"I think we should definitely realize it just can't happen again. Enola Gay Boeing B-29 on 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, became the first aircraft to. Description: A fine S.P., 10 x 8 in., b/w, an image of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay taking off from an air strip, probably Tinian on the day of her historic mission, signed by its pilot PAUL TIBBETS (1915-2007), navigator THEODORE DUTCH VAN KIRK (1921-2014), and bombardier TOM FEREBEE (1918-2000), each signing in blue ink and adding their positions. b-29 superfortress flying away from the explosion of the atomic bomb. "We should look back and think just what one bomb did, what two did and think about what just one hydrogen bomb would do," Ferebee said in the 1985 Sentinel interview. Browse 196 enola gay plane stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. He thought of the bombing as a necessary duty that would help end the war, not as an act that would kill, she said.
Tibbets Jr., the commander of the 509th Composite Group, on, while still on the assembly line.The aircraft was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. "He was pleased that high school and college students were interested in that part of history," Mary Ann Ferebee said. Enola Gay was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Hicks served as historian and coordinating producer for a film documentary on the Hiroshima bombing, titled The Men who Brought the Dawn, in 1995.įerebee spoke about the mission and WWII to students at Rollins College in Orlando and answered letters and e-mail inquiries on a regular basis.
Hicks, executive director of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. Flying escort with the Enola Gay were two additional. The colonel carried cyanide pills for himself and the crew to swallow, should they be captured by the enemy. local time on August 6, Tibbets and his men began the six-hour flight to Hiroshima. The crew members have remained close, said George E. On July 31, 1945, the plane and its crew took part in a final rehearsal flight. Van Kirk said he met Ferebee in the nose of a B-17 in 1942 at Sarasota where they were training and became best friends, flying together in Europe as well as on the Hiroshima mission. All I said was they must have had a very, very large pickle barrel."
"The Norden bomb sight was supposed to put a bomb in a pickle barrel from 30,000 feet. "He was like a magician with that bomb sight," Van Kirk recalled, noting the device was imprecise by present standards.