The last bomb fell on Nishinomiya at 0201 Mariana
time and the last mine was laid at 0232. The 20th had struck six
targets with a force of 635 aircraft. Two were lost and 66 made
a stop at Iwo Jima. The remaining force began landing at their
bases in the Marianas around 0800. The last landing took place
around 1030 hours. This was a major effort but was relegated to
Selected Short Subjects when the Feature Attraction took place
at Hiroshima at 0915 hours while the landings were taking place.
There
were strict orders that the A Bomb should not be dropped by Radar.
It lacked the precision for the perfect aiming required. Luckily
the weather was perfect and Radar was used only to guide the Enola
Gay to the IP. The Nagasaki drop was almost a disaster. There
were technical problems with the fuel system, faulty wiring on
the bomb itself and almost complete cloud cover on Kokura, the
main target and the two alternate targets. With fuel running low
the choice became Nagasaki. Conditions were little improved and
a Radar approach was made, though orders were to bomb visually
and to land with the bomb if it were not possible. At the last
moment there was a hole in the clouds and the bombardier had his
crosshairs on what he identified as the aiming point. The bomb
was released but missed the aiming point by a half mile. Despite
this, major damage was inflicted forcing Japan to surrender at
last.
The
way Radar was employed, though state of the art in 1945 was declared
obsolete shortly after war’s end. Korea saw the introduction
of smart bombs and more sophisticated weapons systems. Hopefully
some peacetime applications will result from the advanced technology,
like popcorn and weather forecasting.
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