ATTACK ON NAGASAKI

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 61, 10 September 1945, Page 5

ATTACK ON NAGASAKI

OBSERVER'S DESCRIPTION

Rec. 11 a.m.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9,

The War Department has released a graphic eye-witness account of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki written by William Laurence, the "New York Times" science writer and special consultant to the "Manhattan Engineer District," which developed the atomic bomb.

Laurence flew in one of the two SuperFortresses accompanying the 829 which released the bomb. . This was different from that dropped on Hiroshima.

The accompanying Super-Fortresses carried two distinguished British observers as well as high-speed cameras and special apparatus for measuring the explosion. Laurence said: "I saw the atomic substance placed in the bomb before leaving. It was not dangerous -to handle except under special conditions produced by the bomb, and even then yielded only a small fraction of its energy which, however, was equivalent to 20,000 to 40,000 tons of T.N.T.

"We watched the bomb fall. Despite the broad daylight, the giant flash pierced our arcwelder's glasses and flooded the cabin with intense light.

"We removed the glasses, but a bluish-green light still illuminated the entire sky. "A tremendous blast wave struck the plane, which trembled from nose to tail. Four more blasts followed rapidly, each resounding like a cannon and hitting our plane from all directions.

"Observers in the tail of the plane saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth belching enormous white smoke plumes. Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire shoot into the sky at enormous speed, like a meteor coming from the earth instead of from space, and becoming ever more lively as it rose into the sky. "The height of the pillar was 45,000 feet."