The Forgotten Tragic Loss of American Airmen at Hiroshima July 29, 2010

Tom Cartwright, standing 3rd from Left, Only Survivor of Lonesome Lady Crew Which Was in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

B-24 Liberator "Lonesome Lady" Nose Art

On This Date in History:  By the end of July 1945, the allies pretty much had secured air superiority over the Empire of Japan.   The Japanese, however, showed no signs of giving up any time soon so the Americans continued to bomb targets on the Japanese mainland.  On the morning of July 28, 1945 several small groups of B-24 Liberators took off to fly their mission.  The target was the Japanese Battleship Haruna, one of the few battleships remaining in the once mighty Japanese Navy.  The group of planes that included the “Lonesome Lady” was short one plane so it only had 5 B-24s in its flight.  Now, the Haruna was anchored in the Kure Harbor Naval Base, which was heavily armed with anti-aircraft defenses.  The Haruna and other vessels at the base also were naturally heavily armed.  Members of the US Army Air Corps generally had a rule of thumb: “never fly over a battleship.”  However, Lonesome Lady pilot Lt. T.C. Cartwright knew that orders always trumped rules of thumb.

The Lonesome Lady Turned Back Over Land Instead of Safety of Sea

After the Lonesome Lady dropped its bombs,  Cartwright noticed that one of its companion planes, the Taloa. was shot down.  One of those killed in the crash of the Taloa was Lt. Robert C. Johnston, whose family learned of his fate in 2009.  Shortly after the Taloa fell from the sky, another B-24 went down, though it was able to make its way toward a US held island near Okinawa.   The Lonesome Lady took a hit and Cartwright thought that he could make it back to the ocean but he soon realized that the damage was to allow for that strategy.  The plane became so uncontrollable that it deviated from its heading toward the sea back toward the land on its own.  With an engine in flames and the hydraulics lost, the plane was completely out of control.  Cartwright ordered the crew to bail out and, to the best of his knowledge, Cartwright was the last to leave the doomed bomber.

Youthful Lonesome Lady Pilot Tom Cartwright

All of the crew came to earth safely but in a very wide area.  Each one was alone and each one was eventually captured and taken to a military installation for detention.  On this date in 1945, the crew of the Lonesome Lady found themselves housed in a military detention center.  They later found out that the detention center was on a military base in Hiroshima, Japan.   While the base was one of many in Hiroshima, none were intended to be military detention centers and so they had no experienced interrogators.  It is quite interesting that Cartwright said that, at that point in the war, air crews were briefed to tell the Japanese the correct answers to anything that they asked.  Apparently, US military officials felt that whatever the captured crews told their captors, the Japanese already knew the information so there was no sense it risking torture or undue harrassment.  So, Cartwright said that he answered all of the questions put before him truthfully.  Nevertheless, the Japanese thought he was lying so they sent him to the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo for further questioning.  Normally, such a trip may result in terrific torture and pain for the unfortunate POW who was sent to such an interrogation facility.  It was not uncommon for prisoners to be beheaded.   For Cartwright, the moved proved to be a lifesaver.

Durden W. Looper

On the morning of August 6, 1945 the US B-29 Bomber called the Enola Gay dropped, “Little Boy”,  the first atomic bomb used in warfare on Hiroshima, Japan.  The target was the Aioi Bridge crossing the Ota River.  About a half mile from the target was the crew of the Lonesome Lady along with the survivors of two other flight crews that had been shot down.  One of those flight crews is suspected to  have included three men from the Taloa.    Amazingly, the solid brick walls somewhat withstood the force of the initial blast.  Nevertheless, only 3 of the prisoners are known to have survived the initial blast.  Included in the list of dead was Lonesome Lady crewman Lt. Durden W.  Looper.    US Navy pilot Normand Brissette and Lonesome Lady gunner Ralph Neal managed to get to a cesspool, where they remained nose deep in the muck until the flames died down.  When they emerged from their ghastly position, they were quickly recaptured by their guards.  That alone indicates the loyalty and fanaticism of the Japanese soldiers.  The city was totally destroyed by a nuclear weapons and they were still keeping an eye on a couple of US flyers who had hidden in a cesspool.

"Little Boy" Detonated 1870 Ft Above Aioi Bridge in Hiroshima

But, their hiding place could not escape their captors or the lasting effects of the atomic bomb.  With oozing sores and constant vomiting, the two men both died a terrible and slow death.  The third American prisoner who survived was not as lucky.  He was made a scapegoat for the destruction of the city.  No one knows for certain whom the flyer was but an eyewitness is said to have described him as “the handsomest boy I ever saw.”  He was tied to what was left of the Aioi Bridge with a sign hanging from him that read, “Beat This American Soldier Before You Pass.”  Lonesome Lady pilot Tom Cartwright survived the war.  Cartwright said that 50 POW’s were beheaded after the Japanese surrender but he was spared.  On August 28, a month after he was shot down, the POW camp where Cartwright was being housed was liberated by US Marines.  Of the 3000 Japanese Americans who were stranded in Hiroshima at the beginning of the war, about 1000 survived the atomic bomb and returned to the United States.

