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Situated less than a mile from Wendover, Utah along the Nevada border, the original Wendover Air Force Base was where the Enola Gay crew trained for their mission to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the second World War. and others explain, delivering a 10,000-pound bomb to southern Japan was a years-long endeavor that required patience, practice, and precision. See the B-29 Enola Gay Aircraft Hangar on a Wendover Airfield Tour On August 6, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb designed at Los Alamos on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
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In order to carry the enormous weapon, the plane had been stripped of anything non-essential.
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The plane is a B-29 Superfortress which had been named after pilot Paul Tibbets’ mother. T he B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, rumbled down the the runway at Tinian, the forward American airbase in the Marianas, as close as the giant Boeing bombers could get to Japans Home Islands. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Soon, some of the most qualified airmen came to Wendover to begin training for combat missions during World War II, working with prototype bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man bombs-code names for nuclear bombs that would later detonate over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay Led mission that dropped first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
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During that same year, the Wendover Airfield began studying and operating atomic bombs-the B-29 aircraft was selected to deliver the weapon. By 1942, the Wendover Army Airfield became the Air Force’s largest bombing and gunnery range, and became an important location for the research and development of guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and remotely controlled bombs.īy 1943, the tiny community of West Wendover that had mostly been employed by the railroad, but swelled to nearly 20,000 military personnel and their families. The tiny, extremely remote town of Wendover fit all the criteria the United States military was after: low population, uninhabited surrounding landscapes, excellent year-round flying weather and close proximity to the larger metro area of Salt Lake City. The Wendover Airfield and training site you can visit and tour today first operated from 1940 to 1969. See some of the most remarkable military history in Nevada at the Historic Wendover Air Field museum, where you can tour masterfully restored World War II-era buildings like the Enola Gay B-29 hangar, atomic bomb loading pits, and see uniforms, medals, propellers and more. Today, military history lovers will discover a nearly complete historic Wendover Air Force Base-turned-Historic Wendover Airfield Museum, detailing the active base training site that operated here from 1940 to 1969, including the fully restored B-29 maintenance hangar that housed this historic aircraft. Enola Gay Exhibit, First Draft - Final Draft. This remote desert landscape was a specialized training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews, including the 509th Composite Group and B-29 Enola Gay unit who carried the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. we have spent thousands of man hours and significant funds during the past decade to conserve and restore the Enola Gay to its original condition."Ībout the exhibit, he added, "Its basic, explicitly stated posture is that while the use of atomic weapons is hardly something our nation would want to celebrate, neither is it anything for which we should apologize.The desert oasis of West Wendover may be best known today for land speed records attempted on the nearby Bonneville Salt Flats, but this state straddling community first used this world-renowned, otherworldly landscape as a top secret military training site during World War II. "The Enola Gay is, without question, one of the Smithsonian Institution's and the Air and Space Museum's premiere artifacts. United States worked to drop the atomic bomb to end World War II, this is it. "I must state unequivocally that this is not an option," he replied. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Enola Gay: Mission to. the Japanese government to surrender, bringing World War II to an end. Politely but firmly, Smithsonian Secretary Robert McC. On August 6, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. "In order to resolve this situation, I suggest the famed B-29 be displayed with understanding and pride in another museum." She suggested three Kansas museums. "It seems a travesty that when the Enola Gay is finally exhibited, it will be in a manner that many veterans find objectionable. "For 44 years, the Smithsonian has been in possession of the historic plane, and in that time it has never been properly and prominently displayed," she wrote.