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The organization was named the 509th Composite Group to indicate that it was self-contained, with all of its own support elements. In September 1944, almost a year before the atomic bomb was ready to use, Tibbets was chosen to organize and train a B-29 group to deliver it against targets in Germany and Japan. Paul Tibbets had been an outstanding B-17 pilot and squadron commander in the Combined Bomber Offensive in Europe and a test pilot for the B-29, the biggest and best American bomber of the war. Its crew had just dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. In fact, 23 American prisoners were held in 400-year-old Hiroshima castle, now occupied by the army.Įnola Gay touches down on the runway at Tinian on Aug. US planners believed that Hiroshima was the only one of the target cities where there were no allied POWs. The port was a major assembly point for naval convoys. and Japan Steel Co., an ordnance supply depot, an infantry training school, and a factory that turned out 6,000 rifles a week. So were major armament plants, including Mitsubishi Electric Corp. The headquarters for the Japanese Second Army, with a garrison of more than 25,000 troops, was there. Several cities had thus been “saved” as potential targets for the atomic bomb. To make it clear the damage was not from previous incendiary attacks, the target would be a city not previously bombed. The target would be a large urban area of importance where the damage could convince the Japanese of the destructive force. The target committee in Washington used several criteria. He brought with him a special order from the War Department directing that the 509th “deliver its first special bomb as soon as weather will permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945, on one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki.” Spaatz landed on Guam to take command of strategic air forces in the Pacific. The remaining parts were brought to Tinian by one of the 509th’s C-54 transports July 29. What the Indianapolis carried was the main assembly of the atomic bomb. En route, it had been in the custody of two standoffish persons (supposedly Army officers, but they wore their corps insignia upside down) who kept the crate in their cabin, chained to the deck. The ship’s captain did not know what it was, only that if the ship went down, he must ensure that it was loaded into one of the available lifeboats. The mystery deepened July 26, when the cruiser Indianapolis arrived with a special cargo. The 509th, secretive and strange, was not popular with the other groups on Tinian. When they did fly, they dropped practice munitions called “pumpkins” because of their color (orange, for visibility) and unusual shape (resembling an atomic bomb). Its crews did not fly regular bombing missions. It had only one bomb squadron, and was self-contained with its own transport aircraft, maintenance, military police, and engineers. It was a different kind of group in several ways. The 509th had been on Tinian a little more than a month, operating from tightly guarded facilities at North Field. Despite the certainty of defeat, Japan refused to surrender and the war dragged on with mounting casualties on both sides. Through the summer of 1945, the Japanese home islands were reeling from massive firebomb attacks by B-29s flying from Guam, Tinian, and Saipan in the Marianas chain. It was the world’s first atomic bomb, and Special Mission No. The weapon had a name as well: “Little Boy,” even though it was 12 feet long and weighed more than 9,000 pounds. Paul Tibbets, the pilot, is standing fourth from left. Tibbets sent for a painter, who printed “Enola Gay”-Tibbets’ mother’s name-in neat block letters below the cockpit window on the left side of the nose. Up to then, the bomber was identified by side number 82 stenciled on its aft fuselage, but it had not been given a name. He would fly the B-29 on its mission to deliver the bomb. Tibbets, 30, commander of the 509th Composite Group. A B-29 Superfortress was towed into position straddling the pit and the weapon was hoisted by hydraulic lift into the bomb bay.Īmong those who watched the loading was Col. Shortly after noon, the weapon that would be used was removed from a secure assembly hut at North Field on Tinian, covered with a tarpaulin, and hauled on a trailer to a loading pit. That was the news that a group of airmen on Tinian had been awaiting. 5, 1945, the clouds that had hung over southern Japan for a week began to clear and the weather forecast said conditions would be right on Monday for daylight visual bombing.