Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The story of the pilots who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Or Hiroshima Day The Enola Gay commander turned the Hiroshima tragedy into a show

Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay that had just dropped an atomic bomb, turned away with a shudder at what he saw. “Oh my God, what have we done?!” - he exclaimed in horror. Beneath him was Hiroshima in flames, the city resembling “a basin of boiling black oil.” Later, for a long time, the pilots thought they could smell roasting human flesh...
American President Harry Truman gave the order to bomb Japanese cities on July 25, 1945 - bomb after August 3, as soon as the weather permits.
The weather “allowed” on August 6. Over Hiroshima at that time there was a cloudless sky and the sun was shining. The city was famous for its beauty and somehow miraculously escaped the nightmare of air raids at night, although all spring and summer residents listened to the roar of hundreds of American “superfortresses” flying at great heights.
But the people of Hiroshima did not know about the fate in store for them. Monday, August 6th, began like other days of the war. The first alarm sounded at midnight - from August 5 to 6. Then a large squadron of American planes appeared, but they did not bomb the city. At about eight o'clock in the morning, Japanese observers noticed three planes in the sky, but decided that they would be engaged in reconnaissance and did not sound the alarm. After two night air raids, few people paid attention to the third. People continued to go about their daily morning activities.
And "Enola Gay" with a bomb, affectionately named "Baby", has already set off on a flight, after which the history of mankind changed forever. At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, the atomic charge exploded. According to the Japanese press, the bomb was dropped from a height of eight thousand meters by parachute and exploded at an altitude of 550 meters from the ground. About one minute passed between the opening of the parachute and the explosion, and then a mushroom that had never been seen before appeared.
Everyone saw the flash, but heard no sound. A silent flash split the sky and turned Hiroshima into the blazing interior of a blast furnace. Only those who were at a distance of 30-40 kilometers heard an unusually strong explosion, more like a clap of thunder, and only then saw a blinding flame.
At a distance of up to three hundred meters from the epicenter of the explosion, people literally evaporated, turning into a shadow on the bridge, on the wall, on the asphalt. Or turned into ashes... Deadly lightning imprinted the shadows of nine pedestrians on the stone of one of the bridges. They burned and evaporated before they even had time to fall. Those who were within a radius of one kilometer in the epicenter zone received a lethal dose of ionizing radiation, the entrails of the dead fell out, and their faces turned into pieces of meat after burns. Even those who were hiding in shelters were not saved at the center of the explosion. Those located at a distance of up to one and a half kilometers received severe burns, and even further away they died under collapsing buildings.
The firestorm that arose after the explosion burned literally everything over an area of ten square kilometers. Trees, plants - all living things froze without movement, without colors. Pine trees, bamboo and other trees were scorched and turned brown in color.
Hiroshima did not suffer sudden total death, nor sudden mass paralysis, nor instant death. Men, women and children were doomed to excruciating agony, to mutilation and an infinitely slow decline. In the first hours and days after the disaster, the city did not look like a quiet cemetery. Hiroshima did not look like a city destroyed by war. Only the end of the world could look like this. Humanity seemed to have destroyed itself, and the survivors seemed like suicidal losers.
Hiroshima remained a living city, only full of chaotic movement. It was a city of torment and suffering, in which day and night the screams and moans of helplessly swarming people did not stop for a minute. Everyone who could somehow walk or hobble was looking for something: water, something edible, a doctor, or just medicine. They looked for their loved ones and often found them when their torment had already ended.
And three days later, at about ten o'clock in the morning on August 9, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Before this, American planes also appeared over the city, and the alarm was declared. Then there was a clearing, and when two planes appeared over the city again, no one paid any attention to them.
Nagasaki is divided into two parts by a large mountain: the old and the new city. The bomb fell and exploded over the new city, but the old one suffered less damage, since the spread of the deadly rays was prevented by the mountain. But at the center of the explosion the temperature reached 10,000°C. At this temperature, stones and sand melted, and the tiles on the roofs of houses became covered with bubbles. The fire that started spread quickly, and people fled in panic, not knowing where. The fiery avalanche, bringing death, caused an air wave of monstrous destructive power. It rushed at a speed of 700 meters per second, while the strongest typhoons reach speeds of 60-80 meters per second. Even in the small town of Cuba, located 27 kilometers from Nagasaki, glass was flying out of the windows.
People died in terrible agony. Exposed to the atomic bomb, they died immediately if they were given anything to drink that same day or simply washed their wounds with water. The radiation affected the bone marrow. People who looked completely healthy, even a few years after the disaster, suddenly lost their hair, their gums began to bleed, their skin became covered with dark spots, and then they died.
The effects of radiation destroyed white blood cells, of which there are about eight thousand per cubic millimeter of blood in the human body. After exposure to ionizing radiation, their number decreased to three thousand, two, one, and even just to... two hundred or three hundred. Therefore, people began to have severe bleeding from the nose, throat and even from the eyes. The body temperature rose to 41-42°C, and after two or three days the person died.
On the day of the atomic explosion, 430 thousand people lived in Hiroshima. At the beginning of February 1946, the statistics were as follows: 78,150 people died, 13,983 were missing, 9,428 were seriously injured, 27,997 people were slightly injured, 176,987 were otherwise injured. In total, 306,545 people were injured.
In Nagasaki (at the end of October 1945), out of two hundred thousand people, 23,573 died, 1,924 were missing, 23,345 were wounded, and 90,000 received various injuries.
These are the death toll figures for the civilian population only; in addition to him, another two hundred thousand soldiers of the Japanese army died.
...In Hiroshima there is a Museum of Peace, the exhibits and photographs of which show an ashes city, transformed into a fiery Gehenna, through which the surviving people wander. In many photographs, a terrible, deadly mushroom rises again and again.
Already the first photographs had the most depressing effect on the American pilot Claude Iserly, the commander of the escort aircraft, who reconnoitered the weather before the bombing. He became withdrawn, even unsociable, and soon began to experience bouts of severe depression. In 1947, he was demobilized, refusing the pension assigned to him. The pilot did not tolerate conversations when he was called a “war hero.” He didn't want money or fame. Claude Iserly refused the offer to make a film based on his biography, as well as the $10,000 fee for it.
The sight of the destroyed Hiroshima constantly haunted him, and he wrote a letter to the city municipality in which he called himself a criminal. However, the American authorities did not recognize him as a criminal, and then he decided to commit a real crime. Twice Claude Iserly joined criminal gangs that committed robberies. But he, as a “war hero,” was released twice. In October 1960, American authorities decided to imprison him for life in a mental hospital - in a ward for the especially violent and incurable.
And the residents of Hiroshima rebuilt their city, only at the epicenter of the atomic explosion they left unrestored the skeleton of a destroyed building with a scorched dome and empty window sockets - the Atomic House. The monument in the center of the park is designed so that the person standing in front of it seems to be looking into the past. Under the arch, only the eternal flame is visible, blazing behind the monument, and further - in the streams of hot air, the naked Atomic House sways unsteadily, as if bending from the heat.
When in August 1945 all living things around this building burned down, the gingo tree also turned into a torch. But contrary to all statements that nothing living could exist here for seventy years, already in the spring of the next year a sprout appeared from the ground, which over time turned into a mighty tree fifteen meters high. The amazing resilience of the gingo is due to the fact that it appeared on our planet long before the dinosaurs. Charles Darwin called it a “living fossil,” and the Japanese themselves call their relic “the tree that survived the Apocalypse.”
About 30 seconds after the explosion

