 Official photograph Paul W. Tibbets |
The man who commanded the plane over Hiroshima and dropped the Atom Bomb is dead. He was 92.Paul Tibbot piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday. Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was born on February 23, 1915 – November 1, 2007.He was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force.He is best known for being the pilot of the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb.
As many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima have died from the bombings by the end of 1945 and roughly half on the day of the bombings.
Based at RAF Polebrook, he piloted the lead bomber on the first Eighth Air Force bombing mission in Europe on August 17, 1942, and later flew combat missions in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until returning to the U.S. to test fly B-29 Superfortresses. "By reputation", Tibbets was "the best flier in the Army Air Force".
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay departed Tinian Island in the Marianas with Tibbets at the controls at 2:45 a.m. for Hiroshima, Japan. The atomic bomb, codenamed Little Boy, was dropped over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time
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