Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" landing after the atomic bombing mission on Hiroshima, Japan

Image size: 1600 x 1099 pixel. 486 KB
Date: 2:58 PM, Monday, 6 August 1945
Place: North Field, Tinian Island, Marianas
Photographer: Unknown

After dropping the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima, "Enola Gay" B-29-45-MO serial number 44-86292 encountered a single Japanese fighter that did not engage. The mushroom cloud could still be seen an hour later when Enola Gay was 360 miles (579 kilometers) from Hiroshima. The Enola Gay landed at North Field, Tinian, at 1458 Hours. The Great Artiste (B-29-40-MO 44-27353, victor number "Dimples" 89) the scientific plane, and Necessary Evil (B-29-45-MO 44-86291, victor number "Dimples" 91), the photographic plane, landed a few minutes later. The Enola Gay was airborne for twelve hours and thirteen minutes. 

Source:

U.S. Air Force photo

http://www.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=161&page=3

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1144

US Army Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbets in front of the Enola Gay

Image size: 1248 x 1600 pixel. 1.57 MB
Date: Thursday, 8 November 1945
Place: Roswell, New Mexico, United States of America
Photographer: Unknown

US Army Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbets stands in front of "Enola Gay" B-29-45-MO serial number 44-86292 after flying the aircraft from Tinian on November 4, 1945 to Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico, arriving on November 8, 1945. The flight, which is 6,727 miles (10,827 kilometers) on a direct line, was part of the operations that returned the 509th Composite Group to the United States. The aircraft's markings, its Victor 82 number and name, have been repainted since the attack on Hiroshima. "Enola Gay" was called up as part of the Operation Crossroads testing of the atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll in July 1946. It was then placed in several storage facilities around the United States until it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum in 1960. The fuselage was placed on display in 1995 and after restoration the entire aircraft was placed on display in 1998. Tibbets retired as a Brigadier General from the Air Force in 1966. 

Source:

USAF (United States Air Force)

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1143

Boeing XB-29 Superfortress in Flight

Image size: 1600 x 1068 pixel. 387 KB
Date: Tuesday, 1 June 1943
Place: Wichita, Kansas, United States
Photographer: Unknown

Boeing XB-29-BO number 41-18335, the last of three XB-29s built, in flight. The third Boeing XB-29, Model 345, nicknamed "Gremlin Hotel," incorporated extensive upgrades. after the second XB-29 crashed into the Frye Meat Packing Plant factory and killed killing test pilot Eddie Allen, eleven aircrew and nineteen civilians, trying to return to Boeing Field, Gremlin Hotel received improved Wright Cyclone new engines and many redesigned features. Senator Harry S. Truman, leading the Congressional committee to investigate wartime corruption and overcharging, found that Boeing's engine suppliers were using substandard parts. The engine problems were not fully fixed until after the war. Later this aircraft was used to develop the B-29 assembly line. It crashed during further flight testing.

Source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16118167@N04/7473963424/

Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. Waves from the Enola Gay Before Takeoff

Image size: 1288 x 1600 pixel. 486 KB
Date: Monday, 6 August 1945
Place: North Field, Tinian, Marianas
Photographer: Private First Class Armen Shamlian

Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group, waves from the Enola Gay (B-29-45-MO Superfortress, serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) at 0245 Hours on August 6, 1945 prior to takeoff. Enola Gay was assigned to the USAAF's 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group. The plane was one of 15 B-29s with the "Silverplate" modifications necessary to deliver nuclear bombs. A Boeing design, Enola Gay was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company at its Omaha, Nebraska, plant and personally selected by Tibbets on May 9, 1945 while still on the assembly line as the B-29 he would use to fly the atomic bomb mission. The airplane was accepted by the USAAF on May 18, 1945, and assigned to Crew B-9 (Captain Robert Lewis, aircraft commander), who flew the plane from Omaha to the 509th's base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on June 14, 1945. Thirteen days later it left Wendover for Guam, where it received a bomb bay modification, and flew to Tinian on July 6. It was originally given the victor number 12 but on August 1 was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 82 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th BG aircraft. After flying eight training missions and two combat missions during July to drop pumpkin bombs on industrial targets at Kobe and Nagoya, Enola Gay was used on July 31 on a rehearsal for the actual mission, with a dummy Little Boy assembly dropped off Tinian. On August 5, during preparation for the first atomic mission, Tibbets had the plane named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. Captain Lewis was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for the important mission, and furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of 6 August to see it painted with the now-famous nose art. Tibbets himself, interviewed on Tinian later that day by war correspondents, confessed that he was a bit embarrassed at having attached his mother's name to such a fateful mission.

Source:
NARA (National Archives) Record Group 208: Records of the Office of War Information, 1926 - 1951 (ARC identifier: 535). Series: Photographs Depicting "Life in the United States", compiled 1942 - 1946, documenting the period 1881 - 1946 (ARC identifier: 535735). NAIL Control Number: NWDNS-208-LU-13H-5. Select List Identifier: WWII #162. 208-LU-13H-5
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Col._Paul_W._Tibbets,_Jr.,_pilot_of_the_ENOLA_GAY,_the_plane_that_dropped_the_atomic_bomb_on_Hiroshima,_waves_from_his_-_NARA_-_535736.jpg
http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1064

The crew of B-29 Superfortress 42-24598 "Waddy's Wagon"

Image size: 1600 x 1289 pixel. 684 KB
Date: Friday, 24 November 1944
Place: Isley Field, Saipan, Marianas
Photographer: Unknown

The crew of B-29 Superfortress 42-24598 "Waddy's Wagon", 20th Air Force, 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bomb Group, 869th Bomb Squadron, the fifth B-29 to take off on the first Tokyo mission from Saipan on November 24, 1944, and first to land back at Isley Field after bombing the target. Crew members, posing here to duplicate their caricatures on the plane, are : Plane Commander, Captain Walter R. "Waddy" Young, Ponca City, Oklahoma, former All-American end; Lieutenant Jack H. Vetters, Corpus Christi, Texas, pilot; Lieutenant John F. Ellis, Moberly, Missouri, bombardier; Lieutenant Paul R. Garrison, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, navigator; Sergeant George E. Avon, Syracuse, New York, radio operator; Lieutenant Bernard S. Black, Woodhaven, New York, Flight Engineer; Sergeant Kenneth M. Mansie of Randolph, Maine, Flight Technician; and gunners - Sargeants Lawrence L. Lee of Max, North Dakota; Wilbur J. Chapman of Panhandle, Texas; Corbett L. Carnegie, Grindstone Island, New York; and Joseph J. Gatto, Falconer, New York. All were killed when "Waddy's Wagon" was shot down attempting to guide a crippled B-29 back to safety during a mission against the Nakajima aircraft factory in Musashino, Japan on January 9, 1945. 

Source:

National Archives (NARA) Identifier 292576

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Force_personnel_%5Eamp,_equipment._The_Pacific,_England,_Wash._DC._1942-44_%28mostly_1943%29_-_NARA_-_292576.jpg

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1017