Donald Orin Cole attended Loyal High School in Loyal, Wisconsin, beginning in September of 1939. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered World War II, declaring war on Japan the following day and on Germany and Italy on December 11. During his senior year in high school, Donald became interested in a junior girl by the name of Jeanette Catherine Beaver. They started dating. Donald graduated from high school in June of 1943. He registered for the draft but received a deferment because he was working on a large dairy farm near the home farm of his parents, Harry and Ernestina Cole. In fact, he was working for Ted Schwieso, Jeanette's brother, who was renting the farm from a neighbor who had retired.
However, the war was stirring the minds of many young men. Although Donald had a deferment that meant he would not have to serve, in December of 1943 he went to Neillsville, Wisconsin, the county seat of Clark County, and enlisted. He felt it was the right thing to do, and in case the draft would call for him to serve he could avoid a forced choice of which branch of the military in which to serve. Donald chose the Army Air Force. Two and a half years before, the U.S. Army Air Corps had become the U.S. Army Air Force; in another three and a half years (after the war), it would become a separate branch of the military the U.S. Air Force.
In January of 1944 he was called to report for service and was shipped to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri for basic training. After he finished basics, he was transferred to Laredo, Texas, to be trained as an Army Air Force gunner. Donald trained on B-24s as a belly gunner during the first part of gunner training. After take-offs he clambered into a ball turret made of glass panels in a metal grid; its door was closed and locked. The ball turret was then hydraulically lowered below the belly of the plane so that he could practice shooting. Before landing, the ball turret would be raised back into the plan's fuselage, so he could exit. After his initial training, Donald was transferred two more times' first to Clovis, New Mexico, and then to Lincoln, Nebraska, each move so that he could receive more intensive training as a gunner. At both locations, he was given various health checks and was put into chambers to test his ability to withstand high altitude flying. All of this training, from basic training through the two stints of intensive gunner training, took about nine months.
In October of 1944, Donald and others in his class very likely whoever had the best ability and scores from the training and testing were transferred to Wendover Field in Utah, for further training. The gunners were assigned to join pilots, co-pilots, navigators, radar operators, radio operators, flight engineers, and bombardiers to make up squadrons of fifteen attached to bomber aircraft. This was the beginning of the 509th Composite Group and the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. was assigned as commanding officer of the 509th Composite Group; Major Charles W. Sweeney was assigned as Commanding Officer of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron (VH or very heavy). There were 15 different crews in the 393rd squadron, and they were labeled A-1 through A-5, B-6 through B-10, and C-11 through C-15. Donald was assigned to Aircraft Commander (and pilot) Charles F. McKnight and crew B-8. The crews were not told exactly what they were being trained for but would soon learn that they were being prepared for high-altitude, precision bombing. Although the fliers did not know this, these crews had been formed for the initial training of dropping the atomic bomb.
At Wendover, Donald's squadron started their bomber training with the Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. Built by Boeing, the B-29 Superfortresses were the most sophisticated, propeller-driven bombers to fly during World War II, and the first bombers to house crews in pressurized compartments. Those flying in unpressurized B-24's on missions over Germany faced cruelly cold conditions, in some cases down to 40 degrees below zero Farenheit. Moreover, cabin pressurization enabled the B-29 to over fly most of Japan's defenses at high altitude, up to 40,000 feet. This would be out of the range of anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Boeing installed very advanced armament, propulsion, and avionics systems into the four-propeller, heavy bomber Superfortresses. Again, unlike the B-24's used in the early stages of the war, the B-29 had enough headroom to permit crewmen to stand in the two main compartments. Crewmembers on the B-29s were housed in three pressurized compartments: the nose section, waist section, and tail gun turret. A communication tube or tunnel about 30 inches in diameter and 34 feet long through which crewmen could crawl joined the nose and waist compartments. This tunnel traversed the area inside the fuselage above the bomb bays. The waist compartment behind the bomb bays housed the side gunners and radar constellation. Fully armed B-29s were defended from fighter attack by five powered gun turrets: upper forward, upper aft, lower forward, lower aft, and tail. The maximum bomb payload for the Superfortress was 20,000 pounds.
