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This year's 20th Anniversary Show of Shows to be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Kentucky, February 23-26, 2012, will feature a reunion of three of the handful of surviving B29 crew members from the 509th Composite Group that participated in the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In attendance will be George Cohen, Flight Engineer, B29 “Big Stink”; Ira Weatherly, Pilot, B29 “Straight Flush”; and Russell Gackenbach, Navigator B29 “Necessary Evil”;
On August 5, 1945 operations order #35 was issued to the 509th Composite Group, Col. Paul Tibbets commanding, for seven of the groups B29s to take part in the first Atomic mission. No planes from other units were to be involved. The order called for three B29s to report the weather and one B29 standby to take off at 0200 Tinian time and for three strike ships to take off at 0300.
The three weather B29s were each assigned to the following cities, Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki. Hiroshima was the primary target; however each was to report weather conditions via radio to the Enola Gay. The standby B29, “Big Stink” was assigned to Iwo Jima where a pit was constructed for loading and unloading an Atomic Bomb in the event of a mechanical failure on the “Enola Gay”; with two security Agents on board and with engines running.
One hour after the three weather B29s took off, the “Enola Gay” accompanied by the B29 instrument plane “The Great Artiste” and B29 photo plane “Necessary Evil” left Tinian for the mission that would forever change the world.
When the B29 “Straight Flush” assigned as the Hiroshima weather plane took off, they observed the “Enola Gay” bathed in spotlights looking like a Hollywood movie set. They flew at 200 miles per hour, three miles above the Pacific. Daylight broke before they reached Iwo Jima. They made their last radio check and climbed to 30,000 feet. A solid fleecy cloud bank accompanied them all the way to Japan. As the plane approached the city, the under cast continued, the six finger like islands of the Ota River Delta and the unmistakable square of the Second Imperial Army appeared on the radar.
At eighteen miles out, the cloud began to diminish and Hiroshima became entirely visible as they were about to fly over it. At 7am Hiroshima time, the bombardier took the “Straight Flush” on a simulated bomb run over the city. To make sure, they did a second bomb run, made a diving turn, pulled out and could see any remaining clouds were moving away from Hiroshima.
The radio operator on board “Straight Flush” tapped out the message in Morse Code to the “Enola Gay” “2/10ths cloud cover, bomb primary”. The fate of Hiroshima was sealed. The Hiroshima message came to the “Enola Gay” first; the remaining two weather reports were a matter of courtesy.
When the 9,700 pound Atomic Bomb was released from the bomb bay of the “Enola Gay”, three aluminum blast gauge canisters were dropped from “The Great Artiste” attached to 16 foot parachutes. The canisters were to measure the effects of the bomb, then both the “Enola Gay” and “The Great Artiste” streaked away at full throttle, their airspeed touching 350 miles per hour.
As three scientists aboard “The Great Artiste” waited for the needles on their ammeters to jump, the photo B29 “Necessary Evil” made a controlled 360 degree turn before heading to the target. When the bomb exploded the plane was approximately 15 miles from the blast. Mr. Gackenbach was on the flight deck between the pilot and copilot and took the only two photos of the cloud from the plane as the camera installed to take the photos malfunctioned. Mr. Gackenbach was the Navigator of the” Enola Gay” for the second Atomic Mission as the Kokura Advance Weather B29, Mr. Cohen was the Flight Engineer of the B29 “Laggin Dragon” as the Nagasaki Advance Weather B29.
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