Chapter 19 "Tongues of Fire" Summary

At the end of March 1945, Colonel Elmer E. Kirkpatrick, an Army engineer, tours the Marianas to find a location for the 509th Composite Group. The SeaBees (Navy construction battalion) will build buildings and dig pits from which the bombs will be lifted into the bomb bays of Tibbets' B-29's on Tinian Island. Tibbets' combat crews will fly specially modified new B-29's - lightweight with fuel-injection systems to replace carburetors, quick closing pneumatic bomb doors, fuel flow meters, reversible electric propellers, and redesigned interiors to hold Fat Man. In the meantime, General Curtis LeMay's bombers continue firebombing Japanese cities. The armed forces have already converted Tinian Island into the biggest airport in the world.

President Truman and Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes leave Potsdam in an open car to tour Berlin on July 16, 1945, while...