[i] “…509th Bomber Squadron…”

“The 509th Composite Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and as the 509th Operations Group, is a current unit of the United States Air Force. It was tasked with developing and employing a combat delivery system for the Atomic bomb and conducted the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

The group later became a medium bombardment group of the Strategic Air Command, as the combat component of the 509th Bomb Wing, before being inactivated in 1952. Its lineage, honors, and history were also bestowed on the like-numbered wing in 1947.

The 509th Composite Group was constituted on December 9, 1944, and activated on December 17, 1944, at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets. Colonel Tibbets had been assigned to organize and command a combat group to develop the means of delivering an atomic weapon by airplane against targets in Germany and Japan. Because the flying squadrons of the group consisted of both bomber and transport aircraft, the group was designated as a “composite” rather than a “bombardment” unit.

The mission profile for both atomic missions called for weather scouts to precede the strike force by an hour, reporting weather conditions in code over each proposed target. The strike force consisted of a bombing aircraft, with the aircraft commander responsible for all decisions in reaching the target and the bomb commander (weaponeer) responsible for all decisions regarding dropping of the bomb; a blast instrumentation aircraft which would fly the wing of the strike aircraft and drop instruments by parachute into the target area; and a camera ship, which would also carry scientific observers. Each mission would have one “spare” aircraft accompanying it as far as Iwo Jima to take over carrying the bomb if the strike aircraft encountered mechanical problems.

The Hiroshima mission was flown as planned and executed without significant problems or diversion from plan. The Nagasaki mission, however, originally targeted Kokura and encountered numerous problems which resulted in the bombing of the secondary target, a delay in bombing of almost two hours, detonation of the bomb some distance from the designated aiming point, and a diversion of the strike force to emergency landings on Okinawa because of a lack of fuel. However the basic objectives of the mission were met despite the problems.

Lieutenant Jacob Beser flew on both attack aircraft (the only man to do so), although Maj. Charles W. Sweeney and crew observed Hiroshima from The Great Artiste and dropped the bomb on Nagasaki from Bockscar. Lawrence H. Johnston of Project Alberta observed all three nuclear explosions, including the Trinity test.

While the Nagasaki mission was in progress, two B-29’s of the 509th took off from Tinian to return to Wendover. Lt.Col. Classen, the deputy group commander, in the unnamed victor 94 and crew B-6 in Jabit III, together with their ground crews, were sent back to stage for the possibility of transporting further bomb assemblies to Tinian. However the plutonium cores were still at Site Y, and on August 13 Gen. Groves ordered that all shipments of material be stopped. His order reached Los Alamos in time to keep the third bomb from being shipped. The first Atomic War lasted 9 days, August 6 through August 15, 1945.

After the Nagasaki mission the group continued combat operations, making another series of pumpkin bomb attacks (12 dropped) on August 14. With the announcement of the Japanese surrender, however, the 509th CG flew three further training missions involving 31 sorties on August 18, 20, and 22, then stood down from operations.”

See Article at Wikipedia.org: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[ii] “… nuclear weapons which have been tested in New Mexico.”

“The first nuclear weapons test was conducted in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during the Manhattan Project, and given the codename “Trinity”. The test was originally to confirm that the implosion-type nuclear weapon design was feasible, and to give an idea of what the actual size and effects of a nuclear explosion would be before they were used in combat against Japan. While the test gave a good approximation of many of the explosion’s effects, it did not give an appreciable understanding of nuclear fallout, which was not well understood by the project scientists until well after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[iii] “…radiation…”

“The dangers of radioactivity and of radiation were not immediately recognized. Acute effects of radiation were first observed in the use of X-rays when the Serbo-Croatian-American electric engineer Nikola Tesla intentionally subjected his fingers to X-rays in 1896. He published his observations concerning the burns that developed, though he attributed them to ozone rather than to X-rays. His injuries healed later.

The genetic effects of radiation, including the effects on cancer risk, were recognized much later. In 1927 Hermann Joseph Muller published research showing genetic effects, and in 1946 was awarded the Nobel prize for his findings.

Before the biological effects of radiation were known, many physicians and corporations had begun marketing radioactive substances as patent medicine and radioactive quackery. Examples were radium enema treatments, and radium-containing waters to be drunk as tonics. Marie Curie spoke out against this sort of treatment, warning that the effects of radiation on the human body were not well understood (Curie later died from aplastic anemia assumed due to her work with radium, but later examination of her bones showed that she had been a careful laboratory worker and had a low burden of radium. A more likely cause was her exposure to unshielded X-ray tubes while a volunteer medical worker in WWI). By the 1930s, after a number of cases of bone necrosis and death in enthusiasts, radium-containing medical products had nearly vanished from the market.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[iv] …”the space craft was struck by a bolt of lighting”…

“Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms. The leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 60,000 m/s, and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 °C (54,000 °F), hot enough to fuse soil or sand into glass channels. There are over 16 million lightning storms every year.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[v] …”electronic wavelength”…

“In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Examples of wave-like phenomena are light, water waves, and sound waves. In a wave, a property varies with the position. For example, this property can be the air pressure for a sound wave, or the magnitude of the electric or the magnetic field for light. The wavelengths of frequencies audible to the human ear (20 Hz–20 kHz) are between approximately 17 m and 17 mm, respectively. Visible light ranges from deep red, roughly 700 nm to violet, roughly 400 nm (430–750 THz). For other examples, see electromagnetic spectrum.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[vi] …”space opera” civilization”…

“It was not until the 1920s that the space opera proper appeared in the pulp magazines Weird Tales and Amazing Stories. Unlike earlier stories of space adventure, which either related the invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, or concentrated on the invention of a space vehicle by a genius inventor, pure space opera simply took space travel for granted (usually by setting the story in the far future), skipped the preliminaries, and launched straight into tales of derring-do among the stars.

The first stories of this type were J. Schlossel’s The Second Swarm (Spring 1928) in Amazing Stories Quarterly and Edmond Hamilton’s Crashing Suns (August-September 1928) and The Star Stealers (February 1929) in Weird Tales . Similar stories by other writers followed through 1929 and 1930; by 1931 the space opera was well-established as a dominant sub-genre of science fiction.

The transition from the older space-voyage story to the space opera can be seen in the works of E. E. “Doc” Smith. His first published work, The Skylark of Space (August-October 1928, Amazing Stories), merges the traditional tale of a scientist inventing a space-drive with planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs; but by the time of the sequel, Skylark Three (August-October 1930, Amazing Stories) which introduces the space faring race of the Fenachrone, Smith had moved closer to a space opera mode.

Space opera in its most familiar form was a product of 1930s-40s pulp magazines. Like early science fiction in general, space opera borrowed much of its style from established adventure, crime, and thriller genres. Notable influences included stories that described adventures on exotic or uncivilized frontiers, e.g. the American West, Africa, or the Orient. The imagined future of space opera included immense space liners, intrepid explorers of unknown worlds, pirates of the space ways, and tough but incorruptible space police.

E. E. “Doc” Smith’s later Lensman Series and the works of Edmond Hamilton, John W. Campbell, and Jack Williamson in the 1930s and 1940s were popular with readers and much imitated by other writers. By the early 1940s, the repetitiousness and extravagance of some of these stories led to objections from some fans.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org