops to the Pacific theater
and replaced them along the
Ardennes
front in the
forest
with
green recruits. These young recruits ultimately faced Hitler's
most combat-hardened
units,
including the infamous Death
Squads of the Waffen SS. The Germans moved a quarter of a million
men
to within a
few hundred
feet
of the American
forward positions without being detected.
Although the offensive was
macht could
split
finally halted before the
the Allied forces
and reach the
regained the lost territory only after a
sea, the Allies
bitter, barbaric,
counteroffensive. Foot by foot they pushed back the for the next
Wehr-
and
costly
Germans
month. In the end, more American soldiers were
WAR^S END killed
burg,
and wounded which for
had been the bloodiest
until then
As
which could prolong the
situation,
in Europe, the thought crossed
my mind
group might be called upon to deliver a to
Ameri-
reports filtered back to us about the extent of
and the desperate
the battle
battle in
It
ultimate price.
war
in the Battle of the Bulge than at Gettys-
was a tragic miscalculation of the nature of the which ten of thousands of young Americans paid the
can history.
enemy
119
.
final
that
blow
maybe our
to the
Nazis
stem the onslaught.
Prior to taking
command
of the transport squadron,
I
was
busy training the bomber crews and testing the pumpkins. key element of the training in the
air
had
A
yet to be addressed:
long-range overwater navigation. Winter had arrived early to the salt
and November and December had been bone-
flats,
chilling.
I
discussed with Tibbets a plan to start long-range
flights
over the ocean.
head
toward
—not
toward
We
would take
—not —Anchorage, —Hawaii, and to
off
from Wendover and
then
turn
southwest
back to
finally turn northeast
to
Wendover, forming a three-thousand-mile round-trip
in the
shape of a triangle. The exercise would provide the necessary training for the navigators.
Tibbets listened to plish the
my plan
same purpose with
understood immediately. If
and asked
if
we
couldn't accom-
exercises over the Caribbean. I
we had
to train over water,
not find a warm, more pleasant base of operation to It
was a master
stroke
men
by an
officer
fly
why
from?
concerned about the well-
command. Tensions had been building within the unit. More and more of the guys were blowing off steam in the local bars in Wendover and Salt Lake. Fights, disputes, and general ill will were becoming more prevalent, a sure sign that the crews needed some release, some reward for their hard work. A change of scenery to the south would fill
being of the
in his
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
120
the
bill.
Tibbets found a
way
to reduce the stress
the high-intensity training for the project
Plans were
made
on
and
still
keep
track.
to take a cadre of five crews to Batista
Field in Cuba, together with a small contingent of support per-
by transport
sonnel. Colonel Tibbets arrived at Batista Field
ahead of the
were assigned
ters
on
Before he settled
units.
their arrival.
beds.
It
was
for every
in,
man and
he saw to
it
that meals
that quar-
were ready
Late into the night he was seen helping
the kind of thing an enlisted
man
make
wouldn't soon
forget.
Havana was
a party town, and the locals
perience with people
who
had longtime
took their reveling seriously:
ex-
tourists,
businessmen, politicians, mobsters. The 509th rose to the occasion.
For a month, when
gambled all
in the casinos, took in the shows, dined,
made
the
most of
this island paradise.
stories for the locals to tell
long after
we were
Some
and left
men
and about
their penitentiary-style life at
behind
among
Wendover, now out
saw themselves for military unit. A comer had
in the general population, they
what they were, a been turned to the
in
were part of the 509th Composite Group.
that they
Sprung from
all
gone. This experi-
ence also had the benefit of solidifying a sense of pride the
swam,
off duty, our crews partied,
special
and
in unit cohesion.
elite
The 509th now meant something
men.
LeMay moved to Guam to take over the XXI Bomber Command of the Twentieth Air Force. Although the Twentieth Air Force was in General Mac Arthur's theater, General Hap Arnold had intentionally headquartered In January 1945 Curtis
the Twentieth in Washington, D.C., technically outside of the theater.
Command
mander
to
have
protocol
tactical
units within his theater.
and
would be
for the
theater
com-
strategic control of all military
By keeping
his headquarters in
Wash-
WAR^S END Arnold had prevented
ington, General
121
Mac Arthur from
order-
ing or controlling operations of the air force in the Pacific. For the
first
and execute
time, the air force could develop
strategic
war could become an
missions, rather than be an ancillary force to the ground
MacArthur
that
v^as fighting.
The
air force
independent force in the Pacific theater.
LeMay was in the Pacific, to
do
it.
and he was
air force
could win the war
positive that the B-29
was
the plane
But the B-29 was having problems. The high-altitude
tactics that
so
determined that his
he had perfected with the B-17, and that had proven
successful
the
against
Germans, were
failing
miserably
The overall effect of the B-29 bombing raids of date had been at best inconclusive. The Superfortresses
against Japan.
Japan to
were experiencing high
rates of
mechanical
failures, forcing a
number to abort missions. Bombing accuracy from 30,000 feet was abysmal. During the month of January, most of the targets in Japan bombed by B-29s had suffered little damage. Japanese production of war materiel continued unsizable
abated while Japan's industries remained unscathed. Unless Japan's industrial output could be disrupted and the will of
its
war machine would remain robust and ready to meet the advancing American forces. Such a prospect was chilling to our commanders, who would be military broken, the Japanese
sending their troops to fight yet another bloody land battle against forces yet again prepared to fight to the death in defense
—
of their territory
LeMay had mended ing,
several
this
time the mainland.
a solution, which Paul Tibbets had recom-
months
earlier.
Instead of high-altitude
he would send hundreds of B-29s in
bomb-
at 8,000 feet at night.
Each airplane would carry thousands of pounds of incendiary bombs filled with napalm, which would incinerate entire Japanese cities and the war industries located in them. The tactic would take advantage of the mostly wooden structures built in
Maj. Gen. Charles
122
Japan and the
Japanese had concentrated their
fact that the
major war industries
in the hearts of
LeMay's goal was not
bomb
to
destroy Japan's industrial capacity. his pilots
would drop
W. Sweeney
leaflets
most of
their large cities.
civilians.
He wanted
to
The night before a mission
over target
cities
warning
civilians
bombing was imminent and they should evacuate. If his plans were to bomb two cities, leaflets would be dropped over four. The Japanese military, however, with the assent of that the
the political leaders, explicitly kept the civilians in harm's way.
When Kyoto
first
appeared on a
expressed opposition.
He
list
of bomber targets,
LeMay
preferred Hiroshima because of
its
concentration of troops and factories.
Having assembled
five
wings of B-29s on Guam, Tinian,
and Saipan, LeMay commenced the most intense
air
campaign
of the war against Japan starting in February. The firebombings
was incinerated. The fires, started by the napalm and fueled by the burning wooden structures, consumed all the available oxygen in the area. The lack of oxygen would cause a vacuum that generated high-velocity winds that would implode, fiirther intensifying and spreading were
horrific.
City after city
the ever-consuming
Fahrenheit. it
fires.
The napalm
Temperatures exceeded 2,000 degrees itself
was an
could not be extinguished.
surface
it
It
insidious
splattered
March
and stuck
to
any
struck: a building, a house, a person.
In mid-March the campaign reached
of
weapon because
9,
its
apex.
On
334 B-29s struck Tokyo, blanketing the
Tokyo was reduced to destructive bombing in history firebombs.
dead, over a million
left
city
with
was the single most 125,000 wounded, 97,000
rubble.
—
the night
It
homeless. In a ten-day period in
March, thirty-two square miles of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and
Kobe were leveled. The Japanese fought on. In April it became clear that
a final assault
on
the mainland
WAR^S END
123
of Japan would be necessary. The Japanese showed no inchna-
American
tion to surrender. In fact, as
and
been
suicidal.
As
brutal as the battle for
I
wo
fanati-
Jima had
—leaving 21,000 Americans wounded and over 6,000 maand
rines, soldiers,
—Okinawa
of rock
window on
sailors
dead
for
an eight-square-mile hunk
the last
and
more
revealed an even
and
Okinawa was
largest
chilling
the site of
amphibious invasion of the war. Defending
the Japanese fought for almost three
struggle.
vivid
things to come. Just 325 miles off the coast of
Japan's southern island of Kyushu,
it,
closer to
became even more
the mainland, the Japanese military cal
drew
forces
months
in a hopeless
Virtually all of the Japanese troops fought to the
— 110,000 of them. Taking the island required half a milmen. Almost 50,000 of them—marines, airmen, — wounded or
death lion
and
sailors,
soldiers
^were
killed.
The Japanese had also introduced another terror to the hell that had become the Pacific: the kamikaze, "the Divine Wind." Young flyers willingly committed suicide by diving their bombladen aircraft into our
fleet
Americans as possible
in
sacrifice,
more will
so that they could
one
single effort.
they were promised eternal
life.
By
kill
brings about a
maximum
.
.
.
Their orders were
the samurai guided
it
its
one of you
Choose a death which
result."
For centuries Japan had been a closed In five hundred years
many
their glorious
religious than military: 'The death of a single
be the birth of a million others.
as
militaristic society.
had never lost a battle. The code of destiny. During World War II not a
single Japanese military unit surrendered. Bushido, ''the
way
of
was not only ingrained in the psyche of every Japanese fighter, it was also codified in the Japanese Field Service Regulations, which made being taken alive a court-martial offense. This was the culture and the mind-set we faced. In the battles of Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, sui-
the warrior,"
,
Maj. Gen. Charles
124
W. Sweeney
cide pilots inflicted massive casualties
Okinawa,
and 368
five
ships
thousand
were
sailors
on the
killed,
Pacific fleet.
At
30 ships were sunk,
were damaged. These actions foretold a pro-
longed and bloody
killing field for the
would wade ashore on
young Americans who
the Japanese mainland.
The plans for the invasion of Japan were code-named Olympic and Coronet. It would be a two-stage invasion. The southern island of K3aishu would be invaded on November 1 1945, Operation Olympic, with a force of 800,000 men. In
would commence with the
inva-
Honshu, near Tokyo, with a
force
April 1946, Operation Coronet sion of the
main
island of
of over one million men. The wheels of inevitability started to
momentum
grind forward with a
unstoppable
—unless
that at
some point would be
way were found
another
end the
to
carnage.
In anticipation of the invasion, and having predicted with
would
extraordinary accuracy exactly where the Americans land, the Japanese
began
to fortify the cliffs leading
up from
The terrain would provide the perfect slaughterhouse for American G.I.s coming ashore. Those troops who survived the beaches and made it inland would face an intricate network of caves, tunnels, and bunkers. In this lethal battlefield matrix, American forces would be shredded as
the beaches of Kyushu.
they fought for each yard of
In addition, thousands of
dirt.
airplanes, as well as submarines,
mikaze attacks on the invasion
were being stockpiled
fleet
and a half million battle-hardened
and
its
landing
massed on Kyushu lion civilians
to
meet the invasion
—women,
children,
drilled in the art of resistance
the
force.
and the
and
craft.
troops, supported
million able-bodied civilian military employees,
for ka-
Two
by four
were being
Thirty-two mil-
elderly
—were
being
guerrilla warfare.
The southern command headquarters for coordination of defense of Kyushu was located at Hiroshima.
WAR^S END President
Truman and
the
American
125
military planners, with
the benefit of having cracked the Japanese military
and
diplo-
matic codes early in the war, and thus knowing what awaited
our troops, had to confront the magnitude of the casualties our forces could reasonably expect to sustain.
Okinawa were any measure,
If
Iwo Jima and
the possibilities were unthinkable.
ELElfEN
IBack at Wendover, we
were ready.
Company, our brand-new and redesigned B-29s were delivered during March and April of 1945 via Offiit Air Force Field in Omaha, NeAfter final assembly at the Martin Aircraft
braska.
Each
airplane
sionally crews
would
was assigned fly different
undergoing maintenance.
Our assigned aircraft as 89, which was painted fuselage.
My
to
one crew, although occa-
airplanes
if
their B-29s
were
crew was designated as C-15.
delivered from the factory
was Number
numbers on the nose of the Later the fuselage would be painted with our name,
The Great
Artiste,
in block
and our
For the missions, however, unit markings
confuse the
would
logo, a debonair magician in all
also be
nose
art
tails.
would be removed. Our
changed prior
to the missions to
enemy about who we were and where we came
from, in case they got to us with fighters.
We getting
spent
March and
accustomed
to
April flying the
new
airplanes
and
them, continuing the never-ending prac-
126
WAR^S END ticing.
We
127
rehearsed every detail again and again and again to
the point of exasperation. All fifteen crews were at the peak of their readiness to fly the mission.
Although
it
had never been
said, I
sensed that Paul Tibbets
maybe even our crew was that
considered crew C-15 one of the best in the 509th, the best.
One
indication of his confidence in
he had chosen us to
were
a
fly
critical test for
the scientists
working to perfect the fusing system
still
Tibbets briefed
from 30,000
me on
the mission.
with a
feet
tended to detonate
new
We
for the
who
bomb.
would drop a pumpkin
version of a proximity fuse, in-
at 1,890 feet.
He
stressed that the scientists
were having considerable trouble correcting problems with the system and that
was
this test
crucial to them.
Although the
pumpkin would be filled with concrete, a pound of high explosives would be attached to the fusing system so that the scientists
could
tell if
altitude with
By
an
the fuse functioned as predicted at the correct aerial explosion.
Kermit Beahan and
that time,
bomb
one on a called out
run.
I
had become almost
as
Able to anticipate each other's moves, he
minor adjustments
to
me on
the approach from the
IP to the aiming point for release of the bomb. This coordination
between the
pilot
and
his
a learned procedure. For this
range adjacent to scientists,
Wendover
test,
we were
is
more an
art
than
flying over the test
so that the gathered multitude of
ordnance personnel, and assorted technicians could
observe the drop and the
Beahan
yelled,
as ten thousand
was taking
when an
bombardier
fruits
of their labors.
''Bomb away!" and the airplane jumped up
pounds suddenly departed. Instantaneously,
I
the airplane into a sharp 155-degree diving turn
explosion ripped upward and
slammed
into the fuse-
The new improved fuse had just detonated directly below us. The airplane shuddered and I gripped the yoke to maintain control in case any damage had occurred. But the airplane was lage.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
128
okay.
was
I
told after
we landed
had
that the explosion
curred less than one hundred feet beneath us
—too
oc-
close for
comfort.
On
the ground,
reaction.
get
it
and
I
my
what
said
we
right before
crew gathered around waiting
all
for
my
of them were thinking, "I hope they
carry a real one."
As much
as
I
respected
trusted the scientists, a voice in the deep recesses of
my
mind reminded me that ultimately, it was the weapon we would carry that was important to the scientists, not our safety. They wanted the bomb to work. They were seeking the success of their voyage from theoretical physics to a real-world application.
Success for them didn't necessarily
mean our
was a dark thought. The 509th's readiness was another concern. keep a unit
at
high
alert for
It
survival. It
is
hard to
an extended period of time without
The level of proficiency will inevitably begin to deteriofrom the air crews to the mainterate. Our entire organization nance and engineering staff to the air support personnel had been melded into a unified command, and we were firing on action.
—
all
—
twelve cylinders, like a fine-tuned Rolls-Royce engine forced
to idle in Park.
The problem manifested itself in the increasing volume of calls from the Salt Lake City Police Department to our base each weekend.
A
tions to property
string of offenses ranging fi-om traffic viola-
damage
to assaults
mounted. The
men were
bored, restless, and frustrated.
From an
operational standpoint, though, the last indispens-
able piece of the puzzle, the First
been
officially
manned by machinists
bomb's
added
in
Ordnance Squadron, had
March. The
First
Ordnance was
the highly skilled technicians, ordnance experts,
who would
delicate
actually
manufacture
many
and
of the
components and assemble them on Tinian.
They had been working with
the
Manhattan and Alberta people
WAR'S END for
many months
have
to
129
be assembled in the confines of the
developed
specialists
many
that
would
casing.
These
components
perfecting the various
bomb
of the techniques necessary to ma-
chine the parts that were essential to the close tolerance quired by the theoretical scientists
who were working
would be the weapon. work and their intimate contact
to
fit
re-
the
pieces into the package that
Because of their
knowledge
of,
the internal
with,
and
components of what would eventu-
become a nuclear weapon, they were under even more restrictive security than we were. Cordoned off from the rest ally
of the 509th, they were totally segregated, prohibited from
speaking with other 509th personnel about what they were doing.
When
they traveled off the base, they couldn't mix with
anyone, military or
They were always accompanied
civilian.
by security men, and when they were outside
own
within their
work
for fear
to prevent
even
group, they were not allowed to discuss their
an offhand remark might be overheard. Even
work within
construction
their area,
their
compound was done by them
any possible leak of information, no matter
how
seemingly unimportant.
The
First
Ordnance Squadron was
at the core
of the many-
layered levels of secrecy and security, like the concentric rings
of an onion, that was ect Alberta,
With
all
—the 509th,
Wendover
and the Manhattan
Silverplate, Proj-
Project.
the pieces of our organization working like the
proverbial well-oiled machine,
it
seemed
that
my
rather unusual
arrangement of commanding the transport squadron while maintaining a bomber at
No
my
disposal
would remain
in place.
one voiced any objection or raised any question.
working, so don't
But before
fate
monkey around with
was once again about
we were
to begin our
It
was
it.
to step in just a matter days
deployment overseas,
setting off a
Maj. Gen. Charles
130
chain reaction that would put
me
W. Sweeney
command
in
squadron. Even for an eyewitness to the event,
beheve
it
was hard
to
at the time.
was down
I
of the bomber
at the flight line
While the C-54 was parked
commander, a
when
a C-54 transport landed.
at its
hard stand, the deputy group
lieutenant colonel
and technically the number-
two guy under Tibbets on the organizational chart of the 509th, stepped out of the airplane. A jeep that had been waiting off to
Two armed MPs and
one side pulled up to the transport.
two
security
men
greeted the deputy group
commander and an
animated conversation ensued. While the conversation continued, one
MP
took a duffle bag from the jeep and
dumped
it
on the ground. The conversation was brief. The security men, even from a distance, were emphatic. With little ceremony, one
MP
took the colonel's arm, the other grabbed the duffle bag,
and they escorted him
to a waiting transport,
which immedi-
ately took off. It
struck
no attempt
me to
as
watched
I
make
it
this
discreet.
scene unfold that there was It
was
all
played out quite
publicly.
Later in the day,
Tom
Classen, the
commander of the 393rd serve as the new deputy
Bomber Squadron, was promoted to group commander of the 509th. James Hopkins, his operations officer, was named the 509th's group operations officer, leaving two slots open in the bomber squadron. Colonel Tibbets called me and matter-of-factly informed me, "Chuck, you're the new commander of the 393rd." I requested, and he agreed, to name
my
old friend and deputy John Casey to
Transport Squadron.
I
command
named George Marquart my
officer for the 393rd. It
was one
position to go along with
my
hell
of a day.
I
the 320th
operations
now had
responsibilities at the very
ment when we were about to go into As I later learned them in detail,
the
mo-
action.
the facts were that the
WAR^S END extricated lieutenant colonel,
who had
the existing headquarters staff at
had
arrived,
131
been a holdover from
Wendover when Paul
seriously breached security
Tibbets
by using our code
The deputy group commander's duties at the beginning required no particular skills related to the mission. But this lieutenant colonel was the kind of guy who had an inflated sense of his own value and, frankly, was pompous. For whatever reason, he had gone to Colorado Springs on an errand. While he was there, a junior officer didn't respond either quickly enough or with the proper respect to something he wanted done. The lieutenant colonel, who did not have clearance to use our code name, invoked ''Silverplate" as an important project he was attached to. This caused a flurry of activity. At any use of this highly secret code, our security people would be advised by security personnel at the scene. A serious breach had been committed over something inconsequential. name,
Silverplate.
no
Since the Heutenant colonel had
special skill necessary to
our mission, Tibbets could take decisive action. The iacident also presented
him
in the outfit
with,
who
an opportunity
an unessential
man
might stray that regardless of rank or position,
no one was above the lose
to reinforce with every
strict rules
officer
of security.
We
could afford to
v^thout setting our progress back, unlike
the problem Tibbets
would have faced
had committed the
indiscretion.
The
if
a key pilot or technician
point
was driven home by
—^banishment.
the immediate and public imposition of the penalty
Everyone would understand that
if
the deputy group
commander
could be dispatched to the fi-ozen tundra of Alaska for the duration of the war,
The Heutenant later, his
We
name
anyone could be
colonel is
similarly dispatched to obHvion.
was never spoken of again. Even
fifty
years
never mentioned.
seemed stuck
in place at
Wendover. Curtis LeMay was
mercilessly pounding Japan, city after city, his tactics of low-
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
132
bombing proving very effective in destroying key Japanese industries. Even though Japan continued to produce significant military materiel and the Japanese will to fight on remained unbowed, we had to wonder if the 509th would be necessary after all. Maybe LeMay had been right. Maybe he could bomb the Japanese into submission and win the war. As for the scientists, their confidence in the weapon seemed incendiary
level,
an actual
They appeared
to be
waning
to be
mired in the minutia, looking for the perfect weapon. Of
as they got closer to
test.
course, these observations are from a military act,
not ponder. In
No
son to doubt.
assuming fizzle?
it
one could predict what the
big
would produce.
at all,
was
big? Five tons of
Fifty tons? Global conflagration?
even
tell
us
if
we'd survive the
course, there were the fuses.
no
blast
Even
but
the universe
a tricky business.
is
There was so
rea-
package,
big bang or a
TNT? Twenty
tons?
if
knew? They couldn't at eight miles. And, of
they worked, there was
bomb
right
under the
scenario:
'The
crew." Unlocking the secrets of
lost the
much we
final
A
good news-bad news
bomb worked,
we
had
Who
certainty they wouldn't detonate the
airplane. This posited a
trained to
the scientists certainly
all fairness,
worked
And how
man
didn't
know. Such ignorance can
more weapon
oftentimes calcify into inaction. Sadly, as time passed,
Americans
died.
the scientists the war.
Only action on our part
had developed
—
to deliver the
perfect or not
The bomb might have been a
solve, a blizzard of incomprehensible
—could
theoretical
numbers
help end
problem
to
spilling off a
chalk-dusted blackboard, but the dead, dying, and crippled in the Pacific were real.
Colonel Tibbets sensed the stalling of seized the day.
He knew
that
momentum and
moving our personnel, equip-
ment, and supplies overseas would be a time-consuming process.
Some would go by
air,
but most would
move by
ship.
WAR'S END Better to be in place
and ready
to
133
go when the weapon was
ready than to wait and then deploy to the Pacific, losing precious weeks. Invoking his broad authority and circumventing
even the small
of his superiors in this project, including
circle
General Leslie Groves, the overall commander of the entire
Manhattan
ment
Project, Tibbets caused the orders for our deploy-
to be issued.
words necessary started to
He
Washington, spoke the magic
called
to get the bureaucracy
move. In
spite of the flak I
moving, and the wheels understood he took for
overstepping his bounds, including a tongue-lashing from General
Groves, he had gotten us on our way, and no one counter-
manded the orders. Our destination was appropriately code-named Destination. What the name lacked in originality, it made up for in precision.
On May
6,
1945, twelve hundred of our support personnel
boarded the troop ship west.
They would
S.S.
Cape Victory
arrive three
C-54 transports would
weeks
at Seattle
18.
to join our fellow
The
Finally, at the
down
beginning of June, our fifteen B-29s would touch
North Field
sailed
later at Destination.
down on May
set
and
at
comrades on Tinian Island, in
the Marianas.
During our deployment, on ered.
The
elation
felt
by
all
May
8,
the
Americans was
Germans
surrend-
short-lived as they
who had survived years and Europe were now being moved
realized that their soldiers
of war in
North Africa
to staging
on Imperial Japan.
It
two million men would take part
in
areas in the Pacific for the final assault
was expected
that at least
the elaborate invasion of the Japanese
home
islands. In the
Pentagon, the grim process of estimating dead and
wounded
already had begun.
Our young
fighting
men
sailing across the Atlantic,
through
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
134
the
Panama
Canal, and into the deceptively tranquil Pacific,
would have ample time Just a
other leader.
My
died.
He had
lay before them.
generation had never
seemed
to
me
American
in
War
Great Depression and World it
known
an-
taken us through two back-to-back cata-
unprecedented
disasters
bringing,
what
few weeks before the Germans surrendered, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt clysmic
to contemplate
11.
almost bibhcal
With
history
my
that, like
—the
Catholic up-
Moses,
dent Roosevelt would not be with his people in their
Presi-
moment
of triumph. With the finish hopefully in sight, his death seemed a cruel
blow
lo wness, a
to our nation.
1945, at a S.
hearing the news,
need to deny that he was gone. Later,
of unease was not hfted
twang of a
On
man little
Truman took
when
I
the nation and after
I felt
a hol-
my
feeling
heard the tinny Midwestern I
barely knew.
On
April 12,
seven p.m. eastern standard time, Harry
the oath of office
and became the
thirty-third
president of the United States.
History records that the president
moments
by Secretary of
after
first
he was sworn into
War Henry
new
matter brought to the
Stimson,
who
office
was
delivered
informed the
presi-
dent that the United States was in the process of developing a
new weapon
of "almost unbelievable destructive power."
TlMfELlTE
The the
B-29s started their long
first
week of
My
June.
crew and
out.
were among the
want
feel
for over a
be back
No
of a ghost town.
and
to stay there,
morning
month
—a
two
year,
together,
any
in .
we had
.
one in
was shipping
that I
their right
event, there
I lifted
off for the last time
been our home
it
at
ing alone in the dust
dipped
my
wings to
a final good-bye as
I
telling
19,
when
our
last
again.
My
crew and
from the hardscrabble place that had
about 100
bowl we
feet.
I
called our front yard, waving. I
me
continued
my
svmng around back toward
swung around toward There was Dorothy, stand-
months.
her see
let
June
mind would
our good-byes, kissed
breakfast, said
for the past several
our house, circling
was no
who knew? On
.
and hugged, and spoke of when we'd meet
I
last to
There was no question she would retum to Boston. Wendover
had the
I'd
I
Wendover.
leave the windswept desert of
Dorothy had known
Tinian Island during
flights to
and then waved the wings turn.
the west
135
in
Banking the airplane up,
and on
to Sacramento.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
136
During the afternoon of June the end of the
first
we
night,
and then on
next
in
Hawaii
at
leg of our journey. After a brief layover that
night,
the
we landed
21,
flew on to Kwajalein, where
stayed the second
Marianas and the island of Tinian
to the
There was
morning.
we
an unconcealed excitement
among the men. We were going to war. One year earlier, as marines stormed ashore and
eventually
took Tinian, hundreds of Japanese soldiers went into hiding in the caves, jungles, and
hills
around
this tiny island.
They con-
tinued to radio reports of our activities to neighboring islands
held by Japanese forces.
still
too far out after dark. tight security
Not long
aim
we were
killed.
at the
mark on
arrowhead inside a
tive
admit
it,
is
islands
our
arrival, in spite
of the
to
go
home
to our loved
In later broadcasts, she assured us
and
antiaircraft
gunners would take
the tails of our airplanes, our distinccircle.
her broadcasts were a
Approaching from the anas
after
and encouraged us
that Japanese fighter planes special
were warned not to venture
surrounding our group, Tokyo Rose welcomed
the 509th to Tinian
ones before
We
Although none of us would little
unsettling.
each of the islands of the Mari-
air,
a green, lush oasis in a vast blue.
had been only names
I
Up
until then, those
had read about or seen
black-and-white starkness of movietone news
clips,
in the
or in the
more graphic uncensored military combat films. Saipan, Tinian, Guam. It was hard to square the beauty of the Marianas with the human suffering visited upon them so recently. With the exception of our foray into Cuba, this was my first trip ever outside the continental United States.
After getting clearance from the tower,
I
began
my
approach from the west and landed on one of the four 8,500-foot-long
runways on North Field
final
parallel
that ran east to west
across the northern tip of Tinian. Literally overnight, navy construction battalions, the Seabees,
had constructed
these
mammoth
WAR^S END airstrips
and
ancillary facilities.
largest airfield in the
world
Servicemen overseas
was from
New
facilities
constituted the
at the time.
like to bring
bases whenever they can. pect he
These
137
Some
York City
a feeling of
home
enterprising engineer
—found a way
to their
—
I
to bring
sus-
New
York to our new base. Tinian is shaped much like the island of Manhattan elongated, north to south. The streets on Tinian were laid out and named after the streets in Manhattan. Broadway and Eighth Avenue ran the length of Tinian, with Wall Street, Forty-second Street, 110th, and so on, intersecting. The address for the 509th was the comer of 125th Street and Eighth Avenue, formerly occupied by the Seabees. We lived in "Upper Manhattan." It pleased me to no end that someone had named
—
the road that ringed
Before
we
North
Field,
arrived, Tinian
Bombardment Wing of
Boston Post Road.
had been occupied by the 313th
XXI Bomber Command,
the
flying in-
cendiary missions over Japan and dropping mines by parachute into the waters of Japan's harbors to stop the flow of ships
Our group was to be nowhere near however. The 509th was totally isolated
supplying Japanese troops. the 313th
within
its
on the
island,
own compound,
connected by taxiways to North
The compound was enclosed by a high fence with a main gate that was guarded around the clock by armed sentries. The perimeter of the fence was patrolled by heavily armed MPs. Inside the security perimeter were our living quarters and Field.
offices,
roads.
a series of Quonset huts connected by a network of
Our working
areas were the flight lines, located
two
miles from our living quarters. This area contained the only
windowless, air-conditioned buildings in the Pacific, where the Alberta and Manhattan scientists and technicians and the First
Ordnance personnel were nents of the casings
and
laboring.
Here the various compo-
bombs would be assembled. The electrical
circuits
actual bombs'
were also kept in
this
area.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
138
awaiting the internal workings that would breathe
weapons cores.
—uranium
Anyone
and plutonium
firing
into the
life
mechanisms and
trying to gain access without proper clearance
could be shot.
At North of security. cially
Field, our airplanes
No
were under the same degree
one was allowed near our
dug concrete loading
aircraft or the spe-
Unauthorized personnel were
pits.
also subject to being shot.
The accommodations within our compound were the best on the island and possibly in the entire Pacific. The Seabees, who had built and lived in our quarters, had spared no amenities. Tibbets and I, for example, had private showers. Each day tubs constructed on top of the huts were filled with water by a tanker truck. I would step into a closet enclosure, pull a chain, and down cascaded water warmed by the sun. I would then soap up, pull the chain to rinse off, and I was done. Just
—
like
home.
As combat-hardened go into forward
many
veterans, the Seabees
were the
areas, constructing vital airstrips
and
first
to
facilities,
enemy fire, as the marines pressed on from island to island. They were leaving for duty on Okinawa as we were arriving on Tinian, and we inherited their quarters. This started an undercurrent of ill will toward the 509th among other units on Tinian, which was intensified by our isolation and times under
apparent special treatment. After the bleak, dreary endlessness of Wendover,
Tinian was lush.
swam
in the
It
warm,
was a
tropical island, hot
crystal-clear
on
life
and humid.
We
ocean during the day and
at
night sat under a star-encrusted sky.
We
attended the 313th
Wing ground
school to learn the
particular operations in this theater, such as weather patterns, air-sea rescue procedures, airfields.
We
and
did not, however,
flight patterns fly
in
and around
missions within the com-
WAR^S END mand, and our
could not be reassigned to non-509th
aircraft
crews, regardless of the need. vast resources
139
Our maintenance operation and
were not subject
to the jurisdiction of the
wing
commander or the island commander. We were untouchable. The other B-29 crews were flying into the teeth of the enemy every night, carrying maximum loads of bombs, often barely
making
into the air to start a journey of thousands of
it
Many
miles round-trip.
would perhaps
lose
never got airborne. Their airplanes
an engine on takeoff and then crash and
explode in the ocean
if
dump
they were unable to
loads quickly enough before impact.
their pay-
Loaded with thousands of
pounds of weaponry, the B-29 could be unforgiving first
few moments as
it
struggled to gain altitude. Crashed-out
hulks of the unsuccessful were not an
These brave to the
war
effort.
men
We
uncommon
sight.
looked upon us as contributing nothing
We had no mission they were
an objective point of view, dain.
in those
seemed destined
I
aware
of.
From
could sympathize with their
to finish out the
war
dis-
training for
an
illusory mission.
We
got the green light to
commence
the neighboring islands of Rota
practice missions over
and Guguan, which were
occupied by the Japanese. Our forces had bypassed those
still
is-
lands because they possessed no strategic value and, with their
supply routes cut
off,
posed no danger
to
our forces in the
Marianas. The missions would give our crews an introduction
them to enemy antiaircraft fire. The last thing we needed was to lose one of our specially trained crews while it was dropping practice bombs on an irrelevant target. The airplanes on these missions would drop pumpkins, but unlike the Wendover pumpkins, these would be filled with Torpex, an enhanced explosive with an enormous destructive yield to theater operations without exposing
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
140
for a conventional
bomb.
We
would
and the explosion would allow us
upon
tos of
its
from 30,000
where
to spot
would maintain course
the crew
release
until
it
it
where-
took vertical pho-
own damage.
After a series of runs
we were
authorized to
and Marcus, where the Japanese had such limited batteries to
throw up
at us that
This provided our
effect.
hit,
feet
these runs were
still
first
they would have
bomb Truk antiaircraft little
or
no
combat conditions, even though
recorded as ''practice" missions by the
air force.
On
July 20
we were
finally cleared to fly
missions over
The targets were Otso, Taira, Fukashima, Nagaoka, Toyama, and Tokyo. With the exception of Tibbets and a handful of the men he'd brought in at Wendover, most of the members of the 393rd would be flying their first combat missions. Tibbets, Beahan, Ferebee, and Van Pelt had flown missions in Europe. Captain Fred Bock and Lieutenant Colonel Classen had seen tours of duty in the South Pacific. It would be my first combat over enemy territory. At long last, we were Japan.
in the war.
