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Crew C-14 (regularly assigned to Necessary Evil) flew the plane. Crew C-13 (regularly assigned to Bockscar) flew the plane.Ĭpt. A modified Crew C-15 (regularly assigned to The Great Artiste) flew the plane. Strike plane carrying Fat Man atomic bomb. Crew B-8 (reguarly assigned to Top Secret) flew the plane.ġLT Charles F. Assistant engineer/scanner.īackup strike plane on Iwo Jima. Regular crew (Crew C-11) flew plane.Ĭapt. Regular crew (Crew A-1) flew the plane.Ĭapt. Crew B-10 (regularly assigned to Up An' Atom) flew the plane.Ĭapt. He was the only person to witness the Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Ĭamera plane. Olivi did not fly on this mission because he was "pre-empted because they had to have some scientific observers on board," according to an interview with Olivi. Regular crew (Crew C-15) flew the plane, with the exception of c o-pilot 2LT Frederick J. Weaponeer and mission commander.ĢLT Morris R.
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Only person to fly on the strike plane on both bombing missions. Strike plane carrying Little Boy atomic bomb. This list has been thoroughly checked for accuracy by several 509 th Composite Group experts and historians.Įnola Gay. There are many incorrect lists online of the planes and crews that flew on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing missions. Crews were often rotated around during the missions. The term “pumpkin bomb” can apply to both the dummy concrete bombs used at Wendover for training, and to the high-explosive bombs dropped over Japan. They had been specially modified to accomodate the size and weight of the atomic bombs.
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His burial will be private, CBS reported.All of the B-29s involved in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and "pumpkin bomb" training and combat missions at Wendover, UT and on Tinian were Project Silverplate B-29s.
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That had to be destroyed.”Ī funeral was scheduled for Van Kirk August 5 in his hometown of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. “It was destroying military targets in the city of Hiroshima – the most important of which was the army headquarters charged with the defense of Japan in event of invasion. “It wasn’t a matter of going up there and dropping it on the city and killing people,” he wrote. In a 2005 column for Time Magazine, Van Kirk stood behind the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Many atomic bomb survivors, known as “hibakusha,” oppose both military and civilian use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancer. Historians have long been at odds over whether the twin attacks brought a speedier end to the war by forcing Japan’s surrender and preventing many more casualties in a planned land invasion. Van Kirk recalled “a sense of relief,” because he said he sensed the devastating bombing would be a turning point to finally bring the war to a close. You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city,” he added at the time. I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar. “The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been. “The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping” after the explosion, Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the raid. The second was three days later at Nagasaki, where some 70,000 people were killed. It was the first time in history that an atomic bomb was used in combat. The plane dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima at 8:15 am August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people, more than half the population of the city. Twenty-four years old at the time, Van Kirk was the navigator on the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress, one of a crew of 12 airmen. Theodore Van Kirk, also known as “Dutch,” died on July 28 of natural causes at the Park Springs Retirement Community in Stone Mountain, Georgia, NBC television reported. plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan near the end of World War II – has died. The last surviving crewman of the Enola Gay – the U.S. Paul Tibbets and bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee after dropping the first atom bomb on Hiroshima on 06 August 1945. Air Force, shows the Crew of the B-29 bomber 'Enola Gay' (L-R) navigator Major Theodore Van Kirk, pilot Col. Last airman in US bombing of Hiroshima dies: Media WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse