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“I personally think there shouldn't be any atomic bombs in the world - I'd like to see them all abolished,” Van Kirk said. The bomb exploded about 1,500 feet above the city with a force of 15,000 tons of TNT. While some 1,900 feet (580 metres) above the city, Little Boy exploded, killing tens of thousands and causing widespread destruction. At 8:15 am, the bomb was released over Hiroshima. The plane’s navigator and last surviving member of the crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died last week at the age of 93.īefore his death, Van Kirk told the Associated Press that while the mission went perfectly, and that he believed the bombing which killed some 140,000 people actually saved lives in the long run, he felt slightly conflicted. The Enola Gay Tibbets had a maintenance man paint that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoffwas accompanied by various other planes. Tibbets, a 30-year-old colonel at the time of the bombing, named the bomber after his mother. Inside the window-covered nose of the plane, you can see where pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee sat during Special Mission No. US airman’s remarkable WW2 photos show crew of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber receiving a heroes’ welcome after dropping a devastating atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The plane was further modified to carry the atomic bomb - dubbed “Little Boy” - which was dropped from the front bomb bay onto the heart of Hiroshima during the mission. (Associated Press)At the time of its mission, the Enola Gay was among the most sophisticated, propeller-driven bombers in the sky during the Second World War, according to the Smithsonian.
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The Enola Gay Crew Posthumous Reunion, a Find a Grave.
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Contribute, create and discover gravesites from all over the world. Others could also claim to have contributed. The World’s largest gravesite collection. Paul Tibbets named the modified Boeing B-29 bomber used in Special Mission No. In 1945, the Enola Gay and the men who were now visiting her had ended the war. The Enola Gay is one of the most famous-some might call it infamous-aircrafts in history.