These missions over Japan would have the same the real one, single
if it
pumpkin
ever happened.
filled
Each
with Torpex, drop
profile as
would carry a on a target, and then
airplane it
take vertical photographs of the damage. Although inflicting
damage on objective.
the
We
enemy would be welcomed,
were dress-rehearsing
for the
was a collateral big day. The crews it
would be navigating long-range over water to a primary city in heavily defended enemy territory and dropping the weapon visually from 30,000 feet on a specific enemy target. The target might be a factory or a military base or a railroad yard. The goals were accuracy and assessment.
Unfortunately, these missions would also confirm that the fuses
were
still
unpredictable.
On
at least
two occasions,
fuses
WAR^S END detonated
pumpkins reached the point where they
before the
were scheduled
The
to explode.
from the explosions but after
all
we were
silently
141
at the
the tactics
airplanes were far
enough away
time not to have taken any damage,
and maneuvers our crews had
aware that
perfected,
one piece of the puzzle,
for
all
we
could do was hope that perfection would be achieved.
Each crew would be tertiary target if the
briefed
on a secondary
and a
primary target could not be bombed be-
cause of weather or any other problem. tertiary targets
target
were obscured, the
pilot,
If the
on
his
secondary and
own
initiative,
could drop on so-called targets of opportunity. The only prohibition in the theater
was
that
under no circumstances were
the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, where the emperor resided,
and the ancient
city
for the Japanese, to
of Kyoto, a religious and cultural center
be bombed.
We were not seeking to
a culture but to stop an aggressor. killing or injuring the
and
And
destroy
as a practical matter,
emperor or destroying a center of cultural
religious importance
might also give the regimented Japa-
nese public another rallying point around which to mobilize in a final suicidal defense of the limits Ust
home
islands.
Also on the
were Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata
off-
for
reasons that were not explained to us by Colonel Tibbets.
The Torpex drops
also
had the
effect
of allowing the Japa-
nese to get accustomed to seeing a single B-29, unescorted by fighter aircraft,
drop a single
bomb from
30,000
feet.
Perhaps
they would become comfortable with a tactic that inflicted so
damage and choose to concentrate defensive measures against other more destructive air assaults. Some of the men wondered aloud if this was the reason we had been training so hard and in such secrecy to drop new, huge, powerful iron bombs, one at a time. Could the brass have overestimated the little
—
desired effect?
There were two further prohibitions. Colonel Tibbets and
I
Maj. Gen. Charles
142
were never to
from
ited
fly
flying
W. Sweeney
together over Japan, and Tibbets
was prohib-
any of these combat missions. His capture by
the Japanese could jeopardize the entire
Within the 509th, he was the only one
Manhattan
who knew
Project.
practically
everything.
Four days before we began our mainland,
Alamogordo,
at
New
on
assault
Mexico, the
the Japanese first
nuclear
weapon had been successfully detonated. Events were now gaining momentum. On July 26, we heard over Armed Services Radio that the terms of the Postdam Declaration called for the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces. Japan stalled. The killing went on. Every day hundreds of Americans continued to be killed and wounded in battles throughout the Pacific, in Southeast Asia, and in barbarous
war camps. The Japanese treatment of our POWs humanity. When their army decided to force-march
prisoner of defied
thousands of prisoners from Bataan in the Philippines sixty miles
north
to
Camp
wounded and some
O'Donnell
barely alive
—many
—they
of the
prisoners
murdered over seven
thousand American and other Allied prisoners on the march alone.
The men were
shot, stabbed, decapitated, or otherwise
physically destroyed during that agonizing journey. Their captors
withheld food, water, and medical treatment. Those prison-
who were still alive at the end of the march, along with other POWs, were placed in camps that were repositories of ers
unmitigated horrors, camps such as the one at Palawan, where 150 emaciated prisoners were forced into an
The guards poured ablaze.
Those who
air raid shelter.
gasoline into the shelter and then set tried to stagger out
it
were machine-gunned,
clubbed, or bayoneted to death.
Years
later
we
could learn of the Nazi-esque medical experi-
ments conducted on prisoners.
Of
the 140,000 Americans held
by the Japanese, 34
per-
WAR^S END cent
—47,000—would
remnants of the
men
die in captivity.
143
The
survivors
would be
they had been.
In words and deeds, Japan also
made known
execute every Allied prisoner of war at the
start
its
intention to
of any planned
invasion of the mainland. Everywhere they were held, prisoners
were ordered
to dig
the executions.
On
trenches to serve as mass graves for
slit
Formosa, the prison camp commander was
directed, in the event of
an invasion,
to kill all prisoners.
—American, Dutch, and and military—were jeopardy. At Davao,
Java, 300,000 Allied prisoners
Australian; civilian
the
in
machine gun emplacements were con-
structed to face inward
bum
and Wake
POWs
British,
in
Philippines,
piled to
On
and
stores of gasoline
were being stock-
bodies. Earlier, at places like Tarawa, BaUale,
Islands, the Japanese shot or
in anticipation of
American
beheaded
all
of their
invasions.
Thus, the United States had good reasons to take the Japanese threat seriously.
on June 18, in a meeting at the White House, Admiral William Leahy advised the president that, based on our experience at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, In the context of this reality,
in the
first
thirty
days of an invasion
we
could
realistically
expect casualties in the range of 230,000 to 270,000. For a 120-
day campaign
to invade
and occupy only the island of Kyushu,
casualties could reach 395,000.
But President Truman possessed the means to perhaps bring the
war
to a quick
and
In the following I
decisive end.
week
the
list
of targets grew.
On
July 24
flew a strike against the marshaling yards at Kobe.
The 509th almost made history of a different kind during these missions, and the legend of Claude Fatherly grew in ways he did not intend. On Fatherly' s first flight, his primary and secondary targets were socked in by cloud cover. He had his
Ma
144
J.
Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
navigator chart a course to Tokyo. His intended target: the
Imperial Palace. This action was in direct violation of Ameri-
can policy, not to mention direct orders from the commanding
LeMay, and Colonel Tibbets. It was a court-martial offense. Aiming at his target, Claude found that Tokyo was also obscured by cloud cover, making a visual general of the theater, General
drop impossible. Undeterred, he dropped the Fortunately, the Torpex-filled target
pumpkin
and no damage was done
The bomb did
fell
to the
bomb by
wide of
its
radar.
intended
emperor or the palace.
obliterate a railroad station, though. History
had
not been altered by the act of a single loose cannon.
As
events set in motion years earlier approached reality,
Tinian, in a sense,
became
the center of the universe.
Two
work by thousands of scientists, technicians, and mechanics; and the efforts of the best minds of the century were about to be handed over to us. On the morning President Truman announced the terms of the Postdam Declaration, the cruiser Indianapolis arrived at Tinian. Its cargo contained the firing mechanism for a bomb, and a machined uranium "bullet" resting in a lead container to prevent radioactive leakage. This cargo was stored in the assembly building to await delivery of the uranium core at which the "bullet" would be fired. Also awaiting delivery was the plutonium core for the second bomb, the real pumpkin. billion dollars of
our national treasure; years of
tireless
These additional components were en route from Hamilton Air Force Base in California aboard three B-29s, each carrying separate radioactive packages.
A
few days
after
we watched
the Indianapolis depart from
Tinian en route to Leyte, in the Philippines, a Japanese submarine sank her.
Although a radio
distress
message had been
transmitted before she slipped to the bottom of the ocean, res-
cue did not
come
to the
men who baked
in the relentless tropic
WAR^S END
145
sun, floating helplessly in the tranquil, shark-infested waters, for four days. In the fog of war,
by some perverse
oversight,
military authorities at Leyte didn't notice that the Indianapolis
was
missing.
A
lone aircraft chancing over the area spotted the
remaining survivors. Before surface ships arrived, over eight
hundred last
men had
American
died,
many devoured by
capital ship
sunk
in
sharks.
World War
11.
It
was
the
.
**
TOP SECRET— General Thomas War Department to General United States Army Strategic
T. Hardy, Acting Chief of Staff,
bomb
as
soon as weather
2.
Additional
bombs
.
.
will
its first
special
bombing
after 3
will deliver
will permit visual
August 1945 on one of the gata and Nagasaki
General,
Air Forces, 25 July 1945:
The 509 Composite 20th Air Force
1
Commanding
Carl Spaatz,
targets:
Hiroshima, Kokura, Nii-
.
be delivered on the above targets as
soon as made ready by project
staff
.
.
.
Shortly after noon on August 1 Colonel Tibbets called me in and told me the mission would be carried out on August 6, weather permitting. He then briefed me on the specifics and my role. Seven B-29s would take part
in the mission. Tibbets
had
conceived a seamless plan designed to address every possible tactical
problem, the
first
of which would be the weather at the
146
*
Charles W. Sweeney as
an Air Cadet, 1940
*
(I.
to
r.)
Admiral Purnell, General
Commander
Parsons
Farrell,
Colonel Tibbets, and
*
The Hiroshima Mission from the
left,
Briefing.
Colonel Tibbets
holding his pipe. Major Sweeney
is
is
seated third
two rows back
over Tibbets 's right shoulder.
*
Tinian.
General Spaatz awarding Colonel Tibbets the Distinguished Service Cross, August 6, 1945, after the
Enola Gay
At the time, the DSC was the second highest award for valor. landed.
*
The crew of
the Bock's Car immediately after landing
after returning
from Okinawa on August
9,
1945.
(I.
on Tinian,
tor.,
bottom
row) Kuharek, Spitzer, Gallagher, Buckley, Dehart; (top row)
Sweeney, Albury,
*
The
Olivi,
Bock's Car after the
Beahan, Van
Pelt,
Nagasaki mission
Beser
* The
atomic explosion over Nagasaki
m
* The at
destruction
Nagasaki,
September 1945
^^^H^
^-.
^^^'i^
i^i^»
4
.V
/
I
*
General Davies awarding Major Sweeney the Air Medal after the Nagasaki mission. Later, he would be awarded the SHver Star for bravery by Lieutenant General Nathan Twining.
*
*
The Bock's Car on display Museum, Dayton, Ohio
at the
Major General Charles W. Sweeney today
Air Force
WAR^S END target.
147
Theater weather forecasts were at best
adequate.
We
would need accurate pinpoint
the real time of the drop as possible, so that
not good,
we
reports as near to if
conditions were
could divert to the secondary or the tertiary
Three airplanes would
hour ahead of the gets
than totally
less
ahead to the potential
fly
one
targets
on weather
at the tar-
in Straight Flush to Hiroshima,
John Wil-
strike force to report
—Claude Eatherly
target.
son in Jabit III to Kokura, and Ralph Taylor in Full House to Nagasaki. The nose Tibbets
would
art,
fly
of course, would not be on their planes.
unnamed,
the strike airplane, as yet
rying the
bomb. After rendezvous over Iwo Jima,
The Great
Artiste in
was unusual
would
fly
formation with him to the target and drop
the instruments that It
I
car-
would measure
combat mission
in a
and
heat, blast,
radiation.
for instruments to
dropped. But the scientists had precious
little
be
data about effects
of a nuclear explosion, and this would provide them with at least
some important information. Much of
projections
their theoretical
depended on accurate measurements
George Marquart had been assigned
at the target.
to pilot Necessary Evil,
the photographic airplane, accompanying Tibbets the aiming point to record the explosion
ground. The
scientists,
photo information
moment
true destructiveness of the
me
to
and damage on the
as well as the military,
at the
and
had
to
have
of explosion to assess the
weapon.
In the event of a mechanical failure. Colonel Tibbets sent a spare B-29, the Big Stink, flown by Charles McKnight, to Jima.
Iwo Jima was
the
midway
point in our
waiting B-29 would serve as a backup
had had a loading offloaded
pit
and then
dug
at
Iwo
transferred
if
and the
needed. Tibbets also
so that the
to
flight,
Iwo
bomb
could be
McKnight's airplane,
if
necessary. Finally, in addition to being essentially
unarmed, we would
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
148
by
also fly unescorted
assured that
fighters to
we would be
As we had
and
fi"om the target.
self-contained
and
The plan
self-reliant.
approach to the target and release
practiced, our
The bomb had to be dropped visually no radar. The bombardier would have to see the target, even though a radar drop could be almost as accurate and
would be from 30,000
feet.
—
effective.
Colonel Tibbets
the
that
stressed
instruments
must be
dropped simultaneously with the bomb. Parachutes on the three canisters carrying the delicate at 14,000 feet
and
at 1,890 feet.
I
would monitor and
float
measuring devices would deploy
above the explosion, which would occur
would have
as passengers three scientists
the signals radioed back from the instruments
relay the data to us. Precision
would be
critical, as I
be in formation off the colonel's right wing.
A
would
thirty-second
when
tone signal would be broadcast from the Enola Gay, and it
went
silent,
han would
let
who
bomb would
the
release.
At
that
moment, Bea-
the instruments go.
The code name
for our mission
was Centerboard
—
or, in
the sterile bureaucratic language of the military, our operational
orders were officially designated Field Order No. 13, Special
Bombing Mission No.
13,
Operations Order No. 35 of the
509th Composite Group.
The
criteria for target selection
highest levels of the
had been formulated
Manhattan Project and the
War
ment. In order to accurately measure the effect of the
was
essential that
bombed be
only
cities
considered. This
that
was
be
bomb
it
also important to demonstrate
weapon.
damaged were chosen,
it
If
would
damage from incendiary bombing atomic bomb. Given Curtis LeMay's daily
difficult to separate the
from that of the
Depart-
had not been previously
clearly to the Japanese the destructive force of the
a city that had previously been
at the
WAR^S END pounding of Japanese
149
the choices were being consider-
cities,
ably narrowed.
One obvious
choice was Kyoto. Untouched by bombs,
had been placed on an
removed
it,
early
its
Stimson
were a treasure to the Japanese people.
American character
and
historic places as a matter of policy,
similar restraint
Manchuria, where
to
signifi-
ancient cultural and religious in-
the
saw no
War
not only because Kyoto had no military
cance, but mostly because stitutions
But Secretary of
list.
it
aim
It is
not in
for the destruction of cultural
even though the world
by the Japanese military
in
China and
their policy of destroying anything in their
path while brutalizing the civilian populations defined the concept of total
A
war
in the 1930s.
second criterion for target selection was that the targets
have military significance. Hiroshima, Kokura, and Niigata
mained from the
original
Hiroshima was the
list.
site
re-
Nagasaki was added.
of
command
headquarters for the
Second Japanese Army, which would mount the defense major armaments
against any invasion.
It
including Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries and a huge army ordKokura was Japan's most industrialized
nance supply depot. city.
It
was
called the Pittsburgh of
heavily defended facility
also contained
city.
and was home
Japan and was
plants,
most
its
Nagasaki housed the major shipbuilding to the great Mitsubishi steel
and arma-
ments plant and torpedo works, where the bombs and torpedoes used at Pearl Harbor had been manufactured.
though war-related industries
vital to
war were located
it
in Niigata,
was
Japan's ability to stay at in the
unlikely target. Geographically, Niiagata ther north than the other cities
Even
was
end considered an situated
much
far-
and would have required a
longer flight to the target and return to Tinian. I
was
thrilled that
Colonel Tibbets had selected me.
I
had
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
150
hoped
to be a part of the mission, but I'd never
that
would be
I
The next
day, suddenly and unannounced, Tibbets
me
quested that
for sure
until that private briefing.
nian. Shortly after he
and asked
known
I
to join
Tom
left,
on August
him
in his office at six o'clock.
3,
keep the meeting confidential.
Classen called
Tom
was
He
When
I
re-
a good-
natured combat veteran, well respected by the group. sure that something of great importance
Ti-
left
I
was
must have come up.
arrived, waiting in Classen's office
were Group
Operations Officer Colonel Hopkins, Group Intelligence Officer
Hazen Payette and Intelligence
Officer
Buscher were
Jim
staff officers
They were
ness.
his assistant
Joseph Buscher, and Squadron Hopkins,
Hinchey.
—
serious even
military,
when
Payette,
straight-laced,
all
busi-
they were having fun. All
of them, except Hopkins, were crackerjack intelligence
Tom motioned me to take a seat. "We have a potential crisis," he
and
officers.
began somberly. The men
around the table remained impassive. Whatever was coming,
was clear they already knew the details. I began to suspect that maybe the stone faces staring at me were the reason the meeting had been called. "Colonel Tibbets is gone, and I'm uncertain where he is or when he'll return." I saw nothing unusual about Tibbets 's absence. He was always coming and going, and rarely told anyone where he it
was
The nature of the entire project of movement. I was puzzled that Tom
off to or returning from.
had required
this secrecy
would be concerned.
Tom
continued, "In the event Paul doesn't return by the
rU What
take the
sixth,
do
first
one and Hoppy
will take the second."
the hell were those guys thinking?
I
to stifle a laugh, except they weren't kidding.
being invited to the tea party. Either slipped
away
my
had
all I
I felt
could
like Alice
grasp of reality had
or these guys were in Wonderland.
The
idea that
WAR^S END
151
Paul Tibbets would not return was preposterous. sure as the sun
would
rise
I
knew
tomorrow, Tibbets would
fly
as
the
mission.
first
None of the four game plan, nothing.
number of airplanes, the Just that they would take the missions. Tibbets must have briefed Classen about them, but maybe he hadn't filled him in on the details. Or maybe they didn't want to
fill
me
discussed tactics,
in.
bomb? Maybe. But the prospect that Hopkins would take the second mission was beyond comprehension. He had virtually no experience in the whole gamut of Classen taking the
specialized
maneuvers required
to
command
such a mission,
was an adequate pilot. I didn't say a word because I couldn't figure out what was going on. Perhaps Classen was just covering any possible eventuality. The meeting seemed to come to a stop, and after an awkward pause, Tom said, *'Just thought you should know." I thanked him for keeping me apprised and left. My life during the previous year had moved at dizzying speed. New and highly consequential, often top secret, tasks had greeted me frequently. In this environment, Tom's meeting and
at best
added a bizarre
twist,
a dose of unreality.
I
looked forward to
Colonel Tibbets 's return. Later, in passing, dent.
He
just
mystery to
shook
me why
I
his
commented
to Tibbets
head and grinned. To
the meeting
was
about this
this inci-
day
it
is
a
called.
Even before Colonel Tibbets had briefed me, it was obvious that the big day was approaching. Over the previous two weeks the tempo of activity on Tinian had been building to a crescendo. Transports were dropping off
from the Manhattan Project
daily.
new groups
of civilians
Activity at the assembly
was picking up. Navy Captain *'Deak" Parsons, who would be the weaponeer in charge of the bomb itself on Tinian
building
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
152
and would watch over
Alamos
in
mid
it
July for
on the first mission, had flown to Los what we later learned was the Trinity
Alamogordo. He would bring back film of the
test at
show us and would
brief us
on
the world's
test to
nuclear explo-
first
sion prior to the mission.
On
July 29, the 509th flew
its last
pumpkin
strike against
Japan prior to Hiroshima. Koriyama, Osaka, Kobe, Shimoda, Ube, Nagoya, Wakayama, and Hitachi were hit by our single conventional Torpex blockbusters.
The war raged on
in
Asia and the Pacific with no sign fi-om
would
the Japanese that they
surrender.
On
July 31, Curtis
LeMay launched a thousand B-29s to pulverize Japanese Two days later another eight hundred B-29s hit more Japan declared
Still
its
cities. cities.
intention to fight to the death.
The
Peoples Volunteer Corps pressed into service every able-bodied civilian:
lion
man, woman, and
child.
would supplement the two and one half million
and four million
civilian military
invasion force. All of Japan had
of
This mass of thirty-two mil-
its
employees preparing
for the
become an armed camp,
all
population combatants. Their military leaders were pre-
pared to
sacrifice their
people to achieve a greater glory.
Tibbets arrived back at Tinian 4.
soldiers
That afternoon he gathered
all
on
the
morning of August
seven participating crews in
The Quonset hut had been cordoned off by armed MPs. Everyone entering was carefully checked by security. Inside, each crew sat together on rows of straight-backed wooden benches on either side of an aisle leading to the front of the long, narrow hut. Two recent arrivals on Tinian also were present to observe the mission Winston Churchill's per-
the briefing hut.
—
sonal representatives.
Group Captain Leonard
ent of the Victoria Cross for valor,
Penney. At the
front,
on a
and
Cheshire, recipi-
British scientist
slightly elevated
large blackboards draped with white cloths.
William
podium, were two
The
rest
of the area
WAR^S END
153
resembled any other briefing room, with maps of Japan and adjacent islands covering the walls.
There was a buzz in the room as the crews chatted among themselves.
my
crew.
When
At
I
arrived,
about three rows back with
I sat
three p.m. Paul Tibbets strode in with Intelligence
and Buscher
Officers Payette
in
tow and proceeded
directly to
the podium. Captain Parsons joined them. Tibbets explained that
we were
force.
going to drop a
The word
bomb
atomic or nuclear
any of the others
who would
of unimaginable destructive
was never
uttered
shortly brief us.
He
by him or
told us this
bomb would be the equivalent of twenty thousand tons of TNT. That got everyone's attention. He then introduced Captain Parsons, who motioned to a projectionist at the back of the room. The room went dark. In single
the thirty-five years that
I
have served
in the military,
I
have
never been at one briefing where they didn't screw up the projector.
This briefing was no different. The film was not feeding
onto the projector's sprockets.
A
single
the darkness in the center aisle. Dust the beam. After
some
beam
and
of light divided
insects fluttered in
fijmbling in the dark, the images started
to flicker onto the screen before us.
An
intense flash erupted
out of the darkness, and from the desert floor an angry, seething
exploded upward, blossoming into a mushroom-shaped
fireball
cloud.
We
The Project
He
sat
immobile, riveted by what
lights flickered on.
saw.
Parsons explained the Manhattan
and gave a vivid account of what we had just witnessed.
said the flash at
over 250 miles
Alamogordo,
away
had vision seeing the
New
Mexico, had been seen
The sound had been of a blind girl who had never
in El Paso, Texas.
heard 100 miles away.
He
we
He
told
flash.
then said that no one
knew
for sure
what
—
the
bomb
would do. We were about to drop this thing something that had never been done before from 30,000 feet. We could ex-
—
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
154
we
pect a blinding flash of light, at which point
should be
wearing welder's goggles with thick polarized lenses, which
we must wear the goggles and under no circumstances were we to look directly at the explosion. Estimates were that a mushroom cloud
were then distributed
would
rise
to us. Parsons stressed that
from the explosion
to at least our altitude
tinue past us to 50,000 or 60,000 feet.
through or near the cloud.
It
We
and con-
were not to
would contain nuclear
debris
fly
and
be radioactive. Tibbets resumed the briefing as Payette and Buscher unveiled the blackboards. Displayed
were high-resolution recon-
naissance photographs of Hiroshima, Kokura, and Nagasaki.
These were the
targets in order of priority.
He
explained the
assignments for each of the seven aircraft and details on the flight plan.
aircraft
tion
Fly at 8,000 feet to Iwo, where the three strike
would rendezvous and
fly for
two hours
in loose forma-
toward Japan. Then commence ascent to 30,000
target.
There would be
sion.
The
expected
strict
date
feet to
radio silence throughout the mis-
would
be
August
6,
weather
permitting.
The group meteorologist
on the weather. It was iffy. In the area of the targets, weather was not good. He expected a clearing trend, however, and said that the targets should be improved by the sixth. Payette and Buscher briefed us on the latest intelligence. Hiroshima was ringed by antiaircraft batteries, but they were concentrated to the west and south of the city, making the east our best approach. Kokura was more heavily defended because of the density of the industries in the city. It was uncertain if the Japanese would throw up any Zeros at us at either city. Air-sea rescue was then detailed. Navy flying boats, affectionately called Dumbos, would maintain constant patrol of our flight path to and from the empire. They would work in briefed us
WAR^S END
155
conjunction with surface vessels and submarines to pluck us
from the water
if
we were downed. B-29 "Superdumbos" were
also prepared to drop survival equipment.
more
elaborate efforts
I
had ever
It
was one of
seen.
Tibbets then closed the briefing by telling us that this
would end
the war.
top secret.
We
No
letters
He reminded
were not to
home.
We
talk
the
bomb
us that the mission was
about
it
still
even to each other.
shouldn't even hint that there
was a
possi-
offered that
anyone who
did not want to take part could leave and there
would be no
ble mission about to take place.
questions asked.
No
He
one responded.
He
concluded by
us he was honored and proud to serve with
The
briefing
was
men
telling
like us.
over, leaving each of us to his thoughts.
**
Sunday, August my practice since
5,
I
attended morning mass as had been
childhood.
The
priest
from the Eighth
Bomber Group conducted the service under a brilliant blue sky, behind him a distinct horizon separating the ocean from the heaven from
sky,
faint v^ind
earth. It w^as a
balmy, tropical morning.
blew across the rows of worshipers.
My
faith
always been a source of comfort to me, and that morning
A
has
I felt
peace, a tranquillity borne of belief in a higher power.
The rious
predictable
and
lyrical
ceremony of the mass, spoken
in the myste-
cadence of a language long since
allows for reflection.
I
extinct,
prayed that the carnage of four years of
war would soon be brought to an end. My faith teaches the innate goodness of man. Yet how do we explain the barbarism
man
The answer found in our teachings is that evil also dwells among us. Not as the symbolic serpent in the Garden of Eden, or as some metaphor for bad acts, but as a living force.
We
inflicts?
are engaged in a constant battle for our souls, a struggle
156
WAR^S END
157
demands more of us than being just passively good. We must confront and overcome evil. Never in my lifetime has evil been more clearly defined than in the specters of the Third Reich and the Japanese military of Emperor Hirohito. I received Communion. During the previous evening's confesthat
sion, I
had taken Colonel
our impending mission
Tibbets's prohibition about discussing
literally,
privilege of the confessional.
God and
tell
Him
I
even within the priest-penitent v^ould silently
Tibbets to briefly go over
would
some of
We
rendezvous over Iwo
chmb to 30,000 feet. Our codes and radio point at the across the
the details of the mission.
fly at
at 0600,
8,000 feet to conserve
prior to reaching target
would be observed. frequencies were confirmed. The aiming primary target would be the T-shaped Aioi Bridge
Ota River
feature that
met with Colonel
reviewed the basics: take off
approximately 0230 (2:30 a.m.),
fuel,
I
receive a final briefing later in the evening,
a few hours prior to takeoff. at
with
about our mission.
After breakfast, George Marquart and
All the crews
commune
would be
Strict radio silence
in the center of Hiroshima, a geographic distinct
even
at
30,000
feet.
had also been decided that because of concerns that a crash on takeoff might detonate the bomb, we would take off with the bomb unarmed. Captain "Deak" Parsons would arm Little Boy, the name given to the uranium bomb, en route to Iwo Jima and before we climbed to 30,000 feet. The firing It
mechanism on the bomb was relatively simple. A uranium bullet was fired down a gun-barrel-like cylinder at a core of uranium in the nose of the barrel to create a "critical mass" that would start a chain reaction. It was feasible to keep the cylinder blocked, preventing the uranium slug from smashing into the uranium core by accident, and arm the bomb in flight. This would be a delicate and laborious task for Captain Parsons in
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
158
cramped confines of the bomb bay, but
was a better option than the unthinkable if a crash occurred. The B-29, carrying a full load of fuel, a full complement of men, and a ninethe
thousand-pound bomb, would
far
exceed the
it
maximum
weight
specifications for a safe takeoff.
George and
George was the
He was
I
lingered for a few minutes after the meeting.
perfect
man
to be with us
when
on
this first mission.
Not dour, but intent on getting the details perfect. You knew that if you told George to do X, he would do X perfectly. He absorbed what he was told. For this mission, nothing less would be required. a serious guy
it
came
to flying.
The news of the day was that there was no news, except for the names of killed and wounded added to the daily list of casualties. The Japanese had given no indication that they were ready to
dam
quit. In fact, the official
Japanese response to the Pots-
Declaration had been to characterize
it
as beneath con-
tempt and unworthy of a response.
Even
if
one didn't get the message
in the stultified
language
of diplomats, the actions of the Japanese military continued to
speak
clearly.
dropped
During Curtis LeMay's
leaflets
on four
air
campaign,
we had
potential targets to be firebombed the
following night, yet the Japanese leaders refused to evacuate civilians
from those
The next night two of the cities was extraordinary that the Japanese
cities.
would be obliterated. It would absorb the crippling devastation of the nightly firebombings and still go on. But they did. It was within their power to
end the war
at
any time by surrendering.
We
didn't have
this option.
As we
got closer to the time of takeoff, the anticipation of
flying the mission
became paramount.
was on what we were about
to do.
My
full
concentration
There was no more time
to think about the events unfolding daily across the theater, or
WAR'S END about the reports
we had
received
159
on Tinian detaihng
the brutal
treatment reserved for captured B-29 crews. There was only the mission.
It
was what
single focus of
After lunch
my I
I
had trained
and
to do,
it
was now
the
my
air-
world.
went down
plane was parked at
to the flight line,
The
where
runway complex and the interconnecting roads, rampways, and paths were sealed off and under heavy guard. MPs with carbines and its
hardstand.
entire
Thompson submachine guns were prominently posted everywhere. By that time the breezy warmth of the morning had given way to the blazing heat of the tropic's midday sun beating down on and reflecting off of the black asphalt. The ground crews were dressed in shorts and most were bare-chested, busy getting The Great Artiste ready
and checking
hardstand across the way, about see similar activity
The arrowhead
fifty
all
On
systems.
yards from me,
the
could
I
where Paul Tibbets's airplane was parked.
on our
in a circle
tails
been painted over with a large block
signifying the 509th
letter
R
for another
had
group
assigned to the Twentieth Air Force. Every detail, including conftising the
enemy
as to our identity
had been thought of by
Tibbets.
the ground crew, a practice
From
I
made
ended up
spoke with each
The
I
heat, humidity,
around
in
one mentioning what was
and
Van
of
flight.
tried to get a
sleep impossible. Beahan, Albury, sitting
member
always followed before any
three to four in the afternoon,
shut-eye, but I couldn't sleep.
tion
I
and point of origination,
little
anticipa-
Pelt,
and
I
our hut making conversation, no
on our minds. Later that afternoon, while I was resting in my quarters, Armed Forces Radio announced the release of a new feature motion picture starring Fred MacMurray and titled Captain really
was the story of World War That war to me seemed like ancient
Eddie. It
I
ace Eddie Rickenbacker.
history.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
160
The day was said
I
wanted
from the beginning of time
Greek warriors
War
dragging.
I
—the waiting
on the mind.
huddhng
to those
I
is
tried to
walked around
ticular, just looking. I
—by
in the sUt trenches of
my
I
is
the
World
most wearing
was only again went over to
the time, but
fill
has been
It
everyone from ancient
the hardest. Waiting
After the evening meal at 1800, line. I
to get going.
I
killing
it.
the flight
airplane, looking for nothing in par-
knew
that the
which was how
*
'special,"
we now referred to the weapon, had already been loaded into the bomb bay of Tibbets's airplane. Some civilian scientists from Project Alberta were making adjustments to the sensitive measuring devices stored aboard
my
On
airplane.
the mission, Drs. Luis Alvarez,
Johnston, and Harold
Agnew would monitor
from positions
in
among
brilliant
the
most
the
rear
the instruments
men were
compartment. These
people in the world.
Lawrence
honored
I felt
to
be in their company. In the preceding days I'd had the chance to get to
know them and
Project Alberta
Dr.
on Tinian. For
Norman Ramsey, who headed all their brilliance,
these scien-
They were committed to the project and clearly understood what was at stake. In one of our secure discussions with Drs. Ramsey and Alvarez and some of the Project Alberta working group, I had tists
didn't have their heads in the clouds.
asked the question,
"What
is
the potential
if this
works the
They answered that this bomb would be a "firecracker" compared to what might eventually be developed. I had nothing to compare their prediction with, even in theory. That is until after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only then
way you want
it
to?"
would the comparison have substance, a reference point from which to glimpse into the future. If what I had witnessed over those
cities
ture atomic
was only a
"firecracker"
compared
to potential fu-
weapons, then the nature and ultimate stakes of
any future war were forever changed. For the
scientists
whose
WAR^S END
161
domain was the expansion of human inquiry, the knowledge they had acquired could not be erased. As Einstein had warned President Roosevelt, the science to build an atomic weapon was known. It was only a question of who would develop it. How would human nature adjust to the greater infernal possibilities knowing that in any future war the ultimate price of aggression could be annihilation?
At 2200 hours
(ten p.m.), our final briefing
briefing hut. Prior to going over to the brief, all
began in the
crew members
deposited their personal belongings with a designated their quarters for safekeeping, as
We
bat mission.
of capture,
is
give the
in
required before every com-
were to carry only our dog
we would
man
event
tags. In the
enemy no more than was
re-
—
Geneva Convention name, rank, and serial number. Any information, no matter how inconsequential, could be used by the enemy to break you. Everything was a go. The weather looked good; it would be a cloudless day over Japan. Intelligence reported no changes quired by the
in air defenses at the three targets since the fourth. Air-sea
rescue
would be on
and ready. The Japanese had not
station
surrendered. Recall codes were reviewed in the event
ordered to return.
Our
call
sign for the mission
we were
would be
Dimples.
The
intelligence officer stepped forward to synchronize our
watches.
On
the second
his instructions,
hand
at 12.
He
fifteen, ten, nine, eight,
hack." In unison,
we
we
set
our watches
with
at 11:30,
began, "Thirty seconds, twenty-five,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one,
all
pushed our winding stems
in.
The
second hands began their sweep.
