2:45am, Tinian, August 6, 1945.

[NutmegCT]

Ready for takeoff -

 

[AngliaGT]

Enola Gay?

 

[Pat MM]

My mother was in Tinian then. She was an army nurse.

 

[waltesefalcon]

The Enola Gay crew were all volunteer, as there was no guarantee that the B-29 could get out of the blast radius of the bomb in time. The scientists thought they had the bombing run calculated correctly (they did), the trinity test had occurred only three weeks earlier but this was the first live test of dropping an atomic bomb. Using the atomic bomb was a frightful choice but at the time it was the best choice for ending the war. The War Department's planning for the invasion of Japan in 1942 included US casualties to be close to one million and for Japanese casualties including civilians to reach over ten million. After the capture of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and first hand observations of the fanaticism of both Japanese soldiers and civilians many believed those estimates to be low. The use of the bomb has become controversial today, but in 1945 it was seen as a way to spare millions of lives on both sides of the conflict.

These two photos are of ground zero taken before and after the drop of Little Boy.