Artifact Friday: Atomic Bomb Transport

This week is the 81st anniversary of the dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which would end four long years of fighting for the U.S.

A unique feature of the two atomic bombs was the transport method that was used to get them from point A to B. Though the transport methods might seem ordinary, as we have a trailer cradle that was similar to the one that pulled Fat Man, it was the last time such dangerous weapons could be transported in such a way.

The final transport of the two bombs was in B-29s, but before they arrived, the two bombs had to be transported from Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Tinian Island in the Pacific Theater. Before safety procedures, laws, and regulations became commonplace for these types of explosives, Little Boy and Fat Man had more interesting transport systems.

For both of the explosives, they were taken apart for the journey to the Pacific to then be reassembled at Tinian. Little Boy was loaded onto a train that was taken to San Francisco and then onto the USS Indianapolis to then be fully reassembled on Tinian Island. Fat Man was placed onto different B-29 planes and C-54 transport planes; however, there is an iconic photo of Fat Man being carried on a trailer cradle. This trailer cradle was used to transport Fat Man across Tinian Island to bring it to its final destination, the B-29 bomber that would drop it over Nagasaki.

The 81st anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a memorable one, one that stopped an invasion of Japan and led to the ending of World War II. The day that lived in infamy was the start of the U.S. in World War II, and the dropping of Fat Man was the end.