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

Contents:

• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• ENOLA GAY
• THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB
• WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE PLANE THAT WAS ENOLA GAY’S BACKUP?
• PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA
• INSI THE ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER 1945
• WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

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

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. 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.

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

(Natnal Archiv)‘A fiery red re’Thirty-one thoand feet above, the Enola Gay’s bombardier, Maj.

ENOLA GAY

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. 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. 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. 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.

THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB

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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE PLANE THAT WAS ENOLA GAY’S BACKUP?

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

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.

Its more-famo sister plane, the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan Aug. 6, 1945, is among the Smhsonian Instutn's llectn of historic years has been mon knowledge that the Enola Gay was modified to rry the atomic bomb at Tker Field, as Tker Air Force Base was lled the days when the Air Force was part of the a check of official rerds shows no wrten acknowledgment that the Enola Gay ever was at Tker Enola Gay, a B-29G, was accepted by the Army Air Force at the Glenn L.

PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA

6 when began the flight to Japan at an altu ually flown by weather rennaissance Ltle Boy bomb missed s aimg pot but that ma ltle difference to Hiroshima when the fireball illumated the cy like a send sunrise and the mhroom cloud punctuated Ground Zero like an exclamatn first public acknowledgment that Tker had a part the droppg of the Hiroshima bomb me eight months later April 1946 when the base public relatns office released the the time the announcement was ma, the Enola Gay was at Tker where workers were preparg as one of the fleet of bombers which would take part the postwar Crossroads atomic bomb tts at Biki Atoll the had the Enola Gay been at Tker to prepare for the Hiroshima drop? "We have nflictg stori, " says Tom Brewer, Tker Air Force Base of workers who were at Tker durg the war say they remember the Enola Gay's beg the plane's official matenance log mak no mentn of Tker durg the Army have kept such a secret modifitn at Tker out of the rerd as a secury measure? "They worked six or eight people at a time 24 hours a day until the job was done, " Lord plan, crewmen and officers flew away, leavg the story of what they had done untold, jt one of many secury mysteri that occurred at Tker durg World War one nnected the name, Enola Gay, wh Tker after news acunts intified as the first atom bomber.

INSI THE ENOLA GAY

What was the name of the back up B-29 that flew to Iwo Jima and remaed on standby durg the Hiroshima missn the event that the Enola Gay had to abort and transfer Ltle Boy for pletn of the atomic bomb missn. While this exhib is now closed, Mm specialists ntued to rtore the remag ponents of the airplane, and after an addnal ne years the fully assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Steven F.

This past exhibn, cidg wh the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, told the story of the role of the Enola Gay securg Japane surrenr.

It ntaed several major ponents of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber ed the atomic missn that stroyed Hiroshima, Japan. A vio prentatn about the Enola Gay's missn clud terviews wh the crew before and after the missn cludg missn pilot Col.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER 1945

Another portn of the exhib tailed the pastakg efforts of Smhsonian aircraft rtoratn specialists who had spent more than a rtorg parts of the Enola Gay for this exhibn. And although took a send atomic bomb to force Japan to surrenr, the Enola Gay’s name has gone down history as the plane that was rponsible for endg WWII. Bocksr was part of the same squadron as the Enola Gay, the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the 509th Compose Group (USAAF).

Sweeney and his crew C-15 had prevly flown The Great Artiste wh the Enola Gay on her flight to Hiroshima on Augt 6, rryg stmentatn to rerd and support the missn.

WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

But alas, the notoriety for droppg the atomic bomb that end the war still go to her sister ship, the famo Enola Gay. "Of all the World War II aircraft  the llectn of the Natnal Air and Space Mm, the most signifint is the Enola Gay. See the gallery below for more imag of the Enola Gay, which are om the book unls otherwise noted.

In this 1945 image taken on the island of Tian, officers salute each other ont of the Enola Gay as photographers and men look on. Tibbets (pilot and missn manr) pose the ckp of the Enola Gay at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Steven F.