B29 - "Necessary Evil"

George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary Evil",
the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from the
509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?

Matt Tauber

"Matt Tauber" wrote in message
...
George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary
Evil",
the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from
the
509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is
safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?

Matt Tauber

"Some Punkins," one of the Silverplates, suffered extensive damage in an
accident back in the 'States, and was later transferred to the
428th Air Base Unit at Kirtland AFB in early 1946. Declared surplus, she
was subsequently destroyed in a fire-fighting demonstration.

Cheers.

Matt Tauber wrote:

George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary Evil",
the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from the
509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?

Matt Tauber

Matt -

The restored forward fuselage and other parts of the Enola Gay were
exhibited publicly downtown on the Washington, D. C., Mall in May 1995.
See http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/air...boeing_b29.htm

The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum has completed restoration work on the
entire plane to restore it to its original wartime condition. It will be
publicly displayed at the new Udvar-Hazy Center starting December 15th.
See http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/081803.htm for more
details.

See http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/ for background on the 1994-1995
controversy.

Stephen

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...us/enola_gay_1

"Stephen D. Poe" wrote:

Matt Tauber wrote:

George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary Evil",
the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from the
509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?

Matt Tauber

Matt -

The restored forward fuselage and other parts of the Enola Gay were
exhibited publicly downtown on the Washington, D. C., Mall in May 1995.
See http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/air...boeing_b29.htm

The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum has completed restoration work on the
entire plane to restore it to its original wartime condition. It will be
publicly displayed at the new Udvar-Hazy Center starting December 15th.
See http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/081803.htm for more
details.

See http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/ for background on the 1994-1995
controversy.

Stephen

I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it.

Actually, Enola Gay has been completely restored and shown to the
press just last week, and will go on public display at Dulles in
December when the Unspellable Name Annex of NASM is opened to the
public.

How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective"

Almost certainly scrapped more than 50 years ago.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

"Great Artiste" (reportedly having served some time in SaR) was restored
and displayed at Pease AFB, and moved to Whiteman AFB when the New Hampshire
base closed.

Good grief. I didn't know I'd lived next door to the Great Artiste for
all those years. I do remember seeing a B-29 "on the hard" near the
main gate, but never paid any attention to it.

Pease International Tradeport is still very much with us, though
quieter now than in the days when it was home to the B-52s. I haven't
landed there myself, but I often have occasion to talk to the tower,
which is still wont to tell people: "Check gear down and locked."

The New Hampshire Air Guard is based there with six or eight KC-135s.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

The spare B-29 "Top Secret" was meant to be the replacement for Enola
Gay for the 6th August... if she had broken down in flight.. and RTB...

Does anyone know what happened to Top Secret's bombload? on the Aug 6th
mission???

so that makes 3 atomic weapons on Tinain... so the USAAF could of
effectively bombed another target.. but chose not to..

Matt Tauber wrote:

George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary Evil",
the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from the
509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is safely
in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other 12
planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?

Matt Tauber

--

--
"Aerophotos" wrote in message
...
| The spare B-29 "Top Secret" was meant to be the replacement for Enola
| Gay for the 6th August... if she had broken down in flight.. and RTB...
|
| Does anyone know what happened to Top Secret's bombload? on the Aug 6th
| mission???
|
| so that makes 3 atomic weapons on Tinain... so the USAAF could of
| effectively bombed another target.. but chose not to..
|



The enroute divert airfield was on Iwo Jima, the weapon would be swapped
out there. From what I read, Paul Tibbets (sp?) would probably
displace the other pilot as well.




Dave Kearton

"Matt Tauber" wrote in message
...

George Marquardt died on 8/15. Marquardt was the pilot of "Necessary
Evil", the B29 that photographed the Hiroshima blast.

Does anyone know if "Necessary Evil" still exists...or other planes from
the 509th? I know "Bockscar" is at the WPAFB museum, and "Enola Gay" is
safely in storage where no one can be offended by it. How about the other
12 planes, like "Strange Cargo" or "Next Objective". Any thoughts?


"Necessary Evil", 44-86291, went to China Lake in 1956 and was eventually
scrapped.

"Strange Cargo", 44-27300, was scrapped in 1957.

"Next Objective, 44-27299, was scrapped in 1949.

I believe "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" are the only remaining Silverplate
B-29s, all others having been scrapped outright by 1960 or reduced to
gunnery range targets.

Aerophotos writes:

The spare B-29 "Top Secret" was meant to be the replacement for Enola
Gay for the 6th August... if she had broken down in flight.. and RTB...

Does anyone know what happened to Top Secret's bombload? on the Aug 6th
mission???

so that makes 3 atomic weapons on Tinain... so the USAAF could of
effectively bombed another target.. but chose not to..

Well no, as pointed out by other posters. But my question is, was
Kyoto the primary target for the 2nd bombing mission that eventually
devastated Nagasaki, as I have read in one report on the internet. I
always thought Kyoto was not bombed due to the efforts of a certain US
diplomat (?) who IIRC is actually buried in Kyoto.... maybe a myth.

From my reading, I thought that Hiroshima was the primary target due
to the concentration of military installations and command
centers. Nagasaki was chosen because of the naval base
installations. I don't know how true the allegations are that a city
with modern concrete structures (Hiroshima) vs one with mostly
traditional housing (Nagasaki) were chosen. Please correct my mistaken
impressions!

As far as a further mission is concerned, I thought that in the event
of a third mission, not Tokyo but Sapporo was to be targetted. How far
did plans for a third mission go, I did not find out even if there was
enough fissionable material on hand to make another bomb immediately,
or whether that would have taken further weeks or perhaps months.

Any useful references would be appreciated, Google was not exactly
conclusive and this is not my subject, hence I am not able to judge
the quality of the references easily.

Many thanks,
Gernot
--
G Hassenpflug * IJN & JMSDF equipment/history fan