3.8 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 509th Composite Group | 3/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/509th_Composite_Group | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:04:33.596552+00:00 | kb-cron |
The air echelon consisted of the members of the 393d Bombardment Squadron. The 320th Troop Carrier Squadron remained at Wendover. It began deploying from Wendover 4 June 1945, with the first B-29 arriving at North Field on 11 June. The group was assigned to the 313th Bombardment Wing, whose four groups had been flying missions against Japan since mid-February, but for security reasons their permanent base area was near the runways on the island's north tip, several miles away from the main installations in the center of Tinian. The 509th, after spending most of June in an area previously occupied by the Seabees of the 18th Naval Construction Battalion, took over the 13th Naval Construction Battalion Area just west of North Field's Runway D, a self-contained base with 89 Quonset huts, a huge storage warehouse, a consolidated mess hall, chapel, administrative area, theater, and other amenities. Each crew was required to attend the 313th Bombardment Wing's week-long "Lead Crew Ground School" on its arrival. The ground school indoctrinated combat crews in procedures regarding air-sea rescue, ditching and bailouts, survival, radar bombing, weather, wing and air force regulations, emergency procedures, camera operation, dinghy drills, and other topics related to combat operations. Two of the group's bombers were not delivered by Martin-Omaha until early July. They remained at Wendover until 27 July to act as transports for two of the Fat Man assemblies. Because of their geographical isolation from the combat crews of other groups, rigidly enforced security measures, and exclusion from participation in regular bombing missions, crews of the 393d Bombardment Squadron were resented and ridiculed as "lacking in discipline" and having a "soft life". The official history of the Army Air Forces characterized the ridicule as "epitomized in a satirical verse entitled Nobody Knows, with a recurring refrain, 'For the 509th is winning the war.'" The group was assigned tail markings of a circle outline (denoting the 313th Wing) around an arrowhead pointing forward, but at the beginning of August its B-29s were repainted with the tail markings of other XXI Bomber Command groups as a security measure, because it was feared that Japanese survivors on Tinian were reporting the 509th's activities to Tokyo by clandestine radio. The Victor (identification assigned by the squadron) numbers previously assigned the 393d aircraft were changed to avoid confusion with B-29s of the groups from whom the tail identifiers were borrowed. Victor numbers 82, 89, 90, and 91 (including the Enola Gay) carried the markings of the 6th Bombardment Group (Circle R); Victors 71, 72, 73, and 84 those of the 497th Bombardment Group (large "A"); Victors 77, 85, 86, and 88 those of the 444th Bombardment Group (triangle N); and Victors 83, 94, and 95 those of the 39th Bombardment Group (square P).
Although all of the B-29s were named as shown, the only nose art applied to the aircraft before the atomic bomb missions was that of Enola Gay. With the exceptions of Victors 71 and 94, the others were applied some time in August 1945. Luke the Spook was not named until November 1945, and it is not known if nose art was ever applied to Jabit III.
=== Combat operations === After ground training for the combat crews, the 509th began operations on 30 June 1945, with a calibration flight involving nine of the B-29s on hand. During the month of July and the first eight days of August the thirteen bombers of the 393d Bombardment Squadron flew an intensive training and mission rehearsal program that consisted of: