The first shock wave hit with a force of 2½ Gs, followed by a 2-G shock and a smaller third shock wave. The tail gunner called, “Here it comes.” I had a peculiar taste (electrolysis) in my mouth and saw a bright hue. I made the required 155-degree turn away from the target and found my goggles made it so dark that I could not see the instruments, so I took them off. Immediately after the release Col Tibbets said: Nearly 80,000 people were killed instantly, and almost every building within a 2-mile radius was obliterated. The temperature of the ground beneath the burst reached an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Centigrade and the heat rays caused flash burns up to 13,000 feet away. In a millisecond, a force of 20,000 tons of TNT was released, generating a fireball of heat equivalent to 300,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Little Boy uranium bomb fell from 31,600 feet, detonating 43 seconds later, 600 yards in the air over the city. Two small corrections were made and we finally released the bomb.Īt precisely 0815:17 Japan time, the Enola Gay released the first atomic bomb over the target of Hiroshima. The crew put on the dark goggles and turned on the tone for the instrument plane to know exactly when the bomb was released. Ferebee checked the bomb sights and said “I have the aiming point in sight.” Van Kirk checked and agreed. Col Tibbets described the final minutes before the drop: We made the final turn to 272 degrees magnetic course for 14 minutes (72 NM). The two other 509th planes that accompanied the Enola Gay included the instrument aircraft, the Great Artiste, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney and a third B-29, equipped with photographic equipment, commanded by Major George Marquardt.Īs the crew approached the mainland of Japan, the weather was clear for the visual drop requirement. Lewis, copilot Lt Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures officer and weaponeers, Captain William S. Tibbets, pilot and commander Capt Robert A. Ferebee, group bombardier Capt Theodore J. Duzenbury, flight engineer PFC Richard H. The crew consisted of the following people: SSgt George R.
#THE FLIGHT CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY HOW TO#
It’s too bad they couldn’t have forgot how to make them after that bombing, but on the other hand, maybe the bombs are the things that have kept peace this long.From Operational History of the 509th BombardmentĪt 0245 Tinian time on Monday, 6 August 1945, Col Tibbets and crew took off in the Enola Gay. I know he saved more Americans lives than he cost the Japanese, and he probably saved Japanese lives when it comes right down to it, because they would have lost a lot more lives in the fighting than they lost in that bombing. They claimed that if we went into Japan, we would have lost millions. I’m sure we would have lost an awful lot of men. "I think we all agreed with him that he made the right decision of bombing Hiroshima. It took two bombs to make the Japanese realize what was going to happen to them." - Mildred Pogue Gardner, Lincoln University of Nebraska student. "We knew that the cost of lives was going to be just unreal, that was the justification for it and that was the justification that we had to take too. You’d think it would cure everybody of ever starting a war again, but it hasn’t." - Rose Marie Murphy Christensen, Columbus Grade school student. It was a terrible, terrible thing, and it’s too bad, but there were a lot of people who got killed in that war. They started it and they had their chance, and even after we dropped the first one, they didn’t give up, so we had todrop the second one.
Visit the Smithsonian website on the Enola Gay. The debate over how the war was won has continued. Udvar-Hazy Center outside Dulles Airport in northern Virginia.
Now, the entire restored plane is displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. But there was so much disagreement over the plane’s mission that the exhibit was closed.
The Enola Gay was restored and parts of the plane were put on exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum between 19. It made its final flight on December 2, 1953, when it was flown to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. flew the plane to Park Ridge, Illinois, a storage site for the Smithsonian Institution. After her mission, the Enola Gay was returned to the United States in 1946 and stored in Arizona for several years.