Breakfast before the bombing

We are on our way to bomb the mainland of Japan. Our flying contingent consists of three specially designed B-29 Superforts, and two of these carry no bombs. But our lead plane is on its way with another atomic bomb, the second in three days, concentrating in its active substance an explosive energy equivalent to 20,000 and, under favourable conditions, 40,000 tons of TNT8230;

This atomic bomb is different from the bomb used three days ago with such devastating results on Hiroshima.

It was the atomic substance before it was placed inside the bomb. By itself it is not at all dangerous to handle. It is only under certain conditions, produced in the bomb assembly, that it can be made to yield up its energy, and even then it gives only a small fraction of its total contents 8212; a fraction, however, large enough to produce the greatest explosion on earth.

The briefing at midnight revealed the extreme care and the tremendous amount of preparation that had been made to take care of every detail of the mission, to make certain that the atomic bomb fully served the purpose for which it was intended8230;

The briefing period ended with a moving prayer by the chaplain. We then proceeded to the mess hall for the traditional early morning breakfast before departure on a bombing mission8230;In command of our mission is Major Charles W. Sweeney, twenty five, of 124 Hamilton Avenue, North Quincy, Massachusetts. His flagship, carrying the atomic bomb, is name The Great Artiste, but the name does not appear on the body of the great silver ship, with its usually long, four-bladed, orange-tipped propellers8230;We took off at 3.50 and headed north-west on a straight line for the Empire8230;

The first signs of dawn came shortly after five o8217;clock8230;By 5.50 it was really light outside8230;Captain Bock informs me that we are about to start our climb to bombing altitude. He manipulates a few knobs on his control panel to the right of him, and I alternately watch the white clouds and ocean below me and the altimeter on the bombardier8217;s panel. We reached our altitude at nine o8217;clock. We were then over Japanese waters, close to their mainland8230;

We flew southward down the channel and at 11.33 crossed the coastline and headed straight for Nagasaki, about one hundred miles to the west. Here again we circled until we found an opening in the clouds. It was 12.01 and the goal of our mission had arrived. We heard the prearranged signal on our radio, put on our arcwelder8217;s glasses, and watched tensely the manoeuvrings of the strike ship about half a mile in front of us. 8220;There she goes!8221; someone said. Out of the belly of The Great Artiste what looked like a black object went downward.

Captain Bock swung around to get out of range; but even though we were turning away in the opposite direction, and despite the fact that it was broad daylight in our cabin, all of us became aware of a giant flash that broke through the dark barrier of our arc-welder8217;s lenses and flooded our cabin with intense light8230;

Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings. Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, 10,000 feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed.

By the time our ship had made another turn in the direction of the atomic explosion the pillar of purple fire had reached the level of our altitude. Only about 45 seconds had passed. Awe-struck, we watched it shoot upward like a meteor coming from the earth instead of from outer space, becoming ever more alive as it climbed skyward through the white clouds. It was no longer smoke, or dust, or even a cloud of fire. It was a living thing, a new species of being, born right before our incredulous eyes8230;

Excerpted from The Faber Book of Reportage8217;, edited by John Carey