Tinian and the 509th.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

This runs about two hours, so make some popcorn and settle back.
A surprisingly good documentary about the B-29s flying from Tinian and the 509th composite group. Something that never added up when researching the 509th that was finally answered for me:

I had read that the other B-29 squadrons resented the 509th once they showed up. One of the beefs was that the 509th "stole" the tail markings from the other squadrons for their aircraft. This is the first time I heard that the 509th used their original tail marking (black circle with a black arrow) until "Tokyo Rose" announced their arrival on her radio show. That was when the tail markings were repainted using the marks of the other squadrons.

One other note, the University of Maine, Presque Isle is a very small college. Its also my first alma mater where I snagged an associates degree in math and science in the early 80's.

Edit- Crap. It doesn't embed here so either click the link or go to YouTube and load "v=_kLmk9MfT00".

When I think of Tinian, I think of the U.S.S Indianapolis and the brave souls lost on her. As most know, " Indy " was delivering either the " Little Boy " atomic bomb or components of it. It was lost when a Japanese submarine torpedoed her. Of the 1,196 men, around 900 made it into the water. There they remained for 4 days. 879 crew members perished, including four who died despite being rescued from the water. That left only 317 survivors. Many died as the result of shark attacks.



" Quint " in the movie Jaws gives a harrowing description of the shark attacks. It's hard to listen to the recount of the shark attacks.



Quint goes into his description at 2:28