 Robert
Jensen
(6th Bomb Group, 20th Bomber Command
Tinian Island—1944-1945)
Bob Jensen returned to Denver in 1942
after working in California
for several years. Always a kind and quiet man, he resembled a venerable Washington senator with a
mane of white flowing hair and Roman face. At other times, his
countenance was that of a mischievous elf who loved playing practical
jokes on family and friends. His wartime photographs show an easy-going
soldier with a flair for the dramatic. With the exception of a few
wartime letters and his recently discovered memoirs, his feelings
regarding the war were kept close to his chest.
At the end of the Depression, Bob found a decent paying job on the West
Coast, one that gave him the opportunity of pursuing his childhood dream
of working with aircraft design and construction at Consolidated
Aircraft, and escaping the monotony of farm work. The attack on
Pearl Harbor changed the direction of his life once again.
Bob became a witness to the dawn of the atomic age and the end of the
Pacific War.
Robert Jensen, 6th Bomb Group
Tinian
Island, April
1945
We have been working almost twenty-four hours a
day. It was worth it, however, because we sure gave the Japs in several
cities a real hot foot. It is surprising and amazing how successful the
missions have been,” I would like to see every city large or small
completely flattened, and all of the Japs killed.
For several weeks, our bombers left here loaded
with fire bombs. They left Tokyo
burning like a forest fire. The heat from the fires was so intense that
the thermal currents turned one of our planes completely over. After
this strike every major industrial city—Nagoya,
Osaka,
and
Kobe—were
hit. You would be surprised at the tonnage dropped, even though our
planes numbered only a few hundred. Wait until we send about a thousand
of our planes over
Japan.
We will sink their islands. The 39th
Squadron never lost a plane in all of those raids, regardless of what
Tokyo Rose might have
said to the contrary.
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Flight crew # 3902 of the ill fated B-29,
The Anne Garry III being loaded on morning of April 12,
Anne Garry III (February 1945)
1945 for a mission against Koriyama, Japan |
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August 8, 1945
On this morning, ground personnel
at North Field,
Tinian
Island
congregated behind a cordoned-off, Y-shaped hard pad adjacent to runway
number one. It was one of the few times that other military personnel
had been able to approach these specially adapted planes. A
10,800-pound, plutonium-enriched bomb called “Fat Man” was off-loaded
from a straddle carrier into a large concrete-lined pit.
Bock’s Car, the B-29 assigned
to deliver the second atomic bomb, was then towed over the pit the pit
in preparation for loading the enormous piece of ordinance.
A tenting material covered the area and part of the
B-29 to keep away the hot summer’s sun; no one knew for sure how
fissionable material reacted with the sun’s heat. The bomb loading team
moved about in secrecy underneath the tarpaulin. An air of expectancy
enveloped the waiting crowd.
“I didn't see the first A Bomb loaded,” remembered
Robert Jensen briefly of the day’s importance. “But I did observe the
second one. It was a fat lemon-shaped one, light green in color. It took
a tractor-trailer just to load it. The bombs were loaded from a pit like
the old service station grease pits.” He later remembered, “By the grace
of God, my family had survived the war. I thought it was a miracle.”
September 2, 1945 and VJ-Day
On Sunday, I flew to Tokyo
and Yokohama
as a Right Waist Gunner with Captain Clay. We took off from
Tinian
at 0205 hours in the morning with twenty of our planes. It was a long
trip but certainly worth the time. We passed over
Iwo Jima
on both the outgoing and returning trips. As our formation came
together, we flew low over
Tokyo
at 7,000 feet. The plains around the city are certainly beautiful. It is
all under cultivation. Everything is green. However, Tokyo is a sad looking place. Great areas of
the capitol were left with nothing but red ash. Only a few modern
buildings were still standing in the downtown section. The destruction
from the B-29s was far greater than anyone ever thought; nearly 80
percent of the city was burned. As for Yokohama,
the nearby neighbor of Tokyo, the destruction was
100 percent. There is not enough left of the city to write about.
We flew over the battleships USS Missouri and South
Dakota at about 1030 hours where the surrender terms were signed by the
civilian and military representatives of the Emperor and the signatories
for the Allied powers. We could see the scores of ships huddled around
the USS Missouri and the men dressed in their white uniforms standing on
the deck. After circling Tokyo
two more times at an elevation of 1,000 to 1,500 feet, we headed for
home. The war is over.
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