CJG #10's logic of Lanc would be night experience - but not for USAAF crew, and use of the Grand Slam/Tallboy fixtures (that i have read were actually used on the 2 B-29s). Note that no-one in a combat Command role knew about Manhattan; and that FDR, then HST were told before the Trinity success that it could be a dud. (others cogitated it could be quite the reverse, creating an endless chain reaction). So, when HST was told it worked, he...
- could have instructed a demo drop on some harmless spot;
- or could have ordered its use on a military target selected by GA Marshall as being best chance of saving 1 Allied soldier's life. 1;
- which could have been with, or without having a word with UK PM (who, with Canada, had helped to create it).
Now, purge conspiracy from our mind: that HST dismissed Axis casualties as being of no concern; or that he wanted to overawe Stalin; or that he did not dare "waste" $2Bn on a demo. No. He probably did not know the $2Bn number - no-one did at the time, who was counting?
He, FDR, Churchill, (UK DPM Attlee who became PM after Churchill had agreed to drop on a military target, but before that was done, so he could have made a noise), had one purpose: to save that 1 saveable soldier: every hour of every day our people were being lost or maimed.
If Germany had still been up when Trinity worked, GA Marshall might have asked one Policy Q before assigning the target: what is our best guess of status of Hitler's Bomb? To which the only A he should have been given was Dunno. So, then what?
Me: might I have sent one Bomb to Tinian, the other to Base Air Depot, Langford Lodge, NI (prepared from mid-1942 specifically for B-29) and told USAAF to drop them asap on best accessible from a small list of military targets.
