Bombing of Hiroshima

Picture of "Little Boy" (the bomb dropped in hiroshima) in the bomb pit on "Tinian" before being loaded into "Enola Gay's" bomb bay. (Picture found at Atomic Archive, Full article at Wikipedia.)




On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. the United States Army Air Forces dropped the "Little Boy" over Hiroshima, Japan the casualties were estimated (by historian Richard Frank) to between 100,000 to 200,000 most were civilians.

Picture and full article found at found at Century of Flight






The bombing of Hiroshima was one of the reasons that Japan decided to quit fighting in World War 2, The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was "Little Boy", Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon used in a war, Its explosion went about 1,800 feet with a force equivlent to 13,000 tons of TNT, Deaths were between 70,000 to 130,000. Little Boy was dropped from the "Enola Gay" piloted by U.S. Army Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Tibbets. Col. Tibbets was born in Quincy, Illinois he was raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa then moved with his family to Miami, Florida and went to the University of Florida. On Febuary 25, 1937 he enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. He was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1938 and "recived his wings" in Kelly Field, Texas, And was named commanding officer of the 308th bomb squadron, 97th Heavy Bomb Group flying B-17 Flying Fortresses on March 1942 he pioleted the lead bomberon the first Eighth Air Force bombing mission in Europe on August 17, 1942, later flew combat missions in the Medditerainian Theater of Operations. "By Rep.", Tibbets was "the best flier in the Army Air Force", he later returned to the U.S. to test the B-29 Superfortresses, he also served as a personal piolet to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at times during the war. In September of 1944 he was selected to lead the project at Wendover Army Air Field in Utah that later became the 509th Composite Group