Martin Company at its plant in Bellevue, Nebraska.
That B-29, actually a B-29-45-MO, Army Air Forces serial number 44-86292, was built not by Boeing, but by the Glenn L. There once was a B-29 Superfortress bomber known to entire generations of Americans. "Things were very, very quiet," Gackenbach says. Enola Gay Was a Specially Modified Aircraft for an Unthinkable Secret Task. The plane circled twice around the mushroom cloud and then turned to head home. He got out of his seat, quickly picked up his camera and took two photographs out the navigator's side window. The first thing Gackenbach saw was a blinding light and then the start of a mushroom cloud. Then, the radio went dead: that was the signal from the Enola Gay that the bomb had been released. "We were not told anything about the cloud, just don't go through it."Īs they made their final approach to Hiroshima, they were flying 30,000 feet over the city. "We were told that once the explosion occurred, we should not look directly at it, that we should not go through the cloud," he says. Gackenbach was part of the 10-man crew that flew on the Necessary Evil. The atomic bomb explosion photographed from 30,000 feet over Hiroshima on Aug. They had different engines, fewer guns and a larger bomb bay. and others explain, delivering a 10,000-pound bomb to southern Japan was a years-long endeavor that required patience, practice, and precision. Their planes were reconfigured B-29 Superfortress bombers. On August 6, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb designed at Los Alamos on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The 509th Composite Group, lead by Tibbets, spent months training in Wendover, Utah, before being shipped off to an American air base on the Pacific island of Tinian. Tibbets said it would be dangerous but if they were successful, it could end the war. Paul Tibbets, who was recruiting officers for a special mission. After completing his training, he was approached by Col. Gackenbach enlisted in the Army Aviation Cadet Program in 1943. Today, the 95-year-old is the only surviving crew member of those three planes. Army Air Corps and a navigator on the mission. Famous Home Born/Died on This Date Yearly Necrologies Posthumous Reunions Interesting Monuments Interesting Epitaphs. Northumberland, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA. Russell Gackenbach was a second lieutenant in the U.S. World War II United States Military Figure. Except for Enola Gay, none of the 393ds B-29s had yet had names painted on the noses. There were three strike planes that flew over Hiroshima that day: the Enola Gay, which carried the bomb, and two observation planes, the Great Artiste and the Necessary Evil. Bockscar was flown on 9 August 1945, by the crew of another B-29. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been used in warfare.
On 6 August 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear bomb used in war on the. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The Enola Gay was a US Army Air corp B-29, named for pilot (then) Colonel Paul Tibbets mother.
Russell Gackenbach was the navigator aboard the Necessary Evil.