Pacific mustangs escorting the Enola Gay?

[Jim Beasley]

Hi everyone -- I met a person today who had a lot of really neat things, including those WWII atomic blast goggles, all from his Dad who flew Mustangs in the pacific. He said his Dad's mustang had a yellow spinner, was named "flower of philly," and escorted the Enola Gay at least partway on 6 August. That's why he had the atomic goggles. Can anyone help me confirm this and perhaps find a photo of this Mustang, or at least something from its group (I don't know the identity of the group either). Thanks all. Jim Beasley

[Jack Cook]

72nd FS 21st FG commanded by Maj Jim Van Nada of Eugene, Oregon are the only 7th AF sqd I know of with a yellow spinner.

[marine air]

Strangely enough, I have been on an accidental "Enola Gay/B-29 Tour" the last few weeks. My flight examiner, Dr. C.R. Smith M.D., revealed to me that he flew combat missions on the opening day of the Korean War in the B-29.
Then a week later, a buddy of mine brought some goggles over that his late father in law had in his estate. They were coal black with a hint of indigo and appeared to have been hand dipped in their painted surface. We surmised since his father in law, John Creasy, had been a flight engineer on B-29's , in Korea that they must have been designed to wear during a nuclear blast as they were much too dark for lightning strikes etc.
Two weeks ago I spent the weekend in Salina, Kansas,(KSLN) home of former B-29 production although not Bockscar or Enola Gay.
Last weekend we had a charter to Santa Barbara, Ca.(KSBA) which obviously had been some sort of military base at one time as it had some old hangars. The FBO people were of no help except they knew which hangar once held the Enola Gay when it was prepared to leave the states.
Yesterday morning we picked up an entertainer at the former Wendover AFB in Utah, and they pointed out where the Enola Gay and Bockscar squadron had their specially built hangar, and they have a great museum there that draws heavily on B-29's, the Enola Gay, and all things nuclear.
I don't remember seeing any pictures of Mustangs escorting in any of the Enola Gay photos but they had a lot of stuff.
The airplanes based at Wendover during the war that trained with the B-29's appear to have been P-47's, A-20's, B-17's, B-24's, B-29's and Bt-13's and At-11's. I think you couild find someone that can answer your question by calling the city FBO at 435-665-2308.
They had a uniform and medals worn by a Berringer(?) or Brewington(?)
who had been a crewman on Bockscar during the second A-bomb drop and his helmet and goggles are on display. The goggles were a dark burnt orange tint, supposedly what he wore on the mission.
Hope this helps,

[Silverplate]

There was no fighter aircraft used to escort the B29's on their two atomic bombing missions.

[Dan K]

They had a uniform and medals worn by a Berringer(?) or Brewington(?)
who had been a crewman on Bockscar during the second A-bomb drop and his helmet and goggles are on display.

One of the regular Bockscar crew (but flying The Great Artiste) during Nagasaki was Sgt. Ralph Belanger, the assistant crew chief.

[marine air]

Sgt. Belanger, that's him. thanks for the clarification.

[JDK]

I think you couild find someone that can answer your question by calling the city FBO at 435-665-2308.

Or Wendovertom, here?!

[Ztex]

Silverplate is right...there were no fighter escorts on either strike mission.

But that brings up a question. How many sorties did Silverplate B-29's fly over Japan. I have read that they flew training missions and dropped some "pumpkin bombs" over Japan...I have never read how many combat missions they flew?

This could possibly account for the escort story...

[Jim Beasley]

Silverplate is right...there were no fighter escorts on either strike mission.

But that brings up a question. How many sorties did Silverplate B-29's fly over Japan. I have read that they flew training missions and dropped some "pumpkin bombs" over Japan...I have never read how many combat missions they flew?

This could possibly account for the escort story...

Thanks for the replies -- I had never heard of escorts for those missions but when I heard this story I had to ask. Thanks all -- Jim

[Second Air Force]

I have one of the 509th Composite Group History "yearbooks" that members of the Group got after the end of the War.

Here is information from several paragraphs in the 393rd Squadron chapter:

Crews flew orientation and practice bombing missions on Rota and Guguan islands. They then flew several missions against targets on Truk and Marcus. No combat mission credit was given for any of these practice missions due to their training nature.

The first combat mission was flown on 20 July by ten 393rd crews to Otsu, Taira, Fuushima, Nagoaka, Toyama, and Tokyo.

I'll quote the next paragraph verbatim: "In the week following, the list of targets grew, and after the fifth mission, these cities had first hand knowledge of the 393rd Bomb Squadron: Tsuraga, Niihama, Kobe, Yokkaichi, Shimada, Nagoya, Hamamatsu, Yauzu, Osaka, Uwajima, Kasawazaki, Hitachi, Ube, Wakayama, Maizuru, Koriayama, and Tokushima. The Squadron was doing its part in the air offensive against the Empire by some excellent precision bombing from altitude, blotting out some of the most important of the Japanese industrial facilities."

The last mention of combat missions refers to seven 393rd Squadron airplanes bombing Koromo and Nagoya on the fourteenth of August.

So, it seems plausible that Mustangs indeed could have flown escort during some of these missions, providing that the 393rd aircraft flew in the formations of other Groups during their very early missions over the empire.

Hope this helps,
Scott

Last edited by Second Air Force on Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Ztex]

Interesting Scott!

I found a copy of a Personal Diary on the Manhattan Project Preservation site...pretty cool to read.

http://www.mphpa.org/classic/COLLECTIONS/CG-ASPI/01/Pages/CGP-ASPI-006.htm

I found the following on Wiki....

During the month of July and the first eight days of August the thirteen bombers of the 393rd BS flew an intensive training and mission rehearsal program that consisted of:

* 17 individual training sorties without ordnance
* 15 practice bombing missions against Japanese-held Truk, Marcus, Rota, and Guguan, between July 1 and July 22 with 90 B-29s using 500- and 1000-pound bombs to practice mission procedures[21]
* 12 combat missions against targets in Japan using high-explosive "pumpkin bombs", with 37 B-29s dropping conventional-bomb replications of the Fat Man between July 20 and July 29[22]
* 8 component-tests and rehearsal drops of five inert Little Boy and three Fat Man assemblies between July 23 and August 8[23]
* a practice mission to Iwo Jima on July 29 in which an inert Little Boy was unloaded and then reloaded to rehearse the contingency plan for using a back-up bomber in an emergency.

[Second Air Force]

Zane,

I will start a new thread with some more info/photos of the Silverplate missions. The yearbook has an interesting photo of the ordnance guys bombing up for a practice mission.

Scott

[mustangdriver]

Has anyone else ever heard about the Atomic bomb falling out of the bombay of Enola Gay in the middle of the night while the ground crews were working on the plane? There was a man that stopped by the museum and said he was a fire fighter on Tinian and was there to see that happen. he also said that the C.O. of the base used to make him go and hose down the EG at random times. It never made sense to him until after the bomb drop as to why he had to hose down one B-29 with a ton of others on it.

[APG85]

Has anyone else ever heard about the Atomic bomb falling out of the bombay of Enola Gay in the middle of the night while the ground crews were working on the plane?

I find that difficult to believe. There would be no danger of the bomb going off, but the damage to the bomb bay doors would be enough that they would have to revert to a back-up plane...unless the doors were open (not to mention the damage to the bomb antennas and fins). This story could be getting confused with one of the practice missions when a Pumpkin bomb (fake A-Bomb full of conventional explosives) fell from it's hook while one of the planes was taxiing on Tinian and forced the doors open. The bomb fell out onto the taiway! It wasn't the Enola Gay...Maybe Strange Cargo or Top Secret? I'll have to look in my books to be sure which plane it was...

[Django]

So were these "practice" missions using real bombs?