Enola Gay

This article covers the B-29 bomber; on the German heavy metal band see Enola Gay (band) , on the song of the Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark see Enola Gay (song) .

The Enola Gay pilot , Paul W. Tibbets , before the aircraft took off on August 6, 1945

Enola Gay is the name of the B-29 bomber (Superfortress) of the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) that was used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb (" Little Boy ") that was ever used in a conflict on the Japanese city ​​of Hiroshima . On August 9, 1945, the Enola Gay was one of the escort aircraft of the B-29 bomber Bockscar , which dropped the “ Fat Man ” atomic bomb on Nagasaki . Today the Enola Gay is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly .

origin of the name

The pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. named the machine after his mother Enola Gay Tibbets (née Haggard; 1893–1966), who in turn was baptized in the name of the heroine of a novel that her father loved ( Enola: Or Her Fatal Mistake by Mary Young Ridenbaugh, 1886) .

Details of the aircraft

The Enola Gay. The machine helps to disguise the actual unit markings of the 6th Bomb Group (R in a circle). After the armistice, the actually assigned marking (a spearhead) was applied again.

The machine with the serial number 44-86292 was built in May 1945 in the Glenn L. Martin Company's plant on Offutt Field near Bellevue (Nebraska) and equipped there with a special suspension for the comparatively high weight (around 4.5 t) of the atomic bomb . Compared to a "normal" B-29, the machine was equipped without weapons, with the exception of the tail stand, which led to a significant reduction in weight and thus a higher attainable altitude.

The Boeing B-29 belonged to the 509th Composite Group (313th Bomb Wing) of the USAAF and flew the operation against Hiroshima from Tinian , a small island of the Mariana Islands , therefore this aircraft was the first strategic atomic bomber in the world. In addition to the Enola Gay, there were 14 other B-29 bombers that had been converted for the use of atomic bombs, including the Bockscar , which dropped the second atomic bomb " Fat Man " three days later on the Japanese city of Nagasaki . When the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki , the Enola Gay took over the weather investigation with Captain George W. Marquardt as pilot and commander.

Crew of the Enola Gay during the attack on Hiroshima

The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima

→ Main article: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima

A total of 12 people were on board, Jacob Beser was the only one who was also involved in the second atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki:

• Colonel Paul Tibbets (1915-2007) - pilot and commander
• Captain Robert A. Lewis (1918-1983) - co-pilot
• (US Navy) Captain William S. "Deak" Parsons (1901–1953) - weapons officer
• Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson (1922-2010) - Assistant to the Arms Officer
• Major Thomas Ferebee (1918-2000) - bomb shooter
• First Lieutenant Jacob Beser (1921–1992) - Electronic Countermeasures / Radar Defense
• Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenberry (1913-1992) - flight engineer
• Sergeant Robert H. Shumard (1920–1967) - assistant flight engineer
• Captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (1921-2014) - navigator
• Sergeant Joe S. Stiborik (1914–1984) - operator of the on-board radar device
• Private First Class Richard H. Nelson (1925–2003) - radio operator
• Staff Sergeant George R. "Bob" Caron (1919–1995) - rear gunner

Current location of the machine

The Enola Gay at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Enola Gay has been on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly , Virginia , near Washington Dulles Airport since 2003 .

Trivia

The British synth-pop group Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD) dedicated the anti-war song Enola Gay to the aircraft in 1980 .

literature

• Cay Rademacher : Attack on Asia: Hiroshima. In: Michael Schaper (Ed.): End of the war 1945. The finale of the world fire. (= GEO epoch. No. 17). Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-570-19555-0 , pp. 122–125.
• Helmuth Trischler : Nuclear place of remembrance. The Enola Gay. In: Charlotte Bigg, Jochen Hennig (Hrsg.): Atombilder - Iconography of the atom in science and public in the 20th century. Wallstein, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8353-0564-9 , pp. 135-144.
• Stephen Walker: Hiroshima - Countdown to Disaster. Bertelsmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-570-00844-7 , p. 191 ff.
• Michael Wallace: The Battle of Enola Gay. Scenes from the American Culture War. In: Sheets for German and international politics . No. 8/1995. Blätter Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Bonn 1995, ISSN  0006-4416 , pp. 963-974.

Web links

Commons : Enola Gay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Enola Gay  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations

• Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" . In: Website of the National Air and Space Museum (English)
• Amy Tikkanen: Enola Gay . In: Britannica.com (English)
• B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" . In: B29-Superfortress.com (English)
• Inside the Enola Gay . In: AirSpaceMag.com ( Smithsonian Institution )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical data from Enola Gay Tibbets (accessed August 3, 2015)
2. ^ Dana Bell: Air Force Colors, Volume 3 , squadron / signal publications, 1997, p. 85
3. ↑ Photo: P-574 (Enola Gay Crew Members) Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association , accessed December 20, 2010
4. ↑ Atom Bomber Crew From Eight States , The Miami News, August 8, 1945 (accessed January 5, 2019)
5. ^ The "Enola Gay" exhibited in Washington. In: NCC.ch. August 20, 2003, accessed January 10, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD): Enola Gay . In: YouTube, September 20, 2010 (video, 3:31 min.).