"320th Troop Carrier Squadron, the 390th Air Service Group, the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron, the 1027th Air Materiel Squadron, the 1395th Military Police Company, and the First Ordnance Squadron (in charge of handling the atomic bombs). On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb to be used in combat was dropped by a B-29 Superfortress bomber, the ""Enola Gay"", over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people, including 20,000 Japanese combatants and 20,000 Korean slave laborers. The thirteen-hour mission to Hiroshima under the command of famous pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets, began at 0245 Tinian time. By the time the"
"Group, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Virginia, was also named for him. Parsons' portrait is among a series of paintings related to Operation Crossroads. His papers are in the Naval Historical Center in Washington, DC. William Sterling Parsons Rear Admiral William Sterling ""Deak"" Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the ""Enola Gay"", the aircraft which dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a"
"William Sterling Parsons Rear Admiral William Sterling ""Deak"" Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the ""Enola Gay"", the aircraft which dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the bomb in flight. While the aircraft was ""en route"" to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark"
"Theodore Van Kirk Theodore ""Dutch"" Van Kirk (February 27, 1921 – July 28, 2014) was a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces, best known as the navigator of the ""Enola Gay"" when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Upon the death of fellow crewman Morris Jeppson on March 30, 2010, Van Kirk became the last surviving member of the ""Enola Gay"" crew. Van Kirk was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and joined the Army Air Force Aviation Cadet Program October 1941. On 1 April 1942, he received both his commission and navigator wings and transferred to the"
"Robert A. Lewis Robert Alvin Lewis (October 18, 1917 – June 18, 1983) was a United States Army Air Forces officer serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He was the co-pilot of the ""Enola Gay"", the B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Lewis grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, and attended Ridgefield Park High School, graduating in 1937. During World War II, he had to wait after enlisting to be processed into the USAAF Officer Candidate School (OCS). Lewis went on to"
"Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the ""Enola Gay"" (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. In February 1942, he became the"
"Theodore Van Kirk became the last surviving ""Enola Gay"" crew member (Van Kirk died on July 28, 2014). Morris R. Jeppson Morris Richard Jeppson (June 23, 1922 – March 30, 2010) was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He served as assistant weaponeer on the ""Enola Gay"", which dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Jeppson was born in Logan, Utah, and studied physics at the University of Nevada, Reno. After enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps in 1942 at the age"
"Thomas Ferebee Thomas Wilson Ferebee (November 9, 1918 – March 16, 2000) was the bombardier aboard the B-29 Superfortress, ""Enola Gay"", which dropped the atomic bomb, ""Little Boy"", on Hiroshima in 1945. Thomas Wilson Ferebee was born on a farm outside Mocksville, North Carolina, as the third of eleven children. In 1935, at age 17, he attended Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, NC. Talented in athletics since childhood, he earned awards in track, basketball, and football. After training for a small position with the Boston Red Sox and not making the team, he joined the Army. A knee injury kept"
"it as a place of protest or destruction. In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the English Channel; he had flown over the Channel many times during the war. Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the ""Enola Gay"" (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of"
"Okinawa. ""Enola Gay""'s crew on 6 August 1945, consisted of 12 men. The crew was: Of mission commander Parsons, it was said: ""There is no one more responsible for getting this bomb out of the laboratory and into some form useful for combat operations than Captain Parsons, by his plain genius in the ordnance business."" For the Nagasaki mission, ""Enola Gay"" was flown by Crew B-10, normally assigned to ""Up An' Atom"": On 6 November 1945, Lewis flew the ""Enola Gay"" back to the United States, arriving at the 509th's new base at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico, on"
"the United States Army Air Forces from the ""Enola Gay"", a B-29 bomber. The force of the atomic bomb effectively obliterated the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Earlier, on 25 July, General Carl Spaatz, commander of the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, received orders to deliver a ""special bomb"" attack on selected cities in Japan. The first target city chosen was Hiroshima, which had an important port on southern Honshu and was headquarters of the Japanese Second General Army with 40,000 military personnel in the city. The bomb was assembled in secret and loaded on the ""Enola Gay""."
