The Enola Gay's History Liv On > U.S. Department of Defense > Blog

Contents:

• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• ENOLA GAY MEMORABILIA AUCTNED
• MEMORI OF THE UN THAT HID THE ENOLA GAY, WHICH DROPPED THE A-BOMB ON HIROSHIMA 75 YEARS AGO TODAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON

The exhib markg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II featurg the refurbished B-29 Enola Gay proposed by the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm rulted fierce ntroversy over how history should reprent droppg an atom bomb on Japan. Experience the evolutn of the Enola Gay ntroversy by readg through a chronologil list of documents divid to five rounds:. The ntroversy over how the Enola Gay should reprent history gradually be history self.

ENOLA GAY

Tibbets Jr., 30, had handpicked the airplane on the assembly le Nebraska three months before and had jt had his mother’s name, “Enola Gay, ” pated black letters on the the plane mbled down the airstrip at over 100 mph, he had his lucky cigarette se wh him one pocket, and a box ntag 12 cyani psul Aug. Two other B-29s, the “Great Artiste” and “Necsary Evil, ” were supposed to go along to take pictur and rerd “Enola Gay” was the “strike ship. ”Fifteen hundred to the north-northwt, unr a wang crcent moon, lay a 400-year-old Japane cy most Amerins probably had never heard of but whose name was about to be etched to the pag of was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280, 000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay of thoands more would die the same way at Nagasaki a few days later, and the world would subsequently be hearg about megatons, mutual assured stctn, proliferatn, nuclear wter, meltdowns and dirty would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace as “Dimpl Eight Two” picked up speed that morng, s missn was born of s time: liver a blow that the Uned Stat hoped might fally end the global butchery of World War II.

ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?

)This week, memoratns are schled across the untry, wh socially distanced ndlelight vigils and the tollg of bells, and bee of the vid-19, ceremoni and remembranc have moved Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is seen on display July 29, 2020, at the Steven F.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

(Matt McCla/The Washgton Post)One of the Enola Gay’s four eng. If this ighteng new weapon worked, the thkg went, would shorten the war, albe at a dreadful st human first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground. William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been was a “gun-type” bomb, one which an explosive charge would fire a “subcril” piece of uranium 235 down a six-foot-long “gun” barrel to a send subcril piece of uranium, acrdg to Thomas and created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground.

(Natnal Archiv)The weapon is hoisted to the bomb bay of the B-29 dubbed “Enola Gay” Augt 1945 on Tian Island the Northern Mariana Islands.

ENOLA GAY MEMORABILIA AUCTNED

(Natnal Archiv)‘A fiery red re’Thirty-one thoand feet above, the Enola Gay’s bombardier, Maj. So had an ternal radar system that tected the ground, tripped the tonator at that altu, and iated the tonatn bomb traveled for six and explod jt short of the Enola Gay, meanwhile, lurched upward on sheddg the weight of the bomb and executed a hairp turn to pe the expected shock wave of the first, the crew saw and felt nothg.

(AP)‘Brighter than the sun’As the Enola Gay and s two rt plan head back Tian, a young scientist named Luis W. Enola Gay, the B-29bomber that was ed by the Uned Stat on Augt 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive vice had been ed on an enemy target. ” The Enola Gay—Tibbets had a matenance man pat that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoff—was acpanied by var other plan.

Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tian, where he was award the Distguished Service Cross. Three days later the Enola Gay nducted weather rennaissance the lead-up to the bombg of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949.

MEMORI OF THE UN THAT HID THE ENOLA GAY, WHICH DROPPED THE A-BOMB ON HIROSHIMA 75 YEARS AGO TODAY

In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F. Gay was the name of the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs bomber that was ed to drop the atomic bomb on the Japane cy of Hiroshima durg World War II.

The Enola Gay was built by Boeg Aircraft Wicha, Kansas, and was livered to the Uned Stat Army Air Forc on May 18, 1945.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

On Augt 6, 1945, the Enola Gay took off om Tian Island, rryg the first atomic bomb, -named “Ltle Boy”. The Enola Gay and s crew of 12 flew towards Hiroshima, which was a major dtrial cy and a ary target. After the Hiroshima bombg, the Enola Gay ntued to serve the Uned Stat Army Air Forc until 1946, when was retired and placed storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Arizona.

The Enola Gay unrwent extensive rtoratn and prervatn work the 1980s, and was put on display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm 1995.