Minor WI re the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

I guess I have not explained properly.

Owning the airspace doesn't mean you are immune to AAA, unless the bomber flies well above the reach of the flak.

If the bomber is destroyed, even an unexploded bomb will be destroyed on impact as well even if the HE doesn't explode. I am not talking about "reverse-engineering" from thumb-sized pieces here.

If however a lucky hit results in main fuel lines being damaged, or something like this - the bomber is still in one piece and has a reasonable chance to get to ground in one piece, but not the range any more to get away from the island. What were the orders to the crew to ensure that the bomb doesn't fall into Japanese hands intact or semi-intact? Suicide by bomb or deliberately flying into ground seems unlikely, though possible. I guess the crew parachutes off the bomber and lets it crash in a random place, so that at least nothing falls into Japanese hands. Though the crew getting into Japanese hands would probably meet a very nasty fate anyway, so maybe suicide while still steering the plane seems like a viable option.

Again: I'm not following Eleven11's insanity.

IIRC, the crew, specifically the naval officer (Capt. Parsons?) assigned to the Hiroshima mission as an ordinance expert to arm the bomb had orders to do whatever it took not to let the bomb fall into enemy hands, and the bomb itself had a 3-stage fuze set for an airburst at 1900 ft. The first stage, disconnection of an electrical plug which would switch the bomb to internal batteries and after a 15-second delay activate the radar altimeters, which would normally happen upon release, but could be unplugged manualy. There was a barometric device that would act as a safety for the radar altimeter which would actually fire the detonator at burst height, and would disengage a couple thousand feet before that height. Presumably, if the bomb bay doors could be opened, it would be possible to rig the bomb to go off when the plane fell below burst height, while the gun-type construction was considered unstable and likely to accidently fire upon a sharp impact. (why the bomb was armed in flight)

The basic fuze arrangements on the Nagasaki bomb were similar, except for adaptations to work with the different detonator of the implosion type bomb, although that type was considered far more stable and much less likely to accidently fire due to a sharp impact.

And death could very well have been preferable to the way the Japanese treated downed B-29 crews, who were often killed out of hand, in many instances through torture, medieval methods of execution, or 'medical experiments' similar in nature to what Nazi 'scientists' such as Dr. Mengele or their own IJA types assigned to Unit 731 would perform. Even if a downed crew was not killed in such a manner, they were generally tortured for information before being sent to Japanese POW camps, which generally operated on similar lines to Nazi concentration camps.
 
IIRC, the crew, specifically the naval officer (Capt. Parsons?) assigned to the Hiroshima mission as an ordinance expert to arm the bomb had orders to do whatever it took not to let the bomb fall into enemy hands, and the bomb itself had a 3-stage fuze set for an airburst at 1900 ft. The first stage, disconnection of an electrical plug which would switch the bomb to internal batteries and after a 15-second delay activate the radar altimeters, which would normally happen upon release, but could be unplugged manualy. There was a barometric device that would act as a safety for the radar altimeter which would actually fire the detonator at burst height, and would disengage a couple thousand feet before that height. Presumably, if the bomb bay doors could be opened, it would be possible to rig the bomb to go off when the plane fell below burst height, while the gun-type construction was considered unstable and likely to accidently fire upon a sharp impact. (why the bomb was armed in flight)

The basic fuze arrangements on the Nagasaki bomb were similar, except for adaptations to work with the different detonator of the implosion type bomb, although that type was considered far more stable and much less likely to accidently fire due to a sharp impact.

And death could very well have been preferable to the way the Japanese treated downed B-29 crews, who were often killed out of hand, in many instances through torture, medieval methods of execution, or 'medical experiments' similar in nature to what Nazi 'scientists' such as Dr. Mengele or their own IJA types assigned to Unit 731 would perform. Even if a downed crew was not killed in such a manner, they were generally tortured for information before being sent to Japanese POW camps, which generally operated on similar lines to Nazi concentration camps.

Thanks. I didn't know about Western prisoners being "used" for medical experiments, but the rest was what I suspected.

Anyway, thanks for the concise and detailed answer.
 
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