The Third Atomic Bomb Was Going To Be Dropped On 19 August

National Security Archive ^ | 13 August 1945 | General Hull and Colonel Seaman

[moonshot925]

This is a telephone conversation transcript between Colonel Seaman of the Manhattan Project and General Hull of Marshall's staff that took place on 13 August 1945. The subject is atomic bomb deployment and production timeline.

[moonshot925]

H[ull]: What General Marshall wants to know is the status of the development of these bombs so we can best determine how to use them. There's one of them due up the 23rd as I recall it.

S[eaman]: There's one ready to be shipped - waiting on order right now.

H: If the order is given now, when can it be ready?

S: Thursday would be its readiness; the 19th it would be dropped.

S: … Then there will be another one the first part of September. Then there are three definite. There is a possibility of a fourth one in September, either the middle or the latter part.

H: Now, how many in October?

S: Probably three in October.

H: That’s three definite, possibly four by the end of September; possibly three more by the end of October; making a total possibility of seven. That is the information I want.

S: So you can figure on three a month with a possibility of a fourth one. If you get the fourth one, you won’t get it next month. That is up to November.

H: The last one, which is a possibility for the end of October, could you count on that for use before the end of October?

S: You have a possibility of seven, with a good chance of using them prior to the 31st of October.

H: They come out approximately at the rate of three a month.

[Parley Baer]

Hmmmmm, I had always thought there were only two A-bombs ready to go. I guess a third one was on the way.

[Vaquero]

I had always been told that they only had enough fissile material for 3 devices. The test bomb at Los alamos and the 2 we dropped on the enemy.

Supposedly would have taken months for another bomb to be ready

[moonshot925]

There were three Model 1561 “Fat Man” bomb units assembled and held in reserve on Tinian the week after the Nagasaki mission.

They were labeled F101, F102 and F103.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I thought there were only two myself. I just watched a History Channel show about the last days of World War II, and they indicated that there was a define plan to drop a third bomb in Ausgust, if the Japanese did not agree to surrender.

I know Truman drafted a letter to the Prime Minister of Great Britain telling him that the U.S. intended to drop an A-Bomb on Tokyo if the Japanese did not surrender, despite British objections. The “Tokyo Bomb” was only in the planning stages, there was no date set for its deployment, but I believe that Truman would have nuked Tokyo before he attempted an invasion of Japan.

[InvisibleChurch]

That’s because “they didn’t build that”.

[21twelve]

Interesting conversation. Shows how they thought it might go with the tenacious Japs. Of course, looking back, it amazes me that they didn't surrender after the first one. Thank God for men like that back then, and a country that could do something like the Manhattan Project - during war time with shortages, etc.

In building the first large reactor they needed something like 16 tons of copper. But none available. They went to the treasury department and got 16.5 tons of silver to use instead! (Or some-such numbers).

[John W]

So Tokyo was to be the target of the third one?

[Randy Larsen]

They were labeled F101, F102 and F103.

Must have been early versions from Ford Motors.

[Hokestuk]

I thought there were only two bombs also, so Truman’s threat that “they may expect a reign of ruin from the air the likes of which has never been seen on this earth” was a bluff. Yet it sounds like they did have a 3rd, and then more in the works, so it could have been raining bombs, a rain of ruin.
Regardless, that’s what O has been doing to this country; he has been leading a reign of ruin, the likes of which has never been seen before.

[gorush]

Some book I read in the past convinced me that it was a huge military loss in Manchuria that led to the Jap surrender more so than the bombs...or a combination, certainly.

[moonshot925]

On 10 August 1945 General Groves, director of the Manhattan Project sent a memorandum to General Marshall, Army Chief of Staff.

"Providing there are no unforeseen difficulties in manufacture, in transportation to the theatre or after arrival in the theatre, the next bomb should be ready for delivery on the first suitable weather after 17 or 18 August."

[SunkenCiv]

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[bmwcyle]

Maybe we captured some from the Germans.

[Secret Agent Man]

I wish we would have hit Tokyo first. Destroyed their whole image of emperor as god.

Course Tokyo got firebombed very badly and iirc 100,000 or so died. The nuke would have cracked their will to keep going right away with a dead nuked emperor false god destroyed.

[DuncanWaring]

There were some in Japan who didn’t want to surrender even after the second bomb.

Also, regarding the silver from the Treasury - it was 14700 tons - 429 million troy ounces. Apparently the Keeper of the Silver like to crapped his pants when he got the request.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The next time I get in a argument with a government loving liberal, I will remind them that it was the government that developed the atomic bomb.

[YHAOS]

"Thank God for men like that back then, and a country that could do something like the Manhattan Project"

If we had today's leaders back then, the war would have been lost.

[AFret.]

“Thank God for men like that back then, and a country that could do something like the Manhattan Project”

If we had today’s leaders back then, the war would have been lost.

---

Unfortunately we do not have any “leaders” today....not one.

[M1903A1]

There were many Japanese before August 1945 that were pushing the surrender issue...which, for reasons that basically boiled down to pride, remained unthinkable at the top levels of leadership. Encountering a super-weapon that could eliminate an entire city in one shot was the beyond-comprehension-or defense reason the surrender advocates were able to use as an “acceptable” reason for surrender...even though it took the second bomb to nudge some of them over the edge.

And yes, there were those—particularly high-ranking military officers—who still regarded surrender as unthinkable, and chose to commit suicide or (in the case of Admiral Ugaki) lead a final kamikaze mission rather than give themselves up.