Bockscar Crew B-29 Nagasaki Mission

The crew of the Bockscar.

Front row: Buckley, Kuharek, Gallagher, Dehart, Spitzer.

 Back row: Beahan, Van Pelt, Jr., Albury, Olivi, Sweeney.

On Thursday, August 9 1945 a second atomic bomb, this one nicknamed “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. The B-29 that delivered this, the final blow to the Japanese, was known as Bockscar.

Bockscar was part of the same squadron as the Enola Gay, the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the 509th Composite Group (USAAF). It was named after its commander Captain Frederick C. Bock who, along with his crew C-13, participated in several bombing runs on Japan prior to the events that occurred in early August, 1945.Originally, The Great Artiste commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney was the plane scheduled to drop the second atomic bomb. Sweeney and his crew C-15 had previously flown The Great Artiste with the Enola Gay on her flight to Hiroshima on August 6, carrying instrumentation to record and support the mission. Upon their return Sweeney and his crew began to prepare for their turn. The next mission was planned for August 11 but due to a poor weather forecast, the commanders decided to move the attack up by two days, setting a new date of August 9. Sweeney and his crew had been doing training runs in Captain Bock’s plane Bockscar while The Great Artiste was to have its instruments removed and installed in another plane. However, when the mission date moved forward, it did not give the ground crews enough time to do the transfer, so it was decided that Sweeney and Bock would switch planes. Hence, Bock and his crew flew The Great Artiste in a support role on the mission and Sweeney and his crew, aboard Bockscar, became the primary unit to drop the second atomic bomb on Japan.
The primary target for the August 9 bombing mission was the industrial city of Kokura. However, when the Bockscar arrived over the city with Fat Man ready to be deployed, the crew found that visibility over the city was obscured by clouds and smog. Sweeney’s orders were specific in that the atomic bomb had to be dropped visually on the target. Failing to spot their target after passing over Kokura three times, Sweeney decided to proceed to the secondary target of Nagasaki. At 11:02am, Fat Man, the atomic bomb with 14.1 lbs of plutonium-239, was dropped. The bomb detonated about 43 seconds later at an altitude of about 1,540 feet above the ground. Approximately 40% of Nagasaki was destroyed.


Crew C-15 of the Bockscar

Major Charles Sweeney, Commander
Captain Charles Donald Albury, Co-Pilot
2nd Lieutenant Fred Olivi, Third Pilot
Captain James Van Pelt, Jr., Navigator
Captain Raymond “Kermit” Beahan, Bombardier
Master Sergeant John Kuharek, Flight Engineer
Sergeant Raymond Gallagher, Assistant Flight Engineer
Staff Sergeant Ed Buckley, Radar Operator
Sergeant Abe Spitzer, Radio Operator
Staff Sergeant Albert Dehart, Tail Gunner

Additional Mission Crew on board August 9, 1945
Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth (USN), Weaponeer
Lt. Philip Barnes (USN), Assistant Weaponeer
2nd Lt. Jacob Beser, Radar Countermeasures