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The Enola Gay
The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, manufactured on May 18th 1945, and assigned the serial number #44-86292. The Enola Gay was part of an elite group of B-29's selected for Project Silverplate, and was rigged from the womb to deploy the atomic bomb during high-intensity combat operations. It was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, who was the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets.
On August 6th 1945, at a mere two and a half months old, the Enola Gay permanently carved its name into history by becoming the first aircraft to destroy a city with an atomic bomb, when it completely obliterated Hiroshima in the closing days of World War II as a warning to the Russians that there was more where that came from.
It currently resides at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.
Early Life & Education
The Enola Gay (Model number B-29-45-MO, Serial number #44-86292) was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company (later part of Lockheed Martin) at its bomber plant in Bellevue, Nebraska, located at Offutt Field, now Offutt Air Force Base. The bomber was conceived for the then-classified Project Silverplate, to create companion aircraft for the Manhattan Project's secret weapon. It underwent a series of experimental pre-natal modifications, including an extensively modified bomb bay with pneumatic doors and British bomb attachment and release systems, reversible pitch propellers that gave more braking power on landing, improved engines with fuel injection and better cooling, and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets.
The bomber was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the commander of the 509th Composite Group, on May 9th 1945, while it was still on the assembly line. It was completed soon after on May 18th, and the then still-unnamed aircraft was subsequently assigned to the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group.
The Enola Gay was one of just 15 alumni from the very first graduating class of Silverplate. Eventually, a total of 65 bombers would make the cut.
World War II
The rookie bomber was stationed at North Field, Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, and flew eight training flights in July 1945. On July 24th & 26th, it flew its first two combat missions, dropping pumpkin bombs on Kobe and Nagoya. Its future payload from the Manhattan Project, “Little Boy”, arrived at Tinian on the 26th as well.
The Enola Gay was initially given the victor number 12. On August 1st of that summer, it was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bombardment Group as a security measure, and had its victor number changed to 82 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th Bombardment Group aircraft.
On August 5th 1945, during preparation for the first atomic mission, Tibbets assumed command of the aircraft and named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, who, in turn, had been named for the heroine of a novel. When it came to selecting a name for the plane, Tibbets later recalled that:
My thoughts turned at this point to my courageous red-haired mother, whose quiet confidence had been a source of strength to me since boyhood, and particularly during the soul-searching period when I decided to give up a medical career to become a military pilot. At a time when Dad had thought I had lost my marbles, she had taken my side and said, 'I know you will be all right, son.'
In the early morning hours, just prior to the August 6th mission, Tibbets had a young Army Air Forces maintenance man, Private Nelson Miller, paint the name just under the pilot's window. Regularly assigned aircraft commander Robert A. Lewis was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for this important mission and became furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of August 6th to see it painted with the now-famous nose art.
Hiroshima Bombing
By the time the atomic bomb was finished and ready for deployment, World War II was all but over. The Empire of Japan, once a regional powerhouse, was completely gutted by a massive alliance of Western and Asian forces, and the Soviet Union was now starting to move in fast. With most of its cities now in smoldering ruins due to waves of “terror bombings”, Japanese diplomats started to signal the willingness of their people to surrender.
The Pentagon would have none of this. Wary of the equally-totalitarian Soviet Union cutting in on its turf, it was determined that Japan could surrender, under one condition: First, a public example would be made of two Japanese cities to demonstrate the power of this new weapon to the Russians.
Hiroshima was selected as the primary target of the first nuclear bombing mission on August 6th, with Kokura & Nagasaki as alternative targets. The Enola Gay, piloted by Tibbets, took off from North Field, about six hours' flight time from Japan, accompanied by two other B-29s: The Great Artiste, carrying instrumentation, and Necessary Evil, commanded by Captain George Marquardt, to take photographs. The director of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie R. Groves Jr., wanted the event recorded for posterity, so the takeoff was illuminated by floodlights. When he wanted to taxi, Tibbets leaned out the window to direct the bystanders out of the way. On request, he gave a friendly wave for the cameras.
After leaving Tinian, the three aircraft made their way separately to Iwo Jima, where they rendezvoused at 2,440 meters (8,010 ft) and set course for Japan. The aircraft arrived over the target in clear visibility at 9,855 meters (32,333 ft). Navy Captain William S. “Deak” Parsons of Project Alberta, who was in command of the mission, armed the bomb during the flight to minimize the risks during takeoff. His assistant, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, removed the safety devices 30 minutes before reaching the target area.
