Bockscar

As the B-29 bomber Bockscar headed to its initial target of Kokura on the morning of Aug. 9, 1945, thick haze and smoke forced it to switch at the last minute to Nagasaki, a second target.

Cloud cover and a fateful series of events led to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar dropping the atomic bomb with a plutonium core -codename Fat Man - over Nagasaki.

It was carried by the plane Bockscar, which was flown from the Mariana Islands and piloted by Maj Gen Charles Sweeney.

On the day the US was actually intending to bomb the city of Kokura, but bad weather obscured visibility, so Bockscar headed to Nagasaki instead.

Captain Kermit Beahan, Bockscar’s bombardier, activated the tone signal that opened the bomb bay doors and indicated 30 seconds until release.