We
then proceeded to the Dogpatch Inn, the
to the 509th' s
mess
we would be back
hall, for
at this
our preflight meal.
mess
hall in
name
If all
went
given well,
about thirteen hours.
Maj. Gen. Charles
162
The
W. Sweeney
had already
three weather crews
finished
up and were
being trucked to the runway, when, at about midnight, Tibbets
came
into the
mess
Our
hall.
three crews quieted
down
as he
spoke. Again, without using the words atomic or nuclear, he told
us
we
could end the war by dropping
this
very powerful bomb.
He reminded us to do our jobs, the jobs we had trained so hard to do. He then asked Chaplain Downey to step forward and
offer a prayer.
Our heads bowed,
the 509th's chaplin's deep, rich voice
He bewe might
invoked the Lord's blessing for us and our mission. seeched Almighty bring the
war
to a
God
to deliver us safely so that
speedy end.
Each crew boarded a six-by-six lorry that deposited it at the Personal Equipment Supply Hut, where we each drew and signed for a parachute, a flak vest, a flotation device, a combat knife,
first-aid
package, fish hooks, food
and a
.45-caliber automatic pistol
a survival kit with
rations, a drinking
water
kit,
with ammunition. I
gathered up
and climbed up
my
stuff,
dumped
of ammunition and placed overalls.
father's
foot
I
into the
front with the driver.
from which the bolstered
belt
it
it
.45
I
back of the
truck,
strapped on the
hung and removed
in the leg pocket of
the clip
my
flying
didn't shoot
my my
and water
that
never carried a loaded weapon, remembering
admonition that
I
should be careful
I
web
off.
Boxed lunches and jugs of pineapple
juice
had been delivered from the commissary earlier were also loaded onto the trucks. As each crew was ready, the three trucks proceeded to It
was now a
little
North Field and the assigned hardstands. after one a.m. The weather airplanes were
already conducting their final preflight checks and would be airborne in about half an hour.
**
The
truck came
to a stop at the last security checkpoint
within half a mile of our hardstand.
machine guns blocked the
front
MPs
and
with
Thompson
sides of the truck as a
and reviewed every man's entry
security officer asked for
Sitting in the passenger side, I
waved us through and we drove
As my crew stowed
pass.
could see in the distance roving
patrols as well as stationed guards. Satisfied that
the officer
sub-
their gear
we
belonged,
to the airplane.
and food and checked
their
jumped into a jeep and drove over to Paul Tibbets's hardstand. I wanted to wish him luck. The scene I encountered was surrealistic. There had to be two hundred people, in addition to the ground and flight crews, stand-
positions in the airplane,
ing in an
powering shop
island all
lights,
I
of intense
light.
Mobile generators were
forms of illumination: stands of high-intensity floods,
popping flashbulbs, and klieg
those you'd see at a grand opening of a movie or the
Awards ceremony. Army photographers and 163
lights like
Academy
film crews,
MPs,
Maj. Gen. Charles W. SwEE^fEY
164
technicians, senior officers,
were the
scientists
the scene,
I
—milled
didn't see
it.
tion within a group.
He
him
be.
was
best to let
black block
and
civilians
—who,
about. If there
presumed,
I
was some order
to
caught sight of Tibbets in conversa-
I
looked
fully
engaged, and
decided
I
it
was then that I saw the foot-high painted on the fuselage beneath the pilot's
letters
It
window, Enola Gay. His would be the only airplane on our mission to have a
named
after his
it
Unknown
name
painted on the fuselage, and he'd
mother.
morning, the names Tibbets,
to all of us that
Hiroshima, and Enola Gay were to become a unified icon for
—
new age an icon whose meaning would be interpreted by many seeking to prove some theory of the human condition. We who were about to undertake this mission to end the war a
were
be seen in coming years merely as images frozen in
to
black-and-white photographs, or flickering in grainy military films of the
meaning
as
moment we knew
—props it
drama. But our
in the historic
and had
lived
to that
it
not the stuff of obtuse philosophical musings.
nary
men
called
upon
outcome was
far
from
at that point
was
that
On neer,
returning to
moment was
We
were
to execute a dangerous mission
ordi-
whose
The only thing that was certain the aggressor would not surrender. certain.
my
hardstand,
I;
my
Albury;
flight engi-
John Kuharek; and the ground crew chief began our walk-
around. In a
set,
methodical procedure carried out by every
pilot of every airplane
who
has ever flown or ever will
examined every surface of the
From
airplane.
well, to the engine cowlings, to the tail
inspected one telltale
more
the nosewheel
—every
time. Tire pressures
we
fly,
surface
were checked.
was
Any
drops of fluid found were brought to the attention of
the crew chief for explanation or repair,
Pappy Dehart, our
tail
if
minor.
gunner, checked the
I
watched
20mm
as
cannons.
WAR^S END
165
With one thousand rounds of ammunition, they weren't much if we had to use them. A few bursts and we'd be toothless. the only guns we'd be carrying.
Before getting aboard,
I
assembled the crew for another
time-honored procedure, inspecting them and making sure they all
had the personal gear required
Mae
—parachute,
West, and so on. Their helmets and flak vests had already
man
been stored by each plane.
I
I
at his assigned position in the air-
spent a few extra minutes with Drs. Alvarez, Johnston,
knew they had never flown a combat mission, wanted to make sure they had what they needed. I also
and Agnew.
and
for the mission
wanted
I
answer any questions they might have. For
to
they were remarkably calm, although
I
an understated excitement about the
fact that
thought
civilians,
could detect
I
we were
actu-
ally going.
Albury, Beahan, Kuharek,
Van
the hatch in the nosewheel well. civilian scientists entered
Pelt,
The
and
rest
through the
I
climbed through
of the crew and the
aft
Kuharek
hatch.
or-
dered the putt-putt, a portable auxiliary gas-fueled generator
power to the airplane before the engines were started, fired up. Once the engines were running, they would turn the generators that powered all electrical systems. With the auxiliary power on, each system was checked by the flight engineer while Albury and I went through our preflight checklist. All systems were go. In sequence, engines number 3, that supplied electrical
number
2,
number
4,
and number
1
came
to
life
whir and then a surge of the propellers, the
hum
through the fuselage. The four 2,200-horsepower, inder, fuel-injection,
ning smoothly. a lullaby
is
It's
Wright R-3350
a sound that
is
with a faint vibrating
thirty-six cyl-
radial engines
were run-
as comforting to a pilot as
to a baby.
Everything was perfect. It
was time
to go.
At
exactly 2:30 a.m.,
I
heard the tower
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
166
respond to Paul's request for taxi and takeoff instructions: "Dimples, eight-two. Clear to taxi to Over." Then,
**
A
for Able.
Cleared into position on runway."
In a few minutes
I
would
receive clearance to taxi
and take
from Runway B, and then George Marquart would be
off
Runway
cleared for off
Runway
an hour
earlier
C.
The
three weather airplanes
and were already heading
cities.
An
would
report back to Tinian
We
location.
lifted
for their respective
hour before we reached our potential
on
had
they
targets,
the weather conditions at each
could intercept their transmission in our aircraft
for decisionmaking.
As
I
idled
on Runway
B,
I
could see over to
Runway A.
At 2:45 A.M. Colonel Tibbets started his run. I saw him lift off and then lost sight of him in the darkness. We were using no running
lights.
Precisely
two minutes
the clear starry night,
George Marquart
turned toward the
we began
altitude,
ume
we
require
would be staggered
after at
me,
about
reached our rendezvous over Iwo
We
because
thinner, the internal
would
We
our climb to 8,000
lower
two minutes
precisely
mark on our journey. Once in the air, we northwest. At a rate of 500 feet per minute,
of 250 miles per hour. this
and
lifted off.
ten-mile intervals until
Jima, the halfway
after Tibbets 's takeoff, I lifted off into
more
feet,
maintaining a cruising speed
would conserve at
fuel
by
flying at
higher altitudes, where the air
combustion engines powering our fuel to
compensate
is
aircraft
for the diminished vol-
of air per square foot, just as a car being driven at higher
altitudes
in
the
mountains
requires
an
adjustment
to
its
carburetor.
Out ahead of us
in the darkness,
"Deak" Parsons would
be climbing from the forward crew compartment into the
for-
ward bomb bay to begin the delicate task of arming Little Boy. I lit my Cuban Romeo y Julieta and settled back for the
WAR^S END
167
three-hour flight to the rendezvous. There
The crew
some
tried to catch
shut-eye.
was
httle chitchat.
The atmosphere on
board was relaxed. Not loose, but tension-free. Relaxed in the
way
any group of professionals
that
when
is
its
members
are
carrying out a job they're supremely trained to do and confident in their abilities. It
was about
when we caught sight of Iwo. Rising island was Mount Suribachi. Six months
5:45 a.m.
prominently above the earlier, its
a handful of marines had raised the American flag on
summit.
No
the sacrifice,
other photograph of the
and the ultimate triumph
war captured
the
grit,
marine
that defined the
corps in the Pacific better than that picture, flashed around the
world, of those marines raising the
army
ernecks, field.
soldiers
and
sailors
Over 6,000
flag.
had died taking
leath-
this killing
Another 21,000 had been maimed or otherwise wounded.
Because of
their sacrifices,
hundreds of B-29 crews were able
to land their crippled aircraft at this strategic spot off the Japa-
nese coast
when
returning from missions to the mainland, while
the Japanese military
George and
I
was denied a key
fighter defense base.
slipped in behind Tibbets in formation
on
each of his wings as he circled Suribachi. The sky was crystal clear.
As
I
looked to the east
huge red
the horizon, a
now
I
saw
ball rising
the sun emerging above
up from the ocean.
6:00 a.m. Tibbets set course to Japan.
final leg. In three
the final
Two
blow
hours
to the
we would
deliver
We
It
was
were on our
what we hoped was
enemy.
hours out of Iwo,
we began
a slow climb to 30,000
we approached the mainland. The weather airplanes were now circling each of the possible targets. The report came feet as
in firom
Claude Eatherly's
coded message: ''C-1,"
*
Straight Flush.
Target Clear." The
final
We
deciphered the
coded transmission,
meant we should bomb the primary
target.
In
fact, all
Maj. Gen. Charles
168
the
targets
were
W. Sweeney
Eatherly circled around Hiroshima,
clear.
turned southeast, and headed back to Tinian. I
advised the crew over the intercom that
to our primary, Hiroshima. to the at
mainland of Japan
We
we were headed
crossed over from the ocean
a.m.
at 7:30
Our
ETA
to the target
Hiroshima was 8:15 a.m., Japanese time.
At
my
8:12, with
plane off the Enola Gay's right wing. Colo-
nel Tibbets arrived at the IP about fifteen miles east of the target,
point.
from which he would begin the bomb run Hiroshima lay before
ing sun.
I
us, distinct
reminded the crew
aiming
to the
and bright
in the
to put their goggles on.
morn-
No
flak
was coming up, and there were no indications that enemy fighters had been scrambled to intercept us. Nothing to interfere with our run.
At our cruising speed of three hundred miles an hour, we would be at the aiming point in three minutes. Kermit Beahan readied himself to release the three instrument canisters. Ahead, I
could clearly
make out
Tom
the release point,
the Aioi Bridge. Thirty seconds fi-om
Ferebee, aboard the Enola Gay, flipped
a switch that sent a high-pitched tone signal out to
ing the
the
Boy would fall free, and Beathat precise moment, would release the canisters holdscientific equipment. I was now about thirty feet off
airplanes.
han, at
When
all
it
stopped. Little
Tibbets 's right wing.
The Enola Gay's bomb bay doors snapped open. Then the tone fell silent. I saw the bomb release. Beahan let the canisters go. It
was
8:15. In forty-three seconds the
nate, or at least that I
watched the bomb
flashed through
my
works or
not.
But
"It's
We
can't get
it
falling free
strings or cables attached. if it
deto-
was supposed to detonate. As on its forward arc, a thought too late now. There are no
was when mind:
bomb would
works,
it
just
it
back, whether
might end the war."
it
WAR^S END Further reflection was a luxury
My
immediate task was
hell out of there
—
fast. I
to get
didn't have the time for.
I
my
169
and
airplane
my men
banked the airplane 60 degrees
the
into a
sharp 155-degree diving turn to the right. Tibbets had already
executed the same maneuver.
Something was wrong. after the
so dark
bomb
it
one swift
fell free,
I
had pulled down
goggles right
but the polarized glass of the lenses was
was almost opaque. I couldn't see my instruments. In motion I shoved the goggles up onto my forehead. I
didn't consider the consequences to
bomb
my
exploded. For the
ability to see
moment I had
my
eyesight
when
the
to see clearly.
My future
We
would be
was not an immediate concern.
when the bomb detonated. we continued to move away
about twelve miles from the target
The bomb was from ground
to
my
back as
Suddenly the sky was bleached a bright
zero.
white, brighter than the sun. shut, but the light filled
At
my
that instant
I
instinctively
squeezed
what he
eyes
my
head.
tail
gunner, Pappy Dehart, began ut-
tering gibberish over the intercom. In combat, a
report
my
sees precisely, distinctly,
gunner has
to
and once, and then
wait for the pilot's acknowledgment. Pappy, an experienced guimer, was
now
running over his
what he was
bling
saying.
I
own
tried to
words, his alarm gar-
break
in.
'Tappy, say
again." Just
then the airplane was hit with violent force and
jounced mightily. Kermit Beahan, a turned to
fire,
With I
that,
me
man
familiar with taking
with panic on his face and yelled, "Flak!"
we were
hit again,
with
less force
soon realized that Pappy was trying
no human being had ever
seen.
but
stiU jarring.
to describe a sight
Rushing up toward us were
concentric rings of donut-shaped, clear, superheated air that
were
striking the
airplane with unexpected force.
didn't appear to be causing
But they
any damage. The airplane was
still
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
170
handling
fine. I
my
continued
and head
get off the coast
turn, rolling out southeasterly to
to Tinian.
now lay to the west, on the right side of my looked down and saw a roiling, dirty brown cloud
Hiroshima airplane.
I
spreading out horizontally over the a vertical cloud that looked like
it
city.
Out of it was emerging
contained every color of the
rainbow, and more. The colors were vivid
—hard
to describe
saw a series of fires breaking through the quickly spreading smoke that was covering the city. The vertical cloud was rising rapidly. In what seemed an instant, it had reached 30,000 feet, and it continued rising to over
some
I
45,000
had never seen
feet.
As
shape formed
Aboard
I
gained altitude, a huge white
mushroom
at the top.
the Enola Gay,
strike report to
bombed
it
before.
Dick Nelson had already radioed a
Tinian advising that the primary target had been
visually,
good.
results
A
few minutes
later
Captain
Parsons handed Nelson a more detailed coded message to be radioed back to General Farrell on Tinian:
CLEAR CUT. SUCCESSFUL IN ALL RESPECTS. VISIBLE EFFECTS GREATER THAN ALAMOGORDO. CONDITIONS NORMAL IN AIRPLANE FOLLOWING DELIVERY. PROCEEDING TO BASE.
We headed back to Tinian.
Mission accomplished.
We were
away from Hiroshima before Pappy Dehart lost sight of the mushroom cloud. The atmosphere among the crew on the flight back was quiet but buoyant. Surely the Japanese would have to surrender. It was inconceivable that they would not, after what we had just witnessed.
nearly two hundred miles
On
the return flight
the Enola Gay.
I
stayed in a loose formation trailing
George Marquart was
farther behind, having
stayed at Hiroshima a bit longer to complete the photographic
WAR^S END mission.
ducing
As
my
I
airspeed. This
to be sure his
North It
approached Tinian,
was Paul
would be the
first
I
171
eased off some power,
Tibbets's day,
and
airplane to touch
I
re-
wanted
down
at
Field.
had been a
picture-perfect mission
from beginning
to end.
**
It would be tion
several days before the
magnitude of the destruc-
was understood. Reconnaissance
XXI Bomber Command ground
LeMay's
flew hourly missions in the area near
and over Hiroshima, but the to obscure the
airplanes from
fires
and smoke would continue
for the next couple of days,
making
damage assessments speculative. Yet we who had flown mission knew the city of Hiroshima was gone. While we made our
final
approach to North Field, Colonel
Tibbets had already landed and
down on Runway
the
was
taxiing
in.
As
I
touched
saw a throng of people who had massed on the area near Tibbets 's hardstand. The hundreds of cheering men was a sight to behold. As we rolled down the taxi way B,
I
past Tibbets 's airplane,
it
was
clear that a full-scale celebration
was under way. All of the men of the 509th, the other units on Tinian, and soon the world, would know what was so special
moment we taxied by the *Tooey" Spaatz, commander of all
about the 509th. At about the
Enola Gay, General Carl
172
WAR^S END
173
.
was pinning the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal for valor, on Colonel Paul air forces in the Pacific,
on the
Tibbets's sv^eaty, v^rinkled flying coveralls, right there
macadam, listed
men if I
officers
and en-
looked on. The assembled mass had crov^ded around
the Enola Gay, engulfing
Even
and other
w^hile generals, admirals,
had wanted
it
and the men v^ho had flown
to get to Tibbets after deplaning,
have been impossible.
He and
his
it
her.
would
crew would soon be whisked
an intelligence debriefing presided over personally by
off to
and Admiral Pamell together with
Spaatz, General Farrell,
se-
nior intelligence officers.
We
were met by our ground crew and a waiting
crew and
I
climbed aboard and were taken to the medical
Standard procedure
after
toes.
Then you'd be given two For those
for medicinal purposes.
My tent.
every combat mission was that the
medics checked you over, making sure you had
and
truck.
all
your fingers
shots of 100-proof whiskey
who
declined the libation,
was always someone ready, willing, and able to step forward and help out. No sense leaving perfectly good whiskey there
in the medical tent.
This time of
whom
we were
was a
also checked over
radiologist.
we had been exposed Geiger counter put to
They were anxious
to radiation.
rest
ated. It also put to rest
by two
A
methodical pass of a
any concern that we had been
much was known
effects
about the
told later that
an
sterility.
Not
of massive dosages of radia-
air burst
of the
had been favored over a ground burst effect
irradi-
any lingering worry among the crew
would have caused
was
one
to determine if
that exposure to radiation
tion. I
doctors,
to
bomb
at 1,890 feet
maximize the
blast
and reduce the radiation on the ground.
Toes, fingers, and our reproductive systems intact,
we were
driven to an intelligence hut for debriefing. All crews returning
from any combat mission had to be debriefed
—
it
was standard
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
174
operating procedure.
It
was
in the
manual.
A
team of intelligence
questioned us together as a crew. They read from the
officers
usual script used after every mission: ''What did
you
see?" ''Any
heavy?" "Any medium "How much? Light fighters?" "How many?" "From which direction?" "Anything flak?"
.
.
.
.
.
unusual?"
else
Anything
Of course,
Why,
unusual?
else
the
yes.
We'd
main
was
act
Quonset
in another
own
Tibbets and his crew were providing their
my
assembled brass.
And
were
be back in one piece, and
just glad to
way home
just destroyed
this
was
fine
with
hut,
details to the
we hoped
to be
briefing hut into a bright
on
sunny day,
lieutenant
my
had come
that day,
future brother-in-law
if
the
most impenetrable cloak of secrecy of any unit
in the
most secure
by the
small, there,
a
was
I
the day hadn't
me
visit. I
We
crew and me.
was stopped by someone who said a marine name of Paul Bums was looking for me. As already been strange in ways both big and on
where
soon.
Walking out of the
Tinian,
an
bomb.
entire city with a single
our
.
facility in the
to
on pay
world, under in the mili-
Bums was waiting to see me. How the hell had found me? Well, why not? This was a day on which all
tary.
he
And
things
Paul
seemed
possible.
"Are you sure
it's
Paul Bums?"
I
asked.
"Yeah. Big strapping guy. Kind of brash. He's down with the
crowd Yup. I
at
It
North
Field, a beer in
was Paul Bums.
made my way down
had been sealed receiving
off
to the baseball field.
and the celebration was
news of the mission's
welcome us back had been
A
each hand."
The
flight line
in full swing.
On
success, plans for a party to
moming. beer was parked on
hastily put together that
flatbed truck loaded with cases of free
WAR^S END the baseball
175
Thousands of sandwiches,
field.
salads,
mood was
dogs were prepared and ready to be served. The
The
jubilant.
home
talk
was
that the
war was
The party would go on
soon.
over,
we'd
and hot
all
be going
day and well into the
all
night. I
had no trouble finding Paul Bums. At
among
stood out
literally
marine khakis.
in his
the back
We
my
sister
He was
the crowd.
at seeing
He
port from
told
me I
each other. Paul was
was attending Emman-
he had hitched a ride over on a trans-
Guam, where
educated guess that
dressed sharply
Marylyn. They'd met while he was a
student at Boston College and Marylyn uel College.
his
was
unit
stationed,
might be on Tinian.
taking an
He knew
Guam, and he didn't in Saipan. He connected
I
wasn't
with the organization in
think
among
the dots
found
the
first
me on
We
he
hugged and slapped each other on
and expressed our joy
engaged to
six foot two,
arrivals
I
was and
that extraordinary day.
shared a beer.
By
had picked up the broad had heard the term
*'
talking to people in the crowd, Paul
outline of
what had happened. He
atomic bomb." With the need for absolute
now gone, I told him I had been on the mission and indeed we had dropped the first atomic bomb. It had de-
secrecy that
stroyed an entire
city.
magnitude of
explained that this one
it,
I
sive equivalent of
Sensing he
men would I
and
that he
He
nodded.
comprehend the
didn't
bomb had
twenty thousand tons of
of conventional bombs.
was
still
the explo-
TNT—of thousands
What he
tens of thousands of other
did understand
young American
be spared further death and suffering.
brought
my
future brother-in-law over to
my
quarters
and
him around to Beahan, Albury, and Van Pelt. There was plenty of room in our hut to accommodate ten comfortably, so I told him he could stay with us while he was on introduced
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
176
Tinian. After a quick shower,
we headed
over to the
officers'
club.
was
It
close to six p.m.
when we walked
a large Quonset hut, elevated on
stilts,
The
was with a small plywood in.
club
A
bar at one end and tables and chairs scattered about.
was under way. The walls were
celebration
bulging. Although
the club typically served only beer, bottles of hard liquor
appeared from unspecified sources.
I
wild
had
maybe
suspected that
someone had commandeered the stash of whiskey stored in the medical department. Wherever it had come from and however it had gotten there, no one was asking any questions. All work on the island had stopped, and it is accurate to say now that
was
the order of the day
was
to get drunk.
was then around seven in the evening, and I was exhausted. What I craved most was sleep. I bid Paul Bums a good night and had just started out when I saw Paul Tibbets. I hadn't noticed him come in. He motioned for me to join him off to one side. As the party raged around us, he said, ''Chuck, if it becomes necessary, the second one will be dropped on the ninth. I
just
Primary target
He
Nagasaki."
about out of gas.
will
It
be Kokura. The secondary target will be
paused, then added, "You're going to
command
the mission."
He went on surrender,
it
was
supply of atomic
them.
Of
bomb on away. But
course,
Tinian. if
to explain that if the Japanese vital that
they believed
we had an
did not
unlimited
bombs and that we would continue to use the truth was that we had only one more Delivery of a third bomb was several weeks
we were
to sustain the psychological
sary to force a surrender, there could be in the
still
impact neces-
no prolonged delay
second mission. Long-range forecasts predicted that the
weather would worsen over the next several days. wait for a perfect day. The
last possible
We
couldn't
acceptable date
would
WAR'S END be August
9.
After that, the weather
177
would
force a delay of at
maybe longer. Even as we spoke, Tokyo Radio was minimizing the true impact and devastation at Hiroshima, reporting that some damanother week,
least
age had been caused at Hiroshima after B-29s dropped incendiary bombs.
The Japanese
military
weapon we had more. They
was arguing
that the
was unlikely that were was wrong by only one. Having sustained the worst we must be so complicated could
inflict,
My strike
they could certainly fight on.
head was
in a spin.
I
had assumed
were ever needed, Tibbets would be
me
But he was entrusting
my
it
first
to deliver the
combat mission command.
in
that if a second
command
again.
knockout punch with
''Yes, sir," I
answered.
"You'll use the same tactics," he went on. I
wondered about
that.
by a
single
now
a distinctive signature.
weather
aircraft
Three unescorted B-29s, preceded
and coming
in at 30,000 feet,
was
The Japanese might figure it out and throw everything they had up at us. 'The same tactics?"
I
repeated.
"The same," he "Yes,
sir."
Even though
my
But
replied.
I
had some
reservations,
didn't raise them.
response was more than just a reflexive reaction to an
order. I trusted Tibbets 's
lieved that
was
the right
judgment and experience.
way
to carry out a
was the right way. "We're going to have to do one more
then
I
If
he be-
second mission,
it
couple of days,
when
fuse test in the next
the scientists are ready," Tibbets contin-
He explained that the second bomb would be a plutonium bomb and that it was much more complex than Little Boy. ued.
As
I
left
the club
I
was
elated that Colonel Tibbets
chosen me. This was a supreme compliment from a
admired and respected.
had
man
I
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
178
When
arrived at
I
my
Beahan, Albury, and Van
quarters,
them the news. Nonplussed, they responded that we could do it, no problem. None of us was in a reflective mood, given the day we had had. The next morning I would assemble the remainder of my crew on the flight line and fill them in. But just then, I hit the sack and Pelt
were
there,
still
deep
drifted off into a
While
awake.
I slept,
I
told
sleep.
the Japanese
of
reality that the prospect
had
*
'total
to
come
to grips with the
destruction" as promised in
Potsdam Declaration was now upon them. From Washington, President Truman's formal statement was released to the the
world:
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one
shima.
It is
an atomic bomb.
We
of the universe.
are
It is
now
their
in
any
city.
We
terms they
may
power
enterprise the Japanese
have above
shall destroy their docks, their factories,
to
make
we
war. If they do not
expect a rain of ruin from the
has never been seen on
Armed
power
a harnessing of the basic
communications. Let there be no mistake;
destroy Japan's
Hiro-
prepared to obliterate more rapidly
and completely every productive ground
bomb on
air,
shall
completely
now
accept our
the likes of
which
this earth.
Forces Radio immediately began transmitting to the
Japanese mainland the fact that the atomic
bomb had
destroyed
Hiroshima and that more would follow. Millions of were dropped over Japanese
To
the Japanese people:
of what
We
we
say on this
A
single
leaflets
cities:
America asks
that
you take immediate heed
leaflet.
are in possession of the
vised by man. is
and
most destructive explosive ever de-
one of our newly developed atomic bombs
actually the equivalent in explosive
power
to
what 2,000 of our
WAR'S END giant B-29s can
you
to
you
single mission. This awful fact
ponder and we solemnly assure you that
We If
cany on a
179
have just begun to use still
weapon
one
for
grimly accurate.
against your homeland.
have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to
Hiroshima when
just
Before using this
one atomic
bomb
Emperor
to
bomb
fell
on
that city.
to destroy every resource of the military
by which they are prolonging petition the
this
it is
is
this useless
war,
we
ask that you
now
end the war. Our President has outlined
We
for
you
the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender.
that
you accept these consequences and begin work on building a
urge
new, better and peaceloving Japan.
You
should take these steps
Otherwise, superior
we
shall resolutely
weapons
Evacuate your
To
to
now
employ
to cease military resistance. this
bomb and
our other
all
promptly and forcefully end the war.
cities
now!
and
the president's message,
to the millions of leaflets
dropped, there was no response.
On
August
7,
Curtis
LeMay would
launch 152 B-29s to
more conventional destruction upon Japan. There would still be no response. On August 8, 375 B-29s would pound Japanese cities, including 224 B-29s that would firebomb the industrial city of Yawata, an event that would have grave consequences for me and my crew the next day. Fifty years later, a revisionist historian on CNN's program Crossfire, in an attempt to characterize the Japanese in 1945 as the victims of American aggression, would tell me face-to-face that General LeMay had stopped inflict
firebombing Japan in late July.
I
believe he read
it
somewhere.
Thus, his story went, because Japan had been militarily defeated before either atomic
bomb was
dropped, the missions
were unnecessary. Still
would be no response from the Japanese. of military and diplomatic efforts to convince,
there
In spite
co-
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
180
erce,
and otherwise
force the Japanese to stop fighting, the
samurai mentahty of their miUtaristic society made the notion of accepting unconditional surrender inconceivable.
And
as
hundreds of thousands of American troops anxiously waited
at
staging areas in the Pacific, dreading the possibility of an immi-
nent invasion, the jubilation America was feeling at this mo-
ment was now tempered
for
me by
the growing realization that
the Japanese were going to continue the war.
With
barely enough time to digest and reflect
historic event
we had
my
crew and
I
had
participated in
already begun preparing to do
August 7 dawned brightly over our I
it
upon
on August
of the storm.
I
Pacific
home
with what
it
had gotten
into a
casually mentioned at breakfast
little
beef the night before and hoped
A
few punches had been thrown;
wouldn't embarrass me.
no one had been
hurt. In fact, I did dismiss
services, the air force
me
should have sensed that something
was amiss when Paul Bums that he
6,
again.
thought might develop into an international incident, with
at the center
the
was much
looser
it.
Unlike the other
and more casual about
among its officer corps. Rank was never a barrier, particularly when we partied. I remember one incident at Grand Island when a renowned general and a major, both rank and protocol
pickled, got into a no-holds-barred fistfight over a at
one of the
day,
no hard
officers' club's
feelings,
no
comely blond
Saturday night dances. The next
court-martial, just business as usual.
In any other branch of the military, the incident
ruined one,
if
would have
not both, careers.
So, given the celebration of the night before,
how much
everyone had been drinking, the general aura of goodwill, and the fact that Paul
how bad
could
it
Bums
wasn't in the stockade,
be? But gradually Paul gave
me
I
reasoned,
at least the
WAR^S END vague fill
details
me
of what he could remember, and others began to
day progressed.
in as the
had an antipathy toward the
Paul, being Boston Irish, ish. It
was ingrained
to find his
181
way
in his psyche.
into the
Brit-
Half in the bag, he managed
company of
the only
two Englishmen
on Tinian, Group Captain Leonard Cheshire and British scientist William Penney, Winston Churchill's personal representatives. He'd decided to provide them with a little entertainment in the
form of a particularly
into question the
manhood
/ don 't want
to be
I don 't want
to
rd just
rather
Piccadilly
go
a
satiric
rendition of a song calling
of the British in the war
soldier,
to war.
hang around
Underground
Living off the earnings of some 'ighbom lady
I
was
told
who by
.
.
.
this
musical interlude had been
vitriolic
argument, mostly emanat-
by observers that
punctuated by increasingly ing from Paul,
effort:
then was pickled beyond reason. Finally,
either Paul or Cheshire invited the other to settle the matter
gentlemen. So
like
rine
first
my
lieutenant
representative
future brother-in-law, a six-foot-two
ma-
combat veteran, and Churchill's personal
and holder of the Victoria Cross, the equivalent
of our Medal of Honor, stepped outside.
At
this point the story gets unclear.
According
to Paul,
he
taught the Englishman a lesson. According to other witnesses, the fight ended inconclusively after a few ineffective punches
were thrown. In any event, Paul didn't look the worse
To
this
day
I
don't
know
if
for wear.
Leonard Cheshire, who was a
gentleman in every sense of the word, knew that Paul was with
me. After the war,
Leonard and
I
would maintain a warm
his wife,
who was
a
member
friendship with
of the House of
Lords. But on August
on
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
182
my
1945,
7,
head. Thankfully,
it
I
boom to drop when I saw Group
expected the
didn't. In fact,
Captain Cheshire the next day, he was pleasant, conversational,
and
fine.
Obviously the incident hadn't caused him any concern
and was soon
A
crisis
prepare
forgotten.
with Great Britain averted,
for. I
had a mission
I still
attended to the details that any
to
commander must
see to prior to a mission.
went over
I
to the intelligence hut. Reconnaissance photo-
graphs were providing a better view of the destruction on the
ground
as
some of
shima had been
the
smoke
cleared. Sixty percent of Hiro-
laid waste. Preliminary casualty estimates
80,000 killed or seriously wounded. actly
what
was still uncertain exmight have. The city's industrial
effect the radiation
base had been crippled,
if
were
It
not destroyed.
an
activities as
Its
urban center had ceased. This had to be the end.
No
nation could ignore the breadth
of destruction there and continue to offer up
I
caught up with Paul
provided a certain
relief,
Bums
at lunch.
its
So
own
people.
far his visit
had
a soothing feeling of a connection
was swirling around me. Plus, I liked his company. He was a good and loyal friend. Our relationship was built on a mutual respect that allowed for continuous good-natured razzing and kidding. At lunch we went back with home, from
and
forth about
marines or the
He knew response to
all else
who was
air force.
that
responsible for winning the war, the
Our
positions were pretty evident.
was going again on some barb, I mockingly I
the ninth,
if
necessary. In
said, *T'd take
you on
this
you don't have the nerve." Paul shot back, "I'll go anywhere you go."
mission, Paul, but
We
each upped the ante, progressively calling each other's
WAR'S END Finally,
bluff. "I'll
And of I
threw the ultimate trump card on the
I
you son of a
take you,
and could include on
flexibility
—a
I
my
certain limits. This
though
to the limit,
table,
bitch."
really intended to take him.
I
wanted within
an
183
had been given a
crew
just
lot
about anyone
one would be
really close
marine lieutenant without orders on
air force secret mission.
