ATOMIC BOMB: BOCK'S CAR (FRED BOCK). Photograph signed: "Fred Bock/28 May '83". B/w, 10x8. U.S. Air Force typed caption affixed to verso: "Tinian Island, Marianas Islands - During the briefing in preparation for the first atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, a target study class was conducted for members of the 509th Composite Group." Captain Fred Bock was the pilot of the B-29 bearing his name. Major Charles Sweeney was the pilot of the Great Artiste, which had accompanied the Enola Gay on the Hiroshima mission. When Sweeney was given the assignment to drop the second atomic bomb, he decided to swap planes with Captain Bock to avoid the time-consuming hassle of removing the scientific measuring equipment from the Great Artiste. Photo fluid stain at edges. Fine condition.

This is a photo of "Crew C-13" taken in front of "Bockscar" at Wendover Army Airfield. This crew switched and flew on "The Great Artiste" on the Nagasaki Mission. Left to right, Ralph Curry (Radio Operator), Charles Levy (Bombardier), Robert Stock (Tail Gunner), Fred Bock (Pilot), Ralph Belanger (Asst. Engineer), Leonard Godfrey (Navigator), William Barney (Radar Operator), Hugh Ferguson (Co-Pilot), Rod Arnold (Flight Engineer). This photo was submitted by Ronald Pearson, whose grandfather was a pilot with the 1027th Air Material Squadron of the 509th Composite Group

ATOMIC BOMB: BOCK'S CAR The plane named after pilot Fred Bock. Photograph signed: "Fred/Bock". Color, 5x3½. "Photo by/Hugh V. Morgan" imprinted in gold in bottom right corner. Photograph of the cockpit of Bock's Car, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, hastening the end of World War II. FRED BOCK, a retired scientific researcher, piloted one of the planes monitoring the drop of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. His mission was to measure and photograph the devastating explosion. Bock, whose plane was used to drop the bomb on Nagasaki, died in Ink notations on verso (unknown hand). Light impressions of writing in upper right background (you have to look for it). Fine condition

BOCK'S CAR The world is told of the "Los Alamos Secret". Reproduction signed: "Fred Bock", 8½x11. Reproduction of the front page of the "Santa Fe New Mexican", August 6, Headline: "Los Alamos Secret Disclosed by Truman/ATOMIC BOMBS DROP ON JAPAN". The reproduction is of such a fine quality that every word can be read. The Associated Press article begins: "The U.S. Army Air Force has released on the Japanese an atomic bomb containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It produces more than 2,000 times the blast of the largest bomb ever used before...." A local article is headlined: "Deadliest Weapons in/World's History Made/In Santa Fe Vicinity". FRED BOCK ( ) was the pilot of Bock's Car, the B-29 named for him. For the flight over Nagasaki, Captain Bock and Major Charles Sweeney switched planes. Bock piloted The Great Artiste, which was used to measure and photograph the explosion. He rose to the rank of Major and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. Lightly creased. Light 3-inch diagonal crease touches the "Fr". Fine condition

The Great Artiste. This photo is signed by eight members of the crew of the The Great Artiste, the B-29 that carried out the mission of The Instrument Support Plane on the Nagasaki strike. The memory of this plane has to some degree faded from historic record except among the real cognoscenti and students of the history of the missions of the 509th Composite Bomb Group (the atomic bombers). This plane was scheduled to be the plane that dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki but their mission was redefined at the last minute and Bockscar was chosen as the second strike plane in place of The Great Artiste. For several weeks after the second bomb was dropped it was being reported by the media as having been the plane that dropped the second atomic bomb. This 8 in. x 11.5 in. color photo of the plane's nose is signed by eight of the crew all of whom flew the Nagasaki mission including Fred Bock (of Bockscar fame) as Plane Commander and Lawrence Johnston who signed as Scientific Yield Observer, Aug. 6 and 9, That signature is important in that Johnston was the only man who witnessed the detonation of all three atom bombs (he was also present at the Alamagorda, NM test). Fred Bock's autograph is very scarce and is sought after by collectors of this era because it is immortalized by the name of the plane Bockscar

