Jabit III

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Jabit III was the name of a B-29 Superfortress (B-29-36-MO 44-27303, victor number 71) participating in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group, it was used as a weather reconnaissance plane and flew to the city of Kokura, designated as the secondary target, before the final bombing to determine if conditions were favorable for an attack.

One of 15 Silverplate B-29's used by the 509th CG, it was manufactured at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Omaha, Nebraska, and delivered to the USAAF on April 3, 1945. Assigned to Crew B-6 (Maj. John A. Wilson, Aircraft Commander), it was flown to its home base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, in April 1945. It departed Wendover for Tinian on June 5, 1945, arriving June 11.

It was originally given the victor number 1 but on August 1 was given the tail markings of the 497th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 71 to avoid misidentification with actual 497th aircraft. Jabit III was used by the group commander, Col. Paul Tibbets, on July 24 and 25 to drop two dummy Little Boy atomic bomb assemblies into the ocean off Tinian to test fire their radar altimeter components.

The plane and crew were one of two sent back to Wendover on August 9, 1945, to stage for possibly bringing back the plutonium core and initiator for a third atomic bomb, but the war ended before that occurred. The plane had been unnamed when it left Tinian but was possibly given a name and nose art during its return to the United States. It was damaged in a landing accident in Chicago on September 29, 1945, while on a training flight and was scrapped in April 1946.

Hiroshima mission crew:

Crew B-6 (regularly assigned to Jabit III)

  • Maj. John A. Wilson, Aircraft Commander
  • 2nd Lt. Ellsworth T. Carrington, Co-Pilot
  • 2nd Lt. James S. Duva, Navigator
  • 2nd Lt. Paul W. Gruning, Bombardier
  • M/Sgt. James W. Davis, Flight Engineer
  • S/Sgt. Glen H. Floweree, Radio Operator
  • Sgt. Vernon J. Rowley, Radar Operator
  • Cpl. Chester A. Rogalski, Tail Gunner
  • Cpl. Donald L. Rowe, Assistant Engineer/Scanner

Two FB-111A strategic bombers of the USAF 509th Bomb Wing, serials 67-7193 and 68-0258, carried the original nose art of Jabit III on their nosewheel doors while based at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, in the 1970s and 1980s. -7193 was named Jabitt III and -0258 Jabit IV.

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