Late in World War II, Col. Paul Tibbets Jr. took command of the 509th Composite Group to carry out a special, secret mission: attacking Japan with atomic bombs. The unit took shape at Wendover AAF, Utah, and then deployed to Tinian island in the Pacific. Practice and familiarization missions preceded the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The "Silverplate" B-29s shown on these pages were among those that carried out or supported the missions. 111 The tail symbol of the 509th was an arrow inside a circle, but to hide the unit's identity and confuse the Japanese, tail codes and symbols were regularly changed. The ground crew member here is repainting the vertical stabilizer symbol. 121 Bockscar, piloted by Maj.
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