The Great Artiste

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The Great Artiste nose art.
The Great Artiste nose art.

The Great Artiste was a U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 bomber (B-29-40-MO 44-27353, victor number 89), assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group, that participated in the atomic bomb attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Assigned as the aircraft of Major Charles W. Sweeney, it was flown to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, as the blast measurement instrumentation aircraft. On the mission to bomb Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, it was to have been the aircraft carrying the bomb, but the mission schedule had been moved forward two days because of weather considerations and the instrumentation had not yet been removed from the aircraft. To avoid delaying the mission, Sweeney traded airplanes with the crew of Bockscar to carry the Fat Man atomic bomb to Nagasaki. The crew of Captain Frederick C. Bock flew The Great Artiste to Nagasaki on its instrument support mission, and landed with it on Okinawa at the conclusion of the mission.

Built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Omaha, Nebraska, The Great Artiste was accepted by the Army Air Forces on April 20, 1945, and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, by its assigned crew C-15 (Capt. Charles D. Albury, Aircraft Commander) in May. It departed Wendover for Tinian on June 22 and arrived on June 28. There it was assigned victor number 9, but that was changed for security reasons to victor 89 on August 1. It had its nose art painted after the Nagasaki mission, and the name purportedly referred to undisclosed talents of the bombardier, Capt. Beahan.

In November 1945 it returned with the 509th to Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. On September 3, 1948, on a polar navigation training mission, it developed an engine problem after takeoff from Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador, and ran off the end of the runway attempting to land. Heavily damaged, it never flew again and was eventually scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949, despite its historical significance.

Hiroshima mission crew:

Crew C-15 (normally assigned to The Great Artiste)

  • Maj. Charles W. Sweeney, Aircraft commander
  • 1st. Lt. Charles Donald Albury, pilot
  • 2nd Lt. Fred Olivi, co-pilot
  • Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator
  • Capt. Raymond "Kermit" Beahan, bombardier
  • Cpl Abe Spitzer, radio operator
  • Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
  • Staff Sgt Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer
  • Staff Sgt Edward Buckley, radar operator
  • Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner

Project Alberta members on Hiroshima mission:

  • Luis Alvarez
  • Harold Agnew
  • Lawrence H. Johnston

Nagasaki mission crew:

Crew C-13 (normally assigned to Bockscar)

  • Capt. Frederick C. Bock, aircraft commander
  • Lt. Hugh C. Ferguson, co-pilot
  • Lt. Leonard A. Godfrey, navigator
  • Lt. Charles Levy, bombardier
  • Master Sgt. Roderick F. Arnold, flight engineer
  • Sgt. Ralph D. Belanger, assistant flight engineer
  • Sgt. Ralph D. Curry, radio operator
  • Sgt. William C. Barney, radar operator
  • Sgt. Robert J. Stock, tail gunner

Group Captain Leonard Cheshire of the Royal Air Force was an observer on Bock's crew.

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