Talk:William H. Blanchard

WW2 Atomic Bomb Entry

This article states: "In the climaxing phase of World War II, then-colonel Blanchard was directed to prepare and supervise the detailed operations order for the delivery of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He was the backup pilot for the Hiroshima A-bomb drop, which was ultimately delivered by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Commanding Officer of the 509th Atomic Bombardment Group or Wing."

This paragraph has several conflicts with the account given by Col. Paul Tibbits1. 1. Tibbets, Paul W., (1998) Return of the Enola Gay, Enola Gay Remembered, Inc. New Hope, PA, p 201. Regarding the bombing order Tibbets writes:

    "General Spatz arrived on Guam on July 29to take command of the Strategic Forces in the Pacific. With him he brought an order that had been drafted in Washington by General Groves, authorizing the dropping of "the first special bomb" on one of four cities: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata or Nagasaki.... I had favored Hiroshima....
    On the basis of the order received from Groves I drafted a more detailed one and sent it to LeMay.  On August 3 it came back in approximately the same form over his signature as the official order...."

A second issue is that Blanchard was not the backup pilot for the Hiroshima mission. According to Tibbits Blanchard lobbied LeMay to have the atomic mission moved to his group, the 21st Bomber Command where he was operations officer. Blanchard argued that Tibbets group was inexperienced in flying over Japan. Neither LeMay nor Blanchard had any idea of the violent maneuver required to escape the atomic bomb blast. Tibbets took Blanchard on a practice bomb drop over a Japanese held island to show him.

2. Tibbets, Paul W., (1998) Return of the Enola Gay, Enola Gar Remembered, Inc. New Hope, PA, p 192. Tibbets says; "I went into the 155-degree diving turn, as we were supposed to do, and Blanchard was almost paralyzed as the G-forces pinned him to his seat. ... "That's enough" he said with a pale face. "I'm satisfied." ..... I heard no more from him or LeMay or anyone else about our qualifications to carry the bomb to Japan. .... " Tibbets also noted " ... we had 18 pilots infinitely better skilled at this specific job than any that were then under LeMay's command."

       Actually, LeMay had no authority over who dropped the bomb. Tibbets chose the crews for all missions.  He could have straightened the issue out by going over LeMay's head to generals Arnold and Groves, but he says that he did not want to embarrass LeMay.

The third minor error is that Colonel Tibbets was Commanding Officer of the 509th Composite Group, not the "509th Atomic Bombardment Group or Wing" as stated. In order to keep secrecy, the 509th had their own maintenance group, military police, administration group, transport group etc. It was specifically formed to drop the atomic bomb and was the only group at Wendover AFB, Utah. After the war the flying group became the 509th Bombardment Wing, of which, Blanchard had command.

Roswell incident

May I please query if this is the same commander who on July 8th, 1947, had issued a press statement that a flying saucer had crashed near Roswell and that the Army had recovered the disk within hours ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joe Gatt (talk • contribs) 22:58, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

It is, and it's odd we don't mention something about that in the article since that's certainly what he's most well known for (which probably wouldn't make him any too happy were he still with us). I don't know much of anything about Roswell and don't really have the inclination to add something about it here, but it's probably worthwhile to have a short paragraph or even just a sentence referencing his involvement with that and directing readers to the larger article.--Bigtimepeace | talk | contribs 19:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Army Air Corps

This article could use a description of Blanchard's rank when the Army separated the Air Force -- looking at his dates of service he must've begun his days as a US Army Air Corps officer and then transitioned when that service became known as the Air Force and was assigned a separate branch. I'm not sure of the dates or Blanchard's exact unit service so I'm not sure what to add. -- CaptainMike (talk) 01:39, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

General Blanchard's promotions

Was General Blanchard's rise through the ranks faster than normal for a Colonel of an out of the way outpost in New Mexico because of the Roswell incident? Was there a cover-up and he used this to gain promotion?

Monteh (talk) 21:18, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

     Gen. Blanchard’s command of the 40th Bomb Group had a controversial event.  After being warned that a mixed bomb load was dangerous, he ordered a 12-plane group to complete a mission in Burma. Of the 11 planes that left for the mission only one returned.  When dropped, the mixed bombs exploded below the formation causing the eventual loss of all planes.  The events are documented in the book:

“Then there were six,” by Karnig Thomasian, 160pp, AuthorHouse 2016 The events are also described in the newsletter “MEMORIES” Issue 6, 40 Bomb Group Association. An excerpt is given here as the newsletter is not widely circulated.