Andersonville Plaque Commemorating Flight Crews Killed Inadvertantly at Hiroshima

War often has unintended consequences.  The crew of the Lonesome Lady was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Quite often, such stories are filled with “what ifs.”  What if the Cartwright had been able to control the plane just a little longer?  What if the plane went out of control toward the ocean instead of turning around back toward land?  Why did the Japanese spare the life of the pilot of the Lonesome Lady but subject a crewman to beating and torture while tied to the Aioi Bridge?  If any of these instances were altered, the story might have turned out differently.  But, alternative history is fantasy and it is what it is.   While the story of the tragic loss of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, which secretly delivered the bomb to Tinian Island is well known, the story of the Lonesome Lady is not.  There is however, a commemorative plaque at a memorial located at the infamous site of the Civil War Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

Weather Bottom Line:  A cold front will ease through the first part of the day and clouds will give way to some sunshine and afternoon heating may produce an errant afternoon shower behind the front.  We will have a short drying trend and also a short lived slight reduction in the heat.  Today we’ll most likely get to near 90 and Friday afternoon will be in the upper 80′s after a morning start in the low 70′s. Neither of those numbers are cool on their own but in relation to lows in the mid 70′s and highs in the low to mid 90′s, its an improvement. It won’t last though because the front comes back as a warm front bringing a chance of rain and t’storms with it on Saturday and then the higher heat and humidity after that along with the threat of scattered afternoon t’storms through at least mid week.

The Greatest Maritime Disaster in US History: Sultana April 27, 2010

Steamboat Sultana Looked Overloaded to Everyone but the Captain

Extremely Overcrowded Steamship Sultana April 26, 1865 near Helena, Arkansas

On this Date in History:  When we think of maritime disaster, one immediately thinks of the RMS Titanic.  After all, there have been numerous movies and documentaries that detail and discuss the incident.  When the news of the Titanic hit the papers, any other news of the day was lost to the backpages and buried.  Hence, when Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, she had the misfortune of doing so the day after the Titanic sunk.  She died not too long after and so most Americans think of Amelia Earhart as the first lady of flight.  Back in 1865, the news of the killing of John Wilkes Booth on April 26 dominated the media.  So, when the greatest disaster in maritime history took place, it too was left to the backpages and since, like Harriet Quimby, has been largely lost in the conscience of American history.  Timing, they say, is everythying.

 The steamboat Sultana was steaming north on the Mississippi River shortly after the conclusion of the American Civil War when three of its four boilers exploded. The Sultana was rated to carry a maximum 376 passengers. On the fateful journey, it was overloaded with some 2200 to 2500 former prisoners of war returning home on this date in 1865 along with the crew and some civilian passengers.  The incident occured around 2AM about 7 miles north of Memphis, TN as it moved against the strong Mississippi River current. Many of the passengers were wounded Union soldiers. The deaths of at least 1700 souls was brought about by the fact that the boilers catastrophically failed in the middle of the night, the river current was strong and turbulent and extremely hot water and fire rained on surviors.  Unlike the news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Sultana disaster was relegated to the back pages of most US newspapers.

Andersonville 1864

What adds to the tragedy is that the vast majority of those on-board were Union prisoners of war who had been held in the infamous Andersonville Confederate prison and other prisons such as Cahaba (aka Cahawba).  These soldiers, many wounded and extremely frail from their time in horrid prison conditions, wanted to get home as quickly as possible.  But, it was not just the desire to get home that resulted in the overloading of the boat.  I mean, the Captain could have simply said that his boat was full and told the rest to wait for the next one.  But, the policy of the government in providing transportation was to pay 5$ for each soldier transported.  Keep in mind that most soldiers received about $15 a month while they were fighting so $5 was a pretty good chunk of change.  It was such a good deal for the steamboats that boat captains regularly paid US Army officers $1.15 for every man that officer directed to a particular steamboat.  Bottom line is that the more people a captain could stuff on his boat, the greater his profit.

