Witness to History - Week 4, 2024 - Nagasaki

 On August 9, 1945, my father in law was on a bombing mission as nosegunner on a B-24 based out of Okinawa, the 11th Bomb Group 42nd Squadron.  I do not know what his squadron's specific mission was that day, whether it was a routine mission or maybe a part of the overall atomic bomb plan in a support role, but, as it turns out, Aug 9th is also the day that the Japanese city of Nagasaki was bombed by the 2nd atomic bomb, Fat Man, at 11:02 am. Japan surrendered the next day.  My father in law, Gary Sinton, never spoke much of his experiences during the war, but he would very briefly mention that he was in the air that day and saw the mushroom cloud resulting from the detonation of the bomb.  It's hard to imagine what those witnesses thought about at the time.  That week in August 1945 changed the world forever.  

You can read more about Gary's wartime experiences in my other blog posts at:

https://eclecticann.blogspot.com/2023/09/ssgt-gary-gray-sinton-ww2-usaaf-veteran.html

https://eclecticann.blogspot.com/2023/08/an-answer-to-questions.html

These photos were found at: https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/nagasaki.htm

Distance from Okinawa to Nagasaki is 461 miles.  I read that the cloud could have been seen as far away as 100 miles.  The B-29, Bockscar, that dropped the bomb, stopped at Okinawa to refuel about 2 pm for it's trip back to Tinian Island where the mission originated.  

https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/atomic-bombing/nagasaki/page-5.html

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2024. All rights reserved.