Hiroshima Page #2

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and it was home to more than 500

B-29 Super Fortresses.

It was also home to the

509th Composite Group,

the men who would drop

the atom bomb on Japan.

In charge was Commanding Officer,

Colonel Paul Tibbets,

a veteran of the bombing

campaign against the Germans.

At 29 years of age,

I was so shocked to ask what the

confidence of anything I couldn't do.

The two key members of his crew

were bombardier Tom Ferraby,

and navigator, Dutch Van Kirk.

You never heard the word atomic, nuclear,

or anything of that type around the group.

We always referred to the weapon as,

the gimmick, the weapon, that sort of thing.

And, if you did figure it out,

you'd better be smart enough

not to talk about it.

All right, gentlemen,

cities have been signed off.

Kyoto is out,

Stimpson likes the temples too much,

but we've got Nyagada, Kurkurra,

Nagasaki, and Hiroshima.

They're the only major cities

left we haven't roasted.

And the primary?

The primary is Hiroshima. All right.

Have you worked out an aiming point?

The T-shaped bridge. Here.

That's the most perfect AP

I've seen in this whole damn war.

Angle of approach: bomb drop like this.

Prevailing winds from the north.

You may want to come in this way,

then you'll be flying with the wind,

and you'll clear the target zone.

Too risky. We'll fly into the wind.

That way we're slower and

more accurate.

You may get caught in the blast.

Once I make the dive turn,

I'll have a tail wind,

we'll be out quicker.

Anyway, we'll take that risk.

We want to be as accurate

as possible, don't we?

Hiroshima was an

important military base,

the Headquarters of

the Second General Army,

with a key role in the defence

against the expected invasion.

Akiko Takakura,

who was nineteen,

and working as a bank clerk

in the city centre,

remembers the atmosphere at the time.

People called it an army city.

Everywhere you looked

you saw the army,

and there were always a lot of ships

transporting soldiers from the port.

All the major cities of Japan had already

been the targets of bombing raids,

so everybody living in Hiroshima expected

that Hiroshima would be targeted soon.

What no one could realise was that

the city had been preserved for a reason:

the Americans had deliberately

avoided firebombing Hiroshima

so they could measure the

precise effects of the atom bomb.

On the evening of 4th August,

Paul Tibbets called his men together.

The bombing mission was

set for the following night,

when the clouds over Japan

were due to clear.

The moment has arrived.

This is what we've all

been working towards.

Very recently the weapon we're about to deliver

was successfully tested in the States.

We have received orders

to drop it on the enemy.

There will be three possible targets.

In order of priority, they are Hiroshima,

Kurkurra, Nagasaki.

The bomb you are going to drop

is something new in the history of warfare.

It is the most destructive

weapon ever produced.

We think it's going to knock out

everything within a three-mile area.

Roll film.

Kill the lights.

Weapons specialist Deke Parsons

had brought film of

the New Mexico explosion.

But the projectorjammed.

The film you are now not about to see

was made of the only test

we have performed.

I was in a B-29,

looking down on the target,

in the darkness,

and I can say that it is the brightest

and the hottest thing

on this earth since creation.

This is what happened.

The flash of the explosion

was seen for ten miles.

A soldier 10,000 feet away

was knocked off his feet.

Another soldier,

more than five miles away,

was temporarily blinded.

Those of us who were there,

knew it was the

beginning of a new age.

No one knows

exactly what will happen

when the bomb

is dropped from the air:

that has never been done before.

We expect a cloud, this shape,

rise to at least 30,000 feet,

maybe 60,000 feet,

preceded by a flash of light

much brighter than the sun.

A combat version of the bomb

has now been assembled and ready.

All we are waiting for is an end

to the rainstorms over Japan,

so we can see our target.

Colonel Tibbets.

Right, men, I know some of you

have seen a lot of action already,

and I picked you

because you're the best available,

but let me tell you all,

beside this mission,

whatever you've done before

in this war is small potatoes.

I am personally honoured,

and I'm sure all of you are,

to have been chosen

to take part in this raid,

which will shorten the war

by at least six months.

You're now the hottest crews

in the Air Force.

There will be no talking

about this to anyone.

No talking, even among yourselves.

No letters, no writing home.

No mentioning of the

slightest possibility of a mission.

- Is that clear?

- Yes, sir!

The next morning, the aircrew on Tinian

woke to a disturbing sound,

once again a B-29

had crashed on the runway.

The crash alarmed Parsons,

the weapons specialist.

It was the day of the mission,

and they were planning to load

the bomb on to the plane, fully armed.

The bomb's firing mechanism

used gunpowder

to force two separate pieces

of uranium together,

to start a nuclear reaction.

Parsons' worry was that

if the plane crashed on take off,

the firing mechanism

would be triggered,

and they would blow up

the whole island.

So, without authorisation,

he changed the plan.

I think it's better I load

the powder charges into the gun barrel

after we've cleared the island.

Have you made the assembly

with the powder charges before?

Do you know how to do it?

Nope.

But I've got all day and night to learn.

We don't take off till 02:00.

There's time.

If Parsons got it wrong,

there was a serious risk

the whole mission,

and the bomb, would be wasted.

Parsons sat in that airplane

for several hours,

rehearsing exactly what

he was going to have to do,

removal of the breechblock,

inserting the powder,

hooking up the thing.

He made it, this time is when

he made his detailed check-off list.

And he practised that for half a day,

and his hands were beaten up

from handling this thing.

For God's sakes, man!

Why don't you let me lend you

a pair of pigskin gloves?

I wouldn't dare!

I've got to feel to touch.

Looks like we'll be bombing

the Japs with dirty hands!

Paul Tibbets had reached

a decision of his own:

as commanding officer,

he was also planning to pilot the strike plane.

As was traditional,

he chose a name for it.

I said, I'd like to name it

after my mother.

Her name was Enola Gay,

and I know that

there'll never be another B-29,

I don't think

there'll be an airplane flying,

that will have

the name Enola Gay on it.

I think the airplane

will go down in history,

and I want it to be

with a good omen.

Tibbets decision came as

a shock to Captain Bob Lewis.

He had always flown that plane,

and assumed he would be the pilot.

Why the hell are they

putting that on my airplane?

What's going on?

Number one, it's not your airplane,

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