enola gay was the name of the plane that dropped the bomb on hiroshima.
enola gay was the name of the plane that dropped the bomb on hiroshima.
what was the name of the plane that dropped the bomb on hiroshima?
enola gay
earlier, on 25 july, general carl spaatz, commander of the united states strategic air forces in the pacific, received orders to deliver a "special bomb" attack on selected cities in japan. the first target city chosen was hiroshima, which had an important port on southern honshu and was headquarters of the japanese second general army with 40,000 military personnel in the city. the bomb was assembled in secret and loaded on the "enola gay". it consisted of a uranium isotope 235 core shielded by hundreds of kilograms of lead. the bomb, code named "little boy", possessed a force equivalent to 15,000 tons of tnt. the plane dropped little boy over the city at 8:15:17 a.m. local time on 6 august 1945. within 43 seconds of being dropped, it detonated over the city, missing its target by . intended for the aioi bridge, the bomb instead exploded directly over the shima hospital, which was very near to the genbaku dome. because the explosion was almost directly overhead, the building was able to retain its shape. the building's vertical columns were able to resist the nearly vertical downward force of the blast, and parts of the concrete and brick outer walls remained intact. the center of the blast occurred horizontally and vertically from the dome. everyone inside the building was killed instantly.
hiroshima peace memorial
in preparation for dropping an atomic bomb on hiroshima, the oppenheimer-led scientific panel of the interim committee decided against a demonstration bomb and against a special leaflet warning. those decisions were implemented because of the uncertainty of a successful detonation and also because of the wish to maximize shock in the leadership. no warning was given to hiroshima that a new and much more destructive bomb was going to be dropped. various sources gave conflicting information about when the last leaflets were dropped on hiroshima prior to the atomic bomb. robert jay lifton wrote that it was july 27, and theodore h. mcnelly wrote that it was july 30. the usaaf history noted that eleven cities were targeted with leaflets on july 27, but hiroshima was not one of them, and there were no leaflet sorties on july 30. leaflet sorties were undertaken on august 1 and august 4. hiroshima may have been leafleted in late july or early august, as survivor accounts talk about a delivery of leaflets a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. three versions were printed of a leaflet listing 11 or 12 cities targeted for firebombing; a total of 33 cities listed. with the text of this leaflet reading in japanese "...we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked..." hiroshima was not listed.
atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki