Category: Transportation: Airplanes

Copyright/published Year: 2008 by Hancock House

ISBN: 9780888395962

Binding: trade pap

Description: A nonfiction account of the first loss of an atomic bomb by the ì American military, which took place over the coast of B.C. in ì February, 1950. On a cold, windy February night off the coast of ì B.C. in 1950, a new B36 United States Air Force bomber ì experienced catastrophic engine failures on three of its six ì engines. Before the airplane crashed into a mountainside, the ì crew dropped their atomic bomb over the Pacific Ocean into Hecate ì Strait. The aircraft was carrying one of the first two Mark-4 ì atomic bombs ever loaned to the USAF by the Atomic Energy ì Commission. In addition to a very heavy atomic bomb, the craft ì carried seventeen crewmembers.

The U.S. military, very concerned about the loss of seventeen ì men, one bomber and one atomic bomb, immediately launched a huge ì search operation. Many of the crew were rescued by fishermen and ì the Royal Canadian Navy, but the aircraft, full of secret ì equipment, was not found. Broken Arrow No.1 examines exactly what ì happened in the preparation for the mission, the mission itself, ì the accident, the loss of the bomb, the search, and eventually ì the destruction of the bomber four years later. The work goes on ì to detail the subsequent search for documents and the official ì expedition to the crash site to collect artifacts for a major ì museum display.

This book also goes a long way to dispel the rumors and the ì conspiracy theories that have surrounded this incident for ì decades by using declassified top-secret documents to demonstrate ì what really happened in the winter of 1950 over the cold coastal ì waters of British Columbia. Broken Arrow No.1 includes an ì introduction that offers the reader historical and geo-political ì background for the events occurring at the time. Accompanying the ì detailed text are numerous never-before-published photographs. ì Also included in the book is an extensive appendix section, which ì includes transcripts of contemporary military reports, ì declassified documents and a diary of the 2003 museum expedition ì to the crash site to collect artifacts and get footage for a ì documentary on the subject.

The book is a follow-up to the hugely successful documentary ì Lost Nuke made by MythMerchant Films for Discovery Channel ì Canada. The author led the museum expedition to the crash site to ì collect artifacts, which is chronicled in the film. The artifacts ì form the focus of a museum display, which opened at the Vancouver ì Museum and is set to tour Canada and the United States. Author ì Dr. John Clearwater is a nuclear weapons specialist who has ì worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department ì of National Defence. He is also the curator of the Lost Nuke ì museum exhibit. The author's previous works include Canadian ì Nuclear Weapons and U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Canada.

Condition Information

This book is new.