The legal aftermath to the Empire State Building Crash gave rise to the enactment of the Federal Tort Claims Act.
No big surprise. The new york times is crowing for socialism in England.
The A-26 was the plane of the 319th Bombing Group, who had been in Europe until early 1945, when it returned to the states to eventually become part of the Okinawa campaign. The plane itself doesn't seem to have made many friends during its short time in the air, and in any case Nagasaki was about to receive a more effective bomb, 11 days from now.
So on to two other short topics. First, I studied the weather map fairly closely, and discovered, not to my surprise, that the weather wasn't that different from any other late July between then and now, and neither were the temperatures different. Global warming advocates would not be pleased.
Second, a Google search of "United Negro News Service" brought up no hits. I have to assume the idea didn't go anywhere, presumably because of the integration that occurred in many business sectors in the late 1940s and 50s.
So Goering has developed a great fear of thunderstorms.
I can see why he would be afraid of God giving him the ZOT.
July 29, 1945: 509th Composite Group Receives Attack Order
Nobody knows
Into the air the secret rose
Where they´re going, nobody knows
Tomorrow they´ll return again
But we´ll never know where they´ve been.
Don´t ask us about results or such
Unless you want to get in Dutch.
But take it from one who is sure of the score,
the 509th is winning the war.
When the other Groups are ready to go
We have a program of the whole damned show
And when Halsey´s 5th shells Nippon´s shore
Why, shucks, we hear about it the day before.
And MacArthur and Doolittle give out in advance
But with this new bunch we haven´t a chance
We should have been home a month or more
For the 509th is winning the war
Anonymous, doggerel made up by pilots of other air groups about the “hush-hush” 509th
Activated on December 17, 1944, the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Corps was commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, at 29 already a seasoned air combat veteran in Europe. The flying units of the Group, in addition to support units, consisted of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron and the 320th Troop Carrier Squadron, 1767 personnel, 15 B-29 bombers and 5 C-54 transports. The Group was based and trained at Wendover Air Force Base in Utah.
Training was conducted in intense secrecy with the officers and men advised that any breach of security would be punished with the utmost severity, which might well include the death penalty. Curious officers and men of other units were warned away at gun point.
The unit re-deployed to Tinian on June 11, 1945. The unit engaged in numerous practice bombing missions, including twelve over targets over the Home Islands, with special “pumpkin bombs” replicating the dimensions of the “Fat Man” atomic bomb.
The order for the attack arrived on July 29, 1945. Four target cities were designated: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki, with the attacks to occur after August 3, 1945, when weather permitted.
Interview with the crew of the Enola Gay crew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Pt215DLio
Today is the 75th anniversary of the B-25 Empire State Building crash.
side bar foot note of the event:
In a book, which title I can’t recall, about the crash mentioned an event that occurred on W34th street.
An immigrant cab driver, perhaps Puerto Rican, on hearing the huge crash jumped out of his cab and started shooting his pistol into the air shouting “Viva La Revolucion!”, believing it had already started without him.