Where did the enola gay leave from

So that is exactly what I did not realizing, until fifty-two years later, when going through some old war photos in my Bomb Group Album that I had taken a picture of the Enola Gay the day that it arrived on Tinian. This was the only time in all his fuel deliveries to 6th bombers that this happened.

After the Enola Gay became the first plane to drop an atomic bomb — on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, — the B bomber stayed airborne. This silent footage, in both color and black and white, shows the preparation of the “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” atomic bombs on Tinian Island.

One day there was a big new B with an arrow on its tail, and the next day it had a circle R. Miller knew all the 6th aircraft and most of the crews but when he was told to deliver fuel to this area, he had to be escorted in and out by armed guards. It took several trucks and about 30 minutes to completely fill a B, and Jim did this all day, every day.

In an interview with Jim Miller, a fuels specialist with the 6th Bomb Group, he recalled a similar incident with this strange aircraft. Bill served on Tinian as a flight engineer on a Reamatroid, crewin the 39th squadron, of the 6th Bomb Group, and flew 23 combat missions over Japan.

Instead, it had a large black arrow facing forward in a circle painted on the vertical fin. At am (Tinian time), the bomb run began. That was the last time I saw that airplane with the arrow on the tail in our squadron area. Enola Gay Flight Path Hiroshima Log of the Enola Gay The Enola Gay left Tinian at am, accompanied by two other Bs: The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil.

Jim delivered fuels to the flight line in a truck holding gallons of fuel, hooked up a 2. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and destroyed about three-quarters of the. The release at AM (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy bomb took 53 seconds to fall from the aircraft.

The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The Enola Gay (/ əˈnoʊlə /) is a Boeing B Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets.

Enola Gay Facts History

By daylight the next morning it looked like all the other 6th Bomb Group airplanes sitting on their hardstands. As we stood around waiting for our ride back to the squadron, I noticed a new arrival to our area sitting a couple of hardstands airplane parking area away.

These planes rendezvoused over Iwo Jima and set course for Japan. There were Japanese spies hiding out in the coral caves on both Tinian and Saipan who would radio information to Japan about any B arrivals or departures from the Airfields.

On 6 Augustduring the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The Enola Gay is the B heavy bomber that was used by the United States on August 6,to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. He thought that was a pretty good deal.

Milton Sprouse, a crew member from the th Bomb Group said in an interview at their reunion that the first night that they were on Tinian the black arrow was removed from the vertical fin of all fifteen airplanes of the th Bomb Group, and they were repainted with a new insignia so that they looked like all the other airplanes in the squadron.

He continued to work in the airline industry retiring from American Airlines in He was considered in a mission critical position and because of that designation was excused from KP and guard duties. I thought that it must a photo recon aircraft, stripped down for more speed and longer-range flight.

It was such a beautiful airplane that I decided that I needed to take a picture of it and send it home along with some other photos taken on Tinian. Brake B Flight Engineer — Tinian On 6 Augustpiloted by Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare.

We had just returned from a night bombing mission over Japan and had disembarked from our war weary B It was another long mission under our belt, and we were waiting for the army truck to pick us up and take us back to the squadron for debriefing and some much-needed sack time.

The Air Corp used some trickery to confuse the spies by changing the insignia on the vertical fin of all airplanes of the th Bomb Group so that they would blend in with the other squadrons on Tinian North Field. The arrow on the vertical fin of the Enola Gay was replaced with the 6th Bomb Group Insignia that consisted of a black R inside a black circle.

It includes the takeoff and return of the Enola Gay, which dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima on August 6, The footage also depicts the mushroom cloud above Nagasaki. Photo Credit: Wikipedia. It was the first time the explosive device had been used on an enemy target, and it destroyed most of the city.