Bockscar, (also Bock's Car and Bocks Car) a U.S. Army Air Force B-29 bomber (s/n 44-27297), dropped the second atomic bomb ever used in warfare on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. The weapon was known as "Fat Man". On the day of this attack Bockscar was manned by the crew of "The Great Artiste" and piloted by Major Charles Sweeney and co-piloted by Fred Olivi .

Kokura was the intended target, but had been obscured by clouds. Major Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually and so moved on to Nagasaki, the secondary target. Since their fuel was getting low and Sweeney didn't want to dump the bomb in the East China Sea, he decided to make a radar bombing run. However, enough of an opening came in the cloud cover to allow the bombardier to confirm Nagasaki, and the bomb was dropped with ground zero being about 3/4 mile from the planned target. This resulted in lower overall casualties than would have been otherwise, as most of the blast was confined in the Urakami valley.

The more-often recognized B-29 Enola Gay preceded Bockscar in dropping a nuclear weapon on Japan. In the language of warfare, the leveling of Nagasaki after the Hiroshima bombing demonstrated the US Armed Forces' willingness and ability to repeat this type of crippling aerial attack.

Many consider that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided the greatest impetus behind the subsequent Japanese surrender, thus bringing the fighting of World War II to an end.

This historic aircraft is sometimes referred to as "Bocks Car" or "Bock's Car"; the actual name as painted on the aircraft after the mission (see above) has no apostrophe and appears to have a thin space after the S. It was named after the pilot of its regular crew, Frederick C. Bock .

Bockscar is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

External link

• US Air Force Museum Archives Gallery Bockscar page