World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Or HIROSHIMA DAY

In 1945, the United States CONSCIOUSLY carried out the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The vast majority of those killed were peaceful citizens.

August 6, 1945 to Japanese city Hiroshima an atomic bomb with a uranium charge was dropped, the TNT equivalent of which was about 20 thousand tons.

August 9 an atomic bomb with a plutonium charge of the same power was dropped on Nagasaki.

This “experiment on cats” was done... sorry peaceful Japanese— (however, even for cats it would be MONSTERAL) more than thoroughly —

On August 6, an hour before the bombing of the targeted areas ahead of the takeoff carrier aircraft B-29 « ENOLA-GAY» came out 3 weather scouts. At a distance of 6-7 km from the carrier aircraft, an aircraft with equipment recording the parameters of a nuclear explosion followed. A bomber was flying 70 km from the carrier aircraft to photograph the results of the explosion.

Experimenters, damn it...

American B-29 bomber Enola Gay and its "glorious crew"

Japanese air defense system discovered bombers, but because of them small numbers the air raid warning in Hiroshima was soon canceled.

“Just think, what bullshit...” The Japanese probably said to themselves... But in fact, it looks like THAT’S WHAT IT WAS...

Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft artillery did not counteract the air enemy.....

IN 8 hours 15 minutes after visual targeting from a height of 10,000 meters, the “Baby” nuclear bomb was dropped on HIROSHIMA, exploded at an altitude of 600 meters. As a result of the strike, about 200 thousand people were killed or went missing, about 160 thousand people were injured and exposed to radioactive radiation.

Within a radius of 4 km from the epicenter of the explosion, fires continued for many hours. On the square 12 km2 of buildings were completely destroyed, out of 90 thousand houses, 62 thousand were destroyed.

