Both sheets filled out on verso in pencil, and dated Aug 6 - 1945, at point AP0247 Tinian, at time 0245. Penciled notes kept in Tinian local time, one hour ahead of Hiroshima time, with the bomber’s position noted by latitude and longitude in the first column, and distance and speed noted in knots. Tibbets was the first to disembark, and was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot.Two folding sheets, meant to be folded into quarters, (255 x 658 mm and 660 x 512 mm, bottom half of first sheet, presumably blank, has been removed), printed on top half of rectos with a table to record data including the name & type of plane, place of departure & destination, tables to record the mission orders, flight plan, information on the flight crew, winds and weather conditions, fuel consumption, celestial data, and memoranda, as well as a radio bearing worksheet, temperature and pressure conversion scales, and diagrams to help calculate interception and radius of action printed on bottom half of recto and versos with fields to record detailed flight information, including the point, time, position, true course, ground speed, temperature, and other remarks.
![captain and crew of the enola gay captain and crew of the enola gay](https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5502557046001/f655c411-b987-4d0d-8d43-83858d6a6e0e/0ed240de-325a-431e-af4c-845808ff0482/1280x720/match/image.jpg)
When Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian it was greeted with great fanfare. The bomb was detonated 2,000 feet, or 600 metres, above Hiroshima, flattening five square miles of the city in seconds.
![captain and crew of the enola gay captain and crew of the enola gay](https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/photographs/tinian/media/bocks-car-crew.jpg)
The Little Boy took 43 seconds to fall from the aircraft.
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Tibbets was trained in how to turn the plane as fast as possible to get as far away from the blast as possible. As a result, few people bothered to head to air raid shelters.Īt 7:50am the bomb crew were nearing Hiroshima. However, the city’s residents had witnessed many other B-29 crews fly over city, dropping ‘pumpkins’ - harmless orange test bombs the same shape as an atomic bomb. The US weather reconnaissance bomber, Straight Flush, was spotted over the city and air-raid sirens sounded across Hiroshima. The weather also played a part - on the morning of 6 August the city was waking up to clear skies. Hiroshima was targeted because of its importance as a military base, centre for manufacturing and the fact it did not have an allied POW camps. Enola Gay carried “Little Boy” - a bomb that weighed five tonnes and had the explosive force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT.Īfter a six hour flight, Enola Gay reached Japan’s coastline. The bomber was accompanied by two other B-29s: The Great Artiste, carrying instrumentation and a then-nameless aircraft later called Necessary Evil, which was commanded by Captain George Marquardt and used to take photographs. The following day, Tibbetts piloted Enola Gay from North Field, in the Mariana Islands, to Japan. The name was painted on the aircraft on 5 August after Tibbetts assumed command of the bomber.
![captain and crew of the enola gay captain and crew of the enola gay](https://cdn.britannica.com/32/133832-050-35B6D1F2/Enola-Gay.jpg)
Tibbets named the aircraft after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbetts, who had always supported her son’s decision to give up a medical career to become a military pilot. Tibbets, Jr - a brigadier general in the United States Air Force - while still on the production line. The “Little Boy” bomb caused unprecedented destruction, killing an estimated 30 per cent of the city’s population.Įnola Gay was personally selected for the mission by Colonel Paul W. Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, was used to drop the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima.