Enola Gay
Enola Gay is the name of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber aircraft that was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of its pilot Paul Tibbets. On August 6, 1945, during the closing stages of World War II, the Enola Gay became the first plane to drop an atomic bomb, the Little Boy, which fell on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and almost completely destroyed it. The bomber also took part in the second atomic attack three days later as a reconnaissance plane over the primary target, the city of Kokura, but excessive cloud cover and smoke from the bombing of a nearby city forced the atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki. This time the bomb was carried by another B-29 bomber, Bockscar.
After the end of the war the Enola Gay returned to the United States and operated from the Roswell airfield in New Mexico. In 1946, it flew to Kwajalein Atoll to take part in Operation Crossroads nuclear tests, but the bomber was not chosen for launch tests at Bikini Atoll. That same year the ownership of the Enola Gay was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and therefore the US Air Force moved it to Washington D.C., where it remained for many years parked out in the open and within everyone's reach. those who would like to keep a souvenir of the device. It was dismantled and transported to the Smithsonian's warehouses in Suitland, Maryland, in 1961.
In the 1980s various World War Veteran groups began petitioning the Smithsonian to exhibit the Enola Gay and its restoration began in 1984. The cockpit and front of the bomber now restored They were on display at the United States National Air and Space Museum, located in downtown Washington, D.C., for the 1995 commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the atomic bombing, an exhibit not without controversy. Since 2003, the fully restored B-29 has been on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, adjacent to Washington-Dulles International Airport.
World War II
Building and first missions
The Enola Gay (model number B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292) was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company—now Lockheed Martin—at its factory in Bellevue, Nebraska, located at what is now Offutt Air Force Base. The bomber was one of fifteen B-29s called "Silverplates," specially modified atomic bomb-droppers that featured an atomic-bomb bay with air-operated doors, a British bomb docking and launching system, variable pitch that could create a reversal of airflow and therefore thrust to enhance braking during landing, more advanced engines with fuel injection and better cooling, as well as the absence of both protective armor and artillery turrets.
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This bomber was hand-picked on May 9, 1945 by Colonel Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509th Task Force, when the aircraft was still on the assembly line. The bomber was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces on May 18 and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron. A crew led by Captain Robert A. Lewis delivered the aircraft and flew it from Omaha to the 509th Task Force base in Wendover, Utah, where it landed on June 14, 1945.
Thirteen days later, the Enola Gay took off from Wendover and flew to the island of Guam, in the Pacific Ocean, where it underwent some modifications in the bomb bay after which on the 6th of July moved to the island of Tinian. Initially the bomber was assigned the identification number Victor 12 but on 1 August a large letter R in a circle, symbol of the 6th Bombardment Group, was painted on its tail as security measure and its identification number was changed to Victor 82. in which it bombed industrial targets in Kobe and Nagoya. On July 31, the Enola Gay made a test flight for the atomic bombing mission.
Hiroshima Bombing
On August 5, 1945, during preparations for the first atomic mission, Paul Tibbets assumed command of the B-29 bomber, naming it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. The pilot later said of this choice: "At that moment I was reminded of my brave redheaded mother, whose calm confidence had been a steadfast support throughout my childhood, and especially when I decided to give up a medical career to become a military pilot."
Allan L. Karl, a member of the 509th Task Force, painted the name on the bomber. The plane's hitherto pilot, Robert Lewis, was upset to be replaced by Tibbets on this important mission and He was also enraged when on the morning of August 6, 1945, he saw the now famous name of Tibbets's mother painted on the plane.
The Japanese city of Hiroshima was the target of the first nuclear bombing mission to be carried out on August 6, while Kokura and Nagasaki were alternate targets. The Enola Gay piloted by Tibbets took off from the island of Tinian, a six-hour flight from Japan, accompanied by two other B-29 bombers, The Great Artiste, which carried instrumentation, and another device that then had no name but was later named Necessary Evil, commanded by Captain George Marquardt with the mission of taking photographs. The director of the Manhattan project, General Leslie Groves, wanted to film the event for posterity and so the runway was illuminated with searchlights. Before taking off, Tibbets leaned out of a cockpit window and waved to the onlookers and cameras present.
