What B-29 Superfortress bomber was stationed on Tinian Island?
George Benedict Zabelka George B. Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Army Air Force, was stationed on Tinian Island in the South Pacific in 1945, where he was assigned to 509th Composite Group. This is the unit of the crews of "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" (aka Bock’s Car and Bocks Car), that dropped the Atomic Bombs (”Little Boy” and “Fat Man”) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His duties included saying Mass on Sunday and during the week, hearing confessions, talking with the soldiers, and other typical duties of a wartime chaplain.
Japanese 20mm Cannon Blockhouse The Japanese 20mm Cannon Blockhouse is one of many relics of World War II on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. It is a concrete blockhouse, semi-circular in shape with a diameter of about 6 m . Its walls are 1.22 m thick with four firing ports large enough to accommodate 20mm cannons, originally equipped with steel sliding shutters. A steel door 25 mm thick provides access to the structure at the rear, sheltered by a concrete wall and covered defensively by a machine gun port. The blockhouse is located near the center of what is locally called Big Agingan Beach (Unai Dankulo Agingan), on the south coast of the island, about 20 m from the shore. It was built in some haste by the Japanese forces defending Saipan in 1944, and was captured by Allied forces early in the Battle of Saipan.