The crews of the 393rd squadron flew training missions for a few weeks. However, quite suddenly, the maintenance workers went to work on each B-29, removing four gun turrets and leaving only the single gun turret for the tail gunner. Over the sites where the upper forward, upper aft, lower forward, and lower aft gun turrets had attached to the plane's fuselage, they riveted special makeshift patches that came to be known as "blisters." Superiors informed the crews that the planes would be used for high altitude flying and, in order to lighten the load, the four gun turrets and related ammunition were being removed. The superiors further instructed the crews that they were not allowed to tell anything regarding the planes and training, or ask any questions because all of this was part of a secret project. At the same time, Donald's duties changed from gunner to assistant engineer/scanner; he was now classified as a technical assistant with the responsibility of helping the head engineer. With the removal of the four gun turrets on each plane, the size of the B-29 crews were reduced from fifteen to nine, and many gunners were transferred elsewhere.
From Wendover Field, Donald Cole's B-29 crew began training in high altitude flights over California and the Pacific Ocean. It was during one night flight over the Pacific that the crew experienced an unanticipated emergency. The pilot had made the turn back toward their home base at Wendover Field in Utah, and the crew was in the more relaxed mode of a routine training flight; they were not wearing their parachutes. The navigator had been bearing some equipment to "shoot the stars" in order to determine their location and had set it aside in the tunnel. He moved up to stand between the pilots. Before long, he was seeing the lights of Oakland, California, in the distance. Donald moved into the engineer's seat. They were flying at 28,000 feet when Donald noticed the pressure gauge quivering. He told the engineer and then, in turn, the pilot about this concern. The pilot took the plane down to 24,000 feet. Then, without warning, there was a huge noise and a blizzard of insulation and packing came flying through the air toward the front of the plane. Where the "blister" over the lower front gun turret had been, there was now a gaping hole. The plane lost cabin pressurization as oxygen masks, oxygen hoses, parachutes, and a small oven were sucked out the gun turret hole.
The flow of air from the back of plane rushing through the tunnel toward the hole caused one of the navigation instruments to strike the navigator in the back of the head. He dropped to the floor, momentarily stunned and disoriented. Insulation and packing continued to fly out the hole as crew members tried to return to their stations. Donald vacated the engineer's seat so that the head engineer could return to his instrument panel.
As the navigator regained semi-consciousness, he tried to return to his station. But, the gun turret hole was beside his station, just feet away. If he went to his station, he would be sucked out the hole. Donald and the co-pilot had to hold him back from returning to his station. The pilot dived for lower altitude. As the air pressure equalized, the flying debris quieted down. Finally, the navigator realized the danger in returning to his station and gave up struggling to reach it. The pilot radioed and received permission for an emergency landing at the Oakland airport. After a safe landing, the crew was put in sleeping quarters at the military base there overnight.
The next morning the commanding officer on the base asked the pilot why there were missing gun turrets on the bomber. The pilot would not answer. When the commander continued to press, the pilot called the home base at Wendover to have the crew's home base commander talk to the Oakland commander. After the Oakland commander had received a satisfactory answer from Wendover, he let the pilot and crew return to their plane. Maintenance workers riveted a new patch over the gun turret hole, and the crew flew back to their home base.
Days later in early 1945, Donald's B-29 crew transferred with 10 or 11 other crews to Cuba to receive additional training in night flying over the ocean. This portion of the training held some moments that were more like a vacation, with the warm weather and beautiful setting.
After the time in Cuba, Donald was given a furlough and returned home. He and Jeanette Beaver became engaged on April 21, 1945. A week later on April 28, 1945, he served as best man and Jeanette Beaver served as maid of honor for his sister's wedding.
