Enola Gay

There on the North Field tarmac of Tinian Island, Marianas,
Taxis the sleekly designed “Boeing B-29 Superfortress”¹ to ready for takeoff.
Glistening, polished aluminum under the blaring floodlights filmed for posterity,
Maneuvers the “Enola Gay,”² chosen by the pilot and named after his mother,
With the “Victor number”³ on the fuselage and “bomb group marking”⁴ on the tail.

Built in Nebraska to “Silverplate”⁵ specifications, void of encumbrances,
In participation with the “Manhattan Project”⁶ for atomic weapon delivery,
The bomber with a pressurized cabin is stripped of gun turrets and protective armor,
While the bomb bay is modified to accommodate the payload with pneumatic doors fitted,
And a British bomb attachment and release system installed for reliability.

The four prop-driven engines are fuel-injection improved with better cooling,
And redesigned with reverse-pitch propellers for braking power upon landing;
The “Enola Gay” weighs in at 69,000 pounds empty (sixty tons fully loaded)
And cruises at 220 miles per hour at a service ceiling of 32,000 feet altitude
Within a combat radius of 2,900 miles, costing $782,000 US (1945) dollars.

The mission: to drop a 16-kiloton atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan,
Located fifteen hundred miles north from the island to the target area.
Overloaded, the B-29 bomber uses more than two miles of runway to lift off
And is escorted by two other “Superfortresses”⁷ to record the historic event
On a flight to terminate the war with the Japanese and change the world’s perspective.

The reality of annihilation is a possibility realized by the global community,
And this remarkable planet of ours is a lifeboat orbiting in the universe.
And it ushers in mankind’s genius into the nuclear age of devastating weaponry
As the “Enola Gay’s” bomb bay doors open and “Little Boy”⁸ is dropped.
Then the pilot, at full-speed throttle, veers the aircraft to avoid the aftershock.

“Little Boy” descends its six-mile journey in forty-three seconds
To detonate at a preset interval, two thousand feet over the cityscape.
A flash! Then a mushroom cloud balloons in the backdrop,
While the crew remains oblivious to the destruction occurring on the ground
And compare the shock to the ack-ack of flak from an anti-aircraft gun.

Twelve hours later, from takeoff to landing,⁹ the bomber descends
Out of the afternoon sky and touches down safely; the mission is a success.
A welcome party is present on Tinian Island with top brass dignitaries,
Who are cognizant of the human cost of a ground invasion for Japan’s surrender
On an island of limited logistical access and enemy preparedness.
***

Notes:
¹ Bomb Group (Bombardment Group): During World War II, US aircraft were categorized into four bomb group. Boeing B-29 Superfortresses were classified as very heavy.
² Enola Gay: The “Enola Gay” B-29 Superfortress (model B-29-45-MO, serial #44-86292) was built by the Glenn L. Martin Co. at its Bellevue plant in Fort Crook, Nebraska. It was accepted by the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) on May 18, 1945. Colonel Paul Tibbets (1915–2007) had earlier selected the B-29 Superfortress bomber design with the necessary alterations and modifications for the mission and named it after his mother.
In 1949, the US Air Force donated the Enola Gay to the Smithsonian Institution. The restored Enola Gay is on exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).
³ Victor number: The “Victor number” was an identifier assigned to the aircraft and frequently used for radio communications. The Enola Gay’s radio code was “Victor 12.” For security reasons for the mission, Colonel Tibbets changed the call sign to “Dimples 82.”
⁴ Tail markings: USAAF unit identification aircraft markings (aka tail markings) were a system of identification (numbers, letters, symbols, and colors) painted on the aircraft that was used by the US Army Air Forces during World War II, indicating the aircraft’s unit and most frequent location. Enola Gay’s tail markings indicated the 6^th Bomb Group, 313^th Wing, North Field, Tinian (Circle R). They had been changed from the 509^th planes of the Marianas-based bomb groups (circle-forward pointing arrow) to avoid easy recognition.
⁵ Silverplate: “Silverplate” was the code reference name given for the U.S. Army Air Forces’ participation in the Manhattan Project. The Enola Gay was built to Silverplate specifications.
⁶ Manhattan Project: The “Manhattan Project” was the code name for the secretive World War II undertaking by the Americans (with British and Canadian consent and contribution) to develop and produce the world’s first nuclear weapon. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Alamogordo, New Mexico, test facility in the United States.
⁷ Escorts: Two B-29 Superfortresses escorted the Enola Gay during its mission: The Great Artiste (observation instrument plane) and Necessary Evil (camera plane).
⁸ Little Boy: “Little Boy” was the code name given for the uranium-235 enriched nuclear fission bomb (10 feet long by 28 inches in diameter and weighing 9,700 pounds). It was filled with 140 pounds of nuclear material, detonating with the equivalent of 15 kilotons of TNT of explosives plus heat and radiation. In 1982, using mockup tests and evaluation, it was revealed that 1 pound of uranium-235 undergoing complete fission yields 8 kilotons of TNT explosives. It was then estimated that approximately 2 pounds (1.5%) of the material underwent fission, yielding 15 kilotons of TNT explosives. 98.5% of the uranium-235 contributed nothing.
The bomb was dropped from an altitude of 31,060 ft. @ 0915 hrs. (0815 JST), August 6, 1945. In a blast area of 1 mile in diameter with subsequent fires across 4.4 square miles, estimates in 1945 put casualties at 66,000 dead (of which 20,000 were Japanese military) and 69,000 injured.
The Enola Gay was 11.5 miles away when the bomb detonated.
⁹ Take-off to landing: The Enola Gay left North Field @ 0235 hrs. and landed twelve hours and 13 minutes later back on Tinian Island @ 1458 hrs.

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