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Re: "One Plane, One Bomb, One City"
9 Aug 45----a tribute to Charles Sweeney and his crew, bombardier Kermit Behan and the others aboard #77 BOCK'S CAR (Sweeney's GREAT ARTISTE was loaded with instrumentation which could not be easily switched between a/c). Sweeney had swapped a/c with a/c commander Fred Bock. The mission was plaqued with problems and is a thoughtful study of many elements of command.
By careful fuel management, trading altitude for distance, Sweeney was able to stretch his limited fuel enough to make it to his emergency field at Okinawa. Luckily the a/c was extremely light (the "Fat Man" atomic bomb had been dropped, they were very low on fuel, and most armament had been removed long before the mission). On final approach one engine was out (fuel). Upon touchdown another of the Wright R-3350 turbosupercharged radial engines quit, and by the end of the rollout, a third engine quit. When they measured the fuel in the tank it was about 10 gallons! So, read Sweeney's book WARS END for the entire story.
Tripp
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