Our inside view of Bockscar , the B Superfortress that dropped the second atomic weapon used in wartime, got me reading about the Nagasaki bombing of August 9, , which helped put an end to World War II after six long years of bloodshed. The story of the Hiroshima bombing, just three days earlier, is better known. The Enola Gay and its pilot, Paul Tibbets who commanded the th Composite Group responsible for nuclear missions , have become familiar names to the public over the years.
There was no fighter escort, so as not to draw attention. They decided to go anyway. The mood of the second A-bomb flight was far different from the first, recalled Jacob Beser, the only man to fly in the strike plane for both missions.
Their original target was Kokura. The crew was under orders to drop their bomb only after visually sighting the target, but chose to come in over Nagasaki using radar, as the city was covered with clouds.
Finally, a hole broke in the clouds, and bombardier Capt. Kermit Beahan had about half a minute to get a visual sighting before releasing the bomb. The airplane lurched as the bomb was released, and Sweeney put it into a tight turn to the left to give us some distance from the explosion. In about 45 seconds there was the now familiar bright flash, and the rapidly ascending mushroom cloud.
Once again, by the time I got to the window, the city was gone. I stood up and looked straight down. What I saw was the cloud underneath us. There was none of the euphoria that was evident after the drop at Hiroshima.