I
decided
I
had
better run
it
by
Paul Tibbets.
on his pipe and said, "I have no objection." had it made. ''But," he added, *'I think we'd
Tibbets puffed
thought
I
better clear
I
with Parsons."
it
Captain Parsons had no formal command, but he was the military liaison with the
wanted rence
to
—
to
marched I
Manhattan
Project,
and we always
make sure everything was done with his concurmake sure Manhattan, Alberta, and Silverplate all
to a single
drummer.
asked Captain Parsons. Like Tibbets, he had a relaxed,
confident
way about
him. And, as could Tibbets, he could sim-
ply mandate that something happen or not. But style to
mandate
unilaterally,
which made him a
was not
it
well-liked
his
and
respected officer.
He really
heard
me
out and then rationally offered, ''Well,
have any objection. But on the other hand,
went wrong, I felt this
would look strange." was his way of telling me
don't
anything
it
the idea
was not a good
one. "That's the better part of wisdom, Captain,"
Paul
if
I
Bums had came
I
responded.
within a whisker of going on the
second atomic mission.
Of
course,
I
didn't let
him
get
away
cused him of getting to Parsons before
make sure Parsons wouldn't approve. The last time before the mission that would be
at dinner the next night.
We
that easy. I later acI
spoke with him to
would see Paul Bums would both know what I
Maj. Gen. Charles
184
was ahead
for
or the war.
We
us.
would
But
we
wouldn't talk of the mission
talk about the
come. Paul would take
good times
me
in the past
in a big bear hug,
and
"Tell the medics to be ready with that hundred-proof
Old
and those say,
both of
W. Sweeney
to
"See you when you get back."
Crow," It
I'd reply.
wouldn't be macho bravado.
deal with the
moment.
It
was a way men
in a
war
I
** SEVENTEEN
MEETING WITH Captain Parsons, I walked back to my quarters alone, turning over in my mind the details of the mission and the work to be done the next day in preparation for ='TER
the
on
flight.
my
who
A
nagging need to talk through
thoughts.
My
faith
and
belief in
my
beliefs intruded
God were
the core of
was a child I had found guidance in the teachings of Jesus and the Church. Jesus taught us to love. He turned the other cheek. Where would He draw the line? I borrowed a jeep and drove over to one of the other groups of the 313th Bombardment Wing, our neighbors on Tinian. Although I could have met with Captain Downey, a Lutheran minister assigned to the 509th, I wanted to speak with a priest. I took Riverside Drive along the ocean instead of the more I
was. Since
I
down Eighth Avenue. To my right, the last yellow day cast a broad beam stretching from the horizon
direct route light
of
across the smooth, blue, glassy surface of the Pacific.
After a
number of
inquiries I
185
found the
priest.
We
walked
Maj. Gen. Charles
186
W. Sweeney
over to the open-air theater where Sunday services were held.
He
much
couldn't have been
way about him, common
We
his years.
and
side
to
older than
most
was, but he had that
I
of seeming older than
clerics,
found two straight-back metal chairs off to one
sat facing
each other.
was from the 509th, and by now he knew what the 509th's mission had been the day before. But he made no comment about that and neither did I. I'm sure he recognized that
He began by
Now
asking
that
I
me what
sat there
what he could do
would
I
like to talk about.
looking at him,
me
for
I
what
or
offered in a quiet tone, ''Do
you
I
wanted from him. He
feel the
The question helped focus me. No, to confess.
felt
I
need
to confess?"
didn't feel the
I
need
a need to talk about the teachings of
church and the world in which time of war there
wasn't quite sure
I
is
precious
my
found myself that evening. In
I
little
opportunity to reflect upon
or even entertain deep philosophical or theological questions.
But that night the war.
I
I
needed
to
understand the Church's position on
needed to pursue the meaning behind
under certain circumstances war
that I
posed the question, "Is
To my
slight relief the
may
a sin to
it
young
its
teachings
be "justified."
wage war. Father?"
priest said,
"This
is
a question
I
have spent considerable time thinking about myself. For here
I
am, a
cleric, in
uniform, in a war."
You
"But you're not a combatant. Father.
the spiritual needs of those called to fight,"
I
simply tend to pointed out to
him.
fly
"That
is
off to
kill
true.
But
and be
I
bless the
killed.
blessings.
So
nizes that
man
wants us
to think, to reason
actions
and
it is
is
I
men and
condone
their airplanes that
their actions
by
my
not that simple. Fortunately, our faith recoga thinking being
inactions.
endowed with
intellect.
God
about the consequences of our
For me, then, whether
this is a just
war
WAR'S END is
not an academic exercise.
stances
I
187
have to consider the circum-
and measure them against the moral teachings of the
Church and then reach a personal conclusion, every Christian." saintly than
He paused
you or
I,
for a
as
must you and
moment. "Someone
Thomas Aquinas,
far
more
struggled with this
same question." I recalled some of Thomas Aquinas 's teachings from
my
Thomas Aquinas had recognized
the
earlier religious readings.
unity of intellect and
upon
faith.
He'd brought
his intellect to bear
real-world dilemmas that plague the
like the
human
anomaly of war. He had concluded
world there were situations that render a war
"Thomas justified," just.
condition,
that in the real **just."
war is cause must be
believed that under certain circumstances
Father continued. "First, he said, the
common
Secondly, the intention must be to advance the
—
good to secure peace and punish evil. And, finally, a just war must be declared by the lawful sovereign in defense of the common good. The absence of any one of these elements
would make the
act of
war a
sin."
The priest and I talked at length about these conditions. How had we gotten into the war? What was our objective? What was our intent? I
believed that the last thing the overwhelming majority of
our generation had wanted was a war. America
is
not a nation
of warriors. Americans don't subscribe to the code of the samurai or believe
they are a master race.
While the United
States
was
struggling through the Great
Depression, Japan was embarking on the conquest of bors. Imperial
Japan saw
of Asia, enslaving resources,
its
itself as
its
lands.
neigh-
a nation destined to rule
people into service, possessing
and occupying
its
It
its
all
natural
called the undertaking the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, an innocuous
name
to
cover hideous intentions. Co-prosperity was to be achieved by
Maj. Gen. Charles W. SwEEisfEY
188
waging
first
war
total
China and Manchuria. Without
against
a shred of moral conscience or the slightest hesitation, the Japa-
women,
nese army had proceeded to slaughter innocent men,
and
children. In the
infamous Rape of Nanking, Japanese
had butchered up
diers
In the plan to
unarmed
to 300,000
fulfill its
sol-
civilians.
divine destiny in Asia, Japan
had
determined that the only real impediment was the United States. It
had launched a
our Pacific Fleet the attack ships
it
to inflict the
blow
dealing a
lives,
could not soon recover.
in the dying light of
hundreds of
sailors
had been
As
to the
maximum
American
the priest
and
dusk talking about the
were
still
entombed
I sat
start
thrust
upon
loss of
from
fleet
together
of the war,
USS
in the hull of the
on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Thus,
Arizona, sitting
on
Harbor. Timed for a Sunday morning,
had been intended
and human
which
at Pearl
carefully conceived sneak attack
the
war
us.
During the years following Pearl Harbor, the actions of the Japanese military had done nothing to disabuse the world of their intentions
—and of the means they would use
them. Always, they would
any means, even
if it
to achieve
They would use own deaths. By war's end
fight to the death.
meant
their
would have killed twenty million of their Asian neighbors and over one hundred thirty thousand Allied the Japanese forces
troops.
What, then, was our cause? Our intention?
Our
intention in the Pacific
was
to stop the
Japanese aggres-
sion, to eradicate the evil that festered in Japan,
peace
—just
as in
Europe we had
by and allow the slaughter repudiation of the sanctity of I
to stop the Nazis.
to continue
to restore
To
stand
would have been a
life.
did not mention Hiroshima or the mission scheduled for
August tion?
and
9.
But
Are they
I
asked,
"What about weapons
justified?"
of mass destruc-
WAR^S END The
priest considered this for
189
what seemed a long time
"War as we know it today is mass destrucThe weapons may become more fearsome, but the moral
before answering. tion.
issues are the same.
The death of a
single person
is
no
less a
tragedy than the death of ten thousand. Will greater weapons bring a quicker end to the war?
I
don't know. But
you must
be certain of your cause and your intentions, because the nature
modem weapons makes
much higher." Neither of us had noticed that we were sitting in almost complete darkness, the only light coming from the window of an adjoining hut. He blessed me, wished me well, and said he of
hoped he had helped. I
was
at
I
the stakes
assured
peace with myself.
him he
had.
**
In the air-conditioned of the third and nal, the
Mark
last
III
we
hut
called ''the shed," assembly
atomic weapon in the United States arse-
combat unit F31, Model
proceeding over the past few days;
ploded to
life
three
weeks
earlier
its
Y
1561,
had been
fraternal twin
had
ex-
on a hundred-foot tower
at
Alamogordo. The Fat Man, named because of its rotund shape,
was more complicated than
the primitive Little
Boy
—and more TNT.
powerful: twenty-three kilotons, 46 million pounds, of Instead of having the gun-barrel design of Little Boy, Fat
Man
was an implosion device. A solid core of precision-machined plutonium was surrounded by finely shaped lenses of high explosives placed in a precise configuration
around the core
ensure an instantaneous symmetrical implosion.
which emits alpha
particles,
is
warm
to
Plutonium,
to the touch, as if
it is
a
The implosion would compress the plutonium a nanosecond to a critical mass that would then start
living thing.
sphere in
a chain reaction and nuclear explosion. All of the explosive
190
WAR'S END had
lenses
to detonate simultaneously.
191
An
infinitesimal delay
would result in a big bang, but no nuclear explosion. The numerous and interconnected mechanical and electrical systems necessary to accomplish this result had to be in
any
lens
painstakingly set into the confines of the
bomb
casing, together
with the multiple and redundant fuses and switches required to detonate the explosive charges.
To make
bomb
would be installed: barometric, timing, radar, and impact. The four different kinds of fuses would be used for redundancy. There would the
four sets of fuses
live,
be two fuses of each kind
—again,
for redundancy.
bomb
Only the
impact fuses would detonate
when
The
of the other fuses would activate
last resort. Ideally, all six
at 1,890 feet: the
bomb
the
forty- three
the
hit the
ground.
barometric fuses were set to detonate
reached 1,890
the timing fuses
feet;
would detonate
bomb
seconds after release, at which point the
would have reached 1,890
feet;
when
would
the radar fuses
receive
echoes from the ground at 1,890 feet and detonate. The scientists
had
toiled over the fuse function for so long, they nearly
ended up throwing
in the kitchen sink for insurance.
After the fuses were installed, the two half spheres of the
bomb
would be bolted together and the 550-pound would be attached to the casing.
casing
section
tail
Because the entire assembly was so complicated, the pluto-
nium bomb would have
when it was loaded onto the airplane. There would be no way to arm it in flight, as Captain Parsons had armed Little Boy on the Hiroshima mission. Thus, my crew and I would be rolling down the
runway with a
live,
to
be armed and
live
10,300-pound plutonium bomb, and
because of its weight, there would be just barely enough runway to gain the proper airspeed. If
we
crashed on takeoff,
we
could
obliterate the island.
Even before
the technicians
made Fat Man
live,
it
was an
Maj. Gen. Charles
192
W. Sweeney
extremely dangerous unit to be around. The quantity of high explosives laid in around the plutonium core
bomb
largest conventional
made
the unit the
our inventory. Inside, over 5,000
in
pounds of two types of high-grade explosives, Baratol and Composition B, surrounded the
nickel-
and gold-coated orange-
eleven-pound sphere of plutonium, whose density was nine
size
ounces per cubic inch. At
nium and
its
center
was
would commence
beryllium, the initiator that
chain reaction by releasing neutrons sphere of plutonium crushed in on
A
a pea-size ball of polo-
single spark, or
when
the
the compressing
it.
even heat generated by
friction,
could
set
bomb and wipe away the assembly what surrounded it. To reduce friction, baby
off the explosives inside the
hut and most of
powder was dusted onto some parts that might rub against other components during assembly. In addition to having airconditioning, the entire shed
had a
specially rubberized floor
grounded by a copper wire grid system
to prevent
an accidental
explosion from a spark or any other source of heat. All person-
had
nel
to
wear rubberized shoes
and
carefully
and added
deliberately. This
slowed the progress of the work
to the tension.
Hours before the bomb was area, the
and move about
in the shed
to be transported to the loading
assembly crew encountered a snag that would have
was discovered that holes on the bomb casing and the tail section had been improperly drilled, making it impossible to align the two com-
been comical except
for the circumstances. It
ponents and bolt them together. similar problems
cheaply
and
it
made
had
Many
a father
on Christmas Eve when
had confronted
trying to assemble
toys for his children. However, this
cost
two
billion dollars.
the
aluminum
toy,
Cool prevailed, and without
missing a beat, a technician with a metal
away enough of
was no
plating
file
labored to scrape
on the
fins to
enlarge
the holes so that the sections could be joined by the bolts.
WAR^S END
I
had already decided
ing instruments still
to
installed in
we had
my
193
that because all the delicate measur-
carried
on
the Hiroshima mission were
airplane, The Great Artiste,
made no
it
sense
have the ground crews and technicians work through the
day
to
remove the instruments,
and then
them in another B-29, would take Fat Man in with my crew, and he
reinstall
recalibrate them. Instead,
Fred Bock's airplane, the Bock's
I
Car,
would fly The Great Artiste, with his crew. However, on August 8, I would fly The Great
more time before with a
Artiste
one
The scientists were finally ready The last fusing test at Wendover
the mission.
new improved
fuse.
had
resulted in a premature detonation right
my
airplane.
Similar problems
practice drops there at Tinian.
below the
belly of
had occurred when we flew
My
the brilliance of these scientists.
was
feeling
that I trusted
had confidence
I
in them. If
they wanted to use a round fuse today and a square one tomor-
row, then that was fine with me. I
was
release
it
to take a concrete-filled
pumpkin
to 30,000 feet
over the ocean off shore of Tinian. Alberta
cluding Luis Alvarez and
observe the
pumpkin and
at 1,890 feet.
A
Norman Ramsey, the fuse,
small charge
and
staff, in-
lined the shore to
which was
set to
would explode with a
detonate
visible puff
of smoke.
At mid-morning I arrived at the initial point to commence the bomb run. Beahan activated the thirty-second tone signal. Just as we would do the next day when the tone stopped, Kermit yelled, "Bomb away," and I took the airplane into a sharp
155-degree turn.
toward the designated
The bomb raced
in
altitude of 1,890 feet.
its
A
forward arc
smoke had deto-
puff of
plumed into the sun-drenched tropical sky. The fuse nated. The inert pumpkin plopped harmlessly into the ocean. The test, we later learned from the scientists, had been sue-
— W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
194
cessful. I
guess that was good news, considering that in less
we would
than twenty-four hours
—on board with us
be taking the actual
fuses
and
all
I
had
tasks to attend to as the
Bombing Mission Number mission. After lunch, the crew chief
rechecking
all
and
to Japan.
command
pilot for Special
16, the military designation for
his
men, who were busily checking and
tires, just
wanting to make
the best,
and
knew
our
drove over to the hardstand to chat with
I
systems on the Bock's Car. Basically,
I
bomb
my
presence
felt.
kicked the
I
Those guys were
they would have the airplane in tiptop
shape well before takeoff.
At two
P.M.,
Beahan, Albury, Van Kirk, and
I
attended a
maps and reconnaissance photographies of the two possible targets for our mission, Kokura and Nagasaki. For the last week we had studied those very same maps
briefing to study the
and photos, which,
We
knew
perhaps
until
had included Hiroshima. we knew our own hometowns,
August
these cities as well as
5,
—
Every inch of them
better.
factories, rivers, lakes
—was
streets, buildings, bridges,
committed
to our
memories.
walked through every sequence of the bomb runs
The
at
each
We city.
intelligence officers in attendance reviewed the latest infor-
mation about
antiaircraft
emplacements, intensity of
fire,
and
potential fighter intercepts at each target.
We
could expect significant antiaircraft
where heavy the
industries
Kokura army
were concentrated. The
arsenal, the
at
Kokura,
target
would be
fire
primary source supplying the
smack in the heart of the city. The Japanese war effort depended on keeping factories like this operating. Ringing the city were concentrated and well-placed antiaircraft batteries that could throw up a withering hail of
Japanese army.
flak.
Kokura
bombers.
It sat
also
had
fighter protection to intercept
incoming
WAR^S END
195
home
Nagasaki was another industrial base, Mitsubishi armament plants. concentration.
I
looked
NUMBER
ORDERS,
It
at the
8
17,
to
two massive
was defended, but with
far less
Nagasaki
FIELD
field orders:
AUGUST 1945—(2)
Urban Area. coordinates on the aviation
Secondary
Target: 90.36 Nagasaki
located the
I
fi-ont
of me. Pressing
that the city sat in
my
two
chart of Japan in
saw the middle by a low
finger to the chart at Nagasaki,
valleys split in
range of hills. Although residential and commercial in the flat land surrounding the large harbor
shipbuilding and torpedo blast effect could
factories
My first reaction to that
I
where Nagasaki's
were located,
maximum
hoped the
this flat
hills.
the aiming point
was
could be even greater than at Hiroshima.
was
districts lay
be achieved only by dropping over
area below the range of
I
target
that the casualties
My
second reaction
would be Kokura. Updated weather
reports predicted fairly clear conditions at both targets for the
next day. The meteorologists confirmed that after the ninth conditions
would worsen.
A
weather front was moving over
Japan that would cause unsettled weather
None
for at least five days.
of us had slept well over the past two days, and as
the afternoon briefing dragged on, the tedium and tension grew.
We
finally finished up,
and
I
returned to our hut to try to
The heat and anticipation again made sleep impossible. I went over to the Dogpatch Inn, where I saw Paul Bums and we had supper. After eating, I took a walk alone up the hill overlooking the runways. I lit up a cigar and began
grab a
little
nap.
contemplating the mission.
A
steady flow of B-29s from the
313th were taking off in the darkness on the
strips
below.
I
saw an airplane struggling to lift off with its fuU load of ftiel and bombs. It didn't make it. The burning aviation fuel and exploding napalm-filled bombs sent plumes of flame and smoke billowing up into the sky. Sounds of explosions punctuated the
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
196
night.
to
I
didn't
bomb
know
it
then, but 224 of those B-29s
were going
the industrial city of Yawata, the neighboring city
of Kokura.
Our scheduled arrival at target was still at least fifteen hours away. Maybe this firebombing strike would compel the Japanese to surrender. It was possible. We were given a recall code to abort the mission if hostilities ended.
But as the Mother
Goose childhood rhyme reminds, 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Wishing, I knew, wouldn't be productive at this late hour. The Japanese had to be shaken from their selfdelusion that they could grasp victory with some final, cataclysmic spasm of violence. Historians after a war may hypothesize about the what-ifs, ponder the maybes, and reflect upon what rational men of goodwill should have done, but in war it is the harsh reality of the present that controls events. Lives are not "theoretically" at stake.
Death and maiming
Robert E. Lee observed, "It
we might grow
No
to
hke
is
good
that
war
are absolutes. is
As
so horrible, or
it."
beggars would ride that evening.
All of the crews gathered in the briefing hut at nine p.m. sharp.
We
were joined by the
British observers
Penney and
The mood was quiet. The men knew what was coming, whereas on the first mission no one had known what to expect. My crew specifically understood what was before them. No one expressed any concern, but you could feel it in the air. There was a sense of hastening toward a destination that you Cheshire.
hoped someone would
tell
men maintained their and we were going to do
the
you you
didn't have to reach. But
professionalism.
We
and quite
different
to
do
it.
Paul Tibbets opened with a few remarks.
broad terms that Fat
had a job
Man was
a
much more
He
explained in
powerful
bomb
from the one he had dropped on Hiroshima.
I
WAR^S END Because of our bomb, the the brass
An
Boy was now
obsolete,
and
Washington were following our mission very
He knew we would do
closely.
*
in
Little
197
intelligence
a good job and wished us well. laying
started
officer
out
mission:
the
'Major Sweeney will take the bomb, Captain Bock the instru-
ments, and Colonel Hopkins the photographic equipment." In discussing the mission earlier with Paul Tibbets,
I
had
asked for Fred Bock because of his experience and expertise as a
Fred was a steady and
pilot.
wing.
knew
I
trust his
told
a crunch,
that, in
judgment. But
me
reliable I
have on your
to
could depend on him and
was somewhat
I
man
when
surprised
Tibbets
he'd assigned the photographic airplane to Hopkins.
Hopkins had had limited experience with the B-29 since he joined the headquarters staff of the 509th as group operations officer.
In
were ranking the
fact, if I
available to fly the mission, he
among
the group
own
belief that
as demonstrated in the meeting I'd
when Tibbets wasn't mended him for this that
I
was
was
he could
fly
had with
the mission,
Tom
at a loss as to
fine
with me. all
No
pictures.
target, release the
Classen
what recom-
flight.
I
him and
wasn't going to second-guess him.
Hopkins had
to
do was
trail
I
behind us
fancy maneuvers at the drop, just a
straight-in flight. Simple.
and then
I
the most proficient.
dismissed the thought. Tibbets had chosen
never had. Anyway,
and take
around,
393rd
would not have been even
would have considered
I
Other than Hopkins's
But
fifteen pilots in the
bomb
My
major concern was to reach
my
with Fred Bock close in beside me,
get our tails out of there as fast as possible.
The operations
officer
went over
air-sea
rescue
plans.
Again, a network of submarines, surface ships, and specially
equipped
aircraft
would
line
our
flight
path to and from the
empire.
We
then reviewed the details of the mission. The
intelli-
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeivey
198
gence
officers
conceded
most circumspect manner
in their
because of the Hiroshima mission,
yes,
predict with
would be
it
that
difficult to
any certainty exactly what kind of opposition we
might encounter
if
the Japanese discovered three unescorted
B-29s crossing over to the mainland. In other words, they just
might be waiting for us and throw every at us they could.
We ally,
A
Or maybe
were reminded
damn
not.
no uncertain terms
in
which was a natural introduction
momentum
typhoon was gathering
thing in the air
to the
off
drop only visu-
weather report.
Iwo Jima, and
required a change in the rendezvous point. rectly off the southern coast of
to
A
that
small island
di-
Kyushu, the southern island of
mainland Japan, was selected as the new rendezvous
—Yako-
shima. Because of the bad weather at lower altitudes and our
proximity to the Japanese mainland, the rendezvous would be at
30,000 feet instead of at 8,000, as on the Hiroshima mission.
This meant
we would
be flying through some turbulent weather
for about five hours in
complete radio
silence.
Then
three
all
of us had to arrive at a tiny spot in the ocean within one
minute of each other. At dawn on a gray, overcast day, be pretty tricky seeing another airplane
was
After the briefing I
wanted
to
When
finished,
said,
I
difficult to
rendezvous up there
bad day.
we
close
three
we .
.
you simply
I've picked a point
here."
I
can't
asked Hopkins to wait up.
"You know, Hoppy,
at thirty
thousand
feet
I
could be a mile tell.
We'd never
off,
map
it's
on a
how
you could be So
see each other.
on the southwest comer of the
pointed to the
tacked to the wall.
island
"From
this
on a compass bearing a hundred and eighty two minutes and then back at three hundred and
point, we'll run
degrees for
distance.
Yakoshima, we won't know exactly
circle
are to the shore. .
any
have a private word with him.
the hut emptied,
If
I
at
can
it
WAR^S END sixty degrees for
199
two minutes and continue making
this oval
comer until we hook up." Hopkins and I had never been close. Our contacts had been businesslike and formal in a military way. He wanted to be regular army, everything by the book. His ambition to make the military his career and rise to the rank of a general officer to
and from
that
were well-known.
I
certainly wasn't
didn't expect the response
''Look, Major,
You
a rendezvous.
I
know
I
one of
his buddies, but I
got from him.
all
about
don't have to
tell
know how to make me how to make a rendez-
that. I
vous," Hopkins said with pronounced emphasis, his voice con-
veying aggravation at the intrusion.
Without another word, he turned and walked away.
To
know
was because of his senior rank he was a lieutenant colonel and I was only a major or because he thought I was talking down to him. Or some belief that he should have commanded the mission. I don't know. What I do know is that a few minutes later I had the same conversation with Fred Bock, a very experienced this
day
I
don't
if his
reaction
—
—
pilot,
and he
Our hands,
more 77,
I
listened attentively
final briefing
in agreement.
With time on
my
to the flight line to look things over
one
would be
headed down
and nodded
at midnight.
time. Portable lights illuminated the hardstand of
Fred Bock's airplane. For
this mission, like the
number
first,
our
would not have any nose art painted on the fuselage, just the black block tactical numbers assigned to each B-29. Nearby I could see my airplane, number 89. And on the other adjoining hardstand I saw the airplane Hopkins would pilot. Captain Herman Zahn's B-29, number 90, named by its crew the Big Stink. As I surveyed the flight line I had no idea exactly how prophetic and fitting it was that Hopkins would be piloting aircraft
the Big Stink.
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
200
walked around number 77 slowly, visually checking every
I
any
surface of the aircraft, looking for
the tarmac below.
The ground crew was
My
procedures and systems checks.
my
hunched down and took a
I
There
Ten
bomb bay
it
bomb
was. Secure in the
gloss yellow
enamel and black
bay, the Fat
at least 1,000
tail
fins.
bomb
people had signed the
with varying degrees of
or
left
whom
I
he seemed
"No,
sir," I
resem-
It
could see that
poems and messages
vitriol.
had never seen
I
I
came
before.
know who I was. "Son, do you know how much that bomb
tions,
Boy.
Little
Backing out from beneath the fuselage, with an admiral
waited.
weighed 10,300
It
pounds heavier than
Man
painted with high-
bled a grossly oversized decorative squash.
many
doors were
look.
feet eight inches long, five feet across,
pounds,
performing various
formal walk-around with
during our preflight check. The
open, so
still
engineer and ground crew chief would take place
flight
later,
of fluid on
telltale signs
face-to-face
By
his ques-
to
answered.
I
had things
the cost of military materiel,
He paused a moment, 'Two billion dollars."
I
and
I
to
do other than ponder
wanted
presume
cost?"
to get a
for effect,
"That's a lot of money. Admiral,"
I
move
and then
on.
stated,
answered with a
slight whistle.
Before
I
could respond further he went on,
how much your Bingo. In
"Do you know
airplane costs?"
fact, I
did
know
the answer to that one almost
to the penny. "Slightly over half a million dollars, sir."
"I'd suggest
mission," the I
you keep those
relative values in
anonymous admiral
mind
for this
said.
related the story of this encounter to Paul Tibbets shortly
before takeoff.
My
crew and
I
instinctively
understood that the
WAR'S END bomb was more
The
We
important than our airplane.
reminded of
to be
201
didn't need
it.
final briefing
commenced
Our weather
at midnight.
would precede us by an hour to the two possible Charlie McKnight would fly number 95 to Nagasaki,
airplanes targets.
and George Marquart would
Weather
remained the same, clear
forecasts
Added
to
my
number 88
fly
crew
for this mission
at
each
target.
were three more
Lieutenant Jake Beser,
specialists in their fields:
Kokura.
to
officers,
who had been
aboard the Enola Gay and would be responsible for monitoring
jam our on Fat Man; Navy
radar frequencies in the event the Japanese tried to radar and possibly detonate the radar fuse
Commander Fred Ashworth, the weaponeer in charge of the bomb itself; and Lieutenant Philip Barnes, who would assist Commander Ashworth in monitoring a device connected to the bomb's fuses. This monitoring device, connected to the bomb by an inch-thick
cable,
would
alert
Ashworth and Barnes
if
anything went wrong with the complicated electrical circuits
wired to the four
Chaplain
sets
Downey
of fuses. offered a prayer beseeching the
see us safely through the mission.
were,
''Above
all
world. ..." After at
else, this,
our
The words
Father,
we headed
I
bring
Lord
to
remember well peace
over to the mess
to
thy
hall,
and
about one a.m. the trucks delivered us to our hardstands.
Paul Tibbets had come
down
to the flight line to see us off.
There were no throngs of cameras and
lights
and bigwigs. The
atmosphere was reserved, everyone busy doing his job. The
men
spoke
among
themselves, anticipating the mission but talk-
The mood was expectant. A couple of army photographers and one cameraman were on hand. A single newsman. Bill Laurence, the science and technology writer for the New York Times, who had been given unpreceing about everything but.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
202
dented access by the
War Department
to chronicle the develop-
ment of atomic weapons and our missions, wandered about. His reporting would earn him a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
He
expressed disappointment at not being allowed to accom-
pany Tibbets
Hiroshima but was excited about being aboard
to
for this mission.
He would
fly
with Fred Bock.
Not knowing that Fred and I had switched airplanes, he thought I was flying my own. The Great Artiste, and so in his eyewitness account identified
would
that
persist for
many
it
as the strike aircraft,
an error
years after the war.
On the adjoining hardstand stood our British observers, who were to fly with Hopkins. I started my walk-around with Kuharek, Albury, and the ground crew
The airplane looked in pristine condition, on the ground, tire pressures perfect, surfaces
chief.
not a drop of fluid
clean and clear, everything in tiptop condition.
The crew assembled along
the side of the aircraft for their
preflight inspection. I decided that as the mission it
was incumbent upon me
ment
to
my men
liked these
knew pep
all
and would do
talk or a lecture
were extremely
few words of encourage-
about so pivotal a mission.
men. They were
their jobs
to say a
commander
I
respected and
highly skilled professionals their duty.
They
didn't
who
need a
on how important the mission was. They
intelligent;
they knew.
I
just felt
I
owed them
a statement.
**You were
all
with
me
the other day at Hiroshima.
It
was
a perfect mission flown by Colonel Tibbets. Perfectly executed, perfectly flown,
and dropped on the button.
I
want our mission
—
same for Colonel Tibbets. He has chosen us, and we owe him and our country the same. We will execute this mission perfectly and get the bomb to the target. I don't to be exactly the
care
if I
have to dive the airplane into the
to deliver it."
target,
we're going
WAR^S END I
have
had no intention of taking them tried to bail
dled the I
rest, if
it
into the target.
I
would
them out and Beahan and I could have hancame to that. But I wanted to make a point.
down
looked
203
-
men,
the line of
What
into each one's eyes.
saw was determination and resoluteness. If they had doubts, they didn't show it in their eyes. We had trained for this day, which could bring the horrible war in the Pacific to a rapid I
end.
we began our
could be the day
It
our friends and loved ones.
journey back
could be the day
It
we
home
to
started our
return to our lives,
which had been so suddenly and completely
interrupted by the
bombs
had
that
Whatever happened,
Pearl Harbor.
fallen
on our comrades
would be a day of
it
at
his-
toric proportions.
As I
the crew climbed aboard
and
settled into their positions,
went over the maps one more time with our navigator, Jim
Van
and Kermit Beahan.
Pelt,
Satisfied that all
was
well,
I
bid
Paul Tibbets farewell and climbed aboard.
I settled
began
my
down
into the leather seat, strapped myself in,
checklist with
my
copilot,
Don
and
Albury. Behind us.
Sergeant Kuharek went through his systems check, and across
from him. Van Pelt reviewed
his navigational material
and Ed
Buckley checked his radar equipment.
We
were
at the point
Kuharek, the
''Start
me and
said,
our reserve tank in
pumping. We've got
six
engines."
I
prepared to give
command when he leaned "Major, we have a problem. The the rear bomb bay bladder isn't
flight engineer,
around toward fuel in
of
the
hundred gallons of
fuel trapped
back
there."
"Any ments?"
"My
idea
I
what the problem
is?"
Could
it
be the
instru-
asked.
guess
is it's
he replied evenly.
a solenoid.
It
would have
to
be replaced,"
Maj. Gen. Charles
204
**How long
to fix it?"
**With
the
all
I
W. Sweeney
asked.
he
hours,"
several
precautions,
special
responded. I
unstrapped
climbed
down
my
the nosewheel well ladder. Tibbets
one side as
off to
'The bladder
harness, lifted myself out of the seat, and
emerged from under the wing.
I
trapped,"
him
advised
I
Of our
trapped. This
bomb bay
hundred gallons
six
crisply.
on
his pipe as
we
discussed the op-
1,000 gallons of reserve fuel, 600 gallons were
me
left
with 6,400 gallons total for the
instead of 7,000. Replacing the
bomb
ferring the
in the rear
We've got
malfunctioning, boss.
Tibbets puffed calmly tions.
pump
auxiliary transfer fuel
is
was standing
pump
flight
could take hours. Trans-
would be equally timewas live. Our window of
to another airplane
consuming and was
risky because
it
we
opportunity was rapidly closing on us. If
didn't take off
would be scrubbed. The entire psychological impact of a one-two punch would be lost, and with it any real soon, the mission
prospect of a quick end to the war. I
considered the consequences of going.
We
would have
to
carry the extra weight of 600 gallons of fuel for the entire flight
without deriving any benefit from cause us to consume more
En
fuel.
would have to fly at 17,000 feet would consume more fuel than payload was heavier than the than had been needed on the Tibbets, as "It's
your
call.
Rolling that
I
it
route to the rendezvous,
to get if
we
Little first
if I
back
I
above the storm, which flew at 8,000
feet.
My
Boy, requiring more fuel
mission.
my
the factors around in
had more than enough
making
This extra weight would
was his style when he gave a man Chuck."
all
problem was,
it.
fuel to
mind,
make
it
I
a job, said,
determined
to target.
The
encountered any delays, the likelihood of
to Tinian
was
zero,
and getting back
to
any
WAR^S END
205
American-held base would be problematic
would have to ditch in the ocean and get picked up by a rescue vessel. The anonymous admiral's admonition had been prophetic. Losing the airplane
weapon.
