Charles Donald Albury (October 12, 1920 – May 23, 2009) was an American military aviator who participated in both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He piloted the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

B-29

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

known as the '' Bockscar'' during the mission that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The

bombing of Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

killed an estimated 40,000 people instantly, and led to Japan's unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, ending

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Early life

Albury was born in 1920 at his parents' home in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The Miami Police Department building currently stands on the site of Albury's

birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

, as of 2009.

World War II

Albury enrolled at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

school, but dropped out before he completed his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in order to enlist in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during World War II. He was one of three pilots assigned under the command of Captain

Charles Sweeney Charles William Sweeney (December 27, 1919 – July 16, 2004) was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and the pilot who flew '' Bockscar'' carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb to the Japanese city of Nagasaki on Aug ...

to test the XB-29 and YB-29 delivered to Eglin Air Force Base in September 1943. Albury joined (now Major) Sweeney at

Wendover Air Force Base Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II, it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

where he and Sweeney were invited by Colonel

Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the ''Enola Gay'' (named after his moth ...

to join what would become the nucleus of the

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

in September 1944. (The 509th Composite Group was activated December 17, 1944.) Tibbets initially organized two air crews: one headed by himself with Robert A. Lewis as co-pilot (cockpit crew of the '' Enola Gay'' during the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

), the other headed by Sweeney with Albury as the co-pilot. Lewis and Albury acted as pilots and crew commanders for their respective planes when Tibbets and/or Sweeney were not flying. Bocks-Car-enlisted-flight-crew

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, Albury witnessed the first atomic bombing of Hiroshima as pilot of the instrument observation plane, ''

The Great Artiste ''The Great Artiste'' was a U.S. Army Air Forces Silverplate B-29 bomber (B-29-40-MO 44-27353, Victor number 89), assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group. The aircraft was named for its bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan ...

'', which accompanied the '' Enola Gay'' commanded by Tibbets. Albury measured the levels of radioactivity and

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of the atomic bomb from his plane. He would later state in an interview with ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, "When Tibbets dropped the bomb, we dropped our instruments and made our left turn. Then this bright light hit us and the top of that

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently ener ...

was the most terrifying, but also the most beautiful, thing you've ever seen in your life. Every color in the

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

seemed to be coming out of it."

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sweeney's crew, with Albury as co-pilot, took off in the

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...

, nicknamed the '' Bockscar'', which would drop the atomic bomb known as the "

Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...

" on the city of

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

. The attack was delayed by cloud cover until the crew located a hole in the clouds. The ''Bockscar'' dropped the 10,200-pound "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, instantly killing 40,000 people, the vast majority of them munitions workers. An additional 35,000 Japanese citizens would succumb from radiation sickness and other injuries in the aftermath of the bombing. Immediately after the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, Albury flew with Tibbetts, Sweeney and close to twenty other members of their aircrews to Japan. The group eventually reached Nagasaki and witnessed on the ground the destruction caused by the atomic bomb. Albury stated repeatedly during his life that he did not have any

remorse Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a perso ...

for the attack or his role in the attack on

, noting that many more lives would have been lost if the United States had launched a full invasion of mainland Japan.

Post-war life

At the end of World War II, Albury moved to

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

with his wife, Roberta. He chose a career as a commercial airline pilot for the now defunct

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

and flew during their 1989

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

. He later became the co-

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

of Eastern's

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is a wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus. In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a large airliner. West ...

training program. He later moved to a house in Hunter's Creek (south Orlando) where he lived until his death. Charles Donald Albury died on May 23, 2009, at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, at the age of 88. He had suffered from congestive heart failure for several years before his death. He appeared in the

Smithsonian Networks The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facilit ...

program ''Smithsonian Channel's War Stories'', "The Men Who Brought the Dawn", in 1995, giving his recollections and reflections on the two atomic bomb missions.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Albury, Charles 1920 births 2009 deaths People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II Commercial aviators People from Miami People from Coral Gables, Florida United States Army Air Forces officers University of Miami alumni