World War II
Albury enrolled at the University of Miami's engineering school, but dropped out before he completed his bachelor's degree in order to enlist in the United States Army during World War II.[1] He was one of three pilots assigned under the command of Captain Charles Sweeney to test the XB-29 and YB-29 delivered to Eglin Air Force Base in September 1943. Albury joined (now Major) Sweeney at Wendover Air Force Base in Utah where he and Sweeney were invited by Colonel Paul Tibbets to join what would become the nucleus of the 509th Composite Group in September 1944. (The 509th Composite Group was activated December 17, 1944.) Tibbets initially organized two air crews: one headed by himself with Robert A. Lewis as co-pilot (cockpit crew of the Enola Gay during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima), the other headed by Sweeney with Albury as the co-pilot. Lewis and Albury acted as pilots and crew commanders for their respective planes when Tibbets and/or Sweeney were not flying.[1][2]
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, Albury witnessed the first atomic bombing of Hiroshima as pilot of the instrument observation plane, The Great Artiste, which accompanied the Enola Gay commanded by Tibbets.[1][3] Albury measured the levels of radioactivity and magnitude of the atomic bomb from his plane.[1] He would later state in an interview with Time magazine, "When Tibbets dropped the bomb, we dropped our instruments and made our left turn. Then this bright light hit us and the top of that mushroom cloud was the most terrifying, but also the most beautiful, thing you've ever seen in your life. Every color in the rainbow seemed to be coming out of it."[1]
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki
On August 9, 1945, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sweeney's crew, with Albury as co-pilot, took off in the B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed the Bockscar, which would drop the atomic bomb known as the "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.[1][4] The attack was delayed by cloud cover until the crew located a hole in the clouds.[1] The Bockscar dropped the 10,200-pound "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, instantly killing 40,000 people. The bomb exploded in the Urakami Valley where two major munition factories were located.[1] An additional 35,000 Japanese citizens would succumb from radiation sickness and other injuries in the aftermath of the bombing.[1]
Immediately after the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, Albury flew with Tibbetts, Sweeney and close to twenty other members of their aircrews to Japan. The group eventually reached Nagasaki and witnessed on the ground the destruction caused by the atomic bomb.[5]
Albury stated repeatedly during his life that he did not have any remorse for the attack or his role in the attack on Nagasaki, noting that many more lives would have been lost if the United States had launched a full invasion of mainland Japan.[1]