I
was a small
had
total
price to
confidence in
if
we
delivered the
men,
my
machine, and
pay
my
at best. I
myself. I
want I
looked to go.
at
Colonel Tibbets and
said,
'The
hell
with
it,
I
We're going."
climbed aboard, advised the crew
gave the order to
start engines.
rolled to the taxiway
With
and proceeded
2:45 A.M., slightly behind schedule.
we were all
taking
off,
engines turning,
and
we
Runway A. It was about But we were on our way.
to
** NINETEEN
M^T THE EASTERN end of Runway A, I stared out into the darkness. Before me stretched 8,500 feet of macadam. The spothght that illuminated the end of the runway at the water's edge
had been turned it
struck
restless.
me
me, although
off for reasons not explained to
as odd.
Somewhere ahead of me
lay the ocean,
Off toward the horizon, lightning pierced the black,
overcast sky. I
thought back to
my
first
instructions at flight school in
an
open-cockpit biplane. Just point the airplane in the right direction,
and when
it
reaches flying speed,
to get
on
its
own.
flying speed
—
weight of the B-29,
its
crew of
7,000 gallons of aviation
"hot" nuclear the air
take off
would be the problem. I over seventy-seven and a half tons the combined
That evening, reaching
had
it'll
bomb
—airborne.
the very last
that
ten, three additional passengers,
fuel,
and, oh yes, a 10,300-pound
might detonate
if I
didn't
knew that I'd have to hold moment to gain as much speed as I
206
make
it
into
her back until I
could before
WAR^S END I let
her
ground.
rise off the
I
also
the Enola Gay, with a lighter load,
207
knew
that, three
had used
days
earlier,
virtually every inch
of the runway at takeoff. I
ran the engines up one at a time.
moving
it
slowly.
The tachometer needle
then dropped back to 1,800 rpm.
I
open. The needle rose promptly to
engine
surged
I
sequence,
in
advanced the
throttle,
rose to 2,000
rpm and
pushed the
2,600 rpm. Each
its limit,
sending
throttle to full
rhythmic
a
vibration
through the airplane. I
held her in place, with ''brakes on"
shook the
aircraft.
For
which meant
silence,
this
full.
A
slight
shudder
mission there would be total radio
that even in preparation for takeoff
I
would not communicate with the tower and the tower would give
me no
instructions or clearance.
We
didn't
Japanese had figured out the point of origin of the I
was on
Don harek,
my
"Ready
"Stand by
I
It
first
if
the
mission.
own.
Albury lowered the
terphone.
know
flaps
25 degrees.
I
advised Ku-
for takeoff." for takeoff," I instructed the
crew over the
in-
was 2:56 a.m.
opened the
throttle gradually
rolled forward, gathering speed
and released the brakes.
—95
mph, 125 mph.
I
We
could
make the effort to rise, but I held the yoke tight, keeping her down 140 mph. Even without the spotlight at the ocean's edge, I knew instinctively that we were running her want to
feel
—
out of runway. Taking quick glances at the air speed indicator, I
held her until our speed reached 155 mph. At that instant
knew we had no more ground underneath
We The
us.
launched off over the water, rising to about 50
Bock's Car
to increase
lift.
was
feet.
straining. I kept her level, giving her time
Then
I
eased her up ever so
slightly,
began our lumbering turn toward the north, climbing feet.
I
and we to 7,000
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
208
On Runway B, two minutes behind me, Fred Bock lifted off. On Runway C, however, a Uttle subdrama had been unfolding that, because of the radio silence,
knownst
to
me and
was happening unbe-
on Tinian. Dr. Robert
to everyone else
had been
Serber, the Alberta Project photographic expert,
signed to operate
with Colonel Hopkins aboard the Big Stink to
fly
the
highly
and sophisticated photographic
delicate
equipment. Dr. Serber' s expertise was blast.
As Hopkins was
taxiing out to
had forgotten
that the doctor
tions required that every
any military
as-
aircraft
recording the
vital to
Runway
C, he discovered
his parachute. Air force regula-
crew member and passenger aboard
have a parachute. Hopkins
—
^by
the
book
wasn't about to allow such a flagrant violation of military regulations
by
this civilian.
Never mind
that Dr. Serber
was the
only person competent to operate the high-speed camera. parachute, no ride. there, leaving the
He
No
ordered the doctor off his airplane right
stunned
scientist standing
on the taxiway
in
the pitch dark.
After making the long walk back from the taxiway in the dark. Dr. Serber arrived at the later
communications center an hour
and reported what had happened
to General Farrell.
I
can
only surmise what General Farrell' s thoughts must have been at that
moment.
This incident, however, would prove to be the least of our
problems on a mission that had already experienced
its
share
of snafus and oddities.
Because of the turbulent weather, to 17,000 feet,
and then chmb
where we'd
we'd stayed
took the Bock's Car up
above the worst turbulence
to 30,000 feet for the rendezvous over
shima. At that altitude if
cruise
I
we were
at 7,000 feet,
but
I
Yako-
using fuel at a faster rate than didn't
want
ride with the sensitive cargo sitting just a
to risk a turbulent
few
feet
behind
me
WAR^S END in the its
forward
dips
bomb
209
bay. But even at 17,000 feet the ride
had
and jumps.
The atmosphere in the airplane was subdued. Each man was alone with his thoughts. Behind me, Commander Ashworth and Lieutenant Barnes crouched over the ''black box," the fuse-monitoring device connected to the bomb. About an hour into the flight, we were skating along the edge of the storm front and the ride had smoothed out. Don Albury commented that the trapped fuel could become a problem. "Let's not cross that bridge until matter-of-factly. least I
make
it
"Right
now
we have
to,"
I
responded
we can
we're on course and
at
to the target."
decided to
let
could stretch out a
Don bit
take the wheel for a few minutes so
and loosen the
shoulders. Turning around in
my
stiffness in
seat, I
my
I
neck and
surveyed the compart-
ment. Ashworth and Barnes sat intently watching the black box. Kuharek had his eyes fixed on the flight engineer's instru-
ment
was to keep tabs on the rate of fuel consumption as well as on all other aircraft systems. Lieutenant Fred Olivi, our third pilot for this mission, was asleep in the rear comer, as was Kermit Beahan. Directly behind was Jim Van Pelt, whom I couldn't see clearly but who I was sure was busily checking and rechecking our course to the rendezvous. All seemed right in our pressurized, air-conditioned, encappanel. His job
sulated universe.
was seven a.m.
It
four hours. light
I
We
had been
in flight for a
little
over
started our climb to 30,000 feet as the dull gray
of the overcast morning filtered into the forward compart-
quite
From behind me, I heard Barnes say something. I didn't make it out, but his tone had an urgency to it. Ashworth 's
reply
sounded equally disturbed. The red warning
ment.
bomb's fuse monitor had suddenly
started flashing!
on the That meant
light
Maj. Gen. Charles
210
the firing circuits were closed
W.
SwEE^fEY
and some or
all
of the fuses had
been activated. Ashworth reported the situation to
me
in a
My
mind hurried. I knew it couldn't be the contact fuse or we would never have known what hit us. If the barometric or radar fuses had malfunctioned, we would be all clipped fashion.
right unless the airplane
dropped below 1,890
timing fuse had been activated,
we had
seconds to find the problem and
fix
Options: jettison the
less
feet.
But
if
the
than forty-three
it.
bomb and hope
to escape the blast.
Rely on the weaponeers to correct the problem. Pray that
it
was no way I was going to jettison the bomb. I would rely on the weaponeers. Behind me, staying calm, Phil Barnes opened the monitor and started examining the device as he had been trained to do
was
the barometric or radar fuses. There
in case of
an emergency. Methodically, he inspected the laby-
rinth of wires
and switches
abnormality in the
in front of him, searching for
circuitry. After
a few
moments he found
any the
someone on the ground had placed two rotary switches in the wrong positions, causing a malfunction in the monitor's circuits. The firing circuits had not closed. The fuses had not activated. Barnes quickly and gingerly flipped the switches back to their proper positions and resumed his
problem:
monitoring.
Ashworth moved forward and reported that all was thought, *To have come this far and end in a vaporizing My only response was to whisper, "Oh, Lord."
At 30,000
feet,
we
We
had been
was no
my
visible
flash."
through breaks in the
flying for almost five hours
weather in complete radio appeared on
I
arrived at the rendezvous at 7:45 a.m.
on the button. Yakoshima was clouds.
well.
silence.
right wing.
sign of Hopkins.
We
A
through bad
Within moments, Fred Bock
few minute passed, but there
circled the southwest
comer of
WAR^S END
211
By coded messages, our weather
the island as briefed.
planes
Kokura and Nagasaki reported morning haze at both targets, but that clear skies were soon expected at Kokura and that at
than two-tenths clouds would be covering Nagasaki. In
less
nonmeteorological terms, the conditions were
both
Good news
cities.
my
But
good
fairly
at
for a change.
was evaporating rapidly. After minutes, no Hopkins. My orders were to
sense of well-being
ten minutes, fifteen
wait fifteen minutes and then leave for the target, but the mission brief also called for three airplanes to proceed to target.
The photographic I
airplane
was
decided to give Hopkins a
vital to fulfill the
little
more
time.
mission plan.
Maybe he had
been delayed getting through the en route weather. Twenty minutes
.
.
There was
thirty minutes.
.
no
still
sign of the
photographic airplane. With radio silence, there was nothing could do to contact him. Turning to rhetorically,
We report.
'*
Where
the hell
is
feet,
fuel.
I
hollered
Kuharek gave a
status
— 500
our rate of consumption was high
Jim Van Pelt rechecked
gallons per hour.
Albury,
he?"
were using up valuable
At 30,000
Don
I
his charts to confirm
the direct route to our primary, the IP for Kokura. In anticipation
and
as a precaution,
he charted the direct route from Ko-
kura to Nagasaki.
We seen. it," I
I
scanned the empty sky. Hopkins was nowhere to be
had spent
forty
minutes
barked to Albury. "The
at the
hell
rendezvous point. "That's
with
it.
We
can't wait
any
longer." I
wiggled
my
wings, signaling Bock that
the rendezvous point
and proceeding
to the target.
might not have a photographic airplane, but deliver the
bomb
we were I
departing
The mission
fully
intended to
to the target.
After the mission,
I
picked up bits and pieces about what
had happened and heard
that
Hopkins had
insisted
he was
at
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
212
the rendezvous.
would
I
several years later
Cheshire,
learn the complete story of his absence
from an eyewitness, Group Captain Leonard
who had been
aboard Hopkins's airplane.
Cheshire was invited by Hopkins to
move forward from
rear
compartment of the airplane
had
to climb through the connecting tunnel,
two
feet in diameter,
it
behind.
When
ticed that he
had
the
Because he
into the cockpit.
which was about
Cheshire removed his parachute and
left
Cheshire arrived in the cockpit, Hopkins noleft this
parachute behind.
He began
to lecture
Cheshire about his breach of and disregard for standard op-
Hopkins
erating procedures.
finally
dropped the matter, and
Cheshire settled back.
According to Cheshire, Hopkins climbed to 39,000 proaching Yakoshima and stayed
at that altitude,
which was
9,000 feet higher than where he should have been.
menced making
fifty-mile doglegs in the area
instead of circling the southwest
enced combat 39,000
feet,
comer of the
feet ap-
He com-
of Yakoshima,
island.
An
experi-
Cheshire could see the altimeter reading
pilot,
and because he had attended the mission
briefings,
he knew what Hopkins should have been doing. But as a guest in Hopkins's airplane, tion,
Cheshire believed
ment on Hopkins's
when Hopkins
find us, for
some
it
in the cockpit
by Hopkins's
was inappropriate
for
him
invita-
to
com-
flying.
Also unknown to that
and
me
until after
failed to
make
my
return to Tinian
the rendezvous
was
and couldn't
inexplicable reason he broke radio silence
and
radioed back to Tinian: *'Has Sweeney aborted?" The message got garbled in transmission and was received on Tinian as
"Sweeney aborted." This inexcusable break in procedure not only could have given away our position to the Japanese, it also panicked the command on Tinian about the status of the mission.
General
Farrell, his staff,
and the assembled Alberta person-
WAR^S END we had
nel thought
213
scrubbed the mission. They had no idea
what had happened. Were we coming back? Would we
ditch
bomb in the ocean? Would we bring it back to Tinian? Had there been an accident? Somewhere out there was a tenthe
thousand-pound nuclear weapon, and they had no idea what
had done with
A
it.
consequence of Hopkins's transmission was that the
air-
sea rescue operation intended to pluck us out of the ocean
necessary was canceled. If
one would be there
Kokura
we had
lay ahead.
no
to ditch in the ocean,
Jim Van Pelt had picked
hazy, as reported
still
if
to pick us up.
radar screen a few minutes
were
I
earlier.
earlier,
up on his It was 9:45 a.m. The skies but they were now mixed it
with broken clouds.
As we visible
arrived at the IP,
—the
river,
some landmarks were reasonably even
buildings,
streets
and parks
thought here was a good chance to sight the
—so
target, the
we Ko-
kura arsenal. I
started our
bomb run when Beahan
suddenly yelled,
**I
smoke obscuring the target." The fires resulting from the bombing of Yawata the night before were still burning out of control, and heavy smoke was being lifted across Kokura by winds that had shifted direction can't see
since
it!
I
can't see
it!
There's
George Marquart had radioed
his
weather report.
As we bore in on the aiming point, Beahan repeated, '1 can't see it!" The great Kokura arsenal was safely hidden by the
smoke and haze.
my
intercom, *'No drop. Repeat, no drop."
I
yelled into
I
banked the airplane sharply
to the south to begin a return started all
hind
us.
around us
—
to the
to the left
and swung around
approach to the
left,
IP.
ahead, to the
Flak bursts
right,
and be-
— Maj. Gen. Charles
214
A
moment
Wide but
gunner Pappy Dehart
later tail
altitude
perfect."
is
W. Sweeney
Everyone saw
'Tlak!
yelled,
it.
They were crawling the flak up toward us as they tried to zero in on our airplane. I was now doing something a bomber pilot rarely, if ever, does making a second run on a target. Second runs gave antiaircraft "Roger
Pappy,"
that,
I
replied.
guns second chances. I
my
changed
enemy
altitude to 31,000 feet to try to confuse the
flak fusing.
As
proceeded toward the aiming point,
I
damn flak is getting closer." His voice now sounded a 'Torget it. Pappy. We're on a bomb Pappy broke
in again. 'This
trying to keep
my
on
attention
on our
right
tail
and
note of panic. run,"
said evenly,
I
the approach to the aiming
point. I
waited for Beahan's signal that he could see the
hoped he had picked haze.
I
'*I
I
it
up through a break
hoped we could catch a break on
in the
target. I
smoke and
this mission.
can't see it!" he yelled again.
wheeled into another steep turn as
I
barked, *'No drop.
Repeat, no drop."
Ed
Buckley,
our radar operator, reported,
Zeros coming up. Looks I
like
about ten."
decided to take us up another 1,000
the antiaircraft gunners off again, different angle.
Maybe from
"Major, Jap
feet to try to
throw
and then approach from a
a different angle
we might have
a
chance of finding a hole in the cover.
Beahan and Van
Pelt
were
frantically calculating the
run
approach data.
The causing
bursts of flak it
to
were breaking very close
to the airplane,
jump.
The third run was no more successful than the first two. The aiming point was still obscured. Kuharek reported that our fuel situation was very critical. We had enough to get to our
WAR'S END secondary
wouldn't make
it
We
short
would
fall
back to Okinawa, the
by about
Ed Buckley broke and climbing
to
Jake Beser,
and make one run.
Nagasaki,
target,
215
fifty
But we
American
closest
base.
miles.
in over the intercom,
*
'Fighters
below
meet us."
who was
confirmed increased
monitoring Japanese radio fi-equencies,
activity
on
Japanese
the
fighter-director
bands. I
wasn't as concerned about the Zeros as
Like horseshoes and grenades,
flak.
enough longer,
a burst caught us just right. If
if it
would only be a matter of
Our gunner, Ray
might be good
we hung around any
Abe
Spitzer,
What
our radio operator, about Nagasaki?"
chatter," I ordered sharply.
again banked sharply to set us on a southerly direction
toward our secondary
Bock by on
the
time.
kept saying, ''What about Nagasaki?
"Cut the
was about
Gallagher, muttered into his intercom,
'Tet's get the hell out of here."
I
close
I
my
target.
The quick maneuver caught Fred
By the time I'd completed my turn, he was wing. Not seeing The Great Artiste on my right, I
surprise.
left
asked, "Where's Bock?"
Unknown
to
me,
my
elbow had
hit
the selector button, changing the intercom ftmction to the trans-
command function, sending my words spilling out over the empire. To my disbelief, Hopkins, somewhere out there, replied
mit
"Chuck?
excitedly,
Is
that you.
Chuck? Where the
hell are
you?" I
don't
know whether
I
was more upset by
my
or at hearing from the long-lost Colonel Hopkins.
want me
to do, broadcast
my
position?
my
lip,
regained
back to intercom,
bit
I
Nagasaki."
What
did he
flipped the selector
my
calmly directed our navigator, "Jim, give
carelessness
me
composure, and the heading for
Maj. Gen. Charles
216
For the second time
W. Sweeney Kokura had
in three days the city of
been spared. "Roger." Van
Pelt,
who had
already completed the calcula-
me
"Of
course,"
route will take us right over the
Kyushu
responded quickly, giving
tions,
he added,
"this
the heading.
fighter fields."
couldn't afford the extra fuel we'd
I
out over the water,
only
way we
away from
the bases.
consume
A
svmng was the
if I
direct line
could go. For anyone monitoring our progress
from the ground, our direction and that difficult to figure out. In the
path would not be
flight
back of
my mind
I
remem-
bered Dr. Workman's reassuring calculations that at best a Zero
would have
less
than one second to
fire
on us
With everything else that had been hampering would be some Zero's lucky day. "I can't avoid
it,
Jim,"
I
said as
put us on a precise heading.
bay.
I
would have one shot
at
Nagasaki.
to
Don
God
Albury,
only
I said,
made
us,
30,000
maybe
feet.
this
the adjustments to
was now an hour and a half was still resting in the bomb
I
Man
behind schedule. The Fat
I
at
to get this
done when we arrived
knew what awaited us there. Turning "Can any other goddamned thing go
wrong?"
I
couldn't believe
to 90 percent
my
cumulus clouds
drop was improbable. west and would arrive
We
Nagasaki was obscured by 80
at
6,000 to 8,000
feet.
A
visual
were approaching from the north-
at the initial point in a
Kuharek confirmed again
bomb
eyes.
—we
had enough
few minutes.
fuel for a single
run.
Commander Ashworth forward and laid out the situation. He was in charge of the bomb; I was in command of the aircraft. If we didn't drop, we were out of options. We had about 300 gallons of fuel. If we stayed too long at Nagasaki I
called
WAR^S END
217
by making a second bomb run, we might be forced land on the ground in Japan or in the ocean. If a visual on our the
first
we
to crash-
didn't get
run and then depart, we'd have to
bomb into the ocean. I summed up quickly, "We
dump
haven't got the time or the fuel
more than one run. Let's drop it by radar. I'll guarantee we come within five hundred feet of the target." This was a commitment whose execution would be up to Ed Buckley, Kermit Beahan, and Jim Van Pelt. I didn't have time to consult with them, but I had supreme confidence in my radar man, bombardier, and navigator. "I don't know. Chuck," Ashworth said. for
"It's better
than dropping
it
into the ocean," I answered.
"Are you sure of the accuracy?" Ashworth pressed. "I'll
take
ftill
responsibility for this," I assured him.
Ashworth could
see that
haps didn't realize that
was an
my
my mind was made
the IP,
Van
Pelt
per-
harmony.
and Buckley
the approach to the aiming point.
peared on the scopes in front of called out headings
He
only reason for any consultation
interest in interservice
From
up.
The
Van
fed the data into the bombsight,
outline of the city ap-
Pelt
and precise closure all
started to coordinate
and Buckley. Buckley rates to
Beahan,
who
the while hoping for a
break in the clouds. I
reminded the crew
mine
on what
to put
their goggles. I decided to
was doing. We were thirty seconds from the bomb's release. The tone signal was activated and the bomb bay doors snapped open. Twenty-five seconds. Then Beahan yelled, "I've got it! I've
leave
got
off so
I
could see
I
it!" I
answered,
"You own
it."
Beahan had spotted a hole midway between the two great Mitsubishi armaments plants in the industrial valley. It was two
Maj. Gen. Charles
218
W. Sweeney
miles north of the assigned aiming point and
now
residential area,
He
coastal plain.
made
on
as required.
my I
hills
the
beyond the
locked onto a racetrack reference point and
his adjustments,
indicator
shielded by the low
away from
which were fed which
panel, from
was
I
into the course direction
adjusted the flight path
flying the airplane
still
manually
to the re-
Beahan had caught a momentary assigned aiming point, but it would have dis-
lease point. Earlier in the run,
glimpse of the
rupted the radar run for a better view, city
if
He
he took over.
which proved
to
reconsidered, hoping
be fortuitous for us and the
below.
"Bombs away," Beahan
shouted, and then quickly cor-
"Bomb away." moment of release the
rected himself.
At
the
denly ten thousand pounds
bay doors snapped degree turn to the
from the
shut.
left,
I
airplane lurched upward, sud-
lighter. It
was
11:01 a.m.
The bomb
took us into a steep, diving, 155-
away
in a northeasterly direction, to get
blast.
Time seemed suspended. As the seconds ticked by, I began to wonder if we had dropped a dud. Then suddenly the entire horizon burst into a superbrilliant white with an intense flash more intense than Hiroshima. The light was blinding. A moment later, the first wave of superheated air began hitting us with unexpected force. The shock waves were more severe than those at Hiroshima. But the airplane was still handling fine. Having been buffeted after the first atomic explosion, we knew it was not flak coming up from
—
the ground.
At Hiroshima there had been four or
waves of diminishing
force,
I
completed
my
turn,
I
five in all.
could see a brownish horizontal
cloud enveloping the city below. The 1,890
feet,
and
shock
but these kept coming one after
another with equal impact, maybe
As
five
in a millionth of a
bomb had
detonated at
second compressed
its
core
s
WAR^S END into a critical mass, releasing forces that sible.
From
219
were
still
incomprehen-
the center of the brownish bile sprung a vertical
column, boiling and bubbling up in those rainbow hues ples,
oranges, reds
—
colors
whose
brilliance I
—pur-
had seen only
once before and would never see again. The cloud was
rising
more angry. It was a mesmerizing sight, at once breathtaking and ominous. Although we were twelve miles away, it appeared to some crew members that the cloud was heading straight for us. At faster
than
at
about 25,000
Hiroshima.
feet,
It
seemed more
intense,
an expanding mushroom cloud broke
off,
white and puffy, and continued to burst upward at accelerating speed, passing us at 30,000 feet
45,000 I
and shooting up
to at least
feet.
continued to bank around to
aUow Beahan
to write his
The blast damage seemed to be concentrated in the industrial Urakami Valley, where all we could see was a blanket of thick, dirty, brownish smoke with fires breaking through sporadically. The center of the downtown south of the ridge of hills separating the Urakami Valley from the coastal plain appeared untouched. The ridge of low-lying hills had shielded the residential area. Fires had broken out along the slopes of the hills. There was no question in my mind that the two Mitsubishi arms plants at Ohashi, and the Morimachi and Mitsubishi steelworks plants sitting in that valley, were no more. The bomb had exploded almost dead center among the strike report.
three industrial giants. In a single stroke, they were gone.
The mushroom cloud towered above continued to
rise
us.
with unbelievable rapidity,
The its
vertical cloud
colors continu-
we could make a preliminary Abe Spitzer to transmit Beahan'
ously changing. Satisfied that strike report to Tinian, I told
report, ''Nagasaki
bombed. Results good."
When
the transmis-
was received at Tinian, it was both a surprise and a relief. The military commanders at Tinian and Guam and in Washsion
Ma
220
Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
J.
ington had spent the previous two and a half hours unsure
about where I
we were
then told Spitzer to
reported that
enough
we had
make
to
already done the
"Even
if
do
can
it
to
doing.
call for air-sea rescue.
John Kuharek
barely 300 gallons of usable fuel
left.
Okinawa, almost 350 miles away.
math
in
my
we slow down our is
we were
or what
I
Not had
head when Kuharek confirmed, consumption, the best
rate of
get
within
Pelt
had charted a
maybe
seventy-five,
fifty,
miles
we of
Okinawa." Jim Van
Kuharek confirmed
direct line to
We
their calculations.
Okinawa. He and
were going into the
was only a matter of when, not if. This prospect didn't disturb me that much. We'd get a little wet, wait for a Flying Dumbo or a friendly destroyer to pick us up, and we'd ocean.
be
It
home
free. I didn't like
at least I'd get the
crew home
of us, of course,
sion to Tinian, the brass
knew
no response."
that after Hopkins's transmis-
had thought
the mission
aborted. Everyone in the air-sea rescue system posture. If that
we dropped
into the ocean, there
anyone would be there
As we
airplane, but
safely.
Spitzer reported, ''Major, I'm getting
None
my
the idea of losing
had been
resumed normal
was no guarantee
to get us.
departed Nagasaki,
I
told
Abe
to transmit a
message
of the results and our situation:
Bombed Nagasaki 090158Z
visually.
No
opposition. Results techni-
cally successful. Visible effects about equal to Hiroshima.
to
Proceeding
Okinawa. Fuel problem.
The details would best be dealt with when we returned. With Fred Bock planted on my right wing, I knew we were not alone. It was noteworthy to me that, given our precarious personal situation aboard the aircraft, the mood among the
^
WAR'S END
221
crew was upbeat. With everything that had gone awry, they
were reheved to have survived. The tory. all
Maybe
the
war was
really
was congratulaend and they could
attitude
going to
go home.
My
thoughts were somewhat less buoyant. The survival of
men was now my paramount concern. Setting magnificent airplane down onto the water was tricky but
these brave
this
not
impossible. But in the absence of special air-sea rescue forces,
the odds were for
somewhat skewed
against us. Sitting in the water
optimum
any length of time
is
We
road for Okinawa, the
would
hit the
not an
petrol station in the neighborhood.
situation. first
and
closest
**
B^AUL
of controversy isted
HAD taught me a technique that caused a among pilots, some vehemently denying it
TiBBETS
and others vocal apostles
It
was
If
you kept the power
on the
called ''flying
settings steady
it
was very
and took the
ex-
do
that a skilled pilot could
step." In theory,
lot
it.
simple.
aircraft into
would pick up a fraction more airspeed without using more power and fuel. The pilot would a gradual descent, the airplane
then level
off.
To
even supplement step
a bit more,
needed
step,
could milk only a
you would
—a
30,000
feet,
little
so
I
bit
started
also decided to
by
throttling
recommended
more.
start
and perhaps
down
another
and so on. little bit
without consuming more
farther
fiiel
it
and then another
You
I
retain that increased airspeed
I
more speed and
fly
but
was
fuel,
that
little
all
had the advantage of being
my way down
I
at
the staircase.
add some insurance and save a
little
more
rpm from the of 2,000 rpm. Turning the num-
back the propellers
cruising setting
a
222
to
1,800
WAR'S END bers over in
So
I
my
throttled
mind,
back
I
knew
to 1,600
this
223
wasn't going to be enough.
rpm, well below the engine
damage
cations for any circumstance. This could
but balancing the risks against the benefits, rather replace four engines
and
get
my
the engines,
concluded that
I
crew
specifi-
safely tucked
be bobbing in the Pacific aboard a
for the evening than
I'd
away
life raft
hoping we'd be picked up.
At
the
new
settings
an hour. Flight time
we were consuming 300
to
Okinawa was about
utes. Theoretically, the airspeed
we
gallons of fuel
seventy-five min-
gained as
we came down
each step might be just enough to get us to Yontan Field on
Okinawa. Of course, we presumed that these procedures could
buy us another
would
miles of flight and that the engines
fifty
continue to purr at 1,600 rpm.
I'm not sure that
maker
willing to take
We tower
were about
at
Yontan.
I
could have found a Las Vegas odds-
book
fifteen
No
that
we'd make
it.
minutes from Okinawa.
response.
I
tan tower. Yontan tower. This
tried a is
I
called the
few more times. "Yon-
Dimples 11 ...
.
Yontan.
Mayday! Mayday! Over." Silence. I radioed the neighboring island of le Shima. They heard me, and I heard them. My transmitter and receiver were working. At that time, however, there was no direct-communications land link between the le Shima tower and the Okinawa tower. And because they were so close, they operated on different
Yontan. This
is
Dimples
radio frequencies. There
Yontan I
for
me
77.
was no chance
that they could raise
in time.
had
to
tried to contact the tower,
it
talked to Fred Bock, and he responded. But Fred
keep his frequency open.
might close out tion as
we
my
If
he
transmissions
—or worse, confuse the
continued on a straight line toward the
as if the entire
situa-
field. It
world around us was spinning along and
were somehow suspended
just
beyond
it,
cut off from
it.
was
we
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
224
No
one was more amazed than
sight of
me
Okinawa. Ahead of
I
when
Bock's Car caught
could see heavy
I
air traffic
coming and going from the field. As the closest American base to Japan, Okinawa was the busiest airfield in the Pacific theater. Missions were being flown around the clock. A continuous stream of P-38s, B-24s, B-25s, and P-51s was taking off and landing.
Kuharek broke At
that
"Major,
in,
moment our power
"Increase
right
all
gauges read empty."
outboard engine
quit.
number- three engine,"
to
yelled
I
to
Albury.
We were down to
fumes. The power to number three stead-
ied us, but the situation
was
clear. I couldn't afford
a long, low
approach or to be waved off to go around for another the remaining engines stick landing
went out on
—no power,
five-ton airplane. I'd
a point halfway
piece.
sixty-
have to come in hot and high, aiming
down
runway and maintaining
the
mph
landing speed.
It
my
at
airspeed
wouldn't be
the ground, hopefully in one
had 600 gallons of
high-test aviation fuel trapped
would
get us
in the belly of the airplane. If
well could explode. I
with a
on
it
I still
be making a dead-
just basically gliding in
well above the usual 110 pretty, but
us, I'd
try. If
told Olivi
We
and Van
we
crashed on landing,
would have one shot
to
do
it
very
this.
Pelt to fire the flares of the day.
The
gun was positioned through a porthole in the skin of the fuselage. Red and green flares were fired out in an arc, bursting
flare
away from
No and
go.
see us,
the airplane.
answer from the
field.
The
air traffic
continued to come
They were either ignoring us completely or plain didn't which was remarkable, as this massive silver B-29 lum-
bered toward them.
"Mayday! Mayday! Yontan. Dimples 77,"
I
yelled.
I
could
WAR'S END
225
hear the tower talking to other airplanes. But not to me. Again I
Mayday!" Nothing. concern was that if the field was not
transmitted, ''Mayday!
My
biggest
incoming and outgoing
by one coming
off or be hit
be a
traffic,
I
might
hit
cleared of
an airplane taking
in for landing. Either
way,
it
would
disaster.
"I
want any goddamn tower on Okinawa!"
I
bellowed into
the mike. I
yelled back toward Olivi
damn
flare
we have on
and Van
'Tire every god-
board!"
"Which ones?" Olivi asked. "Every goddamn flare we have! Do
my
Pelt.
it
now!"
flares
arced gracefully above the airplane and then ex-
ploded into reds, blues, oranges, purples, greens
it
barked over
shoulder.
The of
I
all colors.
We
must have looked
sure as hell got their attention.
not only "aircraft out of
fiiel"
like the
—twenty
Fourth of July. But
The multiple
flares signaled
but "prepare for crash," "heavy
damage," "dead and wounded on board," and fire."
was a potpourri of
It
any one or
disaster warnings.
"aircraft
On
on
reflection,
could have been true, depending on what hap-
all
pened next. The smell of gunpowder from the Very could see
traffic
banked away from the
pistol that
forward compartment.
fired the flares filled the I
flares
being cleared ahead. Airplanes quickly field
while
fire
trucks
and ambulances
sped toward the runway. I
was now
train.
other. I
barreling in straight ahead, like a
runaway
freight
way
or the
In a few seconds we'd be on the ground, one I
prayed
needed
just a
we
didn't lose another engine at that
moment.
few more seconds of power.
was above the concrete runway. I descended quickly, hitting the pavement midway down the strip at about 140 mph. The Bock's Car bounced right back up into the air about twentyI
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
226
and then slammed back down
feet
five
to earth.
When
wheels again met the pavement, the port outboard engine
The
sixty-five-ton aircraft: veered violently to the left
the
quit.
toward
a line of B-24s parked wingtip to wingtip along the edge of the runway. flipped
I
on the
and
reversible props
hit the
brakes, barely getting the B-29 straightened out
on the concrete runway.
thanked
Of
propellers.
that Paul Tibbets
it
had
the 1,056 B-29s in service, only the ones
made
509th were equipped with reversible props.
for the
depressed the brakes as far as they would go. The end of
runway was dead ahead.
the
God
and keeping
foresight to equip our fifteen airplanes with reversible
had the
I
I
emergency
as leverage,
brakes.
put
I
The new
my
I
grabbed the yoke and, using
weight and strength onto the
entire
Curtis reversible propellers added
enough
verse thrust, together with the brakes, to finally slow us to a roll.
We
came under
it
re-
down
positive control just short of the
end
of the runway.
was
I
that
so mentally and physically exhausted at that point
just let the airplane roll to the side of the
I
onto a taxiway. Another engine hardstand, for the
tow
I
vehicles to
Then
my
slumped back into
a total silence
sound.
quit.
fell
come and
runway and
Instead of taxiing to a
and decided
seat
get us.
I
cut the engines,
over the compartment.
No
stillness.
emergency vehicles pulled alongside.
opened the nosewheel door.
A
head poked
in.
and
one made a
the distant wail of sirens broke the
Within seconds,
to wait
We
"Where's the
dead and wounded?" realized
I
and
I
how
drained
I
was.
I
answered, "Back there,"
pointed to the north, toward Nagasaki.