Organizing a strike on NAGASAKI was similar. On August 9 at 11.01, using a radar sight, the crew of the carrier aircraft dropped an atomic bomb on a peaceful, densely populated city. The rugged nature of the terrain and the deviation of the epicenter of the explosion by 2 km from the intended point (city center) are somewhat reduced loss and destruction. As a result of the explosion, 73 thousand people were killed, and later another 35 thousand people died from exposure and injuries.

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City Hiroshima located in the wide plain of the delta of the Ota River, which, flowing into the sea seven ducts divides the city into 6 islands jutting into Hiroshima Bay. The city stood almost entirely in a lowland, only slightly above sea level; to the northwest and northeast rise hills up to 700 feet high. The only hill in the eastern part of the city, about half a mile long and 221 feet high, to some extent checked the spread of destruction. The rest of the city was completely unprotected from the bomb. The area of Hiroshima was about 26 sq. niceь, only of them 7 were completely built up. There were no clearly designated commercial, industrial and residential areas. 75% population lived in a densely built-up area in the city center.

Hiroshima was of great military importance. It housed the headquarters of the 2nd Army, which was responsible for the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was a communications center, a transit and assembly point for troops. According to a report from Japan - “ Maybe more than a thousand times since the start of the war Hiroshima residents shouting "Banzai!" troops sailing from the pier ". In the center there were a number of both reinforced concrete and lightweight buildings. The space outside the city center was crowded with small wooden workshops among many Japanese houses; Several large industries were located not far from the outskirts of the city. There were houses wooden with tiled roofs. A bunch of industrial The buildings were also wood frame structures. The entire city was easy prey for fire.

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26 July The cruiser Indianapolis delivered the atomic bomb Baby"to the island of Tinian. . At the beginning of August everything was ready for "operations"- just waited favorable weather. We spent time with the crews briefing, showed photos from tests - so that the pilots, impressed by the photographs, UNDERSTAND the meaning of the unusual EXIT maneuver after dropping a bomb . Realizing historical role , allocated to the unit (and PROUD by her ) , air regiment commander colonel Paul Tibbetts gave his plane the name " Enola Gay" - in honor of his MOTHERS...

I can imagine how happy Tibet’s mother was...

American B-29 bomber Enola Gay - named so by a loving son in his mother's honor...

August 6th strike group took off from Tinian. The body of the atomic bomb, located in the bomb bay of the Enola Gay, was covered with a variety of both humorous and SERIOUS slogans . Among them was the inscription “ From the guys at Indianapolis" - the same cruiser that delivered a bomb to Tinian... On the way back, the cruiser was attacked by a submarine and lost almost the entire crew. .

The preferred target was Hiroshima. In addition to the fact that the army headquarters and a 25,000-strong garrison were located there, its size, location, and construction area made it possible to subsequently ESTABLISH THE DAMAGING FACTORS OF THE BOMB MORE ACCURATELY.

THEY were, among other things. also " inquisitive researchers...«

Reconnaissance aircraft took off in advance to assess the weather conditions in the area of the main and secondary targets. After making sure the weather was good over Hiroshima, Major Izerli gave a radiogram to Tibet.

"ENOLA GAY" HAS TAKEN A COURSE FOR HIROSHIMA.

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He was 25 years old when he dropped the bomb on Nagasaki

THEIR HEROES...Fred Olivi - co-pilot

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SO….

And set course for Hiroshima

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….And so On August 6, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, two B-29 bombers appeared over Hiroshima.

There was an alarm DAN... But seeing that the planes few, everyone thought that this was not a major raid, but intelligence service. About an hour earlier, Japanese early warning radars recorded the approach of several American aircraft en route to southern Japan. A warning was issued and the radiogram was received in many cities - among them in Hiroshima. The planes were approaching the coast at a very high altitude. At approximately 8:00 a.m., the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of approaching aircraft is very small o - probably no more than three - and the air raid warning was canceled. The regular radio sounded a warning for people to go to shelters if the B-29s did appear, but after reconnaissance the raid was not expected. People continued to work without entering the shelter and looked at enemy planes. When the bombers reached the city center, one of them dropped small parachute, after which the planes flew away. Immediately thereafter, at 8:15 a.m., there was a deafening explosions in, which seemed to tear apart heaven and earth in an instant. The bomb exploded with a blinding flash in the sky, a huge rushing gust of air and a deafening roar that spread many miles from the city; The first destruction was accompanied by the sounds of collapsing houses, growing fires, and a gigantic cloud of dust and smoke cast a shadow over the city.

That's how it was all "simple"...

