Boeing B-29A Superfortress "Bockscar"

In December 1939, the US Army Air Corps had to consider the possibility that Nazi Germany might win a war in Europe, and that war with Japan was a possibility. If the Germans overran Europe, then bombers would have to operate from bases in Iceland or the Azores; if war came to the Pacific, the B-17s then in service would not have the range to reach Japan from the Philippines. With this in mind, the USAAC opened a competition for a heavy bomber that could carry 20,000 pounds of bombs over 2500 miles at 400 mph. Consolidated, Douglas, Lockheed, and Boeing all submitted design ideas, but Boeing’s experience in heavy bomber design won it the contract for two prototypes, designated XB-29. Before the first aircraft even flew, the Battle of Britain, the invasion of the Soviet Union, and America’s entry into the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor increased the orders of B-29s to 500 aircraft, at a total cost of $4 billion—a contract unheard of at the time.

 

When Boeing rolled out the first XB-29 Superfortress in September 1942, it was completely different from earlier Allied bomber designs. Besides being larger and capable of carrying a bombload only rivaled by the Avro Lancaster, the B-29 had a circular fuselage to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency. It would be pressurized, allowing the crew to operate in comfort at 30,000 feet, a marked increase in altitude and crew comfort over the B-17s and B-24s then heading for combat in Europe and the Pacific; at that height, antiaircraft fire would be ineffective and only a few Axis fighters could reach the B-29. To further increase the B-29’s defensive capabilities, all four fuselage turrets were integrated into a primitive fire control computer controlled by one man, who would direct the other gunners onto targets.

 

Because the B-29 was so advanced an aircraft, it was no surprise that it ran into teething problems, mainly engine fires that would plague the Superfortress throughout its career. Making matters worse was the urgent need for the aircraft, as losses over Europe rose alarmingly and Japan’s war industry lay out of range of current aircraft; Boeing also constantly tweaked the design in an attempt to cure the engine fire problem and increase the Superfortress’ performance. So many design changes were being made that even the four plants that produced the B-29 across the United States could not keep up, leading to then-Senator Harry Truman being ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to investigate the delays. A maximum effort in a subzero Kansas winter in March-April 1944 finally gave the USAAF 150 combat-ready B-29As. By this time, the situation in Europe had eased so that the B-29 would not be needed, and so the Superfortress was earmarked for the Pacific, with the first aircraft arriving in China in April 1944. This brought not only the heretofore untouched Japanese industry in northern China within range for the first time, but also Japan itself.

 

However, missions from China, appropriately codenamed Operation Matterhorn, were to prove troublesome at best. While B-29s were able to hit Japan for the first time in June 1944, the mission exhausted available fuel and ordnance available in China and damage was minuscule. To support one B-29 mission, three dangerous supply missions had to be flown over “the Hump,” the Himalayan Mountains, and the literally hand-built B-29 airfields in China were vulnerable to attack from Japanese land forces. With this in mind, the B-29s were withdrawn from China to the recently-taken Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian in September 1944; one of the reasons the Marianas had been invaded to begin with was to provide a base for the Superfortress. Tokyo itself was struck on the first B-29 mission to Japan from the Marianas, but once more, damage was light to the target. USAAF planners discovered why: the jet stream over Japan was so powerful that it scattered bombs in midair. Complicating the matter was that Japan had decentralized its war industry through the cities, instead of concentrating them in one area as the Germans had in Europe.

 

Curtis LeMay, commander of 20th Bomber Command in the Marianas, had the solution. After experimenting with a full-scale city built in Utah, it was determined that Japan’s wooden cities were vulnerable to fire. B-29 crews were ordered to remove all defensive armament but the tail turret for added speed: the next attacks on Japan, codenamed Operation Downfall, would be made at low level at night to get below the jet stream, while precision bombing would be switched to area bombing with incendiaries. The results, begun in April 1945, were horrifyingly spectacular: Tokyo was razed to the ground with the deaths of over 100,000 people in a firestorm so intense it uprooted trees.

 

Encouraged by these results, B-29s would go on to destroy nearly every major Japanese city over the next three months. Simultaneously, Superfortresses mined the inland seas of the Japan island chain; combined with the US Navy’s submarine offensive, Japan’s industry ground to a halt, its defenses were in tatters (to the point that B-29s dropped leaflets warning Japanese civilians which cities were scheduled to be burned next), and the populace faced mass famine.

