Paul Tibbets Jr., the commander of the 509th. But Lewis would not end up leading the atomic mission. Robert Lewis, of the 509th Composite Group, from the factory to New Mexico, then to Tinian in the Mariana Islands, where its crew practiced flight maneuvers, loading the massive bomb and dropping it. 82 then, was flown by Army Air Forces Capt. Only the tail gun position was left to defend it from enemies.
The remote-controlled gun turrets were also taken away to increase speed. “You have a 10,000 pound atomic bomb you have to carry, so you have to lighten the airplane.” Jeremy Kinney, the Air and Space Museum’s curator of American military aviation, 1919-1945. “All of the armor that protects the crew was removed to save weight,” said Dr. The famous B-29 Superfortress rolled off the Glenn Martin assembly line in the spring of 1945 with what was known as a “silverplate modification” specifically for the atomic mission. It’s a plane with a huge, controversial, world-changing story to tell. They were covered for safety and reopened with commemorative plaques for the 60th anniversary of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian.Seventy-five years ago, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, bringing an end to a long and devastating World War II and making the Enola Gay, the B-29 that delivered it, one of the most famous in history. Visitors can make out some faded remnants of the old wartime administrative buildings and airport runways, and the two Atom Bomb Pits have been preserved. North Field was abandoned after the war, and has been reclaimed by the island’s tropical jungle, though designated a National Historic Landmark.
A plaque at the site reads that after the bombing, “the Japanese Emperor, without his cabinet’s consent, decided to end the Pacific war.” On August 14, Japan declared unconditional surrender. 2, the plutonium bomb codenamed “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Paul Tibbets’s mother-was loaded late in the afternoon of August 5, 1945, and the following morning took off from Tinian’s Runway Able and dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands in one of the most notorious events in world history.Īfter being loaded at Pit No. The Boeing B-29 Superfortess-named Enola Gay, after pilot Lt. 1 was used to load “Little Boy,” the 4-ton uranium bomb that became the first atomic weapon ever used in combat. The loading pits were necessary to get the massive bombs onto the aircraft, as the weapons were too large to be loaded conventionally. The plane was towed over the pit with its bomb bay doors open, and the bomb was hauled onto a hydraulic mount in the pit then winched into the belly of the plane.Ītomic Bomb Pit No. The result, North Field, was the largest airport in the world at the time. Working for more than 45 days and nights, troops built docks, airport runways, barracks, an administration building, oil storage facilities, weapons depots, an air-conditioned bomb assembly building, and two bomb loading pits. But first, a massive construction project had to be undertaken on the north end of Tinian. 509th Composite Group and 313th Bombardment Wing. Located just over 1,500 miles from Japan, Tinian was an ideal launch site for the U.S. Today, little remains of the airfield where the Atom Age began, save for two loading pits used to haul the nukes onto the aircraft that carried them over Japan. The attack was launched from an airfield on Tinian Island, one of a chain of islands in the Marianas.
During the final stages of World War II, an American B-29 Bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bombs over Japan.