The release at 08:15 (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy took 53 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at 31,060 feet (9,470 m) to the predetermined detonation height about 1,968 feet (600 m) above the city. The Enola Gay traveled 11.5 mi (18.5 km) before it felt the shock waves from the blast. Although buffeted by the shock, neither The Enola Gay nor The Great Artiste was damaged.
The detonation created a blast equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ). The U-235 weapon was considered very inefficient, with only 1.7% of its fissile material reacting. The radius of total destruction was about one mile (1.6 km), with resulting fires across 4.4 square miles (11 km2). Americans estimated that 4.7 square miles (12 km2) of the city were destroyed. Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. Some 70,000–80,000 people, 30% of the city's population, were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm, and another 70,000 injured. Out of those killed, 20,000 were soldiers and 20,000 were Korean slave laborers.
Despite the relative inefficiency of Little Boy, the combined initial & long term death tolls of the Hiroshima mission makes the Enola Gay one of history's deadliest military service vehicles, ranking up there with the Toyota Hilux and the original Trojan Horse.
The Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian to great fanfare, touching down at 2:58 pm, after 12 hours 13 minutes. The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil followed at short intervals. Several hundred people, including journalists and photographers, had gathered to watch the planes return. Tibbets was the first to disembark and was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot, for heroically slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians in a public relations stunt.
Hiroshima Mission Flight Crew
Enola Gay's crew on August 6th 1945 consisted of 12 men. The crew consisted of:
- Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr. – pilot and aircraft commander
- Captain Robert A. Lewis – co-pilot & Enola Gay's regularly assigned aircraft commander
- Major Thomas Ferebee – bombardier
- Captain Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk – navigator
- Captain William S. “Deak” Parsons, USN – weaponeer and mission commander
- First Lieutenant Jacob Beser – radar countermeasures
- Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson – assistant weaponeer
- Staff Sergeant Robert “Bob” Caron – tail gunner
- Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury – flight engineer
- Sergeant Joe S. Stiborik – radar operator
- Sergeant Robert H. Shumard – assistant flight engineer
- Private First Class Richard H. Nelson – VHF radio operator
Nagasaki Bombing
The Hiroshima mission was followed by another atomic strike. Originally scheduled for August 11th, it was brought forward by two days to August 9th owing to a forecast of bad weather. This time, a nuclear bomb code-named “Fat Man” was carried by the B-29 Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney. The Enola Gay, flown by Captain George Marquardt's Crew B-10, was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura, the primary target. The Enola Gay reported clear skies over Kokura, but by the time Bockscar arrived, the city was obscured by smoke from fires from the conventional bombing of Yahata by two hundred and twenty four B-29's the day before. After three unsuccessful passes, Bockscar diverted to its secondary target, Nagasaki, where it dropped Fat Man. In contrast to the Hiroshima mission, the Nagasaki mission has been described as tactically botched, although the mission did meet its objectives. The crew encountered a number of problems in execution and had very little fuel by the time they landed at the emergency backup landing site Yontan Airfield on Okinawa.
Nagasaki Mission Flight Crew
For the Nagasaki mission, Enola Gay was flown by Crew B-10, normally assigned to Up An' Atom:
- Captain George W. Marquardt – aircraft commander
- Second Lieutenant James M. Anderson – co-pilot
- Second Lieutenant Russell Gackenbach – navigator
- Captain James W. Strudwick – bombardier
- Technical Sergeant James R. Corliss – flight engineer
- Sergeant Warren L. Coble – radio operator
- Sergeant Joseph M. DiJulio – radar operator
- Sergeant Melvin H. Bierman – tail gunner
- Sergeant Anthony D. Capua Jr. – assistant engineer/scanner
Court Martial & Imprisonment
With the war now over, Lewis flew the Enola Gay back to the United States on November 6th 1945, arriving at the 509th's new base at Roswell AAF in New Mexico, on November 8th. On April 29th 1946, the Enola Gay left Roswell as part of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific on Bikini Atoll.
Meanwhile, much controversy had been brewing over the bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and specifically the ethical implications of bombing a surrendering civilian and non-combatant populace. With the careers of many people in Washington DC at stake, it was decided by the Generals to publically hold the Enola Gay up as a scapegoat for the entire scandal. Now, like many assets of the military-industrial complex, the naive rookie aircraft was to be made a patsy by its own creators. On July 1st 1946, the very day of the first test drop at Bikini Atoll, the Enola Gay was humiliatingly pulled from service, court-martialed, stripped of rank, and ordered to go to California to await further orders. It was escorted from Kwajalein later that day, reaching Fairfield-Suisun AAF, California, on July 2nd.
