Project Alberta

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Group photograph of Project Alberta on Tinian.

Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was a section of the Manhattan Project which developed the means of delivering the first atomic bombs, used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) against the Empire of Japan during World War II. The mission of Project Alberta was three-fold: (1) design a bomb shape for delivery by airplane, then procure and assemble it; (2) support the testing work of Army Air Forces Projects W-47 (ballistic testing of atomic bomb design) and Silverplate (modification of B-29s to perform the mission); and (3) preparation of facilities to assemble and load the weapons, and their use during the actual missions.

Project Alberta was formed in March 1945. It continued the development work at Los Alamos under Norman F. Ramsey, and the testing conducted by the 216th Army Air Force Base Unit at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah. This included designing the exterior casings for the bombs, and discerning the ballistics information necessary to achieve reasonable accuracy and develop delivery tactics for protection of the crew from the resulting blast.

Much of Project Alberta's work consisted in training members of the 1st Ordnance Squadron (Special, Aviation), a unit of the 509th Composite Group created on 6 March 1945, whose function was to assemble the bombs on Tinian. Project Alberta was also responsible for developing the radar altimeters, timing clocks, and barometric switches placed in the weapons to keep them from prematurely detonating aboard the aircraft, before reaching detonation altitude, or remotely by emissions from Japanese equipment.

After completion of its development and training missions, Project Alberta attached 51 of its members, under the administrative designation 1st Technical Service Detachment, but referred to as the "Destination Team," to the 509th Composite Group at North Field, Tinian. Selection of Tinian was made by Commander Frederick L. Ashworth from Project Alberta in February 1945. The Destination Team was responsible for the preparation of facilities to assemble and load the weapons, and their use during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war ended, it participated in Operation Crossroads.

Origins

The Manhattan Project began in June 1941, during World War II.[1] Most of the project was concerned with producing the necessary fissile materials, but in early 1943, the project director, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., created the Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer to design and build atomic bombs.[2] Within the Los Alamos Laboratory, responsibility for delivery lay with its Ordnance Division, headed by Captain William S. Parsons.[3]

The size of the 17-foot (5.2 m) Thin Man bomb under development at Los Alamos in 1943 reduced the number of Allied aircraft that could deliver the bomb to the British Avro Lancaster and the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, although the latter required substantial modification. Any other airframe would have had to be completely redesigned and rebuilt, or carry the bomb externally. Parsons arranged for tests to be carried at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia in August 1943. No B-29 or Lancaster was available so a 9-foot (2.7 m) scale model Thin Man was used, and dropped from a TBF Avenger. The results were disappointing, with the bomb falling in a flat spin. This indicated that a thorough test program was required.[4][5]

Further testing of Silverplate B-29 aircraft and Thin Man and Fat Man bomb shapes was carried out at Muroc Army Air Field in March and June 1944. Testing shifted to Wendover Army Air Field in October 1944, and continued there until the end of the war in August 1945.[6]

Organization

Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was formed in March 1945, absorbing existing groups of Parsons's Ordnance (O) Division that were working on bomb preparation and delivery. These included Norman F. Ramsey's O-2 (Delivery) Group,Commander Francis Birch's O-1 (Gun) Group, Kenneth Bainbridge's X-2 (Development, Engineering, and Tests) Group, Robert Brode's O-3 (Fuse Development) Group and George Galloway's O-4 (Engineering) Group.[3][7]

Parsons became the head of Project Alberta, with Ramsey as his scientific and technical deputy, and Commander Frederick Ashworth as his operations officer and military alternate. There was two bomb assembly teams, a Fat Man Assembly Team under Commander Norris Bradbury and Roger Warner, and a Little Boy Assembly under Commander Francis Birch. Philip Morrison was the head of the Pit Crew, and Luis Alvarez and Bernard Waldman lead the Aerial Observation Team.[8][7]

Tinian

Crossroads

Notes

  1. ↑ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 25-26.
  2. ↑ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 40-41.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ramsey 2012, p. 340.
  4. ↑ Bowen 1959, pp. 91–92.
  5. ↑ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 380.
  6. ↑ Ramsey 2012, pp. 344–345.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Manhattan Project". Array of Contemporary American Physicists. Retrieved 8 February 2012. 
  8. ↑ Ramsey 2012, p. 346.

References

  • Bowen, Lee (1959). Vol. I, Project Silverplate 1943–1946. The History of Air Force Participation in the Atomic Energy Program, 1943–1953. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Air Force, Air University Historical Liaison Office. Retrieved 28 July 2013. 
  • Campbell, Richard H. (2005). The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-2139-8. OCLC 58554961. 
  • Ramsey, N. F. (2012). "History of Project A". In Coster-Mullen, John. Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man. United States: J. Coster-Mullen. OCLC 298514167. 
  • Hoddeson, Lillian; Henriksen, Paul W.; Meade, Roger A.; Westfall, Catherine L. (1993). Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44132-3. OCLC 26764320. 
  • Russ, Harlow W. (1990). Project Alberta: The Preparation of Atomic Bombs For Use in World War II. Los Alamos, New Mexico: Exceptional Books. ISBN 9780944482018. OCLC 24429257. 

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