On the image:

1. American B-29 bomber Enola Gay flies up to Hiroshima at an altitude of approximately 9357 meters and begins bombing

2. At 08:15 the "Baby" bomb leaves the bomb bay

3. The plane then makes a sharp turn 155 degrees to the right and descends 518 meters

4. The bomb explodes approximately 576 meters above the city. The power of the explosion is 13 kilotons

5. After about a minute, the plane is overtaken by the first shock wave, propagating at a speed of approximately 335 meters per second

A blinding flash and a terrible roar of explosion - after which the entire city was covered with huge clouds of smoke. Among the smoke, dust and debris one after another wooden houses caught fire, by the end of the day the city was engulfed in smoke and flames. And when the flames finally died down, the whole city was nothing but ruins.

It was a terrible sight that history has never seen before. Charred and burned corpses were piled up everywhere, many of them frozen in the position in which the explosion had caught them. The tram, of which only one skeleton remained, was filled with corpses holding on to their belts. Many of those who survived groaned from the burns that covered their entire bodies. Everywhere one could encounter a spectacle reminiscent of scenes from the life of hell.

Hiroshima. Explosion. Epicenter

Hiroshima. After a nuclear explosion. Epicenter

And here THIS — photographs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken on the SECOND day after the explosion

So...

This one bomb, with the power 20 thousand tons of TNT equivalent and, exploded at a height 600 meters above the city, in an instant destroyed 60 percent of the city of Hiroshima . From 306545 residents of Hiroshima were affected by the explosion 176987 Human. Dead and missing 92 133 person, seriously injured 9 428 person and minor injuries - 27 997 Human.

This information was published in February 1946 by the headquarters of the American occupation army in Japan. And this despite the fact that, in an effort to reduce their responsibility, the Americans LOWERED the number of victims as much as possible. So, when calculating losses the number of killed and wounded military personnel was not taken into account. In addition, it must be kept in mind that many seriously and lightly wounded died from radiation sickness within a few days, months or even years . Therefore, the actual death toll appears to be higher than 150,000 (ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND) PEOPLE . Various buildings within a radius of 2 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion were completely destroyed, and in the radius 12 kilometers suffered more or less significant destruction. People died or suffered severe burns within 8.6 kilometers , trees and grass were charred at a distance of up to 4 kilometers. As a result of the explosion and subsequent fires, there was up to 9/10 of all houses in the city were reduced to ashes , of which there were 95 thousand.

NEVER HAVE human imagination been able to imagine SUCH magnitude of damage and such cruelty and CYNISM.....

It spilled over the city black rain, which could not put out the fires and only increased the panic. Rescue operations and medical assistance in the first hours were hampered by fires and destruction of infrastructure. The exact number of victims will probably never be established - there was no one to count.

There was NOTHING left of those who were near the epicenter - the explosion literally evaporated people.

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And finally, the most IMPORTANT thing and murderous :

The atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki WERE NOT CAUSED precisely by MILITARY necessity : throughout the course of the Second World War and the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan, its defeat was a foregone conclusion.

Government of the President Truman pursued above all POLITICAL goals - it hoped to demonstrate the special power of the US armed forces, considering atomic weapons as the main means TERRIFIERS....

Later, in 1963 year, general Eisenhower , Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Western Europe, (who later became President of the United States), made a statement to Newsweek magazine: « The Japanese were just about ready to capitulate - and There was NO NEED to drop this terrible thing on them«…..

Well, yes, of course - they were just “having fun” in this way...

Signing of the Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in space and under water by USSR Foreign Minister A. A. Gromyko. Moscow. Kremlin. August 5, 1963.

But this was already in 1963 - when already WAS nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk... (And not only there. And it became finally clear that we are not only We ALSO have nuclear weapons, but somewhere we are even “ahead” of something in this regard...

When it already “bang” in 1961 year on Novaya Zemlya " Kuzka's mother" - the most powerful in the history of mankind H-bomb - 100 -megaton Tsar bomb, tested for half its power... Tested, by the way, in UNPEOPLE places...But it served as a “symmetrical response” THIS“intimidation”, which as a result THERE finally realized who will come to us with a nuclear sword... In general, it won’t be enough either... “Sobered up” in general... A LITTLE...And FORCED and not for long... (admin)

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And here's another very interesting fact:

Atomic bombings were carried out WITH THE CONTROL OF THE UK GOVERNMENT who gave OFFICIAL CONSENT on this July 4, 1945. The crew of the carrier aircraft during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima included a representative of the British Air Force.

And HOW do you like it?….

It’s interesting - did ANYONE of those in power THERE answer in ANY WAY for THIS decision?...

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Our (sorry, THEIR) “heroes”: The team that carried out the nuclear bombing

Very cheerful guys... However…

US Air Force Colonel Claude Iserly , who transmitted the order from the escort aircraft aboard the Enola Gay: “ Bomb the first target! "later went crazy from what he had done and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital. His disease was called IZERLI COMPLEX"- a disease that affects people who have used weapons of mass destruction.

