Prior to being sent to Tinian, the 509th practiced accurate bomb dropping in Wendover, Utah.Īll the bomber groups on Tinian were involved in the devastating incendiary bombing raids launched against Tokyo. Preparations for the assembly of atomic bombs and the readying of the 509th Composite Group began on April 3. With its proximity to Japan and infrastructure in place, Tinian was chosen as the base of operations for an atomic attack against Japan in February of 1945. Norman Ramsey suggested that modifications be made to the B-29s. Robert Oppenheimer on JColumbia scientist Dr. While Little Boy, a simple "gun-type" uranium bomb, would not have exploded had the Enola Gay crashed, Fat Man, a more complicated plutonium bomb that had to be fully armed before takeoff, could have. This requirement made takeoff crashes common - a problem that planners of the atomic bomb had not anticipated. The 58th Bomb Wing only operated from bases in India and China, under "Operation Matterhorn." When the Mariana Islands were captured, the Twenty First Bomber Command was created.īecause the round trip to Japan was close to 3000 miles, all bombers that took off from the island had to be overloaded with fuel. The XXI BC first consisted of the 58th Bomb Wing. The ground literally shook as planes took off every minute of every day. The Twenty First Bomber Command (XXI BC) launched relentless attacks on the Philippines, Okinawa, and mainland Japan. Tinian served as the forward operational base from which bombers flew to Japan. Nearly 800 of her 1200 crew members lost their lives, many allegedly to sharks. Shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank quickly. Completing that mission, she sailed for the Philippines. The SeaBees also built docks to accommodate the USS Indianapolis, which was steaming to Tinian to deliver atomic bomb components for "Little Boy," the bomb that dropped on Hiroshima. Other construction projects included: barracks, an administration building, oil storage facilities, weapons depots, an air-conditioned bomb assembly building, and bomb loading pits. ~From: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bombs (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986), 681. From the air this island, smaller than Manhattan, looked like a giant aircraft carrier, its deck loaded with bomber." They were not by the dozen, but by the hundred. Beside these runways stood in long rows the great silvery airplanes. A great coral ridge was half-leveled to fill a rough plain, and to build six runways, each an excellent 10-lane highway, each almost two miles long. Here, 6,000 miles from San Francisco, the United States armed forces have built the largest airport in the world. Phillip Morrison, who went to Tinian to help assemble Fat Man, spoke eloquently about Tinian's transformation, stating: North Field consisted of four airfields and supported 269 B-29s. Six runways were completed within two months and Tinian soon became the biggest air base in the world. Navy construction battalions known as the SeaBees began bulldozing mere days after the island was secured. The invasion of Tinian, which began July 24 and ended August 1, was similarly difficult - over 300 Americans and 6,000 Japanese lost their lives.
generals with a stark understanding that Japan would not fall easily.
Fierce fighting by the more than 25,000 Japanese army men and the mass civilian suicides on Saipan left U.S. The taking of Tinian was preceded by the invasion of Saipan, also part of the Marianas, on June 15, 1944. military referred to Tinian with the codename "Destination."
military because of its key strategic importance. Tinian, easy to supply by sea and perfect for launching air attacks against Japan, was desired by the U.S. This proximity to Japan is one reason Tinian served as the headquarters of the 509th Composite Group. The round-trip flight from Tinian to Tokyo took B-29s an average of twelve hours. One of three islands in the Northern Marianas, Tinian is less than forty square miles in size and located approximately 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. Tinian Island was the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.