Andersonville Survivor-Many on the Sultana Were Very Frail

Now, the soldiers were loaded on board in Vicksburg, MS for a trip to Cairo, IL and the Sultana was just one of many boats providing transportation.  It was the chance of a lifetime for steamboat operators and any delay would result in the potential loss of profits.  So, when one of the boilers on the Sultana sprang a leak while in port at Vicksburg,   the captain ordered a patch be put on the leak.  This was a shortcut and perhaps a fatal mistake.  Most researchers suggest that the bulge in the boiler should have been removed and replaced.  But that would have taken about 4 days so the captain went the 1-day patch route.   If he had waited 4 days, other steamboats would certainly have picked up the precious cargo and there would be no way to make up for the loss as this mass transport would happen just once.   Historians Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley say that the US Army officers knew of the maintanence issues with the Sultana but were eager to get the $1.15 per man kick-back and loaded the unknowing soldiers on board.

On April 24, 1865 at about 9 pm, the Sultana cast off from Vicksburg.  Captain J. Cass Mason, who is described by the US Naval Institute as “respected” but “reckless,  told an army officer that he’d carried that many men in the past and that the boat was sturdy.  Mason was well aware that his boat was extremely overcrowded but did not consider it overloaded.  He assured the officer that the Sultana was a good ship and the men were in very capable hands.   The officer told Captain Moss, “Take good care of them.  They are deserving of it.”    With that, the ship was on its way to Memphis where on April 26, 1865 it stopped to pick up a load of coal.  At around midnight, it cast off again to continue it’s journey.  The repaired boiler exploded about 2 AM on this date in 1865 and the fact that it was only 7 miles upstream illustrates just how slow it was moving.  Between the load it was carrying and the flow of the river against it, it was only able to muscle 3.5 miles per hour.  The strain on the patch was too much.  It exploded and that caused two others to immediately blow up.  Fire raced through the boat, the two smokestacks fell and crushed many on the deck.  Keep in mind that a steamboat boiled water to create the steam so scalding water no doubt affected numerous passengers, many of whom were unable to move due to their condition and were in great pain from their wounds.

The Sultana was but 260 feet long with a draft of just 7 feet.  The RMS Titanic was 882 feet long.  The RMS Titanic had 2223 passengers and 700 survived the sinking while 1517 perished.  The much smaller Sultana carried 2200 to 2500 and 1700 to 1800  were killed in the disaster leaving  500 to 800  to survive initially, but 200 more would die later from their wounds.  The survivors of the Titanic were fortunate in that it was a still night with calm seas, but it was extremely cold and the water was freezing.  The weather conditions of the Sultana disaster weren’t nearly as cold, but the river had a very swift and turbulent current due to spring run-off from melting snow and seasonal rains upriver.  Those who escaped the exlosion had to fight the deadly current.  The boat itself was not completely destroyed in the explosion and fire but the hulk of wreckage floated downstream before ultimately sinking at Memphis where today it rests covered in mud and covered by the Mississippi River.

SPC Severe Probability Thurs AM to Fri AM

12Z Tue GFS Very Bullish for Rain Midday Derby Day

Weather Bottom Line:  I’m not convinced that it’s going to be dry for the Kentucky Derby Forecast.  The longer range models still show disagreement in that the European model keeps big storms several hundred miles to the West on Friday while the GFS has  a cold front draped across St. Louis.   Either way, we will get a warming trend ahead of the system beginning on Wednesday.  Moisture levels will also be increasing as we head to the low to mid 80′s. 

12Z Tue NAM Hold Rain Just West for Oaks Day

I still have an eyebrow raised about the prospects of severe weather around here but I don’t see a kicker.  Further, the GFS vertical profile prog doesn’t really present menacing severe indecies.  However, the GFS does throw out a little more than a half inch of rain for Friday afternoon which may mean we have a questionable Oaks Day Forecast.  I tend to think that we will be okay for Oaks Day.  I”m not sure if the progression will be as slow as the Storms Prediction Center seems to be going with, which is the European solution.  My guess is that the timing of this will be something in between the GFS and European.  Any slow down in the GFS solution will result in a pretty good Oaks Day.  But, the GFS throws out 2 inches of rain in Louisville from 1AM Saturday morning until 7 pm Derby Day.  Even if it’s slower, we get rain and t’storms for the afternoon.  Every model right now throws out some amount of rain for Derby Day.   So, if you are picking a horse early, a good mudder will be a wise decision.  However, I think the wisest thing will be to wait to make your wager.  There is such disagreement with the data that its difficult to really pin down a firm forecast.  While all indications are that we will have low level convergent flow and an increasing jet stream intensity, which would support t’storms, the timing is debatable.  Should that scenario play out and some sort of kicker like a shortwave come through the flow, then we’re talking severe potential.  I have a fair amount of confidence that the rain and t’storm chances will be high for Derby Day.  I feel pretty good about the idea that Oaks Day will be warm, breezy and partly cloudy.  But, there is enough uncertainty that its probably not a good idea to hang your derby hat just yet.