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

Contents:

• CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY
• HERE'S WHAT THE CREW OF THE B-29 BOMBER ENOLA GAY SAW AFTER DROPPG THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB HISTORY
• IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT
• “OPPENHEIMER” TI: NC MAN HELPED LIVER ATOMIC BOMB ON BOARD ENOLA GAY
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• ENOLA GAY CREW RELLED FIRST USE OF ATOMIC BOMB
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• ENOLA GAY CREW
• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• INSI THE ENOLA GAY
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• LAST LIVG CREW MEMBER OF ENOLA GAY DI GEIA AT AGE 93

CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY

Fifty years after the crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, hasteng Japan's surrenr, The Amerin Legn honored Tibbets and his crew wh the Distguished Service Medal. "There is no doubt my md that many of you who are here today would not be here if hadn't been for the urageo missn of the men of the Enola Gay, " Natnal Commanr William Detweiler told nventn legat.

As Enola Gay's pilot, Tibbets said Pearl Harbor was the animatg force for his missn. Tibbets named the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, for his mother.

Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb, "Ltle Boy, " was dropped at 8:15 a. For more on the Enola Gay, click here (). The crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay was among the few to wns the first e of the atomic bomb on Augt 6, had expected somethg fierce, but what they saw was still a fearsome and awome Bs Insir's homepage for more stori.

HERE'S WHAT THE CREW OF THE B-29 BOMBER ENOLA GAY SAW AFTER DROPPG THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB HISTORY

Shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Augt 6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner, Bob Caron, wrote his wife that the crew had jt received a medal and she'd be readg about what they had done the newspapers.

IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT

Pl Tibbets, who named the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother, told Caron to scribe what he saw to the crew over the ter.

He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duti on would later wre that "No, I feel no sorrow or remorse for whatever small role I played. Robert Lewis, -pilot and aircraft manr of the Enola Gay — the B-29 bomber that unleashed the first atomic bomb, Ltle Boy, on the cy of Hiroshima on Aug.

“He wasn’t horrified by meetg Capta Lewis, the -pilot of the Enola Gay.

“OPPENHEIMER” TI: NC MAN HELPED LIVER ATOMIC BOMB ON BOARD ENOLA GAY

After growg up there, Thomas Ferebee served on the Enola Gay flight crew and would ultimately bee the man who pulled the leaver to ploy “Ltle Boy” on Hiroshima on Aug. In 1945, roughly 100 days before Hiroshima, Ferebee would be asked to serve one of the most secretive missns of the war, as a member of the Enola Gay crew. “[The Enola Gay crew] ma no apologi for the job that they did, ” he said.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

Tman, pulled the lever om the Enola Gay’s drop hatch and released “Ltle Boy” onto the unexpected cy below. The bombg and the Enola Gay crew were to return home and face qutns and cricism for their role the endg of the war. Seventy-five years ago, the Uned Stat dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, brgg an end to a long and vastatg World War II and makg the Enola Gay, the B-29 that livered , one of the most famo history.

The Enola Gay, known only as No. He handpicked the plane the night before the missn, to the surprise of s crew, and had his mother’s name -- Enola Gay -- pated on s si.

ENOLA GAY CREW RELLED FIRST USE OF ATOMIC BOMB

6, 1945, the Enola Gay took off for Hiroshima, an important Japane ary center.

It was a moment for which none of the Enola Gay’s crew -- away by then, but still rocked by the blast -- was que prepared. What some don’t know is that the Enola Gay flew that missn, too. Some fly ahead to check the weather to see what ’s like at the actual target, and Enola Gay was part of that for Nagasaki, " Kney said.

After the bombgs and the war’s quick end, the Enola Gay remaed wh the Army Air Forc, takg part the Biki Atoll atomic tts before beg shipped to the Smhsonian 1960.

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

The origal patg of the words “Enola Gay” n still be seen on s si. While no members of the crew that flew the Enola Gay rema to tell s story, the aircraft liv on for visors.

ENOLA GAY CREW

"Enola Gay is a regnized airplane of World War II, and people want to see , " Kney said. "They want to see the spachip Disvery, they want to see the [SR-71] Blackbird, and they want to see the Enola Gay.

6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner Bob Caron wrote his wife that the crew had jt received a medal and she'd be readg about what they had done the newspapers. He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duti on Bocksr.

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. )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.

(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.

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

(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. (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.

INSI THE 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.

Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tian, where he was award the Distguished Service Cross.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

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

On Augt 6, 1945, the crew of a modified Boeg B-29 Superfortrs named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ed warfare, lled “Ltle Boy, ” on the cy of Hiroshima, Japan. As a new and adly weapon, an atomic bomber, Enola Gay facilated a turng pot human history as hered the dawn of the Atomic Age and the threat of nuclear war. Tibbets and his crew took off om Tian  Enola Gay at 2:45 am on Augt 6, 1945.

LAST LIVG CREW MEMBER OF ENOLA GAY DI GEIA AT AGE 93

Upon visual lotn of Hiroshima, Tom Ferebee aimed for the cy center and Enola Gay dropped the “Ltle Boy” bomb om 31, 000 feet at 9:15 am. After “Ltle Boy” left the forward bomb bay, Enola Gay lurched upward, and Tibbets iated a high angle evasive manver to get as far away om Hiroshima as possible.

” Enola Gay land back at Tian 12 hours later at approximately 3 pm.

Enola Gay tail gunner Bob Caron took this picture of the cloud of smoke billowg 20, 000 feet above Hiroshima after the explosn of the Ltle Boy atomic bomb on Augt 6, 1945. The history and memory of Enola Gay and s part the atomic attacks on Japan, and their effect on endg the war the Pacific and the nuclear tensns of the Cold War, reflects differg viewpots. The Smhsonian has been at the center of bat over those differg perspectiv terms of the terpretatn and public display of Enola Gay.