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The Atom Bombers Colonel Paul Tibbets' 509th Composite Group had a brief but momentous combat career. Flying specially modified Martin-built B-29s, with fuel injection engines and Curtiss reversible pitch propellers, and stripped of all but the tail armament, they dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The group's fifteen B-29s were in the 393rd Squadron, and when they arrived on Tinian they carried the unit's distinctive marking, a black arrowhead in a circle. This was soon replaced by spurious markings - 497th Group insignia, a large "A", was applied to aircraft 71, 72, 73 and 84. Airplanes 77, 85, 86 and 88 carried 444th Group markings, including the colored belly band; numbers 82, 89, 90 and 91 carried 6th Group tail insignia; and the final three aircraft, 83, 94 and 95 bore the 39th Group's tail marking. The aircraft were easily identifiable - the phony 497th and 444th markings were applied in a rather less exact way than in the actual groups, and the stripped B-29s carried individual airplane numbers in a far higher range than normal bomber units. The 393rd Squadron B-29s were: [[boxed]] [[four column table]] No. | Serial | Name | Nominal Aircraft Commander 71 | 44-27303 | Jabbitt III | Capt. John Wilson 72 | 44-27302 | Top Secret | Lt. Charles McKnight 73 | 44-27300 | Strange Cargo | Lt. Joseph Westover 77 | 44-27297 | Bockscar | Capt. Fredrick Bock 82 | 44-86292 | Enola Gay | Capt. Robert Lewis/Col. Paul Tibbets 83 | 44-27298 | Full House | Capt. Ralph Taylor 84 | 44-27296* | Some Punkins | Capt. James Price 85 | 44-27301 | Straight Flush | Capt. Claude Eatherly 86 | 44-27299 | Next Objective | Lt. Ralph DeVore 88 | 44-27304* | Up an' Atom | Capt. George Marquardt 89 | 44-27353 | The Great Artiste | Lt. Charles Albury/Maj. Charles Sweeney 90 | 44-27354* | Big Stink | Herman Zahn 91 | 44-27291 | Necessary Evil | Lt. Norman Ray 94 | 44-27346* | Spook | Lt. Col. Tom Classen 95 | 44-86347 | Laggin' Dragon | Capt. Edward Costello [[/four column table]] Note: Some of the aircraft nicknames in the 93rd Squadron were not applied until after the atomic bombing missions.* [[/boxed]] [[image - black & white photograph of B-29 plane]] [[caption]] Major Claude Eatherly's Straight Flush, 44-27301, stripped of all but the tail armament and bearing false 444th group markings. (via John Dulin) [[/caption]] [[image - black & white photograph of maintenance crew working on engine/propeller of a plane]] [[caption]] The 509th Group's special B-29s were fitted with Curtiss reversible-pitch propellers, with cuffs to assist cooling. Here the ground crew is pulling the props. This was done to drain out oil that collected in the lower cylinders, thereby preventing damage to the engines when they were started. (Dulin) [[/caption]] [[address label]] [[image - drawing of side view of a B-29 Superfortress]] B-29 Superfortress William E. Jones [[illegible]] [[/address label]]
