ENOLA GAY CREW - PHOTOGRAPH MOUNT SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: ENOLA GAY CREW (GEORGE R. CARON), ENOLA GAY CREW (PAUL W. TIBBETS) - HFSID 190330

ENOLA GAY CREW: PAUL TIBBETS and GEORGE CARON
The pilot and tail gunner sign a 5x3½ photo of the bomber on the runway at Tinian after the historic mission, the insignia of the 509th Composite Group restored to the rudder.
Photograph Mount signed: "Paul W. Tibbets", "George R. Caron". B/w, 5x3½, mounted to 7x5. PAUL W. TIBBETS (1915-2007) was the pilot and GEORGE R. CARON (1919-1995), the tail-gunner, of the Enola Gay (named after Tibbets' mother). On the morning of August 6, 1945, the specially modified B-29 bomber Enola Gay (named after Tibbets' mother) lifted off from Tinian Island; its special payload: "Little Boy," a 9,000 pound uranium-235 core-fissionable atomic bomb. At 8:16 a.m., the bomb (which descended from the plane by parachute) exploded 1,890 feet over Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city. Over 78,000 people were killed by the searing heat and gamma rays, and the city, which had been home to a garrison of 150,000 Japanese troops, was virtually destroyed. This action, and the dropping of another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later, was credited with hastening the end of World War II. Seated in the rear of the B-29, Caron was the first to see the mushroom cloud and to photograph it. The Enola Gay is pictured on Tinian Island in September 1945, a month after dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The "Black Arrow" insignia of the 509th Composite Group, America's only nuclear-capable unit, Has been restored to the rudder (visible at top right). For reasons of security, the Enola Gay's missions had been flown with a "Circle R" insignia borrowed from another group. Fine condition.