Web Master's Note: Below are several interesting questions which have been submitted to us along with answers (in most cases)!

Einstein's motive was based on a confidence that Nazi Germany was building a bomb also and he felt that there could be no greater catastrophe than the Nazi's possessing an atomic weapon. We feel certain that Einstein would have sanctioned some type of use against Germany had Germany been in a position to use a similar weapon themselves.

After the war, Einstein said that had he known at the time (1939) that Germany was not working on an atomic bomb, "he would have not lifted a finger to help."

As to whether Japan was ready to surrender any time soon is open to debate. In August of 1945, more than 1,000 American and British POW's were dying each week due to mistreatment at the hands of Japanese captors. The experiences gained in Iwo Jima gave most Americans the feeling that Japan would not surrender easily.

Thanks for your question.  Following is from a woman physicist at the Bonebrake Facility:  "In December 1943, I was one of about 20 people starting to work at Unit III of Monsanto, under the Manhattan Project.  Our work place was the former Bonebrake Seminary, at 1^st and Euclid Streets in Dayton.  The building was in the process of being renovated.  There was no central heating, no air conditioning, and no stairs to the third floor.  We nearly froze the first winter, with only one small electric heater for our large lab.  In summer, the heat was stifling.  Our windows were sealed shut, I presume for security reasons.  The people I remember who were there that first winter, were Dr. James Lum (laboratory director) and Evelyn Sands, his secretary, and Dr. Malcolm Haring, later plant manager at Mound."   Please click on link below for the rest of the story!

http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/vet%5Farchives/more/08%2D08%5Fcurtis.htm

We are attempting to trace the routing of this uranium ore from Canada. We believe it was secretly shipped to the Seneca Army Depot near Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. It is believed that it was then sent to Mallinckrodt Chemical in St. Louis for purification (not to be confused with enrichment) and then on to Oak Ridge.

I apologize for the delay in answering your e-mail. I was in Atlanta for a week and just came back.

Rear Admiral William S. "Deak" Parsons, also known as the "Atomic Admiral" succumbed to a heart attack in December, 1953. After complaining of chest pains to his wife the night before, he was taken by her the following morning to Bethesda Naval Hospital and while being examined by doctors suffered a massive coronary and died. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The implication was that it may have been brought on by stress over the treatment of Robert Oppenheimer during the McCarthy hysteria of this period.  Joseph Papalia

A visitor asked "What was the street address of the storage facility in Staten Island NY where the 1250 Tons of high grade uranium ore was stored in 1939?" I am a Staten Islander and I am interested to know as well. I have heard that the containers were stored in an area that is now at the base of the Bayonne Bridge. One of three bridges that connects Staten Island to New Jersey. If that is correct the address would be somewhere on "Richmond Terrace" a main drag that runs along the waterfront. I hope this helps and if anyone knows and more information I would greatly appreciate it if you could drop me a line.

I need you to clear up a mystery.

It is generally accepted that Charles Sweeney was the aircraft commander on Bock's Car. However, in the official note awarding members of the Bock's Car crew the DSC, there is no mention of CS.?

Now, the next mystery - according to the account written by William Laurence in his book "Dawn Over Zero", he states (on page 193) ...."The co-pilot of our strike ship is First-Lieutenant Charles D. Albury..." In your picture #88 of the just-returned Nagasaki mission crew, Fred Olivi is listed as co-pilot, as he is in the DSC note. Is Albury in picture #88? Incidentally, I do realise that Laurence believed the Nagasaki strike ship was "The Great Artiste", whereas he was actually in the GA himself (with Frederick Bock as pilot). I can't understand how a respected journalist could not get the facts right!! So maybe he was wrong about Albury being the co-pilot!!

In your picture #86 (The Bock's Car crew), Sweeney, Albury & Olivi are pictured together (two 'pilots' and one 'co-pilot' for one aircraft?).

Another point here - if I am right, Sweeney did not have a B-29 assigned to him, but flew with Crew 15, in #89 (The Great Artiste), usually commanded by Albury, with Olivi as co-pilot, Beahan as the bombardier and van Pelt as the navigator. This was similar to Tibbets flying with a modified crew in #82.

Well, I hope you can figure out what I am trying to ask you!! I would really like to know where Albury fitted into the Nagasaki mission history?