F. C. Bock, 82, Monitor of Nagasaki Bombing< Published: August 29, 2000 Frederick C. Bock, a retired scientific researcher who piloted one of the planes monitoring the drop of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, died on Friday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 82. The cause was cancer, his family said. Dr. Bock flew a plane used to measure and photograph the devastating explosion. It came three days after the first bomb destroyed Hiroshima. A civilian observer on Captain Bock's B-29 Superfortress was William L. Laurence, science writer for The New York Times, whose account of the mission won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting in Mr. Laurence, in his book ''Dawn Over Zero'' (Knopf, 1946), described how the nine men of the crew and the plane's maze of instruments had melded into a single smoothly functioning unit. ''I watched Capt. Frederick C. Bock, the pilot of our ship, go through the intricate motions of lifting a B-29 off the ground and marveled at the quiet efficiency of this Michigan boy who had majored in philosophy at Chicago University,'' Mr. Laurence wrote. ''I talked to him on the ground and I was amazed at the transformation that had taken place. Man and machine had become one, a modern centaur.'' Born in Greenville, Mich., Frederick Carl Bock graduated from the University of Chicago in 1939 and enrolled in a graduate program in philosophy. When the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces and became a pilot. He flew combat missions from India across ''the Hump'' of the Himalayas. Later he was part of heavy bombing raids against Japanese targets flown out of China. He was selected for the 509th Composite Group of B-29's, secretly assembled in December 1944 under Col. Paul Tibbets, who commanded the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb over Hiroshima. In the second raid, Captain Bock's instrument plane was dubbed Great Artiste, while his squadron commander, Maj. Charles Sweeney, flew the captain's usual bomber, which he had named Bockscar, to drop the bomb on Nagasaki. Dr. Bock rose to the rank of major and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. After the war he returned to Chicago for his Ph.D. in zoology, specializing in genetics and mathematical statistics. While working at research institutes in Chicago, he developed algorithms for efficient strategies to solve complex problems. He retired in 1986 as a research scientist for Baxter Travenol Laboratories, for which he established a mathematical model of peritoneal dialysis. Dr. Bock is survived by his wife of 53 years, Helen Lossman Bock; two daughters, Katherine Jocz of Cambridge, Mass., and Heidi Teraberry of Arvada, Colo.; a son, Wyman, of Cheam, England; a sister, Gretchen Bock of Phoenix; two grandsons; and four great-grandchildren. The Bockscar is on display at the Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio. But for all the individual medals for their crews, the 509th as a unit never got an official decoration. Only last September, and partly on Dr. Bock's prompting, the secretary of the Air Force awarded the squadron the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, with valor, for exceptional service in combat.

FRED BOCK. ALS: "Fred Bock", 1p, 8½x11. Scottsdale, Arizona, 2000 March 2. To Ralph Norman. In part: "The men on Bob Lewis' regular crew you mentioned were replaced on the 6 August 1945 mission in Enola Gay by men whom Col Tibbets had brought in at Group level. McNamara died in Rider in Stewart Williams' latest address and tel. no. I have...Goodman and Laurence, who flew with me in The Great Artiste on 9 August 1945, are no longer living. Enclosed [not present] is material on the award of the AF Outstanding Unit with Valor decoration to the 509th by the Secretary of the AF on 2 September 1999 (after 54 years). I am proud of the role I had in this. My crew received no special medal for our part in the Nagasaki mission." On August 6, 1945, PAUL TIBBETS flew the Enola Gay, accompanied by two other B-29s filled with scientific and photographic equipment, over Hiroshima on a textbook-perfect mission to drop the first atomic bomb. Charles Sweeney flew one of the other B-29s, The Great Artiste, which carried scientific instruments. On August 9, 1945, Sweeney led a three-plane mission to drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Kokura. Because of weather conditions, the target city was changed to Nagasaki. Sweeney swapped planes with pilot FRED BOCK (Bocks Car) to avoid the hassle of transferring the scientific equipment from The Great Artiste to another plane to make room for the bomb. Slightly creased. Fine condition.

This is a photo of Col. Paul Tibbets sitting in a Jeep on Tinian Island. It is thought that this photo was taken just prior to the Enola Gay taking off on its mission to Hiroshima. According to Jim Curran, a visitor to our site, the identities of the men are as follows: on left, partial face, Lt. Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures officer; partial face in Jeep, unknown; behind wheel, Tibbets; standing next to Tibbets, Lt. Col. John Porter, ground maintenance officer; next with life vest, Sgt. Robert Shumard, assistant engineer; and on right in black cap; SSgt. George Caron, tail gunner. This photo was submitted by Michael Carol, whose father, Andrew Carol, was a Staff Sergeant with the 509th Composite Group

This is a photo of Major Chuck Sweeney, commanding officer of the 393rd Bomber Squadron and the pilot of "Bockscar" shaking hands with Col. Paul Tibbets, Commanding Officer of the 509th, just prior to take-off on the Nagasaki mission, August 9, The Navigator, Capt. James Van Pelt, is on the right. This photo was submitted by Ronald Pearson, whose grandfather was a pilot with the 1027th Air Material Squadron of the 509th Composite Group.