Tibbets, pilot of the plane that was to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, got his mother's name Enola Gay painted on the aircraft. Hiroshima was the primary target while Kokura and Nagasaki were the secondary and tertiary targets respectively. General Curtis LeMay, who later became the first commander of the US Strategic Air Command, brought with him to Tinian the order that set the date for the atomic strike as August 6, 1945. Some of these scientists flew in the accompanying planes that were virtually flying laboratories. Laboratory facilities along with scientists from the Los Alamos laboratory for the final assembly of the bombs and for the experiments to be conducted during the fateful missions were also set up. Paul Tibbets as its leader, was stationed on the island of Tinian in the Pacific.
We shall go forward in trusting Thee knowing that we are in Thy care now and for ever. May the men who fly this night be kept safe in Thy care, and may they be returned safely to us. We pray Thee that the end of the war may come soon and once more we may know peace on earth. May they, as well as we, know Thy strength and power, and armed with Thy might may they bring this war to a rapid end. Guard and protect them, we pray Thee, as they fly the appointed rounds.
Minutes before the plane carrying the atomic bomb took off for its destination, Hiroshima, Chaplain William Downey recited in a richly resonant voice before the assembled crew a prayer that he had especially prepared for the occasion:Īlmighty Father, who wilt hear the prayer of those that love Thee, we pray Thee to be with those who brave heights of Thy heaven and who carry the battle to our enemies. This article discusses this major shift in policy and recalls the history of one of the most devastating events of our times. Originally intended as a deterrent to the German threat, the atomic bomb became an offensive weapon to be used to coerce Japan to surrender and bring World War II to an end. August as a month became synonymous with the Apoclypse of Hiroshima in 1945. And on August 9, 1945, the town of Nagasaki was subjected to the same horrible fate. Tibbets, dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima and gave the world "a peep into hell". Was the error the atomic bombing or Japanese militarism? On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, piloted by Col. On the Hiroshima Cenotaph are inscribed the words: "Please rest in peace, for the error will not be repeated". Hicks served as historian and coordinating producer for a film documentary on the Hiroshima bombing, titled The Men who Brought the Dawn, in 1995.A Monthly Journal of the IDSA August 2001 (Vol. Hicks, executive director of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. The crew members have remained close, said George E. All I said was they must have had a very, very large pickle barrel." "The Norden bomb site was supposed to put a bomb in a pickle barrel from 30,000 feet.
"He was like a magician with that bomb site," Enola Gay navigator Ted Van Kirk recalled in a telephone interview, noting the device was imprecise by present standards. Paul Tibbets, had hand-picked Ferebee for his crew and called him "the best bombardier who ever looked through the eyepiece of a Norden bomb site." 14, 1945, five days after the Nagasaki bomb was dropped. The only other man who has dropped a nuclear bomb in war, Nagasaki bombardier Kermit Beahan, died in 1989. "Then I think we should realize that this can't happen again." "Now we should look back and remember what just one bomb did, or two bombs," he told the Charlotte Observer in his home state of North Carolina. "I'm sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I hate to think that something like that had to happen to end the war," Ferebee said in a 1995 interview on the 50th anniversary of the bombing. Still, he voiced strong feelings over the use of nuclear weapons.