ENOLA GAY CREW (PAUL W. TIBBETS) - COMMEMORATIVE CACHET SIGNED - HFSID 297331

PAUL TIBBETS
Limited edition commemorative cachet showing a B-29 of the 509th Composite Group taxiing on the runway on Tinian on August 6, 1945.
Commemorative Cachet signed: "Paul W. Tibbets", 7x4½. Color cachet depicting a B-29 of the 509 Composite Group taxiing on the runway on Tinian Island on August 6, 1945, with printed text noting the transfer of a B-29 to the Canadian Air Force in 1950. Ink stamp text marks a flight of the B-29 "Fifi", owned by the Confederate Air Force, from Charlotte to Greensborough, North Carolina, a flight which carried this item. Postmarked Richmond, Virginia, June 25, 1992. US Army Air Force Colonel Paul W. Tibbets (1915-2007), later an Air Force general, was responsible for the organization, training and command of the world's first nuclear strike force. On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Colonel Tibbets piloted the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress named after his mother, on its mission to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The plane was part of the 509th Composite Group, the world's first nuclear-armed bomber group, deployed to Tinian in the Marianas in order to drop atomic bombs. The Hiroshima blast, equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, destroyed a four square-mile area, and killing an estimated 70,000 people. A second bomb struck Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945. Tibbets retired as a brigadier general in 1966, working in commercial aviation until 1986. The Confederate Air Force, since renamed the Commemorative Air Force, restores and preserves vintage aircraft. "Fifi" is the only B-29 still flying. Corners lightly worn. Fine condition.