After leaving Tinian behind, the aircraft separated while flying towards Iwo Jima, where they reunited at an altitude of 2,440 meters to continue together towards Japan. The bombers arrived over the target in clear visibility at an altitude of 9855 m. Captain William Sterling Parsons, who was in command of the atomic bombing mission, finished assembling the bomb during the flight in order to minimize risks during takeoff. His assistant, Lieutenant Morris Jeppson, removed the security devices thirty minutes before reaching the objective.
The launch of the Little Boy occurred at 08:15 Hiroshima time, as planned. It fell for 43 seconds from the 9,470 meters at which the bomber was flying and detonated, as planned, 600 meters above the city. The Enola Gay flew 18.5 km before it felt the shock wave of the detonation, although it suffered no damage. The detonation caused an explosion equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT, despite what which is considered to be a very inefficient detonation in which only 1.7% of the fissile material fissioned. The total destruction radius was 1.6 km and 11 km² of land was set on fire. The Americans estimated that they resulted in 12 km² of the city were razed to the ground and Japanese officials estimated that 69% of the buildings were destroyed and 6-7% damaged. The explosion killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people, a third of the city's population. city, either from the explosion or from the firestorm, and another 70,000 were injured of various degrees. 20,000 of those killed were military.
The Enola Gay returned unscathed to her base on the island of Tinian, where she was greeted with celebrations at 2:58 p.m. m., 12 hours and 13 minutes after starting the mission. The other two B-29 bombers landed shortly thereafter. Several hundred people, including journalists and photographers, gathered to greet the three aircraft. Tibbets was the first to descend from Enola Gay and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross at the same time.
Nagasaki Bombing
Hiroshima was not the only city hit with an atomic bomb. A second and devastating nuclear bomb was scheduled to be launched on August 11, but the operation was brought forward to August 9 due to the forecast of bad weather. On that occasion the bomb was christened Fat Man and another B-29 bomber, named Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney. The Enola Gay also participated on this occasion, piloted by George Marquardt and with the mission of reporting the weather on the city of Kokura, which was the target to attack. Fair weather was reported from the Enola Gay, but when the bomber Bockscar arrived, the city was obscured by smoke from the bombing of the nearby town of Yawata, razed to the ground. the previous day by the attack of 227 B-29 bombers with conventional bombs. After flying over the city three times, Bockscar headed for the secondary target, Nagasaki, where he finally dropped his bomb. In contrast to the Hiroshima mission, and despite achieving its objectives, the bombing of Nagasaki has been described as tactically unsuccessful. The crew ran into various problems in their execution and the aircraft were very low on fuel when they landed at Yontan Airfield in Okinawa.
Crew Members
The twelve crew members of the Enola Gay during the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 were:
- Colonel Paul Tibbets (pilot and aircraft commander)
- Captain Robert Lewis (copilot)
- Captain Theodore Van Kirk.
- Major Thomas Ferebee (bombing)
- Lieutenant Jacob Beser (Electronic Countermeasure Officer)
- Captain William «Deak» Parsons (in charge of arming the bomb detonator)
- Second Lieutenant Morris Jeppson (electronic technician, responsible for activating the electronic pump)
- Sergeant Joe Stiborik (Radio operator)
- Sergeant George R. Caron.
- Sergeant Wayne Duzenberry (flighting)
- Sergeant Robert Shumard (second flight engineer)
- Soldier Richard Nelson (radio operator)
Later story
On November 6, 1945, Robert Lewis flew back to the United States in the Enola Gay and landed at the 509th Composite Group's new base at Roswell Airfield, New Mexico, on November 8th. On April 29, 1946, the bomber took off from Roswell to participate in the nuclear tests of Operation Crossroads and on May 1 it landed on the Kwajalein Atoll, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The bomber was not chosen for bomb-dropping tests at Bikini Atoll, so it took off from Kwajalein on July 1, the day of the nuclear detonation, arriving at Fairfield-Suisun Airfield in California the next day.