The Enola Gay, now bearing the full blame for Hiroshima & Nagasaki, was to be imprisoned for the next several decades in increasingly degrading positions. On July 24th, the aircraft was flown to Davis–Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona, in preparation for its sentence. On August 30th, the Enola Gay was dishonorably discharged. The Smithsonian was assigned as the bomber's new “civilian” handler, effectively sweeping the entire issue under the rug.
From 1946 to 1961, the Enola Gay was confined at a number of locations. It was at Davis-Monthan AFB from September 1st 1946 until July 3rd 1949, when it was flown to Orchard Place Air Field in Park Ridge, Illinois, by Tibbets himself, who tried to console the aircraft. It was moved to Pyote AFB in Texas, on January 12th 1952, and then to Andrews AFB in Maryland, on December 2nd 1953.
As the 1950's wore on, and more military facilities were being reappropriated for MKUltra, the Enola Gay's quarters were reassigned to a remote corner of Andrews AFB. There it was chained to a tree like a dog, where it was left exposed to the elements and the blistering sun. While the Enola Gay was restrained and unable to defend itself, a series of thieves and souvenir hunters stationed at Andrews AFB broke into the cockpit and removed parts, while insects and birds destroyed even more components making nests. Paul E. Garber, an advocate for incarcerated Americans suffering unjust abuse in the prison system, became concerned about the Enola Gay's condition, and pleaded for the Smithsonian to intervene. Smithsonian staff began dismantling the aircraft on August 10th, and shipped the individual components to the Smithsonian storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, on July 21st 1961, where the now-dismembered Enola Gay would serve the rest of its sentence indoors.
Pardon, Restoration & Return to Service
Stripped of its wings and many other organs, the Enola Gay remained in solitary confinement at Suitland for many years. Like many veterans, the Enola Gay suffered from combat-induced PTSD, and relived the horrors of war every day in its own personal hell. By the early 1980s, two veterans of the 509th, Don Rehl and Frank B. Stewart, were made aware of their comrade's inhumane treatment, and began lobbying for the Enola Gay to be Pardoned. They enlisted Tibbets and Senator Barry Goldwater in their campaign. In 1983, Walter J. Boyne, a former B-52 pilot with the Strategic Air Command, became director of the National Air and Space Museum, and he made the restoration of the Enola Gay's rights & dignity a priority. Looking at the pieces of the aircraft, Tibbets recalled, was a “sad meeting:”
[My] fond memories, and I don't mean the dropping of the bomb, were the numerous occasions I flew the airplane … I pushed it very, very hard and it never failed me … It was probably the most beautiful piece of machinery that any pilot ever flew.
Restoration of the bomber began on December 5th 1984, at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, after receiving a full pardon by President Ronald Reagan, who ordered the Enola Gay to be reassembled at taxpayer expense. Two engines were rebuilt at Garber and two at San Diego Air & Space Museum. Some parts and instruments had been removed and could not be located. Replacements were found or fabricated, and marked so that future curators could distinguish them from the original components.
The forward fuselage went on display at the Smithsonian on June 28th 1995, to a mix of great fanfare and controversy. The exhibition closed on May 18th 1998 and the fuselage was returned to the Garber Facility for final restoration.
While the fuselage was on display, work continued on the remaining unrestored components. The aircraft was shipped in pieces to the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia from March–June 2003, with the fuselage and wings reunited for the first time since 1960 on April 10th 2003 and assembly completed on August 8th 2003. The aircraft has been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center since the museum annex opened on December 15th 2003.
However, as the 21st century wore on, bringing new economic problems, it eventually became necessary for America's retirees to once-again return to the workforce, and war heroes are no exception. The Enola Gay was summoned back to service on November 1st 2023, now outfitted with GPS navigation and even more destructive payloads than ever before. The Enola Gay now splits its time between signing autographs at the Smithsonian, and going on leisurely bombing runs and crop-dusting missions.
Interior Photos
In Popular Culture
The Enola Gay has inspired a number of creative references in pop culture, including:
- In The Simpsons episode “Bart the Fink” (S7E15), it is revealed that Krusty the Clown has a plane named after the Enola Gay, called the “I'm-On-A-Rolla Gay”, which he used to fly with Dean Martin. He subsequently destroys the plane in a plot to fake his death.
External Links
- Exhibit page for the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian web site
- On Twitter/X as TheEnolaGay
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