But he “only”, in turn, carried out SOMEONE’S order — as expected military.. …But those who “ made a decision", (as far as I know) everything was fine with my psyche until the end of my life in order… Hence the conclusion - a person can reach certain heights of management only with a completely atrophied conscience...

In March 2000, an American pilot died at the age of 82. Thomas Wilson Firby , which directly " pressed the button ", dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima from the Enola Gay. By the end war in Europe he was considered the best gunner-bomber in the American Bomber Aviation, and Enola Gay commander Paul Tibbetts took him into his crew precisely to complete the mission, demonstrating to the whole world the terrible destructive power of the newly created weapon.

According to Firby, he never felt guilty- although he expressed regret about such a huge number of human casualties. “I am sorry that so many people died from this bomb, and I hate to think that this was necessary in order to end the war as quickly as possible. We should look back and remember WHAT just one or two bombs can do. And then I think we should agree with the idea that something like this should never happen again «.

Gunner-bomber Kermit Behan, who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, died in 1989.

The four other crew members of the Enola Gay are the navigator. Ted van Kirk , flight engineer Morris Yepson , radio operator Richard Nelson and commander Paul Tibbetts - are in perfect health.

The victims of this bombing continue to die from radiation sickness to this day, annually increasing the list of victims by 5 thousand names. ...

Victims of Hiroshima

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Hiroshima has become an eternal symbol of the fight against weapons of mass destruction. Hiroshima Day began to be celebrated by the international community as World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons .

In the city itself on this day there is held annually memorial ceremony. As a constant reminder of the terrible tragedy, a piece of land has been left untouched in the city center. Everything here is the same as it was decades ago - ruins, shadows on the walls - ghosts of atomic death. At the entrance to the Peace Memorial Museum there is a park where an eternal flame burns in front of a spherical monument to the victims of the bombing with the inscription “Sleep well - the mistake will not happen again.”". The annual ceremony ritual includes a minute of silence, flocks of doves, mournful sounds of the funeral bell. After this, lists of people who LAST YEAR died from the consequences of a nuclear explosion.

In the Peace Park near the Memorial Museum there is a bell hanging, the inscription on it reads: let everyone passing by ring the bell so that it always reminds us of the threat of nuclear war.

93 year old Theodore Van Kirk, a bomber navigator, never expressed regret about his participation in the bombing of Hiroshima. “At that moment in history, the atomic bombing was necessary and saved the lives of thousands of American soldiers,” Van Kirk said.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carried out on August 6 and 9, 1945, on personal orders US President Harry Truman.

The direct execution of the combat mission was entrusted to the B-29 strategic bombers of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, based on the island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean.

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Enola Gay commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbetts dropped the “Little” uranium bomb, equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 90 to 166 thousand people.

August 9, 1945 B-29 Boxcar under the command of Major Charles Sweeney dropped the Fat Man plutonium bomb with a yield of up to 21 kilotons of TNT on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing 60 to 80 thousand people.

Nuclear mushroom over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Charles Levy, Personel aboard Necessary Evil

There were 24 of them

The crew of the Enola Gay during the bombing on August 6th included 12 people, and the crew of the Boxcar on August 9th included 13 people. The only person who participated in both bombings was an anti-radar specialist lieutenant Jacob Beser. Thus, a total of 24 American pilots took part in the two bombings.

The crew of the Enola Gay included: Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, Captain Robert Lewis, Major Thomas Ferebee, Captain Theodore Van Kirk, Lieutenant Jacob Beser, US Navy Captain William Sterling Parsons, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, Sergeant Joe Stiborik, Sergeant Robert Caron, Sergeant Robert Shumard, Code Talker First Class Richard Nelson, Sergeant Wayne Dusenburry.

The crew of the Boxcar included: Major Charles Sweeney, Lieutenant Charles Donald Albery, Lieutenant Fred Olivi, Sergeant Kermit Behan, Corporal Ibe Spitzer, Sergeant Ray Gallagher, Sergeant Edward Buckley, Sergeant Albert Dehart, Staff Sergeant John Kucharek, Captain James Van Pelt, Frederick Ashworth, Lieutenant Philip Barnes , Lieutenant Jacob Beser.

Theodore Van Kirk was not only the last living participant in the bombing of Hiroshima, but also the last living participant in both bombings - the last of the Boxcar crew died in 2009.

Boxcar crew. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Original uploader was Cfpresley at en.wikipedia

The Enola Gay commander turned the Hiroshima tragedy into a show

Most of the pilots who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not publicly active, but did not express regret about what they had done.

