Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Robert Krauss

Official Historian of the 509th Composite Group

Expert
Bob Krauss Listen to Robert Krauss’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Robert “Bob” Krauss is the Official Historian of the 509th Composite Group. He and his wife, Amelia Krauss, published The 509th Remembered, which profiles the service members of the 509th Composite Group and the events that surrounded the group and its role in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Krauss became interested in collecting and preserving the history of the 509th in his twenties after reading the book Enola Gay by Max Morgan-Witts. During his research, he met and befriended many of the airmen of the 509th, including Donald Albury, Ray Gallagher, Fred Olivi, Paul Tibbets, George Caron, and others.

Krauss began planning the 509th’s reunions in 2000, and has hosted the gathering for nearly two decades. Over the years, he has collected photographs, correspondence, flight suits, and other artifacts from the members of the 509th.

 

Related Profiles

John Adams

John Adams is an American composer of contemporary classical music. After graduating from Harvard in 1972, Adams moved to California, where his compositions began to attract attention.

Masao Tomonaga

Japan

Dr. Masao Tomonaga is the honorary director of the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital and a hibakusha, an atomic bomb survivor.

Avner Cohen

Israel

Avner Cohen is an Israeli-American historian and a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Peter Galison

Cambridge, MA

Peter Galison is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics at Harvard University.