Captain of the enola gay

Enola Gay was personally selected for the mission by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr - a brigadier general in the United States Air Force - while still on the production line. The name was painted on the aircraft on 5 August after Tibbetts assumed command of the bomber.

Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay

The bomber was accompanied by two other Bs: The Great Artiste, carrying instrumentation; and a then-nameless aircraft later called Necessary Evil, which was commanded by Captain George Marquardt and used to take photographs. Hiroshima was targeted because of its importance as a military base, centre for manufacturing and the fact it did not have an allied POW camps.

The weather also played a part - on the morning of 6 August the city was waking up to clear skies. The US weather reconnaissance bomber, Straight Flush, was spotted over the city and air-raid sirens sounded across Hiroshima. As a result, few people bothered to head to air raid shelters.

At am the bomb crew were nearing Hiroshima. At Enola Gay dropped the bomb. Tibbets was trained in how to turn the plane as fast as possible to get as far away from the blast as possible. The Little Boy took 43 seconds to fall from the aircraft. The bomb was detonated 2, feet, or metres, above Hiroshima, flattening five square miles of the city in seconds.

When Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian it was greeted with great fanfare. Tibbets was the first to disembark, and was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot. See also: Hiroshima. Enola Gay.