ABSTRACT

Although the Air Force's 509th Composite Bomb Group (Very Heavy) had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the AAF itself had at best a peripheral involvement in the bomb's development. It had modified the B-29s and trained air and ground personnel of the 509th, but by the war's end, fewer than 20 of the AAF's top officers had even a rudimentary knowledge of the atomic bomb. The terrible damage inflicted on the two Japanese cities forced American air leaders to assess the impact of this powerful new weapon upon warfare in general and the Air Force in particular.5