40th Bomb Group Association MEMORIES Issue #6 Date of event: December14,1944 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION The 40th Group's most tragic mission occurred Dec. 14, 1944 -- a mission many expected to be a "milk run." A 12-plane formation was ordered to bomb the Rama VI bridge in Bangkok with a mixed load of 12 lO00-pound and 6 500-pound demolition bombs. Some key officers, including Capt. Frank Redler, armament officer, and Lt. Col. J. I. Cornett, commander of the 44th Squadron and of this formation, protested to the Group CO, Col. "Butch" Blanchard, that the mixed bomb load was an unnecessary risk with little payoff. Faced with conflicting advice and information from his staff (opposing the mixed bomb load) and XX Bomber Command staff (supporting it but granting Blanchard the option to change the load), Col. Blanchard ordered the mission to proceed with the mixed load--a controversial command decision that has left some crew members bitter to this day. After takeoff, one plane had to abort and bomb a tertiary target. The rest made two bomb runs on Bangkok without dropping bombs; 9/10 cloud cover prevented visual sighting of the target. As ordered, the formation proceeded to the secondary target--rail yards in Rangoon, Burma. Immediately after bombs away over Rangoon, there was a tremendous explosion underneath the low element of the 11-plane formation. Subsequent evidence convinced staff officers and all surviving crew members that the explosion resulted from mid-air collision of bombs in the mixed bomb load. One of our own bombs blew the formation apart, causing the four planes of the low element to crash in the target area and damaging all planes in the formation. Two complete crews bailed out successfully; 6 members of another crew bailed out; one plane went down with its entire crew. Only one plane returned to home base, with a fatally wounded crew member. The remaining six limped to emergency bases. In all, 17 men were killed, and 29 were imprisoned by the Japanese for 5 months until liberated in May, 1945. The lead plane of the low element was #574, which was one of two planes (along with the "Eddie Allen") contributed to the war effort by employees of Boeing's Wichita plant. Two members of its crew tell their stories here. …….. DISASTER AND CAPTURE Memories of G. M. Etherington (written February, 1985): The weather was clear as we approached Rangoon. Apparently we had taken the Japanese by surprise as there was no defensive action. Seconds after bombs away there was a tremendous explosion. We were hit and hit bad. ……..We managed to fly 15 or 20 minutes after being hit and were somewhere over the delta of the Irrawaddy river at about 6,000 feet with a higher mountain range ahead of us when #2 engine started to burn. I don't remember who was the first one out of the front of the plane, but I know I had to help Benny get out with his partially popped-open chute. I switched on the autopilot to give the pilots a better chance to get out and told Bob and Fletch to come right behind me. Then I jumped and pulled the rip-cord. There was quite a jolt as the chute opened--but it sure looked good to me. Several chutes were open in the direction we had come from. After what seemed llke too long a time, two more chutes opened. Soon the plane turned to the left and started toward me, with #2 engine now burning fiercely. It turned again to the left, losing altitude, and as it was flying away from me, crashed and burned. ………………… Memories of Julian Cochran (written November, 1984): I have no memory of ack-ack on this mission. The explosion beneath us was of gigantic proportions. I immediately felt something hit my right ankle on the inside about one inch above the top of my GI shoes. My left shoe had a hunk of the sole knocked out just in front of the arch. A small piece of metal, probably skin of the plane, was just under my skin. It bled little and did not hurt…………. I think that #3 was dead and #4 dead or mostly so; #2 was possibly the best. It seems to me there were one or two fires on the right side………….I landed in an irrigation ditch, in waist-deep water and up to my knees in mud. Mine was probably the softest landing of anyone. Then I observed the plane off to the west, probably at 1,000 or 2,000 feet, turning slowly to the left and going down. I don't remember seeing any other chutes, but it never occurred to me that everyone might not get out. I started walking west. A large water buffalo stood up in front of me, causing me to reverse my direction. About that time several Burmese came toward me holding what appeared to be sticks about four feet long with a rather long knife affixed to the end-- rice knives, I think. As I recall, they took my .45 but did not threaten me with it. (Probably they did not know what to do with it). ……….. LeePant (talk) 19:57, 27 May 2021 (UTC)