And consideration was given to making this a night mission, when the overwhelming flash from the blast was figured to have its own effect in tipping the scales toward surrender. When contemplating a third atomic mission against Japan, some planners suggested Tokyo. This aerial delivery of the third bomb in two pieces would get it to the Pacific the quickest, in case Japan stalled in its peace efforts. Tibbets is quoted as saying “…we had another unit at Wendover all assembled and ready to go, but the nuclear component for that bomb would have come by a different airplane…” According to the unpublished interview, Tibbets had a B-29 pilot waiting at Wendover Army Airfield with the third bomb in a B-29, ready to fly to the Pacific if tasked. Tibbets said he was asked how quickly a third atomic bomb could be available. Years later, in a January 1970 interview with historian Murray Green, Enola Gay pilot Paul W. Word came from Japan that surrender was near.īut surrender talks did not come quickly. 9 bombing of Nagasaki, conventional bombing of Japan continued by as many as 800 B-29s. The stir created by the operational use of nuclear bombs on Japan accelerated the activity of factions within the Japanese government that either favored surrender or argued against it. Both atomic bomb B-29s were preserved, with Bockscar going to the National Museum of the U.S. The Hiroshima B-29 Enola Gay was stored at Pyote AFB in 1953 before flying east for the Smithsonian Institution.
They were part of a cadre of Superfortresses identified as Silverplate aircraft, built and modified under contract by Martin in Omaha, Nebraska, to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
The B-29s Enola Gay and Bockscar dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. The Japanese emissaries were whisked to Manila from Ie Shima in a silver Army Air Forces C-54. Everyone’s heard the basic substantive version of the end of World War II in the Pacific in August 1945: Two atomic bombs, dropped three days apart on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, accelerated the Japanese into surrendering.īut the story is much fuller than that, with intrigue and drama leading up to brief consideration of using a third atomic weapon on Tokyo.Īnd inseparable is the use of aviation, from the B-29 Superfortress bombers that delivered the bombs, to a specially painted duo of Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” bombers that carried Japan’s peace negotiators to the American base at Ie Shima on Aug.