In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the three remaining Enola Gay crew members - Tibbetts, Van Kirk and Jeppson - said that they did not regret what happened. “The use of atomic weapons was necessary,” they said.

Paul Tibbetts before the attack, morning of August 6, 1945. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / US Air Force employee (unnamed)

The most famous of the bombing participants is Paul Warfield Tibbetts Jr., commander of the Enola Gay and the 509th Airlift Wing. Tibbetts, who was considered one of the best pilots in the US Air Force during World War II and was the personal pilot of Dwight Eisenhower, in 1944 was appointed commander of the 509th Airlift Wing, which carried out flights to transport components of atomic bombs, and then received the task of carrying out an atomic strike on Japan. The Enola Gay bomber was named after Tibbetts' mother.

Tibbetts, who served in the Air Force until 1966, rose to the rank of brigadier general. He subsequently worked for many years in private aviation companies. Throughout his life, he not only expressed confidence in the correctness of the atomic strike on Hiroshima, but also declared his readiness to do it again. In 1976, a scandal broke out between the United States and Japan because of Tibbetts - at one of the air shows in Texas, the pilot staged the bombing of Hiroshima. For this incident, the US government issued an official apology to Japan.

Tibbetts died in 2007, aged 92. In his will, he asked that there be no funeral or memorial plaque after his death, as anti-nuclear weapons demonstrators might use it as a protest site.

The pilots were not tormented by nightmares

Boxcar pilot Charles Sweeney graduated from aviation in 1976 with the rank of major general. After this, he wrote memoirs and gave lectures to students. Like Tibbetts, Sweeney insisted that the atomic attack on Japan was necessary and saved the lives of thousands of Americans. Charles Sweeney died in 2004 at the age of 84 in a Boston clinic.

The direct executor of the “sentence on Hiroshima” was the then 26-year-old bombardier Thomas Ferebee. He also never doubted that his mission was the right one, although he expressed regret about the high number of casualties: “I am sorry that so many people died from this bomb, and I hate to think that this was necessary in order to sooner end the war. We should now look back and remember what just one or two bombs can do. And then I think we should agree that something like this should never happen again.” Ferebee retired in 1970, lived quietly for another 30 years, and died at the age of 81 in Windemere, Florida, on the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Those who lived long and happy lives and never regretted what they did were Charles Albury (died 2009 aged 88), Fred Olivi (died 2004 aged 82) and Frederick Ashworth (died 2005 aged 93 years old).

B-29 over Osaka. June 1, 1945. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / United States Army Air Force

"Iserli Complex"

Over the years, there has been talk about the remorse felt by those involved in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, none of the main characters actually felt any guilt. The pilot Claude Robert Iserly, who really soon went crazy, was part of the crew of one of the planes that performed auxiliary functions during the raid. He spent many years in a psychiatric clinic, and a new disease was even named in his honor, associated with damage to the psyche of people who used weapons of mass destruction - the “Iserli complex.”

His colleagues’ psyches turned out to be much stronger. Charles Sweeney and his crew, who bombed Nagasaki, were able to personally assess the scale of what they had done a month later. After Japan signed the surrender, American pilots brought physicists to Nagasaki, as well as medicines for the victims. The terrible pictures that they saw on what was left of the city streets made an impression on them, but did not shake their psyche. Although one of the pilots later admitted that it was good that the surviving residents did not know that these were the pilots who dropped the bomb on August 9, 1945...

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The deadline is set for August 6. The special “509th” received an order to bomb one of the four Japanese cities left unharmed specifically for this purpose: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Niigata, Kokura. The final choice of target remained with the regiment commander, depending on the weather conditions above the targets. But the condition for launching an atomic strike before August 8 was indispensable. The commander of the 509th, Colonel Tpbbetts, thought through the details of the operation himself. He scheduled the flight for August 6th. Seven cars had to fly. He decided to pilot the main one, the one that would carry the “Kid” to the goal himself. The colonel was not a homicidal maniac, just a good commander who knew that it was better to take on the most difficult part of the job. His plane No. 82, with the sweeping inscription “Enolla Gay” on the front of the fuselage, was to be accompanied in flight by two more “fortresses”. A trio of weather reconnaissance officers moved ahead of the main forces. They had to assess the weather conditions over Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki and report where visibility was better. The last part of the battle formation was a crew carrying scientific equipment for release over the site of an atomic explosion. After the final preparations, the start was scheduled for 2.40 am on August 6th.

