The Enola Gay and the secret history behd the Hiroshima missn - Washgton Post

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• 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
• WHY DID THE ENOLA GAY’S TAIL MARKGS CHANGE?
• HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

ENOLA GAY

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.

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

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.

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

In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F.

However, several plane nam of the World War II-era are known exclively by their name, cludg the famo Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber that was ed to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (via Branni). Yet the Enola Gay, another animate object, had a dark tentn — the vice was schled to drop an atomic bomb on an enemy target.

WHY DID THE ENOLA GAY’S TAIL MARKGS CHANGE?

It's important to note that durg the war, not many plan which were mass-produced were given as much fanfare, so the Enola Gay stood out om the pack.

HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB

Pilot Pl Tibbets nam Enola Gay. On Augt 5, 1945, the 29-year-old Tibbets formally named his B-29 "Enola Gay" after his mother (née Haggard).

The Enola Gay name liv on. In 1995, the Natnal Air and Space Mm hosted a ntroversial exhib of the Enola Gay to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. The fully reassembled Enola Gay is now on display permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F.

After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. The Enola Gay is a B-29 Superfortrs, which pilot Pl Tibbets named after his mother, and which had been stripped of everythg but the necsi, so as to be thoands of pounds lighter than an ordary plane of that make. While did not drop the bomb on Nagasaki, the Enola Gay did take flight to get data on the weather the lead-up to the send strike on Japan.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

In the aftermath of World War II, the Army Air Forc flew the Enola Gay durg an atomic tt program the Pacific; was then livered to be stored an airfield Arizona before beg flown to Illois and transferred to the Smhsonian July 1949.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas. The Commtee for the Rtoratn and Display of the Enola Gay now has 9, 000 signatur of prott. Adams, who is leavg his job after 10 relatively ntroversy-ee years, sent back a three-page answer stiffly turng down her requt for the Enola Gay.

Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F. And as long as is on display, the qutns rais are likely to ntue — after all, they have been wh the Enola Gay sce first beme a hoehold name. 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.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

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. )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.