Forgotten Heroes

Forgotten Her es

The Jews who Dropped the A-Bomb

By Avi Heiligman

The most destructive bombs ever used in combat were the two atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 th and 9 th , 1945. A few days later, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender and many historians believe that with out the bombs the war would have continued on for months with untold casualties. The creation of the bombs and the Jewish scientists who were instrumental in the Manhattan Proj ect are well documented. However, it was the men of the 20 th Air Force and the 509 th Composite Group (CG) that actually planned the raids and dropped the bombs. Many Jewish airmen served with the 20 th Air Force and a few were crew members on the famous missions.

The plane of choice was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The heavy bomber had four engines, cabin pressurization and most importantly, for the atomic bomb missions, had a range of over 3,000 miles. Sixty Five B-29s of the Silverplate series were designed for these missions and Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets handpicked the particular planes he wanted to carry the bombs. Tibbets was the commander of the 509th Composite Group since the previous September and trained the handpicked crews. The one caveat was that the men did not learn of the actual purpose of their training until they were about to go on the mission. Tests of

The men, including the three Jewish officers depicted in this article, who flew the missions were the best B-29 crews in the Army Air Corps and are remembered 75 years after the bombs were dropped for their part in ending World War II.

the bomb had been successful at the Trinity Site in New Mexico and the bombs were sent to the B-29 base on Tinian in the pacific. A plane named the Enola Gay, piloted by Tibbets, dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and the Boxcar, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney, dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.

First Lieutenant Jacob Beser was the only person to have flown on both strike planes during the missions. He was born in Baltimore and

Operator Sergeant Abe Spitzer

studied at Johns Hopkins to become a mechanical engineer but left college to join the Army Air Corps. He was sent to work on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He served as the officer in charge of radar maintenance with the 509th Composite Group throughout the group’s training period. During the Atom Bomb missions he was the radar counter-measure observer and was tasked with making sure the bombs didn’t explode too early. He was to make sure the Japanese “did not jam the bomb’s fuse frequencies and prematurely detonate the Fat Man” (the name given to the bomb that was sent on the Nagasaki mission). He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions while on this most famous mission. Decades later Beser visited Hiroshima where survivors of the bomb put his mind at rest by expressing their understanding that the fighters were doing their duty.

Also on board the Bockscar for the Nagasaki mission on August 9 th was radio operator Sergeant Abe Spitzer from the Bronx. He also flew on the Great Artsie for the Hiroshima mission on August 6 th . He said of the destructive power of the bomb, “Below us, spread out almost as far as I could see, was a great fire, but it was like no ordinary fire. It contained a dozen colors, all of them blindingly bright, more colors than First Lieutenant Jacob Beser

I imagined existed, and in the center and brightest of all, a gigantic red ball of flame that seemed larger than the sun…At the same time, the ball itself spread outward, too, until it seemed to cover the entire city… Then the ship rocked again… The purple light was changing to a green-blue now, with just a tinge of yellow at the edges, and from below the ball of fire, the upside down sun, seemed to be following the smoke upward, racing to us with immeasurably fast speed - although, we at the same time, though not so quickly - were speeding away from what was left of the city.”

Two other B-29 Superfortresses flew as escorts on both missions. First Lieutenant Charles Levy was the bombardier for the Great Artsie on the Nagasaki mission. While on the August 9 th mission he was the photographer and took the famous photo of the mushroom cloud over the city. He was originally supposed to fly on the Bockscar but the crews were switched because of a complication stemming from flight equipment.

As to whether the missions were necessary is still debated in both military and political circles. Controversy surrounds as to whether the Japanese were going to surrender anyway, as they were losing most of their conquests from earlier in the war. The Russians were attacking Japanese territory and the Americans were preparing for an attack on Japan itself when the decision was made to drop the bombs and shortly thereafter the war was over. Many of the Manhattan Project scientists were appalled that their creation was used on civilian targets which led Jewish physicist Leo Szilard to write an article entitled “President Truman Didn’t Understand.”

The planes were saved from the scrap heap with the Enola Gay on display at the Smithsonian outside Washington and the restored Bockscar can be viewed at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The men, including the three Jewish officers depicted in this article, who flew the missions were the best B-29 crews in the Army Air Corps and are remembered 75 years after the bombs were dropped for their part in ending World War II.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.