Colonel Tibbetts. At the appointed hour, Enolla Gay took off from the Tinian runway and headed for Japan. The flight was difficult, there was complete cloudiness below. Tibbetts was worried that the mission would fail. But at 7.10 in the morning, Major Iserli, sent on reconnaissance to Hiroshima, sent a comforting message: there were no clouds over the city. Hiroshima found itself in a small sliver of good weather. Subsequently, realizing what he had done, Major Iserli, an excellent commander with strong nerves and a good hundred combat missions over Germany, would become a nervous wreck. His career will end in a mental hospital, where he will end up for obsessive attempts to get himself tried as a murderer. He will send his entire pension on demand to the Hiroshima Post Office for the children of the murdered city.

The horror of the explosion. All this will happen later, and it will be unfair, since he was only fulfilling his soldier’s duty. And then on the morning of August 6, this message returned Tibbetts to a normal working mood. The B-29, named after the colonel's mother, turned around and set an executive course for Hiroshima. At 8.14, Tibbets' "super-fortress" appeared above the cloud gap. The city appeared below. The commander pressed a button that opened the bomb bay doors, and the “Kid” rushed down. Less than a minute later, an unbearably bright glow flashed over Hiroshima, and a ball of white fire formed and began to swell. It stayed in the sky for about 4 seconds, reached a diameter of 60-100 m and began to fade. Scientists estimated the temperature inside this “man-made star” to be 5-10 million degrees. Those who found themselves within a kilometer radius of the epicenter were lucky - they burned immediately without feeling pain. In addition to them, the following burned: the concrete of the buildings, which turned into fine gray dust, iron and steel, which rolled in balls on the burning asphalt, and the glass of the window openings. All! Less fortunate were those who were far away, but whose gaze was directed towards the ball, they lost their sight forever. The thermal energy of the explosion turned the area 3 kilometers from the explosion into an area of a complete fire.

When the ball of light, having spent its rage, began to fade, a shock wave hit the city. The compressed air rushed from the epicenter at a speed of 160 km/h, hitting buildings, crushing and knocking over everything that came in the way. An unnatural veil of light from an unprecedented atmospheric cataclysm hung over Hiroshima. Not a dust haze, all the dust was swept away by a shock wave, such lighting occurs in a vacuum. The air burned or was expelled from the epicenter, and the reddish glow of the growing mushroom of the explosion scattered unrefracted rays around.

Radiation sickness. A minute later, a black rain of soot flakes and other debris, carried towards the sky by the explosion, woke up on the ground. Few knew that this dirt, harmless compared to other phenomena, was fraught with the main danger. The survivors did not hide from the black snow and received huge doses of radiation. This had not happened before; survivors of a “regular” bombing remained to live, at least until the next one. This time it was different. The explosion of the “Baby” itself claimed the lives of 80 thousand citizens, less than in Dresden, but then, two days later, a new pestilence began. Tens of thousands of Hiroshima residents and residents of the surrounding area began to die from an unknown disease, later called radiation. Because of the epidemic, 80 thousand dead in the coming weeks turned into 180, and as months passed into 240. This is the final number of victims of President Truman’s “natural experiment”.

The city itself, located on table-flat terrain, was destroyed and burned to the ground. American photographic reconnaissance gave the experimenters photographs showing Hiroshima as a bald patch with a color change from deep black inside the circle to brown and gray at the edges.

Why was the demonstration needed? The test was a success. With the new bomb, one bomber did in seconds what, under previous conditions, required thousands of vehicles and several days. There was undoubted progress in American military science. Another question that arises again and again is why this progress was demonstrated. There were no military installations of noticeable importance in Hiroshima. There were several military headquarters in the city, but they were controlled primarily by militia pikemen. So their possible role in the defense of the islands is more than debatable. In addition, it is not a sin to remember that high-ranking military figures also lived and worked in Coventry, Rotterdam, Warsaw and London. But this circumstance is quite rightly considered an insufficient reason for the bombing of the mentioned cities. The Nazis were tried for this in Nuremberg.

The destruction of Hiroshima, oddly enough, also did not have a great moral effect...

By that time, 92 Japanese cities had been completely or partially destroyed. Communications worked unreliably, and news reached the central authorities in very fragmentary ways, and not always. The country decided that another raid had taken place and a new city was destroyed. However, we are already used to this. The transport system did not work, residents could not, while moving, tell their compatriots that the case of Hiroshima had some peculiarities. Only the top generals and the government realized that what happened had a special meaning, but they already knew that the war was lost. Moreover, the government and command did not realize the whole essence of the Hiroshima nightmare before agreeing to surrender. A special commission worked at the site of the disaster, but the study of the problem was completed after the occupation of the country, which followed the surrender. So the panic in Japan that followed the atomic bombing, and moreover, the fact that popular unrest pushed the emperor to capitulate, is mainly a figment of the imagination of later researchers of the Hiroshima problem.

