You Are There… Graphic History Series.
Historical Backdrop
By August 1945, World War II in Europe had ended, but Japan continued to fight. The United States had developed a new weapon — the atomic bomb — through the secret Manhattan Project. President Truman authorized its use to force Japan’s surrender and avoid millions of casualties with a conventional invasion. Our subject is Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., age 30, and chosen to lead the mission. A veteran combat pilot from the European theater, Tibbets was an expert on the new B-29 Superfortress. He hand-picked the 509th Composite Group on Tinian Island and personally named his bomber “Enola Gay” after his mother. On the night of August 5, 1945, he and his crew prepared to drop “Little Boy,” the first atomic bomb used in war, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
August 5, 1945 — 23:00 hours — Briefing Quonset Hut, North Field, Tinian Island
You wake up to the smell of diesel and salt air on a coral runway in the Pacific. Within 30 minutes, you’re standing at the front of a hot, smoke-filled hut. Wooden folding chairs creak. Twenty-three airmen stare at the map you just unveiled — Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki. The chaplain says a short prayer. A ceiling fan thumps overhead. Sweat soaks through your khaki shirt. You tell them this is the weapon that ends the war. No one cheers. You smell coffee, tobacco, and aftershave. Outside, crickets and distant generators hum.
August 6, 1945 — 00:37 hours — Mess Hall, Tinian Island
You eat a “last meal” of pineapple fritters, blueberry pancakes, eggs, and black coffee. The mess hall is bright with bare bulbs. Aluminum trays clatter. A radio plays low — a Tommy Dorsey tune. You eat slowly. The cooks, who don’t know what’s happening, joke about your appetite. You smile thinly. Your stomach feels tight. You light a pipe afterward and step outside into the heavy, sticky tropical night.
August 6, 1945 — 01:37 hours — Hardstand A-1, North Field
You stand under the floodlights beside the Enola Gay. Photographers from the Manhattan Project crowd close. Bulbs flash. The aircraft’s polished aluminum reflects the lights like a mirror. You pose with your crew. The name “Enola Gay” was painted only hours ago beneath the cockpit window. You feel the cold metal of the fuselage. Generators hum. Mechanics make final checks. You smell aviation fuel and hot rubber.
August 6, 1945 — 02:45 hours — Cockpit of Enola Gay, Takeoff Roll
You push the four throttles forward. The engines roar. The B-29 is overloaded by 15,000 pounds. The runway is two miles long, and you need every inch. The plane shudders. Crash trucks wait at the end of the runway because of the bombs from earlier crashes. Your co-pilot Lewis grips his yoke. You wait until the very last moment to lift the nose. The wheels finally leave the coral. The dark Pacific rolls beneath you.
August 6, 1945 — 03:00 hours — Forward Bomb Bay, In Flight
