“If We're Lucky” We'll Kill Tens of Thousands

Kokura was the target, but the bombardier couldn't locate it because the area was clouded. So the navigator took us to Nagasaki. We had gotten a report that the area was clear, but we noticed undercast clouds. By this time, we’d used almost an hour’s gas at the rendezvous point, and the engineer was really sweating it. It was going to be nip and tuck. I went up to Sweeney and said, “We're going to be able to make one run on this target - if we're lucky.” I told him to be prepared to use radar. This was in contradiction with orders we’d received that prohibited us from bombing without a visual target sight."

Vice Adm. Frederick L. Ashworth.

Richard Goldstein, “Frederick L. Ashworth, 93, Atomic Bomb Handler, Dies,” NYTs, 12/08/05. [emphasis added]