The crew slowly dropped out of word, we drew together. I told them but to say nothing to anyone
the airplane. to get
Without a
something to eat
—not where we'd been or where
WAR^S END we were
227
The men climbed aboard
going.
a waiting truck.
I
dropped into the passenger seat of a jeep and told the driver to take
me
make
more comprehensive
of
my
a
to the senior ranking unit
location
tenant on duty that
was
I
needed access
to his
I
to
told the lieu-
communications
mission vaguely and the need to con-
my
few moments he returned, and to
was ushered over
Doolittle
needed
and advise them
to the operations center.
my
explaining
tact Tinian. In a I
report to Tinian
I
and condition.
The jeep pulled up facilities,
commander.
to
General Jimmy Doolittle's headquarters.
commander of
the
surprise,
the Eighth Air Force. Just a
couple of weeks earlier he had deployed his headquarters from
England
where
Okinawa,
to
commanded
soon
he
the
"Mighty Eighth."
The irony
man who had
flown the
by bombing Tokyo damage.
It
me
struck
immediately.
American
first
was about
I
to
meet the
air strike against
in 1942. His mission
had
had been symbolic, intended
to
Japan
inflicted very little
show
the Japanese
people they were not invulnerable from attack as their military
had claimed. And
I
mission of the war
had
—a
just
flown what might be the
last
mission that had demonstrated to the
Japanese people that they could be on the verge of annihilation in spite of
what
their military
them. The general gave facilities,
and
to Tinian.
I
me
and
full
civilian leaders
were
telling
access to his communications
arranged for a detailed report to be transmitted
When
I
finished, I
had a
brief
and formal interview
with General Doolittle. Doolittle I
was
was no-nonsense, a legend
surprised or
maybe disappointed
news of Nagasaki with no
in his
that
sign of emotion.
own
time. But
he received the
He
just
the facts.
**What was the extent of the damage?" he asked.
wanted
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
228
Smoke obscured
"I can't be sure, General.
the target,"
I
answered.
"But you
he pressed, stone-faced.
hit the target?"
''Yes. Definitely, sir."
He
he, too,
Maybe moment. Or about
flew their B-25s off the heaving decks of the
USS
was
Doolittle
silent,
unsmiling.
sat reflectively.
was thinking about the irony of the the long struggle that had stretched over the previous three and a half years since he and a brave band of pilots and their crews making
it
into the
air.
"It's
Hornet, barely
been a long time coming," he
finally offered.
"Yes,
hope
I
sir.
it
means
the end,"
Sensing that the interview had a salute and turned to go. called
me
As
I
come
I
replied quietly.
to
an end,
I
snapped
reached the door, Doolittle
back.
"Sweeney?" "Yes, sir?" "I can only
tell
you what they
smile creasing the comers of his
said to
me," he began, a
mouth and then spreading
across his broad face. "Well done!"
I
joined
my
crew
in the
mess
hall.
There was a buzz of
some chow. The talk around me was that a second atomic bomb had been dropped. In the military, scuttlebutt moves fast. How they knew about the second drop was amazing to me. Of course, no one paid any attention to me or knew who my crew and I were or where we had come from. The speculation was fantastic. One guy ladling out mashed potatoes was telling his buddy that he had heard it was a P-38 that flew in with a bomb no bigger excitement as
I
walked through the
line getting
than a baseball.
What I was interested in was whether the Japanese had made any announcement about surrender. They had not.
WAR^S END
We
229
Okinawa for about two hours while we ate and the Bock's Car was refueled. John Kuharek told me that he had measured the fuel, and that we'd had seven gallons left stayed at
when we touched down
We
still
mood
had a five-hour
than one minute of
flight time.
back to Tinian. After
takeoff, the
less
flight
aboard the airplane was relaxed but very
somber.
We
allies,
Armed
turned on
news of the Japanese our
—
Forces Radio, hoping to hear
had
Japan and were massing troops
and
I
was
thought.
I
that
for a
To
was that day declared war on
push into Manchuria.
the victor goes the spoils,
certain that Stalin didn't
loot he could cart off
As
almost
surrender. Instead, the lead story
the Soviet Union,
**How convenient,"
quiet,
want
to lose out
on the
from Japan.
the hours ticked
by and we plowed through the moonlit
no word of Japanese surrender or even about our mission came over the airwaves. The music of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller drifted softly through the airplane. I'm not sure sky,
what was going through ahead
my
crew's minds, but
I
began
to think
to the realization that if the Japanese didn't surrender,
we would be
The thought left me cold. I was the only one aboard who knew that we were several weeks away from having more bombs. This interlude would give the Japanese more than enough time to recover, regain their balance, and stiffen their resolve. Having lived through and overcome the devastation of the two atomic bombings, as they had survived the firebombings, they might actually convince themselves, using some perverse inversion of logic, that they could fight through the new horror, too. The samurai flying
more of
these missions.
code of death with honor might engulf the entire population in a spasm of
self-sacrifice.
At 10:30 P.M. I set the Bock's Car down on Runway A at Tinian. It had been twenty hours since we had last set foot there. There were no brass bands or cheering multitudes to
W. Sweeney
Maj. Gen. Charles
230
greet us.
No
klieg lights or phalanxes of
phones or film crews.
We
cameras or micro-
were met by our ground crew and
one photographer, a welcome
me and
sight to
the
men
of the
Bock's Car.
We
We
were home.
were
alive.
We
had completed our
mission.
From
the cockpit,
off to the left in the
I
could see two solitary figures standing
dim
One was Paul
light.
Tibbets and the
was Admiral Pumell, the highest ranking naval officer on Tinian. I was the last of the crew to climb out. I was beyond being tired. I felt like I had passed a point of exhaustion and other
that
I
couldn't sleep
if I'd
another ounce of energy
wanted
if
my
to. I
life
couldn't have mustered
had depended on
A
voice greeted me. "Pretty rough. Chuck?"
It
was
Tibbets.
I
it.
echoed, "Pretty rough, boss."
remember extending a salute in the presence of a flag officer, and if I didn't, no one seemed to mind. Admiral Pumell extended his hand to shake mine. "You know, Major, those hours before you dropped the bomb, we'd just about given up on you." The admiral then filled me in on what had happened. He told me that when General Farrell had first read the Hopkins transmission, he'd become violently sick to his stomach. "But I
don't
although here said
was
we were if
worried," the admiral continued, "Tibbets
anyone could
get
it
done, you could.
see he
right."
That statement of confidence from the
washed away the brass bands to
I
man
I
most admired
we had gone through. Forget the crowds. This moment meant much more
travails
and the
me. "It
was
close,"
I
offered.
"What
Now
the hell are
we
so
gloomy
what about some beer?" Tibbets laughed. "Chuck, I'm afraid I have some bad news.
about? Mission accomplished.
WAR^S END The beer ran whiskey
left,"
"What The
out.
are
231
But maybe the medics have some medicinal
he added with a wink.
we
waiting for?"
trucks dropped us off at the medical detachment,
the medics
pronounced us
We
fit.
were told that our rations of
medicinal "relaxants" were awaiting us at the
We
were then taken
where
to the intelligence hut.
officers'
General
club.
Farrell,
Admiral Pumell, Dr. Ramsey, Colonel Tibbets, and the formal were in attendance but said
interrogators
intently to each of us recite the events as
When we up with a
we'd seen them.
arrived at the officers' club, a bar
full selection
proof grain alcohol.
of sour
Up
mash bourbon,
to that point the
had been subdued. But sleep
as they listened
little
after
had been
set
Scotch,
and 120-
mood among
the crew
almost forty-eight hours without
and a couple of drinks, we began
and
to loosen up, relax,
allow ourselves the luxury of drinking ourselves into blissful oblivion.
Some
partied into the
wandered
morning
light as gradually,
the
one
at
a time,
off to their quarters.
Paul Tibbets also joined us.
He and
we men
of the crew from the Enola Gay joined us, and
I sat
off to
one side
whole mission. Not
He was
for a bit
always with his men.
and informally ran through
in the stale rote of the intelligence
two friends, who had the common experience of being the only two pilots debriefing but in the style of
to
two
professionals,
have carried out such a mission. General Farrell had made a brief appearance to congratulate
us. After reading the intelligence debriefing report,
the
he went to
communications hut and sent the following cable
Washington:
to
Maj. Gen. Charles
232
CENTERBOARD—To
W. Sweeney
Groves Personal From FarreU
APCOM
5479
TOP SECRET Strike
and accompanying airplanes have returned
worth message No. 44 from Okinawa
Cloud cover was bad friel
to reach
at strike
Okinawa. After
and
is
to Tinian.
confirmed by
strike
all
Ash-
observers.
plane had barely enough
listening to the accounts,
one
gets the
impression of a supremely tough job carried out with determination,
sound judgment and great mission that ina
and
that
it
feels
did
At about
ing.
Sweeney and Ashworth, were men of stam-
Weaker men could not have done
confident that the its
bomb was
there
satisfactorily
placed
job well.
five a.m.,
back
being well potted,
I
began
to navigate
to
They'd apparently come up with the great idea of
first.
borrowing General
Farrell's jeep
compound. Their excursion came
and taking a to
end when they drove the jeep into
Beahan and Don Albury had asleep.
deep
this job.
my Quonset hut, more by instinct than intelI had left Tom Ferebee and Jim Van Pelt at the bar drinkWhile I was still trying to find my way home, they got
my way lect.
leaders,
stout heart.
Ashworth and
its
fortunate for the success of the
skill. It is
I
laid
down among
ride
around the
an abrupt and unexpected
my
quarters,
retired earlier
the wreckage
where Kermit
and were sound
and
drifted into a
sleep.
The Japanese were assessing the damage at Nagasaki, and the Soviets had invaded Manchuria. After Hiroshima, the Japanese military had argued that the United States had only one bomb, that we had used it, and that we had done the worst we could do. The military generals' staffs believed the bombing at
Hiroshima could be a rallying point
lace to rise casualties
in mobilizing the
up against an invading army and
upon American
inflict
popu-
massive
troops, forcing a negotiated peace
on
terms acceptable to them.
Nagasaki changed the dynamic between the war faction and
WAR^S END
233
the peace faction within the Japanese inner cabinet, the Su-
preme Council
for the Direction of the
of the council, up to that point evenly
war should
the
their nation. staffs still
take,
were about
to
six
members
on the
direction
War. The split
meet
to decide the fate of
Without question, the army and navy general
wielded the actual power in Japan and were commit-
ted to fight on. Talk of surrender could result in
summary
exe-
cution for any of these council members. General Korechika
Anami, a member of the council and Japan's minister of war, had waxed
poetically about the last great battle
not be wondrous for
on Japanese
whole nation
to be
destroyed like a beautiful flower?" But the second atomic
bomb
soil:
''Would
it
this
presented a unique opportunity for the inner cabinet to consider the unthinkable
The inner
—unconditional surrender.
cabinet convened a formal meeting in the eighteen-
by-thirty-foot air raid shelter
were
to
below the Imperial Palace. They
be joined in the muggy, unventilated space by Emperor
was both unusual and encouraging to those assembled. The lives of millions of his people and of millions of Allied troops depended on what transpired at that Hirohito. His presence
extraordinary gathering. Several hours later
I
would awake
to the
news
that there
was no news. It had been over twenty-four hours since the drop, and still the Japanese were silent. The prospect that these missions might become a matter of routine suddenly seemed all too real and disturbing.
**
The
days immediately following our mission were mixed with hopeful anticipation and nagging dread. The hope was that the war was about to end. The dread was that we might have to go into combat one more time and maybe get our ticket punched. Having survived three and a half years of the war, maybe one of us would have the bad luck of being the last
one
On rell,
to die in
the
it.
morning of August
Captain Parsons,
10,
Paul Tibbets, General Far-
Commander Ashworth, Tom
Dutch Van Kirk, Kermit Beahan, and tographed, and filmed by the
official
I
Ferebee,
were interviewed, pho-
photographic unit of the
509th to preserve our thoughts and observations.
We
eight
stood in front of the Enola Gay as the film crews prepared to
shoot their film, measuring the
light,
asking us to relax and act
members caught in a home movie, we stood stiffly and awkwardly in an effort to affect a posture of being at ease. Each of us in turn was asked to describe the natural.
But
like
family
234
WAR^S E^fD
235
two missions. And in proper the facts: what, when, and where.
military jargon
events of the recited
we
Later in the day, at a press conference, the world learned
two atomic missions.
more
details of the
that
had been involved. She would
I
My
later tell
mother learned
me how
shocked
was to hear my voice on the radio. A war correspondent who had attended the press conference had announced that the next voice she would hear would be that of a Major Charles W. Sweeney of North Quincy, Massachusetts. He asked me to she
describe
my
mission over Nagasaki.
we had a Httle operational difficulty in the matter of weather. Secondly, we had to make three runs on one target without being able to release because we had instructions to drop To
start off
with
by visual methods only. all
the time
spent
fifty
fuel.
We
consuming more
fuel in the rear difficulty.
We
We
bomb bay finally
minutes in the target area,
had
six
hundred gallons of
were trapped because of a mechanical
that
turned to our secondary target at Nagasaki,
upon which we made a good run and knocked out some of
From this point we really had because we had to make an emergency landing
establishments in that city start
saving fuel
Okinawa with very
My
little
.
.
.
fuel left
.
.
side of the
to at
.
mother made the sign of the
from the other
the
cross.
My
fleeting voice
world had been almost too
much
for
her to absorb.
The Japanese stalled and the killing continued. The sight of a Western Union courier at the front door of hundreds of American households still brought terror to some young man's wife, sister, mother, or father: "The Secretary of War regrets to inform you ..." During the three short months since Harry S. Truman had been president, the United States had sustained almost half of all Americans killed or wounded in the Pacific since Pearl Harbor.
On
paper, Japan might have been headed
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
236
for defeat, but that didn't alter the basic arithmetic: the closer
we
got to victory over Japan, the higher the price v^e paid in
American
lives.
While we waited, events
Japan were playing out
in
like
a Shakespearean tragedy: intrigues, assassinations, suicides, an
and an extraordinary address by the Son people. Chaos, treachery, and rebellion were in
attempted coup
God
of the
to his
d'etat,
air.
At two A.M. on August after the destruction of
10,
less
than twenty-four hours
Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito, the 124th
emperor of Imperial Japan, having listened to the passionate
intently for hours
arguments of his ministers and advisers of the
irmer cabinet, pronounced,
"We
must bear the unbearable
my
tears
and sanction the proposal
I
cannot but swallow
.
.
.
to
accept the Allied Proclamation on the basis outlined by the foreign minister."
The
was
decisive factor in the emperor's concession
would lead people. The Nagasaki bomb had dem-
inescapable conclusion that further to the annihilation of his
the
armed
struggle
onstrated the hollo wness of the military's optimistic assessment
by
that
fighting
on they could sap the
staggering casualties
on favorable
Allies' will to sustain
and thereby negotiate a peace settlement
terms.
Incredibly, even after the second atomic
war
the
bombing of Japan,
faction within the inner cabinet advocated continuing
the war. General
determination
left
Anami vehemently in the
armed
argued, "There
forces to
wage a
is
enough
decisive battle
homeland." General Yoshijiro Umezi, Anami's chief of insisted, "We have a new plan and hope for good results.
in the staff,
Regarding the atomic bomb, aircraft
shal
it
might be checked
measures are taken against the planes."
Hata,
whose
headquarters
had
Hiroshima, concluded that because the
been
if
proper anti-
And
Field
Mar-
destroyed
bomb was exploded
at
in
WAR^S END the
air,
underground
is
not so deadly."
The unprecedented personal ever,
fact,
the field marshal to report to the em-
General peror.
would be unscathed. In
facilities
Anami urged "... the bomb
237
how-
intervention of the emperor,
had broken the stalemate between the war
faction
and the
peace faction. The bombing of Nagasaki proved that Hiroshima
had not been an
isolated event.
States could destroy
The prospect
one Japanese
city after
was not an imposed on
another had become
To speak
a fact to the emperor's inner cabinet.
that the United
of surrender
now
act of treason but a rational response to the reality
mind by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There was one monumental "but." On Friday morning, August 10, President Truman received the Japanese
from the Japanese
dam
their "conditional" acceptance of the Pots-
Declaration. Japan
was ready
to surrender, but the
em-
peror must remain as "a sovereign ruler."
Before Hiroshima, the Japanese response to the Potsdam
Declaration had been mokusatsu
—meaning "to
treat
contempt." After Hiroshima, the inner cabinet had
on
with split
silent
evenly
Truman that would leaders who had plunged
offering a counterproposal to President
have allowed the military and the Pacific into the hell
it
civilian
had become
major points the Japanese military
own war
1.
Japan would
2.
Japan would retain control of
try
its
disarm those troops 3.
4.
to
remain
insisted
in
power. The
upon were:
criminals. its
troops in the field and
itself.
The Allies could not occupy the home islands of Japan. Emperor Hirohito would remain as the sovereign ruler of Japan.
Not only
the United States, but the Soviet Union, Great
Britain, China,
and Australia, the
latter
two of which had
suf-
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
238
would not accept very good reason the same reason
fered cruelly at the hands of the Japanese,
And
any preconditions.
the Allies could accept the
war
for
—
no preconditions from Germany
to
end
Europe.
in
In 1944 or 1945, had
we dropped
the atomic
bomb
over
Germany, the actions of the Nazi regime would have been no less evil. The Germans could not have rallied history to claim that they were the victims of the war because they had been bombed. Nor could there have been any suggestion that the Allies should have negotiated a peace with Nazi Germany. The idea
would have been so outrageous
would have considered be to allow
it,
it.
To
that
no
rational person
would
negotiate with such evil
even in defeat, a measure of legitimacy.
So, too, with the empire of Japan. Their crimes
were against
humanity. The Allies were not involved in a philosophical debate with them.
gave
life
It
was
who
essential that the military elite,
to the forces of evil as a matter of national policy,
be clearly and irrevocably defeated. Their demise had to be
The Japanese leadership, particularly its military had forfeited any expectation of diplomatic
unequivocal. leaders,
conciliations.
After the second atomic mission, the Japanese government,
over the rabid objection of the military, which insisted that four conditions be
met before
hostilities
would
all
cease, sought
only retention of the emperor as the ruler of Japan. President
Truman, wishing
to avoid, if possible, further nuclear attacks
or an invasion of the mainland, took a middle course to
Japan
to surrender within the
move
framework of the Potsdam Decla-
ration, over the strenuous objection of the Soviet
than give a flat-out no to Japan,
Truman
Union. Rather
offered that the
em-
peror could stay, but under the direct authority of the supreme
commander of
the Allied powers.
Truman understood
might need the emperor as a figurehead
that
we
to assure a peaceful
WAR^S END home
239
and a
transition to a democratic
Because the Japanese had offered
their first serious response
occupation of the
islands
form of government. to the
Potsdam Declaration,
porarily ratchet
its
offensive against Japan to give
it
time
B-29 raids v^ere halted. President Truman sus-
to surrender.
pended
down
the United States decided to tem-
his earlier order authorizing the use of
no atomic bombs
v^ere to be
atomic vv^eapons:
dropped unless he
specifically
reauthorized their use. General Leslie Groves, head of the
Manhattan
Project, independently ordered that
made without
of plutonium be
eries
no
further deliv-
his consent. In spite of the
Japanese intransigence, neither our political nor our military leaders
were intent on
inflicting additional
punishment upon
the Japanese people, conventional or otherwise, while waiting
bombs, the Twentieth Air
for their leaders' response. Instead of
Force began dropping millions of
and
civilians
soldiers
to
leaflets
surrender
in
exhorting Japanese
the
face
of certain
destruction.
But the Japanese military leaders were not quite
finished.
To
counter rumors of surrender circulating throughout the
civil-
ian
and military populations, Japanese
were
told
by
soldiers in the field
their leaders to fight on, to crush the
August
enemy.
came and went. As did August
11
12.
August 13
brought no response from the Japanese to President Truman's offer.
All
American
had been cautioned nese forces.
forces in the Pacific during those three days to avoid,
Finally,
where
possible, engaging Japa-
Truman
President
reluctantly
General George Marshall to authorize resumption of
directed air raids
against Japan.
On
August
about every
14,
General Spaatz ordered into the
—^bombers,
aircraft in the theater
24s, B-25s, B-26s, P-38s,
you name
it,
air just
fighters, B-29s,
B-
anything that could
fly
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
240
and carry ordnance,
strafe a target, or fire
a rocket
—
for
one
massive show of force to push the Japanese to surrender.
LeMay
Curtis
mand blow
ordered his B-29s of the
XXI Bomber Com-
what was once again hoped to be a final would push the Japanese to give up any belief that
to take part in
that
they could hold out any longer.
Eight of our airplanes would take part in this final assault.
The Enola
Gay, the Bock's Car, The Great
of the 509th's airplanes would
sit this
and
Artiste,
five other
—the Enola Gay
one out
and the
Bock's Car for obvious reasons,
because
all
and The Great
the scientific instruments were
still
Artiste
aboard and
we
didn't
know
sions.
Spook and Jabett III were en route to the United States
if
they would be needed for further atomic mis-
delivery of
to take
components
should the decision be
made
for
to
more Fat
Man
bombs,
proceed with the atomic
bombing.
Although
I
could have stayed at our
commander
home
base,
I
decided
was a mission I must go on. It was my job to set an example. The undercurrent of dread had bubbled to the surface with the news that we were going back to Japan for one more mission. The old bad luck syndrome, that ethereal sense of mortality that some men feel, that as squadron
this
believing their last mission might be the one that
kills
them,
bloom among the crews. No one wanted to be the Private George Price of World War II. (Private Price was killed by a sniper's bullet at 10:58 a.m., November 11, 1918, two minutes before the start of the armistice ending World War I.) was
in full
My empire.
crew and
As we
I,
aboard the Straight Flush, headed for the
cruised at about 8,000 feet
ocean below glistened.
We
on
were carrying a
a sunny day, the single
pumpkin
loaded with several thousand pounds of the high explosive Torpex.
Our
we were
target
was
the
in the air, the
Toyoda Auto Works at Koromo. Once atmosphere aboard was relaxed. It was
— WAR^S END as
though we were on a milk run. In our
exact repUca of the Fat
Man
new bomb was
earher. This
which we had
241
bomb bay
an
sat
carried five days
a deadly package of high explosives
would devastate its intended target but, unlike the Fat Man, it contained neither the secrets nor the horrors of the universe. It seemed to us oddly benign in comparison. As we drew nearer to Japan, below us, stretched out as far as the eye could see, was a massive armada of Allied ships aircraft carriers, battleships, heavy and light cruisers, destroyers, and supply ships of every size and description. They were all that
neatly grouped in formations of a hundred ships, five across
and twenty deep. You could have almost walked ship to ship.
like
a gray carpet
It
—
By
Japan from
rimmed by stripes of most awesome display of sea power I
looked
It
was the or perhaps anybody had ever deep blue.
to
the time
we
seen.
reached the empire, airplanes that had
al-
ready struck their targets in Japan were heading back to base.
Wave
after
wave of
airplanes passed us going
hind us an endless string of trains
coming and going
in
home, and
aircraft followed.
New
We
were
belike
York's Grand Central Station.
Before the day was through, over two thousand airplanes would participate in this unprecedented air assault.
Toyoda Auto Works was right on target, and the mission was thoroughly uneventful. It was reported later that our pumpkin actually might have been the very last bomb dropped on mainland Japan in World War II.
Our drop on
With
the
American reply to Japan's offer of conditional surrender now known, the army of Japan saw a last opportunity to prevail. The opposing factions of the inner cabinet were the
going back and forth at each other. Outside six
men who
coup began
this tiny
group of
held the fate of their nation in their hands, a
to take
shape
among younger army
officers intent
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
242
on
end the war
derailing the emperor's expressed desire to
under the conditions imposed by the Alhes. Senior
officers did
not discourage these fledgUng insurgents.
By
the
morning of August
in a deadlock that only the
the supreme council shelter
14, the inner cabinet
A
emperor could break.
was convened
at 10:30
was again meeting of
a.m. in the air raid
beneath the Imperial Palace. Again the war and peace
factions argued point, counterpoint.
The emperor
reiterated his
previous desire to end the war and accept the terms as set forth
by the
Allies. '1
suffer
any longer," he told them.
cannot endure the thought of letting
my people
The emperor then advised the assembled ministers that he would record a message to be broadcast to the people. For the first time ever, the Japanese population would hear the voice of their emperor, bringing them news that was, for most, unimaginable. After the emperor departed from the meeting.
Anami made one
last
attempt to convince members of the
council to authorize a strike at
convoy believed this action
General
American
to be off the coast of
forces
by attacking a
Honshu. He argued
might make the Americans rethink
their
that
demands.
Such was the atmosphere within, and the mind-set
of,
the
Japanese military. Later in the day. General
Anami would commit
suicide. In
the traditional way, he committed seppuku by kneeling, slitting his
stomach open with
his ceremonial knife,
and then plunging
a dagger into his neck. Before the passage of another twentyfour hours, several
more high-ranking
officers
would choose
death over surrender.
As August
14 dissolved into August 15, the leaders of the
coup were having no luck
army
When
officers,
in gaining overt support
who now doubted
that the
from senior
coup could succeed.
General Takeshi Mori, commander of the Imperial
'
WAR^S END Guard, refused to join the
and
was
his aide
plot,
decapitated.
243
he was summarily executed
The Imperial Palace was then
occupied in the early morning hours by the rebels, and a frantic search ensued to locate and destroy the phonograph disk the
emperor had recorded
for broadcast later that day. In other
parts of
Tokyo, other rebel bands searched
Suzuki,
high-ranking ministers,
household
staff, all
marked
to be, in effect, placed
Not having
for
Prime Minister
and members of the royal
for assassination.
under house
The emperor was
arrest.
the support of the generals, unable to locate
and destroy the emperor's recorded message, and thwarted seizing
Tokyo radio
stations, the insurgents' revolt petered
in
out
dawned on August 15. Many of the conspirators wandered off to commit suicide. At noontime the Japanese national anthem rang out from radios all over the home islands. Then the emperor spoke: as the sun
**[W]e have resolved to pave the
generations to
what
is
He
come by enduring
way
for a
grand peace for
the unendurable
and
all
suffering
insufferable." cast the Japanese defeat as the result of international
forces conspiring to destroy Japan,
which had acted reasonably
and out of the best of motives. "Indeed," he
war on America and Great
said, *'we declared
Britain out of our sincere desire to
ensure Japan's self-preservation and the stabilization of Southeast Asia,
it
being far from our thought either to infringe upon
the sovereignty of other nations or to
aggrandizement.
I'm sure pines, tra,
New
the
embark upon
territorial
'
this
was news
to China,
Manchuria, the Philip-
Guinea, Java, Indochina, Thailand, Burma, Suma-
Solomon
Islands
.
.
.
**We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to our Allied nations of East Asia,
who have
consistently cooperated
Maj. Gen. Charles
244
W. Sweeney
with the empire toward the emancipation of East Asia," the
emperor continued.
The emancipation of twenty milHon dead in East Asia? And, in a final stroke of exoneration, the emperor converted the Japanese from the aggressor in the war to the victim. *'[T]he enemy," he said, "has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the fight,
it
toll
of
many
would not only
innocent result in
an ultimate collapse and
eration of the Japanese nation, but
human
extinction of
Not their
a
Should we continue
lives.
would
to
oblit-
also lead to the total
civilization."
word of remorse
for the
inhumanity
inflicted
during
conquest and occupation of most of Asia. Not a word of
apology for the misery and suffering the emperor's military forces
had spread across the
of the navy
men
Pacific
lying in a metal
and Asia. Not a mention
tomb on
the
bottom of Pearl
Harbor. The emperor had stopped the fighting to save tion.
Even
as
civiliza-
he spoke, prisoners of war were being tormented
and executed by
units of the Japanese
armed
forces.
This failure to take responsibility as a nation for the horrors the Japanese military persisted for its guilt,
fifty
had
inflicted
years. Unlike
on
their fellow
man
has
Germany, which acknowledged
Japan holds steadfast to the
fiction that
it
did nothing
—
was trapped by circumstances the theme struck by Hirohito on August 15, 1945, and, unfortunately, perpetuated by some historians in 1995. Hirohito did much more than fail to acknowledge the mowrong, that
tives
it
and deeds of Japan during those desperate
was the myth
speech, the emperor set in motion an untruth that ish for
many
years after the
war was
over:
years. In his to flour-
that the
Japanese were the victims of the war. Pointing to the devasta-
upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki by President Truman's decision to use all of the weapons at his disposal to end
tion brought
WAR^S END the bloodshed, Japan succeeded in its
responsibility for the
war
To
245
many
quarters in diverting
to President
Truman's use of
atomic weapons to end
it.
Japan. Most,
of Japan's aggression prior to and dur-
ing
if
not
all,
this day, history is
denied within
World War II is left unspoken to its population. But on August 15, 1945, cloaked in whatever garment
emperor chose
To
to wear, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally.
the east, across the international dateline,
Tuesday, August
At seven o'clock
14.
dent of the United States
I
have
to the
the
just received a note
message forwarded
deem
made
it
the following announcement:
in reply
government by the secretary of
state
on August
dam
Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of
1 1
.
I
Japan.
The war was
over.
still
in the evening the presi-
from the Japanese government to that
was
this reply a full
acceptance of the Pots-
**
The news of the
was greeted with unrestrained happiness and celebrating. We were going home. We had survived the war. We were ahve, and the probabihty was that tomorrow we'd still be alive. The mood was buoyant and expectant. A return to our families, friends, and careers awaited us. For the first time in years, the world was at peace. The exact measure surrender
of the Nazi and Imperial Japan's decade of murderous excesses
was
still
being uncovered and
loosed upon mankind by the
evil
the comprehension of most
But for those of us lives
was
human
who had
that the fighting
The exact nature of Axis powers would soon
tallied.
was
the tax
beings.
fought, the single focus of our over.
While Washington
final-
ized the details of the formal surrender and the judicial mecha-
nisms for war crimes tribunals were in the blissful
monotony of our
in the crystal-clear,
set in
tropical paradise
coral-blue water,
we drank
—swimming
sunning on the sandy
beaches, sleeping late into the morning.
246
motion,
We
drifted ft-om
one
WAR^S END day
to the next. Occasionally
and
practice
and
to
do what
I
I
247
took an airplane up to stay in
loved most,
fly.
We
were missionless
free as birds.
me
Paul Tibbets told
that
I
had been awarded the
On Guam
Star for the Nagasaki mission.
than Twining flew in from
me and
presentation to
ber of
my
was
LeMay's boss
to personally
come
to
in the theater
make
Tinian to award
Twining was
and reported only
all
army
the
mem-
to each
quite an honor. General
who commanded
Spaatz,
eral
General Na-
25,
award the Air Medal
crew. Having a three-star
these decorations
Curtis
to
August
Silver
in the
forces
air
Gen-
to
Pacific.
On at the
the appointed day
we
drove over to the wing
313th Headquarters decked out in our starched and
pressed class
A uniforms.
General Twining reviewed us in mili-
and then read each
tary formation
**How would you
like to
very hour on September
USS
Japan aboard the took
me
recipient.
go up to Japan tomorrow?" Paul
Tokyo Bay, General MacArthur was,
Tibbets asked. In
all
2,
and
citation individually
pinned the medals to the chest of each
It
command
at that
accepting the formal surrender of
Missouri.
of one second to answer, *T'd love
it.
Let's
go." ''Get a couple jeeps
one rations," he I
had
my
and
fill
old buddy, John Casey, the
trailers.
fiiel
The
trailers
were
filled
way
to
Tokyo.
it
in the pilot's seat
Albury, Kermit Beahan, Dutch its
ten-in-
Van
the
with two jeeps
with ten-in-one rations.
our party of about twenty, including
was on
them with
commander of
up a C-54 and load
Next morning, with Tibbets pilot,
trailers
said.
transport squadron,
and two
and
Kirk,
and
Tom
me
as co-
Ferebee,
Don
and Jim Van
Pelt,
"
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
248
We
landed
been secured First
Atsugi Air Field in Tokyo. The
at
just the
area.
No
government
communica-
all
and military posts
offices,
in the
one could be certain what reception the American
might encounter and these guys, in complete combat
forces gear,
had
day before by advance elements of the
Cavalry Division. Their job was to secure
tions facilities,
field
were ready
The
airlift
for anything.
Cav was
of the First
We
in full swing.
were part
of a never-ending stream of transports that were landing every
one to two minutes without
stop.
The place was a beehive of
we parked
Unlike the other olive drab transports,
activity.
gleaming
beautiful,
office to off-load
C-54
silver
our jeeps and
our
right in front of the operations trailers.
The base operations office was an octagonal, wood-shingled building with an open wooden tower propped on the roof. For a major airfield it was primitive compared to the facilities we were used
me
to.
Paul proceeded to the operations
sooner had Paul disappeared into the building than a
young colonel came up
to
me and demanded, "Whose
airplane
this?" "Sir, this is
"Get It
My
Colonel Tibbets's airplane,"
the
struck
me
that this
tell
rephed.
guy was awful young
guess was that he was younger than
He
letter.
I
out of here," he ordered.
it
demeanor of a man who had a job to
leaving
with the airplane to oversee the off-loading.
No is
office,
him.
It
didn't
know who we
occurred to
top secret priority,
I
me
to
I.
to
He had
that serious
do and would do
were, and
that three
be a colonel.
weeks
I
it
to
wasn't about
earlier,
with our
could have parked our Green Hornet inside
of the operations office and no one would have raised an eye-
brow. But after all,
I
thought maybe
on the same
couple of days.
I
I
side.
could reason with him.
"We're only going
can leave the
air
—
We
were,
to be here a
WAR'S END He doze I
me
cut
it
'Til give
off.
