By 7:00, the Japanese radar net detected aircraft heading toward Japan, and the alert was broadcast throughout the Hiroshima area. Tibbets announced to the crew that the plane was carrying the world's first atomic bomb.
Morris Jeppson, finished the assembly and armed the bomb in the bomb bay after takeoff.Īfter 6:00, the bomb was fully armed on board the Enola Gay. If that happened to the Enola Gay, the bomb might explode and wipe out half the island. Some heavily loaded B-29s had crashed on takeoff from Tinian. Deak Parsons, was concerned about taking off with Little Boy fully assembled and live. Colonel Paul Tibbets waves from the Enola Gay Measuring over 10 feet (3 meters) long and almost 30 inches (75 centimeters) across, it weighed close to 5 tons (4.5 tonnes) and had the explosive force of 20,000 tons (18,000 tonnes) of TNT. The four-engine plane, followed by two observation planes carrying cameras and scientific instruments, was one of seven making the trip to Hiroshima, but only the Enola Gay was carrying a bomb - a bomb that was expected to knock out almost everything within a 3-mile (5-kilometer) area. This mission was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, commanding officer of the 509th Composite Group, who named the bomber after his mother. on August 6, 1945, a modified American B-29 Superfortress bomber named the Enola Gay left the island of Tinian for Hiroshima, Japan.