When Donald and crew returned to Wendover Field in Utah on the last day of April, their superiors assigned them to new "Silverplate" B-29s. These new shiny, sleek-skinned Superfortresses were a stunning sight. It was not until much later that the crews learned these planes had been built just for carrying the atomic bomb. They did know that they had been modified with fuel injection engines, electric pitch-controlled propellers, and again only the one gun turret in the tail. Further, they were built with very rugged provisions for carrying a heavy bomb, including reconfiguration of bomb bay doors, relocation of the suspension hook, modification of the sway braces, provision of shock mounts, and replacement of the bomb release mechanism. The new plane for crew B-8 was the Silverplate B-29 Superfortress with Victor number 72 (or V 72, a plane identification number) the plane was later named "Top Secret."
In June 1945 their commander at Wendover sent the B-29 crews to Tinian close to Saipan, both islands in the Northern Mariana Islands of the western Pacific Ocean. After their capture from the Japanese in mid-1944, the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and nearby Guam all in the Marianas almost due south of Japan became major staging areas for B-29 bombing runs against the Japanese homeland. The islands had multiple runways to handle the heavy traffic of multiple operations and missions. In fact, 24 buildings and two pits for loading bombs had been constructed on Tinian since April just for the 509th Composite Group. Meanwhile, other bombing runs against the Japanese islands that had started in 1944 were continuing on a regular basis from India, China, and other locations, including flights by B-24s, B-25s, and B-29s.
The crews of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron in the 509th Composite Group began their bombing runs over Japan in July 1945. Each mission took 13 hours for the round trip with a huge bomb or "pumpkin." Because of their shape and orange painting, the bombs were dubbed "pumpkins." The heavy bombing done up to this time had been conducted with conventional 2,000-pound high explosive or general-purpose bombs. Those bombs were filled with the traditional explosive TNT, which made up 50% of the bomb's weight. However, the B-29s flying from Tinian carried much larger, conventional TNT-filled bombs weighing 10,000 pounds. These were the heaviest weapons dropped by the U.S. forces in combat during World War II.
Starting on July 20, 1945, the 393rd Bombardment Squadron began a series of 12 precision attacks over Japan for the purpose of familiarizing the crews with the target area and tactics contemplated for the scheduled atomic bomb missions' though the crews did not know this was the over-riding purpose behind these very real missions. In fact, some time during July two atomic bombs were carefully shipped from the United States mainland to Tinian "in pieces" to join the 509th Composite Group. However, in the combat missions that started on July 20, the "pumpkins" were dropped in lieu of atomic bombs.
The crews would often take off in the early morning hours around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., returning to Tinian mid or late afternoon. On July 20, among the ten bomber crews sent on strikes, Donald and the rest of crew B-8 were ordered to join the attack. As it turned out, they dropped their bomb by radar from Top Secret on their secondary target, an urban area in the city of Otsu. On July 24, again ten crews were ordered into action; Donald's B-29 crew again bombed their secondary target, this time visually, against heavy industry in the harbor city of Yokkaichi. On July 26, the B-8 crew under Commander McKnight was not among the ten crews ordered into action. On July 29, eight crews were sent aloft for bombing runs; the B-8 crew on board Top Secret for their third combat mission attacked the Industrial Soda Company plant in the city of Ube, their primary target, using visual targeting.
Next, Donald and crew were sent to Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island yet largest of the Volcano Islands, 760 miles south of Tokyo. This was a location about halfway from Tinian to Japan where their B-29 for the next mission (V-90 or later,"Big Stink") served as a standby plane in case something happened to another B-29 that was flying the same bombing mission. If some mechanical failure or other difficulty would cause the main plane or any accompanying plane to abort its part in the mission, it would land at Iwo Jima, and the standby plane and crew would take over. Bad weather for the next five days delayed the planned mission, moving it back from August 1 to August 6. As it turned out, the B-8 crew never had to take off on that day as the planes flying the mission did not encounter any difficulties. When the B-8 crew returned to Tinian, they learned from the crew of the B-29 named "Enola Gay" that their mission against the city of Hiroshima had been accomplished with an inexplicably huge detonation, much more powerful than those from the "pumpkins" they had been dropping. Much later they would learn that the "Enola Gay," piloted and commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, had dropped "Little Boy," a uranium atomic bomb. This was the world's first atomic bomb explosion intended for an enemy.
