In Sweeney's take on it, predictably, none of that had to do with him. They wasted a lot of time at a rendezvous point, the weather accounts on Kokura ended up being wrong and they couldn't drop it there, they went to Nagasaki and barely were able to drop it, dropping it significantly off-target at that, and they almost ran out of fuel on the way back to Okinawa. Sweeney's mission, what became the Nagasaki mission, was so close to being botched that it almost failed (they almost had to jettison the bomb), but you won't get that sense from reading his account of it. One should just be aware that Sweeney's account is very much his own, and not an objective or neutral take on the story whatsoever. The sheriff started asking questions & this guy ended up riding out the rest of the war in Leavenworth. One of the auxilliary guys who assisted the flights got caught up in a drunken brawl & told the local sheriff he couldn't be arrested because he was part of Silver Plate. On a fun side note - the program they were under was called "Silver Plate" (as in anything these guys need, they can have on a silver platter). He goes into the whole process that led up to the final bomb drop and how much time they put into their training, and though they weren't certain it would be an atomic bomb they were dropping until well after their training started, they knew it was something significant & could change the course of the war. I've personally bought the book a half dozen times because I keep loaning it out. Fantastic read, really simple in its layout & can be finished in a weekend. I'm not a historian by any means, but there's a great autobiography by the only man to fly both missions, Major General Charles Sweeney called War's End. It includes interviews and exactly the type of material you're looking for. Check out the documentary "the Men Who Brought the Dawn" which currently runs on the Smithsonian Channel in the US occasionally, and on youTube as needed.
From a technical standpoint, of course, I think they knew little more than that this was a new kind of extremely powerful bomb. So from a practical standpoint they were well briefed on what to expect, thought that's not to say they weren't still surprised awed by witnessing the detonation and blast. Not to mention the support aircraft that flew along to make measurements and observations as well. The current rotation is:įrom a practical standpoint they were pretty well versed b/c the payload required very specific and distinct handling such as loading over special pits dug into the ground, arming the bombs during the flights, taking into account how much flight characteristic would change at the moment of dropping the bomb (by instantaneously shedding a significant proportion of the plane's grosse weight) and by receiving instructions for the path to be taken in the immediate aftermath to avoid the blast and confirm / observe detonation. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables Featuresįeature posts are posted weekly. May 25th | Panel AMA with /r/AskBibleScholars Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events
To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. Questions should be clear and specific in what they ask, and should be able to get detailed answers from historians whose expertise is likely to be in particular times and places. Nothing Less Than 20 Years Old, and Don't Soapbox. Be Nice: No Racism, Bigotry, or Offensive Behavior.