"loaded into a U.S. Army Air Force B-29 bomber, named the Enola Gay. A short time later, the Enola Gay took off with its secret load from Tinian's North Field, The largest airfield of the WWII, which the Seabees had built, and started on her mission to Japan. Later in the day, the mission ended with the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This historic event sealed the fate of Japan. Realizing that the war was lost, the Japanese government negotiated a cease fire that went into effect on 16 August. On 2 September 1945 Japan formally surrendered,"
"Morris R. Jeppson Morris Richard Jeppson (June 23, 1922 – March 30, 2010) was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He served as assistant weaponeer on the ""Enola Gay"", which dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Jeppson was born in Logan, Utah, and studied physics at the University of Nevada, Reno. After enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps in 1942 at the age of 19 and basic training in Florida, he received electrical engineering training at Yale University, Harvard University and"
"1970s so that nuclear power could be freely developed, with no concern for public health."" He died from pneumonia on 20 March 2017 at the age of 100. Shuntaro Hida Shuntaro Hida (1 January 1917 – 20 March 2017) was a Japanese physician who was an eyewitness when the ""Little Boy"" atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the ""Enola Gay"" on 6 August 1945. He treated survivors as a medical doctor and wrote about the effects of radiation on the human body. The night before the bomb was dropped 28-year-old Dr. Hida left the Hiroshima Military Hospital where he"
"Enola Gay (song) ""Enola Gay"" is an anti-war song by the British synth-pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and the only single from the band's 1980 album, ""Organisation"". The track addresses the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II. It was written by vocalist/bass guitarist Andy McCluskey. Along with 1986's ""If You Leave"", ""Enola Gay"" has been described as OMD's signature song. The single was an international success, selling more than 5 million copies, while the track became an enduring hit. Typical of early OMD compositions, the track does"
"Jacob Beser Jacob Beser (May 15, 1921 – June 16, 1992) was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who served during World War II. Beser was the radar specialist aboard the ""Enola Gay"" on August 6, 1945, when it dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, Beser was a crewmember aboard ""Bockscar"" when the Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. He was the only person to have served as a strike crew member of both of the 1945 atomic bomb missions. Jacob Beser grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended the"
"who donated his collection of military documents and objects to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Thomas Ferebee Thomas Wilson Ferebee (November 9, 1918 – March 16, 2000) was the bombardier aboard the B-29 Superfortress, ""Enola Gay"", which dropped the atomic bomb, ""Little Boy"", on Hiroshima in 1945. Thomas Wilson Ferebee was born on a farm outside Mocksville, North Carolina, as the third of eleven children. In 1935, at age 17, he attended Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, NC. Talented in athletics since childhood, he earned awards in track, basketball, and football. After training for a small position"
"considered killing his family with an overdose of sleeping pills in the event that Japan lost. Yamaguchi lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945, he was in Hiroshima for a three-month-long business trip. On August 6, he was preparing to leave the city with two colleagues, Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato, and was on his way to the station when he realised he had forgotten his hanko (a stamp allowing him to travel), and returned to his workplace to get it. At 8:15 am, he was walking towards the docks when the American bomber ""Enola Gay"""
"modified to carry Little Boy to Japan from the huge Tinian base that General LeMay controlled from Guam. On August 6, 1945 – August 5 in the United States, due to the time difference – Lewis was the co-pilot of the ""Enola Gay"" when it dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. Normally the aircraft commander assigned to the ""Enola Gay"", for this important mission he acted as co-pilot, assisting ""Enola Gay""'s new aircraft commander, Colonel Tibbets. Lewis and his crew, minus their original co-pilot Dick McNamara, were Tibbet's crew for the mission, and it included two specialists for the arming of"
"August 6 to see the aircraft he considered his painted with the now-famous nose art. Lewis would fly the mission as Tibbets's co-pilot. At 02:45 the next day—in accordance with the terms of Operations Order No. 35—the ""Enola Gay"" departed North Field for Hiroshima, Japan, with Tibbets at the controls. Tinian was approximately away from Japan, so it took six hours to reach Hiroshima. The atomic bomb, code-named ""Little Boy"", was dropped over Hiroshima at 08:15 local time. Tibbets recalled that the city was covered with a tall mushroom cloud after the bomb was dropped. Tibbets was awarded the Distinguished"
"Air Force Base. The Silverplate bombers differed from other B-29s then in service by having fuel injection and reversible props. Pilot Charles Sweeney credits the reversible props for saving ""Bockscar"" after making an emergency landing on Okinawa following the Nagasaki bombing. ""Enola Gay"", flown by Tibbets, dropped the first bomb, called Little Boy, on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. ""Enola Gay"" is fully restored and on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, outside Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. ""Bockscar"" dropped the second bomb, called Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days later. ""Bockscar"" is on display at the National"
"Hiroshima was clear for a visual bomb drop. Navy weapons expert Captain William Parsons armed the bomb while in flight, as it was deemed too dangerous to do this on the ground at North Field, lest an accident happen and the bomb go off, wiping out the entire base. At 8:15 am, the ""Enola Gay"" released Little Boy from an altitude of . The radar fuse on the bomb had been preset to go off at an altitude of above the ground. In the ensuing explosion, yielding about 12 kilotons of TNT in explosive power, about 75,000 people were killed"