Two days later on August 8, 1945, six bombers of the 393rd Squadron flew among 381 B-29 Superfortresses on bombing missions over the Empire of Japan. Seven of the B-29s were lost to fighter attacks and mechanical problems; none from the 393rd. Donald's crew under Commander Charles F. McKnight did not fly; they were held in reserve for the next day's mission.
On August 9, 1945, Donald and the B-8 crew were awakened for a briefing, likely around 2:00 a.m., followed by an early breakfast. They took off at 3:45 a.m. and headed for Nagasaki. For this mission they flew a B-29 (Victor number 95 and later named "Laggin Dragon"). This plane served as a weather or observation ship to ensure visual sighting of Nagasaki in case a visual sighting of the primary target of Kokura could not be made. Radar bombing was not very accurate at the time, and superior officers wanted to do visual bombing. Major Charles W. Sweeney, piloting the B-29 (later named "Bock's Car"), headed to Kokura, but ground haze and smoke obscured the target even though three passes were made. As a result, Major Sweeney sought out the secondary target of Nagasaki. When they arrived at Nagasaki, there were just a few clouds, not enough to bother visibility. Major Sweeney ordered the bomb dropped. Later, Donald and crew would learn that the main payload on Bock's Car was a plutonium atomic bomb. Nicknamed "Fat Man," this bomb was a different type of atomic bomb than the one dropped three days before, and was even more powerful. This was the second atomic bombing of Japan. Donald and crew never saw the bombings or the telltale mushroom clouds of either bombing.
On the day following the Nagasaki mission, the Japanese initiated surrender negotiations. However, no official declaration was made.
Five days later on August 14, 1945, the U.S. sent a huge armada of 752 B-29 Superfortresses to fly seven missions against Japan; they returned without loss. Seven B-29's bombed Koromo and Nagoya with the huge "pumpkins" that had been used on the bombing runs prior to August 6. Donald and crew visually bombed the Toyota Auto Works in Koroma, their primary target and a target shared with two other bomber crews on that day. They returned safely to Tinian. Later that day, the crews were in barracks when someone came in hollering, "The war is over!" The Japanese had accepted Allied terms for unconditional surrender.
As the military operations were disengaged and preparations were being made to return home, they learned of the devastation of both bombings and their aftermath.
The atomic bombs had had an explosive force over 5,000 times that of the "pumpkins" the 393rd Squadron had dropped and over 25,000 times that of the more typical high explosive bombs dropped by other bombers. The crew was totally surprised. Donald Cole reported, "We just couldn't visualize something that destructive." The crew did not know about atomic energy and destructive nuclear power in the bombs that had been deployed. Everything was kept as secret as possible; only a few top men knew. Japan didn't know it at the time, but America had no more atomic bombs immediately available. To date, the two atomic bombs dropped by B-29s on Japan remain the only ones used in warfare.
To ensure that the successful occupation of Japan was well underway, it was two and a half months later, between October and November, before Donald's crew left Tinian. At that time, the crew flew Top Secret to Roswell, New Mexico.
The U.S. Army Air Force Composite Group out of Tinian did not lose any planes or men. The crews returned to the States and awaited discharge. During this time the men again received furloughs. Donald returned home, and he and Jeanette were married on February 18, 1946. Jeanette returned with Donald to his base at Roswell, New Mexico. They lived there for two months until April 1946 when Donald O. Cole was discharged from the U.S. Army Air Force as a Sergeant.
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