 

As the Japanese government still refused to surrender, President Truman authorized what he hoped would shock Japan into ending the war: the use of the atomic bomb. By the time the first bomb was detonated in July 1945, a handpicked B-29 group, the 509th Composite Group, had already been formed using special “Silverplate” modified Superfortresses built specifically for the atomic mission. Led by Paul Tibbets, one of the most experienced bomber pilots of the war, the 509th was to drop two atom bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was enough that Japan finally agreed to surrender in August 1945. The B-29 had ended World War II.

 

World War II did not end the B-29’s career. As the only bomber capable of carrying the heavy atomic bombs of the time, it would have to stay in the inventory until larger bombers could replace it, namely the Convair B-36 and Boeing’s own planned successor, the B-52. As such, B-29s were used in nuclear testing throughout the late 1940s and were supplied to Great Britain as a deterrent to the Soviet Union; RAF B-29s were known as Washington Is. (Ironically, the Soviet Union also had B-29s: reverse-engineering from B-29s forced down in Russia during the war, Tupolev produced the Tu-4 Bull. Tu-4s would test the USSR’s own atomic bombs.)

 

As the B-36 came on line, the B-29 was gradually retired, but it was to have one last hurrah in the Korean War—again, because no other bomber was available in quantity or with the range to strike targets in North Korea from Japan. At first, the B-29 was used in daylight attacks, but the presence of MiG-15 jet fighters forced it back into the night. Nonetheless, the B-29s caused considerable damage to North Korea’s infrastructure, vastly complicating Communist supply lines. When the war ended in 1953, so did the B-29’s active service. While some were converted to weather reconnaissance and tanker aircraft, most ended up being scrapped; the last B-29 left USAF service in 1960. Today, only about 26 B-29s survive in museums; two, "Fifi" and "Doc," are flyable.

 

Next to the "Enola Gay," the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, "Bockscar" is the most famous Superfortress ever built. Like the other B-29s of the 509th Composite Group, "Bockscar" (44-27297) was a "Silverplate" B-29, built specifically for atomic bomb delivery. It was named for its first pilot, Captain Frederick Bock, and was a play on boxcar. Ironically, Bock would not fly "Bockscar" on its flight to Nagasaki on 9 August 1945; instead, Major Charles Sweeney would fly the aircraft, while Bock flew Sweeney's B-29, "The Great Artiste."

 

The original target of "Bockscar" was the city of Kokura, but it was switched to Nagasaki when bad weather prevented a visual attack on Kokura. "Bockscar" carried the "Fat Man" plutonium nuclear weapon: it was dropped on Nagasaki at 10:58 AM. 35,000 people were killed in the explosion or the immediate aftermath; casualties were lower than at Hiroshima because "Fat Man" detonated on contact with the ground and landed in a valley, which protected half the city from blast effect. "Bockscar," which had been suffering from fuel transfer issues, barely made it to an emergency landing at Kadena, Okinawa a few hours later, and was nearly wrecked on landing when two engines failed due to fuel starvation.

 

After the war, "Bockscar" returned to the United States, but was retired in 1946 to storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona in what is now the AMARG storage facility. It was kept on display, but confusingly as "The Great Artiste" rather than its actual identity--probably because Sweeney had been originally assigned to the "Artiste," which flew as an observation aircraft on both atomic bomb missions. Finally, in 1961, it was flown to the National Museum of the USAF and restored in its actual colors.

 

Because of its sheer size and the relatively small World War II gallery at the NMUSAF, it is virtually impossible to photograph all of "Bockscar," so the nose is what is usually pictured. The nose art was added after the aircraft returned to the United States, and depicts a flying boxcar between Salt Lake City (where the crew began training) and Nagasaki. The five "fat man" mission symbols above the nose art indicate four practice missions and the red Nagasaki mission. 77 was the aircraft number.

 

This is not the first time I've seen "Bockscar"--my family saw her at the NMUSAF in 1977, as seen in this picture taken by my dad (www.flickr.com/photos/31469080@N07/15456436193/in/photoli...). 40 years almost to the day separate the two pictures.

 

You're not supposed to touch the aircraft at the museum, and I encourage people not to do it...but I must admit I touched the rear fuselage of "Bockscar" as I passed underneath it later on. Just like with the Spruce Goose in Oregon, how often do you get a chance to touch history?

 

 

Done