And
ramp."
off the
you
city. I'd
a small grass
take the C-54
up
thirty minutes,
then
I'll
bull-
plan.
The
off he walked.
added that
told Colonel Tibbets, but
map showed
249
Chofu
field,
I
had a
Field, just outside the
Tokyo,
to that field, hitch a ride into
and meet him and the guys
at the
Dai
That would
Ichi Hotel.
allow us to avoid having to butt heads with the young colonel. I
had learned long ago and
spots, I
wasn't worth a
this
took a crew chief with
about ten minutes after
that in the military
later.
about a thousand
the grass.
forces
come
if hostilities
A
at the ready.
Hornet.
fight.
me and
landed
He
feet,
in to
so
Chofu Field
the airplane roll off onto
I let
Chofu
major pulled up
at this field.
A
group
to provide air cover for our
was
erupted. All
quiet,
and the
fighters sat
in a jeep alongside the
introduced himself as the duty
transport into Tokyo, but he told
mander could authorize
at
The concrete touchdown pad ran out
Nothing much was happening
of P-38s had
you choose your
me
Green
asked for
officer. I
that only the group
com-
that request.
Another colonel approached who looked
like
he was
barely out of flying school. "Can't help you, Major. Times are tough.
We
don't have enough of anything, including gas.
Everything's being diverted to Atsugi Field in Tokyo," he offered politely. I
Tokyo. But
my
come
hadn't
all
this
way
at least this colonel
strand Paul Tibbets in
wasn't threatening to plow
airplane into the ground with a bulldozer.
spend a
little
time commiserating with him.
flying school,
what
class he'd
been
be a colonel, the responsibilities I
to
asked again
talked about
how young
—and then
decided to
he was to
ever so politely
maybe he could just get me into town. I my colonel would be expecting me. He fi-
if
mentioned that
in,
We
I
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
250
An
nally relented.
Dai
hour
later
was standing
I
in front of the
Ichi Hotel.
The Dai
Ichi Hotel
and the Imperial Hotel, which had been
among
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, were tures left standing in
the few struc-
Tokyo. They were situated close
to the
Imperial Palace, which had remained untouched by our
Standing near the palace,
ers.
have shown such
bomb
the
We
wondered
if
the
had had the opportunity
restraint if they
to
White House.
all
decided to take a swing around the
had the idea
we
that
we were
while
I
bombJapanese would
in
major newspaper
should find a translator to
A
Tokyo. office in
employee directed us
hotel
Tokyo, where
who had
English-speaking reporter
Someone accompany us
city.
we found an
to the affable
graduated from Harvard in
the 1930s.
Downtown Tokyo
stretched out in front of us, barren.
Nothing was standing. The only recognizable objects were the burned hulks of
safes
and
vaults
among
the charred remains of
what must once have been banks and insurance companies.
The Tokyo
department and other emergency agencies had
fire
downtown
fought a losing battle to save Tokyo's
in the course
of repeated bombings over several months. Driving through the rubble of what had been a great sights. Children,
streets
waving
lutes to us
dren.
why
I
city,
most of them four or
tiny
American
with their
little
flags as
hands.
Not
I
saw
the strangest of
five years old, lined the
we
passed, offering sa-
the adults, just the chil-
couldn't understand where they had gotten the flags or
they were doing
this.
The
adults were at best neutral, or
perhaps dour, accepting of our presence, but the kids were cheerful.
Our
interpreter told us that the Japanese are
people. Since they ate with the
had surrendered,
occupying
forces,
it
was
an orderly
their duty to cooper-
to accept the
shame of
their
WAR'S END defeat. It struck
me
that he hadn't
what they had done. But
251
mentioned the shame
for the children,
for
was a time of hope
it
with the war over.
Nowhere
in
Tokyo did we encounter any
Our accommodations undersized. Everything
at the
Dai
hostility
toward
us.
were neat, clean, and
Ichi
—the rooms, the beds, the bathtub—was
about 60 percent of what similar accommodations would be in the States. For a
guy with
my
dimensions,
was a
it
tight
squeeze.
Although the military issued
we
didn't
dining
need
We
The army had taken over the hotel and the The menu was a delightful array of C rations,
it.
facilities.
which veterans
scrip for us to use as currency,
day fondly
to this
recall as
could order anything on the menu. So
morning, in the afternoon, and
at night.
corned beef hash.
we had hash
We
had
in the
fried hash,
cold hash, hot hash, hash rolled into a ball, hash flattened into
a patty, and
mashed
hash.
supply of sake, which
The next morning with our rations and
we
could do a
little
What
saved the day was an endless
we consumed I
with abandon.
took a jeep and one of the
set
trailers filled
out for a day of sightseeing.
trading with our rations.
We
Maybe
came upon
Sophia University, which was a Catholic school.
who was German
but
spoke perfect English with a most proper British accent.
He
At told us
the university
how bad
we found
a priest
conditions had become.
Much
was
scarce
tion
was near
starvation. Everything
ity,
housing,
clothes,
medical supplies.
of the popula-
—
fuel, electric-
Children had been
work as the shortage of men had worsened. Yet the government had continued an endless barrage of encouragement promising that victory was theirs. The priest gave us a tour of the campus and the main chapel. Not surprisingly, the religious icons in the chapel had
pressed into factory
Maj. Gen. Charles W. SwEE^fEY
252
A
was under way, and a class of with white square handkerchiefs on their heads
Japanese features. little
schoolgirls
service
Communion.
stood in line to receive they
bowed
forting,
instead of genuflecting.
and
In the oriental fashion,
was
It
all
so familiar,
com-
reassuring.
Tokyo but we had plenty. And when we ran out, there would be more when we returned to Tinian. In good conscience, I couldn't keep the rations we had stashed
Food was
in the trailer.
he would
scarce in
I
thought that
know how
if I
gave the rations to the priest
to properly distribute the food to the chil-
dren of his parish. All of the guys were in agreement. So
we
pulled the trailer around and unloaded the cases of food.
The
priest
We
wanted
Our ten-in-one rations were a cornucopia, not like the C rations. They were crammed with tins of tuna, chocolate bars, crackers, chewing gum, and sundry other delights. To him, it was like a gift basket. was
elated.
go to Hiroshima, but there was no adequate
to
accommodate our C-54. There was, however, a field about fifteen miles outside of Nagasaki. It was called Omura, and it was on a naval base where we could land. What we didn't know was that the Omura naval base and
landing
its
facility to
airfield
were
As our C-54
still
under the control of the Japanese
down, we were the
set
We
in the area of Nagasaki.
nese soldiers and their
during the war,
joined the military,
pouch on
my
my web
I
officers.
took the
belt
Colt .45 automatic.
remembering
my
Although it.
For the
clip
and inserted I
father's
Americans
to arrive
were met on the ground by Japa-
never loaded
I
first
military.
I
carried a sidearm first
time since I'd
of ammunition from the it
into the handle grip of
decided against chambering a round,
admonition.
The scene was awkward, but not threatening, as we planed. The Japanese seemed to be waiting for someone to
detell
WAR^S END them what
do
to
next. All that
were the charred tons of ers,
Two
beast.
our hands as
None
fight-
were parked
of the assembled soldiers
pantomime.
in
We
moved
turning an imaginary steering wheel, driving.
if
make English words sound
to drivy Nagasaki." It's
you speak
speakers,
Mitsubishi Zero-Sen
we communicated
spoke English, so
that if
standing like the skele-
to us as "Zekes," in perfect condition,
beside the burned-out hangars.
We tried to
of the airplane hangars
left
steel superstructures
some long-dead
known
was
253
Japanese: ''Need trucky
amazing how universal the
belief
is
loudly, slowly, and, in the case of English
add vowels
to the
end of words,
this will pass as a
foreign language.
Our problem was
that
we had
traded our jeeps and
squad of marines in Tokyo for what
to a
handmade
thirty
silk
kimonos.
we had back on Tinian, many
Like everything jeeps
else,
We
thought were
didn't care about the jeeps.
hundreds, still
we
trailers
maybe thousands, of
in shipping crates.
But on
closer examination
it
turned out that the kimonos were
of something, but
it
sure as hell wasn't
hoodwinked, but what the use for the jeeps.
had
it
seemed
like
The Japanese ing for
—a
leaky radiator
They were a
kimonos.
we were
ask-
These vehicles were a
middle of a dented and
from the equipment we were used
know what
they ran on for
and shook worse than a
expected them to break
Some
silk
rickety suspension, fenders rusted through.
far cry
erating. I don't
I
to us.
single headlight in the grill,
practical
which Japan then
understood what
and delivered three trucks
sorry sight
tered
a good idea to have
soldiers finally
had been
going to do with the kimonos
yet to be decided. In the world of barter,
was,
We
The marines had a
hell.
What we were
silk.
made
diesel engine
down
before
we
ftiel,
to op-
but they sput-
on a cold morning. drove off the
field.
of the guys jumped into the back of one of the trucks
— Maj. Gen. Charles
254
on the roof of the
and
I
two
trucks.
sat
The
cab.
to
homes along
were green and
hillsides
whispered through the
Here and
followed in the other
Nagasaki wound up and over
into valleys dotted with small
The
rest
'
\
The road road.
W. Sweeney
there,
tall
leafy.
Japanese families toiled in
—never a group of
and down
the sides of the
A
summer
breeze
and shrubs and stands of trees.
grass
paying us no attention. Occasionally a nese soldier
hills
soldiers,
fields
single,
unarmed Japa-
On
on
j
'
|
among
stories high,
i
sight.
the outskirts of Nagasaki,
inn nestled
|
always one at a time
he and the families along the road probably would have
killed us
i
and gardens,
would be walking along the road, showing no response to us, as if our presence was as normal and expected as any other everyday occurrence in this beautiful countryside. Two weeks earlier,
i
ancient trees.
v^th double
red-tile
we came upon It
a small resort
was a charming
place,
two
pagoda-styled roofs, the second-
story roof overhanging a lower roof
rimming the
first
story.
We
j
decided to spend the night there before pressing on to Nagasaki. Inside
on the reception desk lay the
register. I
wasn't sure
if \
the Japanese their city. It
names of the crew who had bombed crossed my mind that perhaps the better part of
knew
the
would be to avoid signing in. We were the only Americans on Japanese soil within three hundred miles of this spot. I watched as Paul walked up to the desk, swiveled the register
I
\
valor
hand wrote, "Colonel Paul W. Tibbets USAAF." I stepped right up after him and signed ''Major Charles W. Sweeney USAAF," and in turn each of around toward him, and
j
in a clear
i
!
our party registered.
An
elderly couple
were the innkeepers. They were courte-
ous and attentive, and they spoke English. Before the war, Nagasaki had been a favorite tourist destination for American and
English travelers. That night
we
sat
around the inn relaxing
]
j
^
WAR^S END and drinking
sake.
did something
still
wasn't quite at ease, though, and
had never done before or
I
my
holster with
I
255
since: I
hung
my
loaded weapon on the headrest of
I
the
bed,
within easy reach.
The next morning we proceeded to Nagasaki. The trucks coughed and gagged up the last set of hills. Over the next ridge was the Urakami Valley. At the crest we could survey the length of the valley where a month before the Mitsubishi war plants had been operating at full capacity producing small arms, torpedoes, and various other munitions for the Japanese armed forces. The valley floor was a stretch of rubble dotted by grotesquely twisted lumps of steel beams and columns. A brick chimney rose here and there amid the wreckage where the munitions plants had once stood. From a distance, the destroyed armaments plants looked like erector sets a child had twisted and bent and carelessly tossed away. We had driven through the verdant hills to a wasteland. As we descended into the valley, we were the first Americans to set foot in Nagasaki and survey the damage. United States naval personnel were waiting
on board
anchored in the harbor
vessels
teams were sent in
first
until scientific survey
to test for radioactivity.
We
weren't
even supposed to be in the area, not to mention driving through the valley.
The
came
trucks
to a stop
midway
alone along a brick sidewalk to a point
in the valley. I I
estimated was where
ground zero would have been on August
ahead of
me
away along
I
the
walked
9.
In the distance
could see a solitary Japanese soldier walking
same sidewalk, unaware or uncaring
were here. There were very few people around as
I
that
we
surveyed
the surroundings. I
looked straight up into the blue sky where at 1,890
the Fat
Man
had exploded. In an
instant
on
that
feet
August day.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
256
me
that
in a burst of blistering heat
and
which oddly seemed so long ago, everything around morning had been vaporized blast.
main streets. On one comer I peered down into the cellar of what had been a fire station. It was then that I was struck by the significance of our weapon. In the cellar was a fire truck that had been crushed flat, as if a giant had stepped on it. In fact, the entire infrastructure of the city was flat no water, no emerI
walked
to
what must have been an
intersection of
—
gency
facilities,
no
firefighters.
Everything was gone.
This had not been the conventional slow, incremental destruction of a target, as
we had
destroyed other Japanese
cities.
This had been instantaneous obliteration. There had been no time for the people to grow accustomed to the bombing, as other Japanese
had done
in
Kobe, Nagoya, and Osaka. There
mind to rationalize that you could survive. More Japanese had died during a single firebombing of Tokyo on March 9 than at Hiroshima or Nagasaki—97,000 killed, 125,000 wounded, 1,200,000 homeless. For its victims, the firestorms in Tokyo were every bit as horrifying as the nuclear blast. Intense napalm fires incinerated everything. had been no time
to allow the
Tomadolike winds whipped through the
sumed
all
the oxygen, creating a
people. Yet the Japanese fight
on
after the
vacuum
No
second atomic
longer would
that itself suffocated
had fought on. But they could not strike.
Nuclear weapons had changed the fare.
city as the fires con-
war be seen
human
as simply
response to war-
an extension of
national policies by other means, a condition of the spirit
that occasionally broke out of the
bounds of
human civilized
The Japanese military leaders might wish to fight to the death, but it would be their nation that would die. The casualty figures at Nagasaki were still a matter of some speculation. It would finally be estimated that in the first instant conduct.
WAR^S END 40,000 people were
257
and that another 30,000
killed,
to 35,000
died of their injuries within a few days. Seventy-five thousand
more were wounded. As
among city.
looked around,
I
would
the rubble, nor
I
see
saw no bodies
I
any in other parts of the
Apparently, and with the efficiency for which the Japanese
are noted,
had almost immediately
the survivors
started to
clean up and care for the wounded.
Standing amid the rubble,
I felt
a sadness that so
died on both sides, not only there but in
We
where the war had been fought. million people
all
would
many had
the horrible places
learn that over
fifty
had perished because of Japanese and German
—the majority of them unarmed men, women, children— Asia, the Europe, the Middle
and
aggression
in
Pacific,
and a thousand other
places.
Africa,
And
East,
millions of soldiers, sailors,
marines, and airmen, the best and brightest of an entire generation, I
would never thanked
tomorrows.
realize their
God
that
it
was we who had
not the Japanese or the Germans.
I
hoped
this
there
weapon and would never
be another atomic mission. I
took no pride or pleasure then, nor do
in the brutality of war,
whether suffered by
of another nation. Every or guilt that
I
life is
had bombed the
take any now,
my
people or those
precious. But
city
where
evidenced by the destruction around
I
no remorse
I felt
stood.
me had
cruelty of the Japanese militaristic culture glorified the
I
The
been
and a
suffering
bom
of the
tradition that
conquest of "inferior" races and saw Japan as
destined to rule Asia.
The
true vessel of remorse
and
guilt be-
longed to the Japanese nation, which could and should
account the warlords
who
so willingly offered
up
call to
their
own
people to achieve their visions of greatness.
My
crew and
I
to inflict suffering.
had flown
to
Nagasaki to end the war, not
There was no sense of joy among us as
we
Maj. Gen. Charles
258
walked the
and
for
streets there.
We
W. Sweeney
were reUeved
it
was
over, for us
them.
Although the
industrial valley
and the shipbuilding
facilities
along the Urakami River had been totally destroyed, the dential
and business
districts
resi-
of Nagasaki had been spared. The
of Nagasaki was going on as usual there. Kermit Beahan,
life
Don
Albury, and
I
walked around the
city.
Businesses were
open; the people went about their daily routine. Children lined
up
in their uniforms to attend school.
from the
mood
The mood was
Tokyo. There was an
in
air
different
of suUenness, but
not of despair. The people on the street were polite to us. course, they didn't
fazed
at
the
through their
sight
know who we
Of
were, but they didn't seem
of three American servicemen strolling
city.
The rebuilding was already under way. Unlike the Russians, who had immediately carted off the spoils of victory from Manchuria, dismantling factories, railroad trains,
and
literally
and
rolling stock
taking every nut, bolt, and brick, the United States,
even in the early days of the Occupation, began to feeding, clothing,
and housing
and material would flood its
leaders
had so
into
its
assist in
money economy
former enemy. Soon
Japan
recklessly destroyed.
to rebuild the
**
^fcsf
November
the last time.
14, I lifted off
The
for
one
last
and then
to
New
at
Tinian for
was being rotated back to the and barrel. Our new base would be
entire 509th
United States lock, stock, at Roswell,
from the runway
Mexico.
I
brought The Great
Artiste
around
look and then headed to Kwajalein, on to Hawaii
Sacramento on our three-day hopscotching route
back to the West Coast.
was about nine p.m. when I set down at Mather Field in Sacramento. We had crossed over the bright lights of San Francisco, a sight that had been denied Americans for over three and half years because the city had been kept in darkness in It
case of an air or sea attack by the Japanese. During the early stages of the war,
shelled
some
West Coast had been over two hundred balloons
parts of the
from submarines. In 1944,
bombs had been floated over the western United States. Some started fires in the heavily forested Pacific coast of Washington State and Oregon. One explosion killed six peo-
carrying
259
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
260
woman
pie in Oregon, another killed a
in
ambitious plan to float balloons over our
Montana. The more cities
with canisters
of deadly biological agents to spread epidemics of virulent dis-
came
eases in our cities or destroy our livestock industry never
on prisoners
to fruition, although the testing of biological agents
of war had netted the Japanese valuable data. But
behind us on
We cially
all
that
was
this starry California night.
were almost home. All that remained was
to be offi-
processed back into the United States. Each airman and
was checked
airplane
in
and much of our equipment was taken
back into inventory. Emergency
rafts
from the
airplanes, side-
arms, and some weapons issued to the crews were logged in
and returned dred
men
civilian
to the supply depot.
hun-
life.
to Roswell,
there for the time being. Since
were given
we
We
fifteen
of the 509th, Roswell would be a brief stopover to
Dorothy had moved down
paid,
For most of the
forty-five
days of
all
rest
and we would
returning
and
settle
combat veterans
recreation, all expenses
decided to go home.
took a train from Albuquerque that was packed with
The good old days of having my own airplane were gone forever. But I must admit that what the train lacked in speed it made up for with a continuous rolling party. The celebrating aboard our club cars had its peaks and valleys, but it never stopped. The first leg was thirty-six hours to Kansas City, then on to Chicago for a four-hour wait to board the Twentieth-Century Limited to New York's Grand Central Station. In New York, we picked up a small commuter train to White Plains, where we stayed a couple of days with my old servicemen.
friend Bill Kelley.
The nation and Everything seemed structed.
When we
on an emotional
the military were possible; the future
arrived
home
there
was
bright
were hugs,
high.
and unob-
kisses,
hand-
WAR^S END
261
my
and solemn thank-yous from
shakes,
was was in
neighbors.
invited to speak to local civic groups and, because
I
I
uniform, paying for a meal or a drink proved to be a battle
always
lost.
my
For I
family, there
was
relief that I
hadn't really considered exactly
to be
I
home
how
had made
comforting
with the war over. For the past
through.
it
would be
it
five years,
my
first
war had been the core of my life. I had grown up, physically and emotionally, within the military in time of war. No matter what I had done for those five years, it all came back to my duties as a pilot in wartime. And, as any serviceman will attest, you never think years of adulthood, the military and the
you're going to be the one who's going to die.
always
It's
going to be the other guy. Yet there's always a part of your subconscious that says maybe you won't see your family again. In
my
mother's kitchen once more,
of home and family for the
first
I
could soak in the warmth
time in years, knowing
I
would
them again tomorrow. And in our future, Dorothy and I would have ten beautiful children, who would, at last count, see
give us twenty-one grandchildren.
The it
like?"
you
press started to call shortly after
didn't
"What were you and anxious
attentive,
view myself as a
thinking?"
to hear
celebrity or
my
even
"What was rock?" "Were
return.
''Was there a big bang?" ''Did the airplane
frightened?"
polite,
my
The
pearls of
much
were
reporters
wisdom.
I
I
had
my
job,
of a hero.
come home
in
like millions
of other veterans, to end the war. Because in 1945
one
the events of the
piece. I explained that I
war were seared
nation and the world, it
had been necessary
I
had done
into the consciousness of the
wasn't asked any questions about whether
to drop the atomic
bombs.
Overnight the 509th became the hottest unit in the military.
Every
officer
wanted assignment
to our group. It
was
the place
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
262
to be if
you were on a
month and
a half
I
military career fast track. In the short
had been gone, the
restaffed to operational levels. I
saw
strangers. Paul Tibbets
entire
Everywhere
I
group had been
looked
had been moved over
at
Roswell
as ''techni-
commanding general, Roger Ramey. The new group commander was Colonel Butch Blanchard, Curtis LeMay's operations officer in the Pacific. Blanchard was a West Pointer, as were most of the other officers filling in the new organizational chart. These were all career push guys. With the war over, the professional officer corps wanted their cal adviser" to the
military back, and, in particular, they
back I
in
wanted
this elite unit
normal channels.
was not a
had been
set
regular
army
because of
career guy.
my
during the war had been a fifteen million other
My path to the military
love of flying. call to duty,
as
And my it
service
had been
for
Americans.
Although we were training the new crews, the few of us remaining from the original 509th became the proverbial wheel.
Most of us were not
fifth
integrated into the operations of
the group at any level.
Toward
and
the end of January 1946, Paul Tibbets
I
were
extended an invitation by Curtiss- Wright, the manufacturer of the B-29 Cyclone engines, to be for a
its
guests in
New
week. The brass liked the idea of us doing a
York City little
public
new air force and sent us on our way east. The company put us up at the Waldorf Astoria, the most
relations for the
exclusive hotel in Manhattan.
We
were wined and dined
in the
Each night we attended private parties with the York's society and its arts community. At the very
lap of luxury. elite
of
New
posh Stork Club, we were routinely ushered into the private
Cub Room, where we mingled with
ultra-
the likes of Walter
Winchell; Sy Bartlett, a scriptwriter and producer for Twentieth
Century Fox; and the upper crust of society
like the
Rothschild
WAR'S END
263
had known Sy from Grand Island, where he served on General Frank Armstrong's staff. He would imfamily. Actually,
I
Armstrong
General
mortalize
with
his
screenplay
Twelve
O'clock High.
Months viser on an invited
me
when
I
was
in California as a technical ad-
MGM film about the Manhattan Project, Sy Bartlett to attend a party with
him
at the
Howard Hughes, Gary Cooper,
Shearer. ris,
later,
Fred Astaire,
Hume
home
of
Norma
Alice Faye, Phil Har-
Cronyn, Brian Donlevy, and Dana
Andrews were some of the stars there. I was partying with the very same movie stars I had idolized as a teenager. Sy introduced me around as the pilot who had dropped the atomic bomb. I was congratulated on the success of the mission and thanked for helping end the war. Orders were cut for
me
to report to Fort Dix,
to be processed for discharge the air force
promoted
moved from The
rest
get started.
me
to the
first
New
week of June
Jersey,
1946.
The
rank of lieutenant colonel as
I
active service into the Reserve Officers Corps.
of
my
life
lay ahead of me,
and
I
was anxious
to
**
The crowds were hangar was Force
Museum
the space.
of
my
lit,
cavernous display
Like any public place after hours, the Air
Dayton, Ohio, had an oddly empty
feeling,
people were there to view the displays and
and the chatter of adults and the
exhibits
aircraft
in
when
alive only
filled
silent.
gone and the dimly
I
tiny voices of children
walked slowly past the meticulously restored
youth: there a B-17, here a B-24, off to the side
They were all on display, every aircraft I had ever flown. Each one elicited a memory. I walked the length of the hangar and there it was, as shiny as the day it rolled off of the assembly line on March 19, a P-47.
1945
—almost
on a stand
was and
its
fifty
years ago to the day.
in front of
its
A simple plaque placed
nose explained what the Bock's Car
historic significance. In the
background, a display
described the development of the atomic bomb, offered a brief
video presentation of the battles in the Pacific, including the
kamikaze
attacks,
and exhibited repUcas of 264
Little
Boy and Fat
WAR'S END
A few
Man.
wished
to
were arranged about the space
seats
sit
moment and
a
265
reflect
upon
rusting
and disassembled
which had been
for decades in a
warehouse
suburban Maryland under the care of the Smithsonian tion,
this
who
the display. Unlike
the Bock's Car's sister airplane, the Enola Gay, left
for those
in
Institu-
magnificent airplane had sat in Dayton for thirty-
During that time, no hint of public
five years, fully restored.
controversy or apology about the plane or
its
mission was
sought from or given by the museum's curators. The exhibit
was
there to speak for itself through the artifacts
was not
I
there as a tourist, however,
on
on
display.
that cool
March
had come on a mission of a different sort. Jim Webb, the former secretary of the navy under President evening in 1995.
I
Ronald Reagan, had interviewed story that
was
to
Parade had asked
me
earlier in the
year for a
appear in Parade magazine. The editor of
me
to
go to the
museum
to
be photographed
standing alongside the Bock's Car hy their special correspondent
and
staff
photographer, Eddie Adams, for the cover of the mag-
The museum had graciously allowed us into the exhibit after hours and opened up the Bock's Car itself. The scene reminded me of my brief stay in Hollywood back azine.
in 1946 after the war.
Eddie and
his lighting assistant
rushed
around positioning lighting stands and cameras, making what
seemed
to
me
to
be imperceptible adjustments to get the perfect
photograph. After a series of shots of Bock's Car, Eddie asked if
I felt
up
me
standing beside the
to getting inside the cockpit.
I did.
Climbing up through the nosewheel hatch,
ward toward
the flight deck
the pilot's seat.
It
seemed
instrument panel, the array in front of me.
glow caused by the
and eased myself
familiar
throttles.
The
I
and
My
distant
crouched
for-
carefully into
—the yoke,
the
hands moved about the
interior of the cabin
had an
ethereal
exterior illumination of the high-intensity
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
266
camera to
my
around the Bock's
lights positioned left
Car. I
and, through the haze of the lights,
I
looked over could see a
restored Japanese Zero, a bright red ball
on a
emblazoned on
harmlessly within a
its
green fuselage,
sitting
cordoned-off display area. Time and place. That sight
would have caused
before
benign nostalgia It
struck
this seat
My
quite a different
of white
field
fifty
years
emotion than the
I felt.
me
at that
was August
moment
that the last time I'd sat in
1945.
9,
thoughts drifted back, not to the atomic missions but
to the wonderful
men
I
had served with and the memories of
happy and sorrowful, we had shared
The relentless march of time continued to thin out our ranks more effectively than had our former enemies. In this time and place I sought to help preserve the memory of those men and of the events we had lived through. For today, we veterans of World War II find ourselves confronted by a persistent and ideologically driven attempt to erode the truth of the war to distort America's motives, its role in the war, and the nature of the enemy we faced not unlike the erosion of the Enola Gay, sitting stored away and forgotten for all those years.
the times,
together.
—
—
Just as
modem-day
responsibility for
more important, American revisionist
And
still
what the Imperial Army did
and,
tions.
leaders in Japan
for the
consequences of
historians
refuse to accept fifty
its
years ago
actions
—some
downplay or ignore those
ac-
because they oppose President Truman's decision
to use the atomic
bombs
to
end the war, they
thousands of pages of
official records, diaries,
zines, searching for a
number
or a statement
sift
through
books, and maga-
upon which they
can base their argument that America's motives in using the
weapons were contemptible. During the commemoration of the the end of
World War
II,
the
fiftieth
anniversary of
mayors of Hiroshima and Naga-
.
WAR^S END saki reached
new
267
levels of perverse logic to perpetuate the
pose
of Japan as victim. They declared the atomic missions to be the equivalent of the Holocaust.
women, and
The Holocaust
—where ten million
them Jewish, were methodically rounded up and herded away in trains like cattle to warehouses of torture and death. Where perhaps the more fortunate of them were merely shot to death or forced innocent men,
children, six million of
to labor in tasks perpetuating the villainous scheme. All for
of
reasons
their
The
birth.
enormity
of
almost
is
it
incomprehensible
The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the victims of their own warlords, whose savagery and recalcitrance made their citizens the vortex of the final effort to force the
surrender.
leaders to
Truman warned of
President
pending destruction. The Japanese leaders chose to
—and
people stay If ever
to the
is
to be
made,
I
would say
mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
flourished not only in the
The
intent of the Axis
critical for
actions,
it is
no
let their
European
is
it
in response
that fascism
theater, but in the Pacific
similarity of behaviors, of actions, of evil
powers cannot be tempered or whitewashed
by relying on the world's
was
the im-
die.
a comparison
theater as well.
Japanese
Germany less
fear of nuclear power.
to face
up
to
And
just as
and apologize
for
its
important for Japan to do the same. Only
then can the world have some hope that history will not peat
it
re-
itself.
Some
people in Japan have tried to address the truth, under-
standing what
is
at stake.
Kenzaburo Oe, Japan's Nobel
winning
novelist, has written that for
in Asia,
it
must apologize
for
its
Japan
to
Prize-
be a true partner
aggression. "In the history of
our modernization in general but, in particular, in the war of aggression that
was
its
and have continued
peak,
we
lost the right to
be part of Asia
to live without recovering that right,"
Mr.
— Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
268
Oe
"Without that rehabihtation we
said.
never be able to
shall
eradicate the ambivalence in our attitude toward our neighbors,
the feeling that our relationships aren't real."
Yukio Shinozuka was the chief of the germ-cultivation office for the infamous Unit 731, the Imperial Japanese Army's experimentation and biological warfare group, which
human
conducted ghastly medical experiments on prisoners of war during
World War
II.
After serving over ten years in a Chinese
prison for his crimes, Mr. Shinozuka returned to Japan to speak
out publicly against what his unit had done during the war.
would not listen 'They only wanted to Hsten
''But Japanese at that time talk,"
he
said.
talked about being victims, about
haps most
chillingly,
generation, "I've
had been
kind of
who
to people
they suffered."
And
per-
Mr. Shinozuka observed of the present
come
across
many
medical students
good
the theory that Unit 731 did a there
how
my
to
He
thing."
who have
states that if
thoughtful reflection, this kind of
"sincere,
youthful revisionist thinking would not happen."
For myself,
remember
I
words of Sumio Shimodio, a
the
prominent Japanese businessman
and with
the 509th
ning he told
bomb
me
shelter in
bomb. He
whom
I
I
met
at the
1980 reunion of
began a long friendship. One eve-
had been twelve years old and in a Hiroshima the day we dropped the atomic that he
said he
had
just
come out and looked
when he saw one of the three ments. He ducked down just as
into the sky
parachutes carrying our instruthe
bomb went
off
and miracu-
was not injured. He said to me, "I love you Americans you wanted to end the war but that goddamned Tojo wanted lously
to
keep
My intent
it
going."
friend expressed
on ignoring
—
what many
that the
revisionist historians
bomb was an
seem
essential cause of
Japan's surrender. Prime Minister Suzuki stated immediately after the
war
that the atomic
bomb had
"enabled his military
WAR^S END Emperor Hirohito
colleagues to surrender honorably."
on September
27, 1945,
269
himself,
pronounced that "[t]he peace party did
not prevail until the bombing of Hiroshima created a situation that could be dramatized."
Both Suzuki and Hirohito under-
stood that only the shock of Hiroshima and Nagasaki blocked the military's well-documented intention to fight to the death.
There remains one question dent
Truman
for
Americans:
Why
did Presi-
order the dropping of the atomic bombs? David
McCullough, whose biography of Harry
S.
Truman
provides
exhaustive detail of the events surrounding President Truman's decision, offers the
most
you want an explanation 'Okinawa.'
was done
It
Revisionists
direct
as to
and
authoritative answer: "If
why Truman dropped
the
bomb:
to stop the killing."
may now
claim, without a shred of persuasive
Truman used
bombs to impress Joseph Stalin. Or to prove his manhood. Or because he was under the Svengali influence of Secretary of State Jimmy Bums, who controlled a weak and vacillating Harry Truman. Any hook except the fact that an invasion of mainland Japan would have meant hundreds of thousands of American dead evidence, that President
the atomic
—
and wounded.
summer of 1945, as the historian Stephen Ambrose succinctly observed, Truman confronted death or more death in the Pacific. As commander-in-chief, he, like his predecessor. In the
President Roosevelt, faced the bleak reality that less series
of dreadful choices.
condition of the
upon you,
It is
human body and
by
definition
spirit.
the ultimate goal of victory
disrupting, disorganizing,
The only
facts
war
an end-
an immoral
But once is
is
it
is
thrust
achieved only by
and destroying the enemy.
and numbers
that are relevant to a discussion
of Truman's decision, therefore, are those facts and numbers the president casualties at
him in July 1945. The staggering Iwo Jima and Okinawa were not projections, they had
in front of
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
270
were memorialized by rows of white crosses and hospital wards filled
with broken bodies. In each case, Japanese military forces
fought to the death, as they had done everywhere casualty ratio as the United States
one
drew
The Japan was
closer to
else.
to two.
Based upon these
realities,
Truman's military
White House meeting on June
18,
advisers, in a
1945, predicted that 30 to
35 percent of the 770,000-man invasion force could reasonably
be expected to be killed or wounded during just the days
of the
of Kyushu.
invasion
first
thirty
231,000 to
Translation:
269,000 dead or wounded Americans in the
first
thirty
days of
was estimated that it would take a hundred and twenty days to secure and occupy the entire island. By the end of that four-month period, American casualties could realisticombat.
