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Ashworth, another weaponeer Professors Ramsey and Robert Brode. “Deak” Parsons, an ordnance officer who would be the weaponeer on the flight Commander Frederick L. Farrell, the Manhattan District’s ranking officer on the scene Admiral William R. It was as smooth as can be.”Īttendees at that briefing included Brig. “We needed to discuss the latest in weather, the latest in location of enemy opposition and that sort of thing, like the “Dumbo” boats that were out on the water, in case you got shot up and had to abandon the airplane in the water,” Tibbets said. Now, all that was left was the final briefing. The aiming point would be the Aioi Bridge, near the heart of the city, whose T-shape, due to a ramp in the center, made it easily recognizable. A geographical feature east of the city was chosen as the initial point, where they would start their bomb run. Ralph Taylor’s plane, to Nagasaki.Īt one point Tibbets and Tom Ferebee, the bombardier, studied maps and aerial photographs of Hiroshima and the surrounding area.
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John Wilson, to Kokura and Full House, Maj. Claude Eatherly, destined for Hiroshima Jabbitt III, commanded by Maj. Those were Straight Flush, piloted by Maj. Since visual sighting was required to drop the bomb, a weather plane would fly to the primary target, with others flying to alternate target cities, where they would radio Tibbets as to if weather conditions were suitable for a visual bomb drop. When he left that rendezvous point and headed toward the target, he expected those planes to be with him! After outlining the procedure, Tibbets had just one thing left to say. Top Secret, piloted by Chuck McKnight, would travel as far as Iwo Jima, where it would wait as a spare, in case Tibbets’ plane encountered trouble in route. George Marquardt’s photo plane, “91,” also carrying scientists, would lag far enough behind to be out of the radius of immediate danger. Sweeney, would be carrying instrument packages-which would be dropped to measure the intensity of the blast, and to record shock effect, radioactivity, etc.-as well as a number of scientists. That change was also made on six other Superfortresses taking part in the mission.Īnother detail to be worked out was the rendezvous between the Enola Gay and three other aircraft, over Iwo Jima, and their further flight in formation to the target.
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Recently, he had chosen “Enola Gay,” the name of his mother, who had been a source of strength to him since boyhood, particularly during the soul-searching period when he decided to give up a medical career to become a military pilot.īesides asking the painter to place the name on the left side of the nose, beneath the cockpit, Tibbets had asked that the 509th Composite Group’s insignia, its familiar arrowhead tail motif, be replaced with the standard identifier for the Sixth Bomb Group-a big black letter “R” inside a circle. Once that was settled, Tibbets handled the last-minute tasks, which including seeing that the recently chosen name for his B-29 Superfortress, number 82, adorned her.
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As for the primary target of the operation, it would be Hiroshima, an important center of military operations. Curtis LeMay was telling them August 6 would be the date of “Operation Centerboard,” the dropping of the first atomic bomb. I felt confident we were going to get word to go as fast as Truman could get to us-if we didn’t get word to go and unload. We knew what was going on, almost by segments. “We knew because of the Teletype machine that was brought into our area, at the request of General Lester Groves, so they could talk back and forth to Brigadier General Tom Farrell, the Corps of Engineer man. “Of course, we knew about when President Harry Truman was supposed to be meeting with Stalin and Churchill,” he recalled.
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Paul Tibbets in front of the Enola Gay.ĭuring the first week of August 1945, Tibbets watched, and waited.