"the ""Enola Gay"" to Hiroshima Japan on the first atomic bomb mission). In the leading aircraft of the second flight, ""Yankee Doodle"", flew General Ira C. Eaker, the commanding general of the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command. The 97th BG conducted a total of 14 missions from Polebrook, attacking airfields, marshalling yards, industries, naval installations, and other targets in France and the Low Countries. The group sortied 247 aircraft, dropped 395 tons of bombs on Nazi-controlled territory, and lost 14 aircraft. On 21 October 1942, the 97th Bomb Group was transferred to the Twelfth Air Force in the Mediterranean theatre"
"piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney, flew to Iwo Jima, where emergency procedures for loading the bomb onto a standby aircraft were practiced. This rehearsal was repeated on 31 July, but this time L-6 was reloaded onto a different B-29, ""Enola Gay"", piloted by Tibbets, and the bomb was test dropped near Tinian. L-11 was the assembly used for the Hiroshima bomb. Parsons, the ""Enola Gay""s weaponeer, was concerned about the possibility of an accidental detonation if the plane crashed on takeoff, so he decided not to load the four cordite powder bags into the gun breech until the aircraft"
"07:09. At 08:09, Tibbets started his bomb run and handed control over to his bombardier, Major Thomas Ferebee. The release at 08:15 (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy containing about of uranium-235 took 44.4 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at about to a detonation height of about above the city. ""Enola Gay"" traveled before it felt the shock waves from the blast. Due to crosswind, the bomb missed the aiming point, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately and detonated directly over Shima Surgical Clinic. It released the equivalent energy of , ± 2 kt. The weapon"
"May 11, 1955. Before a studio audience, guests came forward to illustrate pivotal moments in Tanimoto's life. In the line-up were two of the Hiroshima maidens, their faces hidden behind a screen, and most surprising Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot of the plane, the Enola Gay, that dropped the Little Boy bomb on Hiroshima. The full film of this encounter appears to be lost as of 2004. In all, 138 surgeries were performed on 25 women over 18 months during their stay in the US. On their visit, the women lived with a charitable Quaker group of foster parents. Hiroko"
"arming the bomb in flight with Farrell, who agreed that it might be a good idea. Farrell asked Parsons if he knew how to perform this task. ""No sir, I don't"", Parsons conceded, ""but I've got all afternoon to learn."" The night before the mission, Parsons repeatedly practiced inserting the powder charge and detonator in the bomb in the poor visibility and cramped conditions of the bomb bay. Parsons participated in the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, flying on the ""Enola Gay"" as weaponeer and Senior Military Technical Observer. Shortly after takeoff, he clambered into the bomb bay"
"imagery. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1980 song ""Enola Gay"" depicts the events of the 1945 deployment of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima from the point of view of the crew of the B29 Superfortress Bomber Enola Gay. Clear references are made to the exact time the bomb detonated (""It's eight fifteen, and that's the time that it's always been""), and questions are asked as to whether the action was necessary. The song also references a supposed radio message in which the crew detail no anomalies as a result of nuclear detonation (""We got your message on the radio - conditions"
"declaration also stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would be faced with ""prompt and utter destruction"", a process which was already underway with the incendiary bombing raids destroying 40% of targeted cities, and by naval warfare isolating and starving Japan of imported food. The Japanese government ignored (""mokusatsu"") this ultimatum, thus signalling that they were not going to surrender. In the wake of this rejection, Stimson and George Marshall (the Army chief of staff) and Hap Arnold (head of the Army Air Forces) set the atomic bombing in motion. On 6 August 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay"
"injection and better cooling, and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets. ""Enola Gay"" was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the commander of the 509th Composite Group, on 9 May 1945, while still on the assembly line. The aircraft was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 18 May 1945 and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. Crew B-9, commanded by Captain Robert A. Lewis, took delivery of the bomber and flew it from Omaha to the 509th's base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on 14 June 1945."
"to minimize the risks during takeoff. His assistant, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, removed the safety devices 30 minutes before reaching the target area. The release at 08:15 (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy took 43 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at to the predetermined detonation height about above the city. ""Enola Gay"" traveled before it felt the shock waves from the blast. Although buffeted by the shock, neither ""Enola Gay"" nor ""The Great Artiste"" was damaged. The detonation created a blast equivalent to . The U-235 weapon was considered very inefficient, with only 1.7%"
"Shuntaro Hida Shuntaro Hida (1 January 1917 – 20 March 2017) was a Japanese physician who was an eyewitness when the ""Little Boy"" atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the ""Enola Gay"" on 6 August 1945. He treated survivors as a medical doctor and wrote about the effects of radiation on the human body. The night before the bomb was dropped 28-year-old Dr. Hida left the Hiroshima Military Hospital where he was stationed as an army medical officer to attend to a sick child in the village of Hesaka. He was therefore approximately 6 kilometers from ground zero when"
"the events that put him into the tail gun turret of the Enola Gay."" George R. Caron Technical Sergeant George Robert ""Bob"" Caron (October 31, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was the tail gunner, the only defender of the twelve crewmen, aboard the B-29 ""Enola Gay"" during the historic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Facing the rear of the B-29, his vantage point made him the first man to witness the cataclysmic growth of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. Caron was also the only photographer aboard, and took photographs as the mushroom cloud ascended."