The decision not to use the Enola Gay in these tests was motivated by the desire to preserve the device and for this reason, on July 24, 1946, it flew to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, in Arizona, in preparation for storage. On August 30 of that year, ownership of the bomber was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and the Enola Gay was deregistered from the United States Air Force. From 1946 to 1961, the device remained in temporary storage in various places: between September 1, 1946 and July 3, 1949, he was at the Davis-Monthan base, then he flew to Orchard Place airfield, in Park Ridge (Illinois), piloted by Paul Tibbets to be accepted by the Smithsonian. On January 12, 1952, it passed to Pyote Air Force Base, Texas, and on December 2, 1953, the bomber had to be transferred to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, because the Smithsonian did not have space to store it..
The Air Force was expected to properly store the aircraft, but it remained out in the open exposed to the elements for lack of space. Thus, several souvenir hunters broke and stole some of its parts and the animals began to enter the device. Paul E. Garber, the first director of the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, was concerned about the state of the Enola Gay and for this reason, on August 10, 1960, several employees of the institution began to dismantle the bomber and moved its components on 21 July 1961 to the Smithsonian's warehouse in Suitland, Maryland.
The Enola Gay was there for many years, but in the early 1980s two veterans of the 509th Composite Group, Don Rehl and Frank B. Stewart, began petitioning for restoration and display of the apparatus. Both got Paul Tibbets and Senator Barry Goldwater to endorse them. In 1982, Walter Boyne, a former B-52 bomber pilot for the Strategic Air Command, was appointed director of the National Air and Space Museum and made restoration of the Enola Gay a priority. Looking at the dismantled bomber, Tibbets said: "Sad reunion. My good memories, and I don't mean dropping the bomb, are many from when I flew in the plane... I demanded the most from it and it never failed me... It's probably the most beautiful piece of engineering anyone has ever flown."
Restoration
Controversy in its exhibition
The Enola Gay became the center of controversy when in 1995 the Smithsonian Institution announced that it was going to display part of the aircraft's fuselage in an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The exhibition, entitled The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War, was produced by the National Air and Space Museum and had as its fundamental piece the part restored from Enola Gay.
Negative criticism of the exhibit, especially from the American Legion and the Air Force Association, charged that it focused on remembering the many deaths caused by the atomic bomb rather than on the motivation behind it. was behind its use and the decisive role it played in ending the war with the Empire of Japan. This exhibition revived the old academic and political debate in the United States about the hindsight of the atomic bombings. The controversy forced the resignation of Martin Harwit, then director of the National Air and Space Museum.
The forward fuselage of the Enola Gay was exposed on June 28, 1995. A few days later, on July 2, three people were arrested for throwing ashes and human blood on the bomber, and earlier someone else had stained the exhibition carpet with red paint. The controversial exhibition closed on May 18, 1998, and the aircraft's fuselage returned to storage for further restoration.
Restoration and exhibition
Restoration of the bomber had begun on December 5, 1984 at the Paul E. Garber Storage, Preservation and Restoration Facility located in Silver Hill, Maryland. The propellers the bomber had during the Hiroshima mission were sent to Texas A&M University, two of the engines were rebuilt at the Garber facility and two others at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. The works were slow and meticulous because each component was carefully cleaned. Certain elements and instruments of the aircraft had been removed and were never found, others were located and some had to be remanufactured but with identifying marks so that future restorers could distinguish them from the original components. In total, the restoration of the bomber took 300,000 labor hours.
While the front was exposed between 1995 and 1998, work continued on other parts of the aircraft. Between March and June 2003, the bomber was moved in several pieces to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, located in Chantilly, Virginia, next to Washington-Dulles International Airport. There the wings and fuselage of the aircraft were assembled for the first time since 1960. Assembly was completed on August 8, 2003 and since December 15, 2003 the entire Enola Gay is on permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution, along with other aircraft that marked history.
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