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Both A-bombs dropped on Japan were assembled in Wendover.
A recent Newspaper article opined Utah’s astronomical society speculating on meteorite findings. Might they be found on the Great Salt Flats? Would the salt bed cushion a hot rock falling into our Earth? Maybe two guys could jump out of a plane. One would take pictures. The second would let a bowing ball fall from 2,000 feet as the rip cord was pulled . After examination of the crater, further discussion would ensue. Sounded reasonable. The military has been dumping things out there for generations.
The W-47 Project
The most notable
started in January of 1945, when the first A-bomb “unit” (read that A-bomb
assembly) got delivered to Wendover field in Utah.
Three months later on May 1st Capt. James Rowe reported for
duty.
Rowe
had no specific Orders, nor was his outfit to have a name. He took over an assembly task from another Captain leaving
the next day - going to what turned out to be Tinian Island.
In the assembly building were one five foot diameter steel ball (fat man)
and another unit smaller in size but longer (little boy).
The one set of drawings was examined and never looked at again.
Would not of helped as changes were made hourly, daily – sans drawings
– no time. The schedule had to be
met at all costs.
The
technical job was to figure out how to assemble all the components of
both types of Atomic bombs, and figure out how to load them in the a
highly modified B-29 (called a B-50). These
special modifications included converting the dual bomb bays into a long single
bay. Save the tail guns - all other turrets and weight were
removed. These modifications
permitted the aircraft to fly higher and go faster than any known Japanese
fighter. At those heights the air
was so thin that special training was required to keep the aircraft stable.
Flight training of these pilots in their special planes was done in
Wendover.
Initial
attempts to learn how to assemble and load an A-bomb were tried in New Mexico at
Site Y. Like trying to herd cats.
Eventually management realized that mistakes near that population center
could cause serious problems. Wendover
was considered remote enough. It
was called W-47.
The next 97 days saw
Rowe’s group pull off an impossible schedule that enabled fabrication of
hardware for 60 test units of which only two live A-bombs were produced in time
to use against Japan and end WW2. Even
so, the Joint Chiefs postponed the invasion of Japan 30 days while Rowe’s crew
improvised and labored to do a job that prevented deaths of 750,000 Americans
who would have died going into Japan on 1 November 1945.
Only
the little boy’s were dropped over the test range.
The objective was to find out if in a plane crash would the bomb not
explode. The explosion would occur if the projectile in the aft end was fired
down the gun barrel into the explosive front end. It’s movement could only be checked by hauling the unit
back in – taking it apart – and looking.
Every one had to be dug up and returned for examination. Some went 30 feet deep.
In the beginning recovery was with a pick and shovel.
Some times the recovery took 36 hours of continuous digging.
The Bowling Ball - again
A few days later,
the major Utah newspaper advised it had been called by the BLM. The agency was quite upset about dropping a bowling ball on
Bureau of Land Management Land. Why
- permission would have to be secured! There
would have to be environmental studies. The Air Force would have to be involved – plus the Federal
Aviation Agency. On and on.
Like no one had ever dropped anything on the Salt Flats before.
Copyright 2003 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.
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