The authors talked to each surviving crew member and to the scientists and soldiers whose war effort pointed in one direction, toward August 6, 1945, when the first aerial drop of a uranium bomb wiped out most of a city but, ironically, did not stop the war. Award winning writers Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts separate myth from reality as they retrace the steps that led the world into the atomic age. Yet the story of the bombing of Hiroshima, the momentous flight into the future of the B29 Enola Gay, has never before been revealed from firsthand sources. Its consequences were greater than those of any other event of the war. Overview: It was quite probably the most important event of World War II. This became a challenge … and you’d be surprised at the pride these boys took in being able to qualify.Enola Gay: The Bombing of Hiroshima by Gordon Thomas I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a quarter of a mile of accuracy, and I wouldn’t stand for anything less than 20 seconds off on time.
Enola Gay was one of the 536 B-29s built at the Martin-Omaha plant from mid 1944. The aircraft was named for the mother of Colonel Paul Tibbets, who flew the aircraft on the Hiroshima mission. It is famed for dropping the worlds first nuclear bomb used in warfare, which was dropping the Little Boy on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Tibbets, 509th Composite Group commander, and orchestrator of the operational aspect of the original nuclear enterprise, the Manhattan Project, in an interview in 1966. Yet the story of the bombing of Hiroshima, the momentous flight into the future of the B29 Enola Gay, has never before been revealed from firsthand sources. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress. “What I tried to do, initially, was to train individuals – then weld the individuals into a good, cohesive team to fly this B-29 better that anybody else was flying … that particular day,” said Lt. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after. The plane was made to look like it was part of the 6th Bomb Group, hidden in the Sixth Bomb Group area with 6BG tail markings and dropped the A-bomb with 6BG markings to fool Japanese spies. 17, 1944, was created for the sole purpose of delivering the world’s first nuclear weapon.īecause of the secret nature of their mission, the group trained at Wendover, Utah, and Tinian Island, in the Pacific, ever-perfecting the performance of the crew and their B-29 Superfortress bombers. THE ART OF DECEPTION Enola Gay was a part of the special (and secret) 509th group. From the bowels of an Air Force bomber, he snapped two pictures of the. 6, 1945, bombing mission that changed the world. Tibbetts commanded the Enola Gay carrying the first atomic bomb Sweeney, the. Lewis, a 27-year-old pilot from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, logged a total of 36 flights aboard the Enola Gay, including the Aug. The 509th Composite Group, born in secrecy Dec. On August 6th, 1945 Russell Gackenbach captured a historic, horrifying event on his personal camera. The detailed order for the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima: Bombs: Special. Thomas Ferebee, 26, peered through the Norden bomb sight under the plane’s greenhouse-like canopy in the nose. The Enola Gay lurched as the the 10,000 pounds Mk I bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” dropped out of the bomb bay Thirty-one thousand feet above, the Enola Gay’s bombardier, Maj.