It
around 395,000.
cally reach still
And
over one million of our troops
awaited the second prong of the invasion. In March 1946
wade ashore near Tokyo
they would
to take
These estimates assumed, of course, that cording to plan. Yet
Honshu. all
Okinawa had been expected
would go
ac-
to fall in
two
weeks; instead the battle had dragged into eighty-two days, and
even then
it
took several more weeks
after that to secure the
island.
As
to the Japanese willingness to surrender,
Truman was
also faced with the reality that America's relentless
of Japanese
cities
reducing those will of the
pounding
with thousands of tons of incendiary bombs,
cities to
burned-out rubble, had not broken the
Japanese to fight on. Also,
it
had been
from
clear
our intercepts of their secret military and diplomatic codes that a negotiated peace was acceptable to the Japanese only
would have keep the
left their
territory they
military in place
and allowed them
to
continued to occupy. They were playing
Time that meant another 900 Americans were or wounded each day. for time.
if it
killed
WAR^S END
271
what President Truman knew. Based upon that knowledge, his decision was not only justified by the circumThis
is
stances at the time but
was a moral imperative
that precluded
any other option. The president was honor-bound
weapon at his disposal to The goal of preventing
to use every
stop the carnage.
the use of nuclear weapons,
does not justify pseudohistory. Recognizing
noble,
and
that time
in that place
however
—
why
in
—the atomic bombs were dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
a
critical first step to
understand-
ing the important lessons of the history of the war.
By examin-
ing
what happened
guide
human
is
honestly,
we can
nature in the painstaking process of making
choices that define our conduct.
moral authority Traveling
myself ing,
sitting
about to
It is
from
this process that true
to be found.
is
down that road of painstaking process, I found in room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Build-
testify
before the Committee on Rules and
on Thursday,
istration
learn the principles that
'The Smithsonian
May
Admin-
The hearings were titled Management Guidelines for
11, 1995.
Institution:
the Future."
The chairman. Senator Ted
opened the pro-
Stevens,
ceedings:
We
are here today because the Smithsonian decided to present
interpretation of the history of the Enola Gay's historic flight.
veterans in this country reacted strongly, for
good reason,
scripts that
emerged from the Smithsonian. In the
World War
II
fifty
an
The
to the
years since
ended, and recently, there has been a constant erosion
of the truth of what really happened during that war. This type of erosion built
is
one of the reasons that the Holocaust Museum, that was
with private funds,
atrocities
camps
is
so important.
It
is
to ensure that the
committed against Jews and others in the Nazi death
will never
be forgotten.
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney
272
Our that
witness
first
we have asked
minutes
.
.
We
.
General Sweeney.
General Charles Sweeney
is
.
.
.
Let
me
state
are going to waive the time limit, however, for
We
wish that the public .
.
witnesses to limit their oral presentations to ten
feel that his role is so historic in this matter,
and both Senator Ford and
has written.
.
I
at large
have read the statement ...
I
would
could hear every word of what he
**
Testimony of Major General Charles (Ret.) delivered before the
W.
Sweeney, U.S.A.F.
United States Senate Committee on
—hearings on the Smithsonian
Rules and Administration tution:
I
Management Guidelines
am Major
W.
General Charles
Force, Retired.
atomic missions.
am
I I
for the Future,
May
Insti-
11, 1995.
Sweeney, United States Air
on both right wing
the only pilot to have flown
flew the instrument plane
on
the
of General Paul Tibbets on the Hiroshima mission and three
days
later,
on August
1945,
9,
commanded
the second atomic
mission over Nagasaki. Six days after Nagasaki the Japanese military surrendered
The
and the second world war came
soul of a nation
collective
—
memory which
and believes about
itself
its
essence
defines
and
its
—
is its
who we
are
history. It
an end. is
that
what each generation thinks
country.
In a free society, such as ours, there debate about
to
is
always an ongoing
and what we stand 273
for.
This open
Appendix
274
debate
debate
is,
in fact, essential to our freedom.
we
But to have such a
must have the courage
as a society
We
of the facts available to us.
to consider all
must have the courage
to stand
up and demand that before any conclusions are reached, those facts which are beyond question are accepted as part of the debate.
As
the fiftieth anniversary of the Hiroshima
now
missions approaches,
and Nagasaki
an appropriate time
is
to consider
the reasons for Harry Truman's order that these missions be
We may
flown.
on the conclusion, but let us at agree on basic facts of the time the
disagree
be honest enough to
—
least facts
Truman had to consider in making a difficult and momentous decision. As the only pilot to have flown both missions, and having commanded the Nagasaki mission, I bring to this debate my
that President
own
eyewitness account of the times.
with
lieve are irrefutable facts,
may
ion makers
full
cavalierly dismiss
obvious —^because they
I
underscore what
I
be-
knowledge that some opin-
them because they
are so
with their preconceived version
interfere
of the truth and the meaning which they strive to impose on the missions.
This morning,
I
want
to offer
and conclusions as someone who believes that President
my
thoughts, observations,
lived this history
Truman's decision was not only
by the circumstances of
his time but
was a moral imperative
Like the overwhelming majority of
We
I
wanted was a war.
are not hell-bent
There
is
no samurai This
is
on
no warrior
no master
justified
any other option.
that precluded
thing
and who
.
.
We
my
generation, the last
as a nation are not warriors.
glory. class
.
.
.
.
race.
true today,
and
it
was
true fifty years ago.
WAR^S END
275
While our country was struggling through the Great Depression, the Japanese
neighbors
—the
were embarking on the conquest of their
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
It
seems fascism always seeks some innocuous slogan to cover
most hideous
the
plans.
This co-prosperity was achieved by waging total and merci-
war
less
itself as
against
China and Manchuria. Japan,
as a nation,
destined to rule Asia and thereby possess
its
saw
natural
resources and open lands. Without the slightest remorse or hesi-
Japanese army slaughtered innocent men, women,
tation, the
and
infamous Rape of Nanking, up to three
children. In the
hundred thousand unarmed were criminal These are
civilians
acts. facts.
In order to
fulfill
its
divine destiny in Asia, Japan deter-
mined
that the only real
United
States. It
impediment
ing,
was intended
USS if
Arizona,
not
all,
to deal
maximum
Hundreds of
was the
Timed for a Sunday morna death blow to the fleet by in-
Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.
flicting the
to this goal
launched a carefully conceived sneak attack
on our it
were butchered. These
loss of ships
sailors are
which
sits
still
and human
entombed
life.
in the hull of the
on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Many
died without ever knowing why. Thus was the
war
upon us. The fall of Corregidor and the resulting treatment of Allied prisoners of war dispelled any remaining doubt about the inhuthrust
maneness of the Japanese army, even
in the context of war.
The Bataan Death March was horror in its fullest dimension. The Japanese considered surrender to be dishonorable to oneself, one's family, one's country, and one's god. They showed no mercy. Seven thousand American and Filipino POWs were beaten, shot, bayonetted, or
These are
facts.
left
to die of disease or exhaustion.
Appendix
276
As march
the United States
made
its
how And
costly
across the vast expanse of the Pacific, the Japanese
proved to be a ruthless and intractable matter
and
slow, arduous,
how
fijtile,
killing
machine.
No
no matter how hopeless the odds, no matter
certain the outcome, the Japanese fought to the death. to achieve a greater glory, they strove to kill as
Americans as
The
possible.
closer the United States
land, the
many
more
came
fanatical their actions
to the Japanese
main-
became.
Saipan: 3,000 Americans killed, 1,500 in the
few hours
first
of the invasion.
Iwo Jima: 6,000 Americans Okinawa: 12,000 Americans These are
facts reported
Kamikazes. The
literal
killed,
21,000 wounded.
killed, total
wounded
38,000.
by simple white grave markers. translation
willingly dive a plane loaded with
''divine
is
bombs
into
wind." To
an American
—
was a glorious transformation to godliness there was no higher honor on heaven or earth. At Okinawa the suicidal asship
saults of the
men
kamikazes took 5,000 American navy
to
their deaths.
The Japanese, through word and deed, made clear that, with the first American to step foot on the mainland, they would execute every Allied prisoner. In preparation they forced the
POWs
tions.
can
to dig their
Even
own
graves in the event of mass execu-
after their surrender, they
executed some Ameri-
POWs. These are
facts.
The Potsdam Declaration had called for unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces. The Japanese termed it ridiculous
and not worthy of consideration.
intercepts of their
fi"om our
coded messages that they wanted
for time to force a negotiated surrender to them.
We know
to stall
on terms acceptable
WAR^S END For months prior
August
to
6,
277
American
aircraft
began
dropping firebombs upon the Japanese mainland. The wind created by the firestorms from the
bombs
Hundreds of thousands of Japanese
cities.
vowed never
incinerated whole
died. Still the Japa-
They were prepared to sacrifice their own people to achieve their visions of glory and honor no matter how many more people died. They refused to evacuate civilians even though our pilots nese military
to surrender.
—
dropped
leaflets
warning of the possible bombings. In one
ten-
day period, thirty-two square miles of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe,
and Osaka were reduced These are
facts.
And
after the
even
to rubble.
bombing of Hiroshima, Tojo,
his succes-
Suzuki, and the military clique in control believed the
sor,
United States had but one bomb, and that Japan could go on.
They had
three days to surrender after
August
6,
but they did
not surrender. The debate in their cabinet at times became violent.
Only
mand
And
surrender.
and should
and
fight on.
tried to seize
to his people
These are These
Nagasaki drop did the emperor
after the
finally de-
even then, the military argued they could
A
group of army
officers staged a
coup
and destroy the emperor's recorded message
announcing the surrender. facts.
facts help illuminate the nature
of the
enemy we
faced.
They help put
into context the process
considered the options available to him.
by which Truman
And
they help to add
why the missions were necessary. President Truman understood these facts, as
meaning
to
did every ser-
viceman and servicewoman. Casualties were not some tion but a sobering reality.
Did Yes
the atomic missions end the war? .
.
.
they
.
.
.
did.
abstrac-
Appendix
278
Were
they necessary?
Well, that's where the rub comes.
With
the fog of
country, to
was
some
fifty
years drifting over the
the Japanese are
now
memory
the victims.
of our
America and
the insatiable, vindictive aggressor seeking revenge
Our use of
conquest.
immoral rors.
Of
these
weapons was
starting point for the nuclear age,
with
all
course, to support such distortion, one
niently ignore the real facts or fabricate theories. This
is
no
new
egregious than those
less
and
the unjustified
of
its
hor-
must conve-
realities to
who
fit
the
today deny
the Holocaust occurred.
How
could
this
have happened?
The answer may The
lie
in
examining some recent events.
current debate about
these missions, in
The Smithsonian,
some in
its
why
cases, has
President
Truman ordered
devolved to a numbers game.
proposed exhibit of the Enola Gay,
re-
vealed the creeping revisionism which seems the rage in certain historical circles.
That exhibit wanted anese were the victims
to
memorialize the
—we the
fiction that the Jap-
evil aggressors.
your children and grandchildren to
Imagine taking
this exhibit.
What message would they have left with? What truth would they retain? What would they think their country stood for? And all of this would have occurred in an American institution whose very name and charter are supposed to stand for the impartial preservation of significant
By
American
artifacts.
canceling the proposed exhibit and simply displaying the
Enola Gay, has truth
Maybe
won
out?
not.
In one nationally televised discussion,
I
heard a so-called
prominent historian argue that the bombs were not necessary.
WAR'S END
279
That President Truman was intent on intimidating the Russians.
That the Japanese were ready
The Japanese were ready
Some
to surrender.
to surrender?
Based on what?
point to statements by General Eisenhower that
Japan was about sary. Well,
to fall
and that use of the bomb was unneces-
based on that same outlook, Eisenhower seriously
underestimated Germany's will to fight on and concluded in
December 1944 wage sult
That was a
offensive war.
was
Germany no
that
the Battle of the Bulge,
longer had the capability to
tragic miscalculation.
which
The
re-
resulted in tens of thou-
sands of needless Allied casualties and potentially allowed
Germany
to prolong the
Eisenhower the
later
war and
force negotiations.
candidly admitted about his comments on
bomb, ''My views were merely personal and an immediate
reaction; they
were not based upon any analysis of the subject."
Thus the assessment
that
Japan was vanquished
may have
the
benefit of hindsight rather than foresight. It is
certainly fair to conclude that the Japanese could
have
been reasonably expected to be even more fanatical than the
Germans, based on the history of the war
And,
finally,
pouses that even
in the Pacific.
a present-day theory making the rounds esif
an invasion had taken place, our casualties
would not have been a cally only forty-six
million, as
many
believed, but realisti-
thousand dead.
Only forty-six thousand!
Can you imagine
the callousness of this line of argument?
Only forty-six thousand
number of American
—as
if this
were some
lives.
Perhaps these so-called historians want to
Perhaps they really believe
Or perhaps fact that
it
we won
insignificant
reflects
some
the war.
sell
books.
it.
self-loathing occasioned
by the
——
— Appendix
280
Whatever the reason, the argument
is
flawed.
—grasping
me
admit right here, today, that
many more Americans would have neither does
What
anyone
dissects
and
at selective straws.
recalculates events ideologically
Let
It
I
know how
don't
died in an invasion
and
else!
do know
on the Japanese conduct during the war, it is fair and reasonable to assume that an invasion of the mainland would have been a prolonged and bloody affair. Based on what we know not what someone I
is
that based
—
surmises
—the
Japanese were not about to unconditionally
surrender.
In taking in
the
—a tiny eight-square-mile lump of rock thousand marines died—
Iwo Jima
ocean,
total
six
casualties
around 27,000.
who now know
But even assuming that those
would have been
only forty-six thousand
Which forty-six thousand were Whose father? Whose brother? Whose husband? And,
yes, I
am
I
our casualties
ask
to die?
focusing on American
lives.
The Japanese had their fate in their own hands. We did not. Hundreds of thousands of American troops anxiously waited at staging areas in the Pacific dreading the coming invasion their fate resting on what the Japanese would do next. The Japanese could have ended
And
it
at
any time. They chose
while the Japanese
more Americans were
stalled,
killed or
to wait.
an average of nine hundred
wounded each day
the
war
continued. I've
heard another line of argument that
we
should have
accepted a negotiated peace with the Japanese on terms they
would have found gest that
we
acceptable.
I
have never heard anyone sug-
should have negotiated a peace with Nazi Ger-
WAR^S END many. Such an idea
so outrageous that no rational
is
being would utter the words.
cism was to allow This
time
is
—
281
To
human
negotiate with such evil fas-
even in defeat, a measure of legitimacy.
it,
not just some empty philosophical principle of the
was
it
essential that these forces of evil be clearly
and
irrevocably defeated, their demise unequivocal. Their leadership
had it,
forfeited
any expectation of diplomatic
then, that the history of the
war
niceties.
How
is
can be so
in the Pacific
soon forgotten?
The reason may
—of our
tory
lie
collective
in the
advancing erosion of our
his-
memory.
Fifty years after their defeat,
Japanese
officials
have the
temerity to claim they were the victims. That Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were the equivalent of the Holocaust.
And, believe academics
who
some American analogy, thus aiding and giving
or not, there are actually
it
support this
comfort to a fifty-year attempt by the Japanese to rewrite their
own
—and ours
history
There
is
an
in the process.
entire generation of Japanese
who do
not
know
World War II. why they do not comprehend why they
the full extent of their country's conduct during
This explains
must apologize
.
.
.
For the Korean comfort women. For the medical experimentation on the horror of those conducted
For the plans States
by
to use biological
weapons against
infecting civilian populations
for
which match
by the Nazis.
For the methodical slaughter of
And
POWs
on
the
West
the United
Coast.
civilians.
much more ...
In a perverse inversion, by forgetting our
own
history
we
contribute to the Japanese amnesia, to the detriment of both
our nations. Unlike Germany, which acknowledged
its guilt,
Japan per-
— Appendix
282
the fiction that
sists in
did nothing wrong, that
it
by circumstances. This only that the deep
wounds
forecloses
suffered
was trapped
it
any genuine prospect
by both nations can be closed
and healed.
One can only
by remembering. And
forgive
to forget
to
is
risk repeating history.
The Japanese,
in a well-orchestrated political
relations campaign,
Day" be
**V-J
Day."
Pacific
have
now
proposed that the use of the term
more benign "Victory
replaced by the
How
and public in the
convenient.
This, they claim, will
make
the
commemoration of the end
of the war in the Pacific less "Japan-specific."
Some might Japan
.
.
so what's in a word? Victory over
argue,
Victory in the Pacific
.
.
.
.
Let's celebrate
an event,
not a victory. I
say everything
is
in a
word.
Celebrate an event!
Kind of
like celebrating the
end of a war that engulfed the
rather than the
which
left
opening of a shopping mall
countless millions dead
physically or mentally
entire earth
and countless millions more
wounded and
countless
more
millions
displaced.
This assault on the use of language
is
Orwellian and
is
the
by which history and memory are blurred. Words can be
tool
just as destructive as
Up
is
any weapon.
down.
Slavery
is
freedom.
Aggression
is
peace.
on our language and history by the elimination of accurate and descriptive words is far more In
some ways
this assault
insidious than the actual aggression carried out fifty
years ago.
well defined.
At
least
by the Japanese
—the enemy
then the threat was clear
— WAR'S END Today
283
the Japanese justify their conduct
—they were not engaged of aggression. No— Japan was simply
by
artfully playing
in a criminal enterprise
the race card
liberating the oppressed
masses of Asia from white imperialism. Liberation! Yes, they liberated over
twenty million innocent
Asians by killing them. I'm sure those twenty million, their families, effort
for
and the generations never
of the Japanese.
vengeance
I
am
to be, appreciate the noble
often asked
—as was suggested by one
ian exhibit. That
we
was the bomb dropped draft of the
Smithson-
sought to destroy an ancient and honor-
able culture.
Here are some more inconvenient One.
On
the original target
Kyoto was included. Although mate
target,
list
facts:
for the
atomic missions,
would have been a
this
legiti-
one that had not been bombed previously, Secre-
Henry Stimson removed it from the list because ancient capital of Japan and was also the religious
tary of State it
was
the
center of Japanese culture.
Two.
We were under strict orders
no circumstances were we
to ever
bomb
—even though we could have
Tokyo
bly killed the emperor. So if
much
At
bomb
this point let
that our targets
the
me
White House ...
had
initial
it
it
and
possi-
wonder had had the
often
think not.
civilian populations.
significant military
responsible for the defense of
and
I
I
it
one of many longstanding myths
dispel
Hiroshima was the headquarters
sion,
easily leveled
restraint if
were intended to be
target for the missions
the Imperial Palace in
for vengeance.
Japan would have shown such
opportunity to
during the war that under
importance
for the southern
Honshu
command,
in the event of
garrisoned seasoned troops
Each
an inva-
who would mount
the
defense.
Nagasaki was an industrial center with the two large Mitsubishi
armaments
factories. In
both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Appendix
284 the Japanese
had integrated these
and troops
industries
right in
the heart of each city.
As stakes I
at
any war, our goal was
in
—
as
it
should be
—
to win.
The
who
died
were too high to equivocate.
am
often asked
if I
ever think of the Japanese
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I
do not
revel in the idea that so
many on both
sides died,
not only at those two places but around the world, in that horrible conflict.
take
I
no pride or pleasure
my
war, whether suffered by
Every
life is
But
people or those of another nation.
precious.
does seem to
it
me
such a question
ately directed to the Japanese warlords
up
in the brutality of
who
is
more
so willingly offered
their people to achieve their visions of greatness.
started the
appropri-
war and then stubbornly refused
to stop
They who it must be
Don't they have the ultimate responsibility
called to account.
for all the deaths of their
countrymen?
came to grips with their past and their true part in the war they would hold those Japanese military leaders accountable. The Japanese people deserve an anPerhaps
if
the Japanese
swer from those
who
brought such misery to the nations of the
Far East and ultimately to can never happen
away
we
own
people.
Of
course, this
collaborate with the Japanese in wiping
the truth.
How bors,
if
their
can Japan ever reconcile with
and the United
States if
it
itself,
does do not
its
Asian neigh-
demand and
accept
the truth?
My
crew and
I
flew these missions with the belief that they
would bring the war to an end. There was no sense of joy. There was a sense of duty and commitment that we wanted to get back to our families and loved ones. Today millions of people in America and in Southeast Asia are alive because the
war ended when
it
did.
— WAR^S END I
285
do not stand here celebrating the use of nuclear weapons.
Quite the contrary. I
hope
We
my
that
as
mission
is
the last such mission ever flown.
a nation should abhor the existence of nuclear
weapons. I
certainly do.
But that does not then mean
that,
back
in
August of 1945,
given the events of the war and the recalcitrance of our enemy, President
Truman was not
his disposal to
obliged to use
all
the
weapons
at
end the war.
Truman then, and I still do today. Years after the war, Truman was asked if he had any second thoughts. He said emphatically no. He then asked the questioner to remember the men who died at Pearl Harbor who I
agreed with Harry
—
did not have the benefit of second thoughts.
As Robert E. Lee said, "It is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it." I thank God that it was we who had this weapon and not the Japanese or the Germans. The science was there. EventuIn war, the stakes are high.
someone would have developed
ally
—
way
this
weapon. Science can
The question of whether it was wise to develop such a weapon would have eventually been overcome by the fact that it could be done. The Soviets would have certainly proceeded to develop their own bomb let us not forget that Joseph Stalin was no less evil than Tojo or his former ally, Adolf Hitler. At last count, Stalin committed genocide on at least twenty million of his
never be denied
own
it
finds a
to self-fulfillment.
citizens.
The world
is
a better place because
German and Japanese
fascism failed to conquer the world.
Japan and Germany are better places because
we were
be-
nevolent in our victory.
The youth of Japan and
the United States, spared from
— Appendix
286
went on
further needless slaughter,
and grow
As one,
I
when I
can
families i
am
state that I
and the grandfather of twenty-
certainly grateful that the
war ended
!
j
did.
do not speak
my
that
and have
old.
the father of ten children
it
to live
for all veterans of that war.
sense of pride in having served
great conflict
is
shared by
all
my
veterans. This
But
I
believe
country in that j
is
why
the truth j
about that war must be preserved. ing violets.
Our
sensibilities will
and controversial debate. But we
We
We
can handle ourselves.
—allow armchair second-guess-
we cannot
will not
frame the debate by hiding
public
and the world.
have great
American people
facts
from the American
!
i
good sense and fairness of the consider all of the facts and make an in-
faith in the
to
\
not be shattered in intelligent
ers to
I
veterans are not shrink-
i
j
formed judgment about the war's end. This essence,
is
an important debate. The soul of our nation
its
history
—
is
at stake.
—
\
its
\
i
**
Agnew, Harold,
160, 165
Alamogordo, Trinity
test,
3^,
B-29s "Superfortress": bomb hooks, 89, 91-92, 112 features of, 43^i4, 54, 96
152,
153, 190
Alberta, Projea, 95-97, 137 scientists of, 160,
gunnery
165
Manhattan Project Albury, Don, 52, 247 as copilot, 164^71, 207-26 on Tinean, 159, 194, 202 at Wendover, 82, 107, 110 See also
Alvarez, Luis, 160, 165, 193
Anami, Korechika, 242 in war faction, 233, 236-37 Armstrong, Frank, 68-69 103-04 Arnold, "Hap", 63, 120-21 Ashworth, Fred, 201, 209-10, 216-17, 232, 234
at Eglin, 34,
Battle of the Bulge, 65-66, 118-19
Beahan, Kermit, 107, 111-12 on missions, 165-71, 213-19
on Tinian, 140, 159, 194 Bock, Fred, 140, 193, 197, 199 264-66 on Tinian, 1-2, 193, 194 See also Nagasaki mission
Bock's Car,
Britain, 9, 15, 25-26, 37
Buscher, Joseph, 150, 154 Casualties, U.S.: in Europe, 43, 59, 66, 83
in Europe, 5, 121
at
226
named B-29s Barnes, PhHip, 201, 209-10 See also
52
features of, 43, 56,
43^4, 57-59
reversible prop, 103,
as general, 64, 65,
B-17s "flying fortress":
tests,
redesigned, 100-04, 126
in Pacific, 94, 99-100, 123-24,
64
Wendover, 99
167, 235,
B-29s, problems with, 78-79 in flight, 54, 61-63, 84
270
Cheshire, Leonard, 181 as observer, 152, 196, 212
Classen,
287
Tom,
87, 130, 140, 150-51
Index
288
Hirohito, Emperor, 141, 144
Dehart, Pappy, 164
on
and
missions, 169, 170, 214
cabinet, 233,
236-37
See also Japan
Hiroshima mission, 146
Eatherlyl, Claude:
legend
on missions,
147, 167-68
as pilot, 107, 112-13
Eighth Air Force, 5, Einstein, Albert, 83
on arms
6,
148,
234
Indianapolis, I
1
44 4 5
wo
Jima, 123-24 captured, 99-100, 123, 167
Hiroshima mission
Farrell, General, 170, 208, 231,
234 Fat Man, 1-3, 192 described, 190-92, 200 power of, 3-4, 105, 190 See also Nuclear
Tom,
weapons
107, 115, 140, 232,
234, 247 Firebombing:
of
on mission, 208, 211-13 on Tinian, 150-51, 198-99
race, 55, 89, 161
on Tinian,
Ferebee,
Hopkins, James:
104, 227
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 69, 99, 118 Enola Gay, 164, 168, 265 See also
nuclear drop, 4, 91, 163-71 scientists aboard, 96, 147
112-13, 143-^4
of,
cities,
effect of,
148^9,
158, 179 121-22, 131-32
196 on TiSquadron, Ordnance First nian, 128-29, 137
Japan, 187-88 cabinet, 232-33, 241^2 plaimed invasion of, 4-5, 76, 121, 124, 241 surrender of, 237-39, 242-46, 247, 269 See also Firebombing
Johnston, Lawrence, 160, 165
Konopacki, Hubert, 87, 118 Kuharek, John: on mission, 164, 165, 202 in nucleus, 82, 107, 111
strike force, 80, 152,
509th Composite Group: activation of, 94, 103 navigation skills, 99, 119 nucleus, 82, 107-08, 110-14
on Tinian, 135^0, 152 France,
9,
15, 65,
99
LeMay,
Curtis,
command
of,
772^
240
Lewis, Bob, 41-42, 52 at
Wendover,
107, 113-14
Lindbergh, Charles, 63-64 Little Boy, 6-7, 157, 197 as uranium bomb, 4, 90-91
Los Alamos,
89 99 collapse of, 65, surrender of, 133, 238 Wehrmacht, 15, 118-19
120, 172,
See also Firebombing
See also Fat
Germany: in arms
75-80
Man 90, 98, 105
race, 55,
Great Artiste, 111, 126
on missions, 163-71, 203-26 on Tinean, 159, 193, 202 Groves, Leslie, 133, 239 Guam, 12, 94, 122, 136
MacArthur, Douglas, 32, 247 and airmen, 68-69, 120-21 Manhattan Project, 55, 128 target selection, 148 at
Wendover,
86,
128-29
See also Alberta, Project
Marquart, George, 130, 147, 157-58, 166, 170, 201
WAR^S END Marshall, George, 19, 239 McCauley, Charlie, 9-11, 14-16
McClanahan, Captain, 82-86 McKnight, Charles, 147, 201
289
Spaatz, Carl, 146, 172-73, 239, 247 Sweeney, Charles W.:
pre-mihtary, 8-15 at Jefferson,
Nagasaki mission, 203-26 purpose of, 4, 176 scientists on, 160,
165
detonation system, 6, 138 fuses, 96-97, 127, 140-41, 191, 193
Nuclear weapons:
at
95-96 drop protocol, 96, 105-06, 148
Boy
Oe, Kenzaburo, 267-68 Okinawa, 123-24 mission landing, 224-29 Parsons, "Deak":
promotions, 32, 68-69, 130, 263 testimony of, 273-86 visit to Nagasaki, 254-58
Sweeney, Dorothy at
260
320th Transport squadron: command of, 88, 117, 130 393rd bomber squadron: command of, 87-88, 130 navigation skills, 99 at Wendover, 93, 101-02 at Eglin, at
Pearl Harbor, 26, 203
Island, 65, 68, 70,
Wendover, 84-86, 100-08, 113-14, 117-20, 130-32 on Tinian, 140-42, 146-55, 172-74, 196-97, 230-31 on missions, 163-71, 204-05 Tinian Island, 99, 136 as airbase, 1-7, 122, 133 Truman, Harry S., 134 invasion plans, 125, 143 and nuclear weapons, 178, at
Penney, William, 152, 196 Philippines, 27, 32, 142
Potsdam Declaration,
Grand
40-61
74-75
Payette, Hazen, 150, 153, 154
142, 144, 158,
238-39 Prisoners of war, 94-95,
142^3,
158-59, 244 160, 193, 231
Roosevelt, Franklin D.: in Depression, 8, 134
and
(wife),
Grand Island, 66-68 Wendover, 108-10, 135
Tibbits, Paul:
on mission, 157, 166, 170 on Tinian, 153-54, 234
Ramsey, Norman,
70
Grand Island, 65-80 Wendover, 81-112, 129
on missions, 163-71, 203-26
in
ballistics tests, 89,
See also Little
at Eglin, 33-64,
at
Nuclear weapon components: assembly of, 128-29, 137
17-27 29-33
flight training,
Einstein, 55, 89, 161
Saipan, 94, 99, 122, 136 Security:
on Tinian, 137-38, 152, 159 at Wendover, 82-86, 93, 97-99, 129, 130, 131 Silverplate, 86, 95
authority of, 87, 103 See also Security
244^5, 269-71 Twelve O'Clock High, 64
Twentieth Air Force, 76-77, 78, 239 See also
United
XXI Bomber Command
States,
88-89
on invasion of Japan, 4-5, 124, 143, 241
message decoding, 125 See also Casualties, U.S.
76,
Index
290
Van de Graaf Field, 17-23, Van Kirk, Dutch, 107. 194, 247
Van
Pelt,
Jim, 203
in nucleus, 107, 111
on Tinian,
25 234,
at Jefferson, 28-29, 32,
Wendover
114-16, 119, 127 Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots
(WASPs), 60-63
140, 159, 165
XXI Bomber Command,
War
33
Field, test drops, 95-96,
Department, 146, 148 Waugh, John, Major, 40 at Grand Island, 68
137, 172,
240
Zeros, 100, 102, 154, 216
120-21,
V SWEENEY Bntered the military service on April 28.
CHAi?!};;: 194!.
3^
selBti'ir-i
part
;jv
Major,
Army
e:",
-.
;•
i.ie
ain
Air Corps Aviation Cadet. all
he was
1944,
aircrews assigned to Project Silverplate.
Manhattan
he became
In
Project. In
Commander
Squadron and, three months
May
1945, with the rank of
of the
393rd Bombardment
later, flew
the revolutionary
B-29, carrying the scientific instruments on the
atomic
first
mission to Hiroshima. Three days after that, on August
9,
Sweeney piloted the B-29 that dropped the sec-
1945, Maj.
ond atomic bomb on Nagasaki, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. He retired from the military with the rank of Major General. He lives
JAMES
ANTDNUCCI
A.
DiGiammarino Asst.
—
a
is
in
May I97B
in
Milton, MA.
partner at Antonucci and
a
Boston-area law firm
District Attorney for Suffolk
President of Kinsale, Enterprises.
—
and
a
is
former
County, MA. He
the
is
Inc.— a company
that
represents celebrities, writers, artists and professional
athletes— as
well
as a fine art publisher, video producer
and developer of manuscripts.
MARIDN
K.
ANTDNUCCI
received
her
Northeastern University School of Law
in
JD
from
the
A former
1991.
schoolteacher and speechwriter for Massachusetts Governor Michael
S.
Dukakis, Ms. Antonucci also served as Assistant
to Boston University President ly
in
practicing law
in
John
R. Silber.
She
Boston. She and her husband
is
present-
James
live
Marblehead. MA.
Jacket design by
Amy
Halperin
Jacket photo of the atomic explosion over Nagasaki courtesy of Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney: inset photo of then Major
on Tinian. August
10.
Sweeney
1945. courtesy of Kinsale Enterprises, Inc.. Maiden.
#1 Avon Books ^350 Avenue of the Americas
MA
—
Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, U.S.A.F. (Ret.)
AdvancBil Praise lor WAR'S [ND read War's Endm\\\ fascination, hardly able to put
"I
it
down.
It is
a gripping account
of one of history's greatest events by the only person present at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Sweeney
is
was very much on
but which the
bombs?
straight forward and convincing
I
in
answering a question no one asked
people's minds a half-century later:
Was
it
it is
of a unique mission,
book
not
is
Gen. Sweeney's narrative of the planning, training and execution
one fraught with danger and
Recommended without
"An exciting \B\B...War's
f/7[/
full
of suspense, that stands out.
reservation.
provides compelling evidence of
why
the
use of atomic weapons actually shortened the war and saved thousands of Every American
1945
necessary to use
entirely agree with his conclusions. But the best part of this splendid
analysis or argument;
in
who harbors
guilt
about our use of atomic bombs
lives.
will find
peace of mind after reading Gen. Sweeney's gripping story.
"There life
is
no arguing with this sober, compelling story. But this
of the
men and women who
compassion that
it
fought World
War
II.
is
also an account of the daily
written with such detail, sweep and
might have been a novel and not an autobiography. Charles Sweeney
is
the
best kind of warrior, motivated by real patriotism. For setting straight a difficult record, his
book
is
invaluable. For
commemorating
a generation of heroes, his
ISBN 0-380-97349-9
52500
9 '780380"973491
book
is
unforgettable.