I must congratulate you on an excellent presentation, and for making all these historical items available. Like you, I have been studying the history of the Manhattan Project for 40 years (I am 58), and have the usual collection of books, video tapes etc, but nothing like your superb effort.

Here is the answer to the 'mystery'. The B-29's normally carried a crew of 9, 4 officers and 5 enlisted men. For the two atomic missions, there was added a 'mission commander" who in addition to piloting the aircraft since he was a senior officer, also commanded the other 5 B-29's in the Nagasaki strike force. Maj. Charles Sweeney whose regular assignment was Commanding Officer of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, was chosen as mission commander. When he flew as pilot of Bockscar, everyone else got bumped down...Albury as co-pilot "officially" and Olivi as a "spare" in the jump seat. However, most history books indicate that Albury was the pilot (because that was his normal position) and Olivi as co-pilot for the same reason.

The same thing happened on the Hiroshima mission as Paul Tibbets was the mission commander. Also, for the both atomic missions, there were three additional crew members on the Enola Gay and Bockscar...two 'weaponeers' and 1 radar counter-measures officer.

My question is about test site selection. In the book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, several areas are mentioned including southern California. Do you have any information about where? It sounds like it might be camp Young, desert training camp.

Its not commonly known, but the loading pits were located within the area allocated to the 483rd sq. of the 505th bomb group of the 313th wing.  The aircraft of Captain Mel Cash was moved to allow the digging of the pit which was used to load the Enola Gay. In fact I walked over to the finished pit after it was lined in cement and it was used a number of times to load big orange practice bombs.  I have an e-mail message from Gen. Paul Tibbets confirming that he had "one pit on Tinian and one on Iwo Jima in case he had to abort the mission and return with the device" and it is signed Paul Tibbets pilot.  Would appreciate clarification, since I keep seeing pictures of two pits. Why would there be a need for two pits, we only had the two bombs, why load Bocks Car from another pit in that 72 hour time span.  By the way I don't remember seeing the second pit and I was up and down that taxi strip every day preflighting the 483rd planes every day.I have e-mailed this question to the General months ago and never received a reply.  I was shocked when I got the first response

The address you supplied cannot be found.  At least the message says the page cannot be found.  Also ,all I saw was a bare pit, no lifting device in the pit. I find it hard to believe that there were two completely different lifting devices.  Please give me a new address for information regarding these devices. What is your opinion on the Generals message telling me there was only one pit on Tinian?. Bill

Since the General said there was a pit on Iwo Jima I assume that means he thought they could make a safe landing there and I further assume they would have unloaded the bomb.  Did another lifting device exist on Iwo?.  And which one?

http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/CG/Photo-Pages-2/CGP-253.htm

As far as Iwo Jima is concerned, there was a special secondary bomb pit built there with the same lifting device as that for the Little Boy pit on Tinian.  When the Enola Gay took off with its 5 support aircraft, a 6th, "Top Secret", flew to Iwo Jima as a backup.  If the Enola Gay ran into mechanical problems, it was to fly to Iwo Jima where the bomb would be lowered into the pit there and then loaded into Top Secret.

Great web site. I have on tape the "20'th Century" episode called "Hiroshima", with Walter Cronkite from 1958. On that show, he states that the Enola Gay took off from Tinian and The Great Artiste and #91 took off from Iwo Jima and there they joined the Enola Gay. Is this correct? Sincerely, Bob Studley

Thank you very much for visiting our web site and for your good question. There were seven B-29's involved in the Hiroshima Mission and they all took off from Tinian Island. Please go to the following link for an accurate depiction of the Hiroshima Mission:

http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/CG/CG_03A.htm

Can anyone help me in finding pics of Katie's Kitchen? The internet so far is not helping!

Also, according to "The Bomb" by Sidney Lens, "Fat Man" was the bomb exploded at Trinity, NM. Is this correct? Another question I have is about the Potsdam Ultimatum. Is there any place where I could find who signed the document? My last question has to do with the petition some Manhattan Project workers submitted to authorities. Where could I find a copy of this document and who signed it?

