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"I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar. "The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt," Mr. "Shortly after we got the second wave," he said, "we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been." The plane did not circle, he added, but instead flew in an arc "northeast to southeast of the city of Hiroshima." "The plane jumped and made sound like sheet metal snapping," Mr. Within seconds, the plane was hit by a shock wave. "Everyone was counting, 'One thousand one, one thousand two. "If I did it any further," he said of the turn, "I'd shake the tail off the airplane."Īt the same time, the crew was awaiting the explosion, some even fearing the bomb might be a dud, Mr. He was aware of the stress the move put on the aircraft. Tibbets immediately steered into a 160-degree turn, a maneuver long planned and practiced, to take the bomber away from the explosion. When the bomb was released, the Enola Gay's nose lurched up, the plane freed of a four-and-a-half-ton weight. "I'm saying this through a microphone, he recalled, "10, 9, 8, 7. He marked off two minutes, then one, 30 seconds, then 15. Ferebee, seated in the plane's nose, spotted the target area over which the bomb would be aimed, in the city's center. Fifty miles away, the crew had a clear view of the city. The B-29 passed over the island of Shikoku, approaching Hiroshima from the east. "This was my first mission over there, my only mission over there," he said. Tibbets radioed their pilots to keep him in sight: "I said, 'No formation flying. 91, two other B-29's that would accompany them, joined the Enola Gay there. Tibbets said.īy the time the Enola Gay reached Iwo Jima, the sun was coming up, a multihued daybreak that struck Mr. "My order to the crew was to stay off the intercom," Mr. van Kirk said.īut there was little talking aboard the plane. "I remember hollering up at Paul, couldn't we get a couple of more thousand feet, so we weren't so bumpy," Mr. Initially, they flew low, about a mile above the Pacific.
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Once aloft, he took the aircraft's bearings, using the northern tip of Saipan island and, later, the stars above, as reference points.
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van Kirk spread out his charts on a tiny table just behind the pilot's and co-pilot's seats. The crew had breakfast, then headed for the plane. A final, midnight briefing was closed with a chaplain's prayer. Tibbets passed the time playing blackjack with the plane's bombardier, Tom Ferebee. The crew was told to get some sleep.īut who could? Instead, Mr. At an afternoon briefing, the primary target was announced: Hiroshima. van Kirk, who was a captain, got orders for the mission the previous day, and as navigator spent hours drawing up a flight plan.