Nagasaki. The second bomb, which fell on Nagasaki on August 9, had even less effect. The city was located on the shores of a winding bay, almost a fjord, surrounded by mountains. Because of this, the main damaging factors of the exploding “Fat Man” were largely neutralized. Only part of the city was destroyed, and the casualties were “relatively small,” “only about 60 thousand people,” slightly more than in Hamburg.

Bomb dropped on Nagasaki - "Fat Man"

Even before the Nagasaki tragedy, the USSR began a planned operation to defeat the Japanese army in Manchuria, which, unlike the atomic bombings, had a certain military-political meaning. The Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchukuo, had its own economic system, which in 1945 greatly exceeded the economic capabilities of the metropolis. Therefore, it was precisely this last hope of the samurai that had to be destroyed. The Soviet Army coped with this task brilliantly, carrying out the most beautiful operation of the Second World War. There was no need to bomb Nagasaki after the USSR entered the war, even from Truman’s point of view, but the Americans still struck.

Lessons. There was then a pause, giving Emperor Hirohito time to react. The Japanese used the time wisely; on August 15, the warring parties decided on a ceasefire and began to work out the terms of surrender that followed on September 2, 1945. The corresponding act was signed on board the American battleship Missouri, which dropped anchor in Tokyo Bay. Thus ended the Second World War, the last stage of which was filled with clearly inadequate use of force, if expressed in the language of modern American politicians. The inadequacy was a product of the US administration's confusion in light of the unplanned vicissitudes of the postwar world. Having received, instead of the expected opportunity to reshape the world order to suit itself, the need to correlate its desires with the interests of the Soviet Union, the White House, in confusion, decided to commit an actual crime, thereby demonstrating the increased capabilities of humanity, which had reached the critical point of possible self-destruction, on the one hand. On another scale came the understanding of the need to create a balanced system that would protect against the recklessness of the “evil monopolists.”

This is precisely the appearance that the post-war planet acquired, where the fear of mutual destruction had a beneficial effect that for a long time excluded the possibility of major conflicts. The “atomic genie”, released into the wild, was quickly tied up and, contrary to its intended purpose, still carries a positive meaning. Truly, humanity deserves respect for the fact that, having reached the apogee of violence, it found enough reason to quickly curb “absolute evil.” Although for the Japanese, who had the misfortune of living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, this hardly made it any easier.

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On July 28, 2014, Theodore Van Kirk died, the last surviving crew member of the American bomber Enola Gay, which carried out the first ever atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Last performer

Theodore Van Kirk, 93, the bomber's navigator, never expressed regret about his participation in the bombing of Hiroshima. He stated:

At that moment in history, the atomic bombing was necessary and saved the lives of thousands of American soldiers.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carried out on August 6 and 9, 1945, on the personal orders of US President Harry Truman.

The direct execution of the combat mission was entrusted to the B-29 strategic bombers of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, based on the island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean.

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Enola Gay, commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbetts, dropped the Baby uranium bomb, equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 90,000 to 166,000 people.

On August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar under the command of Major Charles Sweenys dropped the Fat Man plutonium bomb with a yield of up to 21 kilotons of TNT on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing 60 to 80 thousand people.

There were 24 of them

The crew of the Enola Gay during the bombing on August 6th included 12 people, and the crew of the Bockscar on August 9th included 13 people. The only person who participated in both bombings was anti-radar specialist Lieutenant Jacob Beser. Thus, a total of 24 American pilots took part in the two bombings.

Theodore Van Kirk was not only the last living participant in the bombing of Hiroshima, but also the last living participant in both bombings - the last of the Boxcar crew died in 2009.

The Enola Gay commander turned the Hiroshima tragedy into a show

Most of the pilots who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not publicly active, but did not express regret about what they had done.

In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the three remaining Enola Gay crew members at that time - Tibbetts, Van Kirk and Jeppson - said that they did not regret what happened. " The use of atomic weapons was necessary", they said.

Tibbetts died in 2007, aged 92. In his will, he asked that there be no funeral or memorial plaque after his death, as anti-nuclear weapons demonstrators might use it as a protest site.

The pilots were not tormented by nightmares

The direct executor of the “sentence on Hiroshima” was the then 26-year-old bombardier Thomas Ferebee. He also never doubted that his mission was the right one, although he regretted the high number of casualties:

I am sorry that so many people died from this bomb, and I hate to think that this was necessary in order to end the war as quickly as possible. We should now look back and remember what just one or two bombs can do. And then I think we should agree that something like this should never happen again.

Ferebee retired in 1970, lived quietly for another 30 years, and died at the age of 81 in Windemere, Florida, on the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Those who lived long and happy lives and never regretted what they did were Charles Albury (died 2009 aged 88), Fred Olivi (died 2004 aged 82) and Frederick Ashworth (died 2005 aged 93 years old).