You are right in that the "Gadget" was the plutonium device detonated at Trinity. It has sometimes been referred to as "Fat Man" because it was the first of the "Fat Man" prototypes. The second was at Nagasaki followed by those at Operation Crossroads in 1946. All were based upon the gadget design.

Jumbo of course was an inert steel vessel that was originally designed to contain the "gadget" explosion. It was never used.

I am not sure who signed the Potsdam Ultimatum. Please check out the following links for information about the petition you refer to:

http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-07f.htm

http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-07i.htm

During the early days of the Manhattan project, a one of a kind printing press was taken over nightly by the FBI and secured so project personnel could print a "Black dot" What was that all about?

Now this is a long shot. There was a book published in the mid or late 60's that touched on this. It covered the project from beginning to end and was written so even I could understand it. It talked in length about the million holes per square inch of the material used for gaseous diffusion at Oak Ridge. What's the name of the book?

Thank you very much for visiting our web site and for your excellent question. The printing press you refer to was owned by the Chicle Company, manufacturers of chewing gum. The press was used to print labels at their NY plant. The "dot" process was used in the research associated with finding a suitable barrier for the gaseous diffusion process at Oak Ridge's K25 plant.

The book you refer to is "Manhattan Project - the Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Stephane Groueff published in 1967. Still a very popular book, it is available at Amazon.com

My name is Phillip.

I was looking over you web site and I have found some information that has me puzzled. It is about the detonation time of "Little Boy" in the time line that you have posted. I have read several times that the bomb blew up at 8:16 am on the morning of August 6, 1945. This is the first I have seen or heard of this information happening 1 hour later. What info. can you give me on this.

Thank you for visiting our web site and for being such a keen observer. The time line we show is taken from the official mission log book which is based on Tinian Island time, not Hiroshima time which is one hour earlier.

There was a partially complete (minus the plutonium core) Fat Man atomic bomb on Tinian that could have been completed and used as a third bomb against the Japanese Empire if needed. The plutonium core stayed at Los Alamos and was stopped from being delivered to Tinian by orders from General Groves pending the course of the declared Japanese intention to surrender. This partially assembled bomb was held on Tinian in case the Japanese surrender collapsed. After the surrender, it was returned to Los Alamos in late fall and disassembled. 1st Lt. Charles D. Albury was the pilot on Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki August 9, 1945. Major Charles W. Sweeney was the commander on that mission.

Hope this helps. I will attempt to answer any further questions when I get back from a trip in a week. In the mean time, there are several excellent books I'd recommend regarding this topic.

Cook, Haruko and Theodore, Japan at War: An Oral History, 1992, The New Press, NY. Craig, William, The Fall of Japan, 1967, The Dial Press, NY. Daws, Gavan, Prisoners of the Japanese, 1994, Morrow, NY. Feifer, George, Tennozan, 1992, Ticknor & Fields, NY. Kase, Toshikazu, Journey to the Missouri, 1950, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Maddox, Robert J., Weapons For Victory, 1995, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO. Newman, Robert P., Truman and the Hiroshima Cult, 1995, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI. Norris, Robert S., Racing for the Bomb, 2002, Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT. Sweeney, Charles W., War’s End, 1997, Avon Books, NY. Weintraub, Stanley, The Last Great Victory, 1995, Truman Talley Books/Dutton, NY.

Regards,

John Coster-Mullen

Comments:

I am not a history buff by any means but I am curious where they came up with the name for the Enola Gay. I have searched a few sites on the internet but most just mention the name of the plane and not the origin of the name. Thank you for your time.

Comments:

Re Oak Ridge, TN: after WWII, uranium hexafluoride was shipped to K-25 in special containers; I understand that these containers were first used in 1946. During the war, was uranium hexafluoride produced on site, or shipped in using other containers, and how was it delivered? By rail?

Comments:

The manufacture of the first two atomic bombs resulted in a significant amount of radioactive by-product that has been stored in secret for these fifty years. Is there public information on where and under what conditions this material is being stored?

Thank you very much for visiting our web site and for your very good question. Please check out the following links:

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cecw/fusrap/

http://www.em.doe.gov/bemr96/liap.html

One more question I just came up with. How did the "Fat Man" get to Tinian? Books I am reading only tell me how the "Little Boy" got there, but nothing on how the "Fat Man" got there, so I was wondering if you could help me here. Thank You again.