Artiste. On the nose of the Fat Man bomb the crew had stenciled the word JANCFU: Joint Army-Navy-Civilian FuckUp. The planes took off into clear weather, but by the time they reached Kyushu the sky had clouded. Thin sheets of grey smoke rose from the factory below. The commander of the operation, Major Charles Sweeney, had been told that—despite the sophisticated radar at his disposal—he had to be able to see the target with his naked eyes before the bomb could be unleashed. Sweeney looked out on the landscape of white and grey. He figured they had enough fuel to circle the city a dozen times
Artiste. On the nose of the Fat Man bomb the crew had stenciled the word JANCFU: Joint Army-Navy-Civilian FuckUp. The planes took off into clear weather, but by the time they reached Kyushu the sky had clouded. Thin sheets of grey smoke rose from the factory below. The commander of the operation, Major Charles Sweeney, had been told that—despite the sophisticated radar at his disposal—he had to be able to see the target with his naked eyes before the bomb could be unleashed. Sweeney looked out on the landscape of white and grey. He figured they had enough fuel to circle the city a dozen times or more. The plane rose and dropped again, looking for a clear vantage point, circling as it went. The cloud subsided and Sweeney could see the outline of the steel mills, the coast, the seashore, but there was still the problem of smoke billowing from below. The factory spires appeared again, barely visible. A forest. A pier. More factory smoke. A line of trucks. A tanker out on the water. Another thin sheet of cloud. Wisps of white out the window. The fuel indicator dropped. Sweeney ordered his planes to continue circling. He was amazed by the sight of a baseball diamond through his binoculars, immediately obscured by a cloud. A line of fishing shacks appeared along the shore and then were swallowed by smoke. The major scribbled the calculations out on a sheet of lined yellow notepaper: the longer he held on to the bomb the more fuel he would use. The Bockscar had already circled te...
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