Definition of enola gay
![definition of enola gay definition of enola gay](http://hd.wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/enola_gay_airplane-t2.jpg)
We could see smoke and fires creeping up the sides of the mountains." Where we had seen a clear city two minutes before, we could now no longer see the city. Those of us who had flown quite a bit over Europe thought that it was anti-aircraft fire that had exploded very close to the plane." On viewing the atomic fireball: "I don't believe anyone ever expected to look at a sight quite like that. The plane bounced, it jumped and there was a noise like a piece of sheet metal snapping. Navigator Theodore Van Kirk recalls the shockwaves from the explosion: "(It was) very much as if you've ever sat on an ash can and had somebody hit it with a baseball bat. Lewis said he could taste atomic fission. I remember (copilot Robert) Lewis pounding my shoulder, saying 'Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!' (Bombardier) Tom Ferebee wondered about whether radioactivity would make us all sterile. No one spoke for a moment then everyone was talking. boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall. Pilot Paul Tibbets: "We turned back to look at Hiroshima. Below are their eyewitness accounts of the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan. Along with Tibbets, copilot Robert Lewis, bombardier Tom Ferebee, navigator Theodore Van Kirk, and tail gunner Robert Caron were among the others on board the Enola Gay. The B-29 plane that carried Little Boy from Tinian Island in the western Pacific to Hiroshima was known as the Enola Gay, after pilot Paul Tibbets' mother. The bombing of Hiroshima, codenamed Operation Centerboard I, was approved by Curtis LeMay on August 4, 1945. Department of Energy has estimated that after five years there were perhaps 200,000 or more fatalities as a result of the bombing, while the city of Hiroshima has estimated that 237,000 people were killed directly or indirectly by the bomb's effects, including burns, radiation sickness, and cancer. Between 90,000 and 166,000 people are believed to have died from the bomb in the four-month period following the explosion. At the time of the bombing, Hiroshima was home to 280,000-290,000 civilians as well as 43,000 soldiers. The bomb was known as "Little Boy", a uranium gun-type bomb that exploded with about thirteen kilotons of force. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
![definition of enola gay definition of enola gay](http://ns328286.ip-37-187-113.eu/ew/wallpapers/800x480/29696_800x480.jpg)
The last survivor of its crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on 28 July 2014 at the age of 93.After the Interim Committee decided to drop the bomb, the Target Committee determined the locations to be hit, and President Truman issued the Potsdam Proclamation as Japan’s final warning, the world soon learned the meaning of “complete and utter destruction.” The first two atomic bombs ever used were dropped on Japan in early August, 1945.įor a detailed timeline of the bombings, please see Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing Timeline. Since 2003, the entire restored B-29 has been on display at NASM's Steven F. The cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the National Mall, for the bombing's 50th anniversary in 1995, amid controversy. In the 1980s, veterans groups engaged in a call for the Smithsonian to put the aircraft on display, leading to an acrimonious debate about exhibiting the aircraft without a proper historical context. Later that year it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, and spent many years parked at air bases exposed to the weather and souvenir hunters, before being disassembled and transported to the Smithsonian's storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, in 1961. In May 1946, it was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in a secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead.Īfter the war, the Enola Gay returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. Enola Gay participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the near-complete destruction of the city. Lewis it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. The Enola Gay () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. Wikipedia (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition: