Page "Leslie Groves" Paragraph 29

Groves met with the Chief of United States Army Air Forces, General Henry H. Arnold, in March 1944 to discuss the delivery of the finished bombs to their targets.

Groves was hoping that the Boeing B-29 Superfortress would be able to carry the finished bombs.

The 509th Composite Group was duly activated on 17 December 1944 at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets.

A joint Manhattan District – USAAF targeting committee was established to determine which cities in Japan should be targets ; it recommended Kokura, Hiroshima, Niigata and Kyoto.

At this point, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson intervened, announcing that he would be making the targeting decision, and that he would not authorize the bombing of Kyoto.

Groves attempted to get him to change his mind several times and Stimson refused every time.

In the end, Groves asked Arnold to remove Kyoto not just from the list of nuclear targets, but from targets for conventional bombing as well.

Nagasaki was substituted for Kyoto as a target.