Enola Gay, heroism or insanity?

[tony.osborne]

Enola Gay, undoubtedly the most famous B-29 bomber ever built. The big question, his fame comes from an act of heroism or insanity? Click on the link below, answer this poll and leave your opinion. The link also contains a full report and photos about this important chapter of WW2. Be sure to visit and participate.


Avia o em Floripa Enola Gay


Cheers.

Anthony

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Neither. The crew didn't understand what was going on or what they were doing beyond the details they had. But it's not like they understood what "atom bomb" meant that they pushed past the fear of a massive explosion wondering if they'd escape it. The followed orders and trusted in their chain of command. All it was.

 

[Thunderbird]

Here's Dwight Eisenhower: "...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."

- Ike on Ike, Newsweek, 11/11/63

The scientists who made the bomb and the politicians who used it share blame.

 

[Mr. H.]

 

[Luddly Neddite]

One of the crew felt such guilt and horror at what he had participate in, he tried to commit suicide. I saw an interview with one who said his life had been ruined by that one experience. Watch the documentary, Hiroshima - what we did to those civilians is indefensible.

The US was wrong.

 

[Iceweasel]

I don't personally care if Enola was gay or not, just as long as he doesn't make me bake his cupcakes.

 

[namvet]

Enola Gay, undoubtedly the most famous B-29 bomber ever built. The big question, his fame comes from an act of heroism or insanity? Click on the link below, answer this poll and leave your opinion. The link also contains a full report and photos about this important chapter of WW2. Be sure to visit and participate.


Avia o em Floripa Enola Gay


Cheers.

Anthony

Às 8h15 do dia 6 de agosto de 1945, um clarão silencioso subiu aos céus da cidade de Hiroshima, no Japão. Pelo menos 100 mil pessoas morreram no primeiro ataque a bomba atômica da história, uma tragédia que provocou formas inéditas e terríveis de sofrimento e marcou o fim da Segunda Guerra.

A bomba de urânio 235, intitulada Little Boy, custou 2 bilhões de dólares em pesquisa e nunca havia sido testada. Ela foi lançada do bombardeiro americano B-29 número de série 44-86292, avião escolhido dois meses antes pelo Coronel Paul Tibbets, que o pilotou no dia do ataque. O oficial batizou a aeronave de Enola Gay, nome de sua mãe, uma dona-de-casa da Flórida. Era um modelo bastante modificado do B-29 que tinha compartimentos de bombas especificamente adaptados para levar uma única bomba de cerca de 4,5 toneladas. Seu armamento defensivo foi todo removido para aliviar peso e melhorar o desempenho da aeronave.
A aeronave foi aceita formalmente pela US Army Air Force (USAAF) em 18 de maio de 1945 e transferida para a base do 509º CG em 14 de junho de 1945. A aeronave era pilotada pelo Capitão Robert A. Lewis, mas foi comandada pelo Coronel Tibbets em pessoa na missão atômica sobre Hiroshima, ficando Lewis como co-piloto.

O ataque, do ponto de vista técnico, foi um sucesso. O avião decolou às 2h45 da Base Aérea de Tinian, uma ilha a 2.400 quilômetros do Japão, e às 14h58 já estava de volta. No dia 9 de agosto, o Enola Gay serviu de avião de apoio no ataque a Nagasaki e, no ano seguinte, Tibbets o levou a Kwajalein, um atol nas Ilhas Marshall que servia de base de testes de bombas atômicas nos anos 40 e 50.
Após o fim da guerra, a aeronave voltou aos Estados Unidos em 6 de novembro de 1945 para a nova base do 509º, em Roswell, Estado do Novo México. Participou, embora sem lançar nenhum artefato atômico, da Operação Crossroads, no Atol de Bikini, nas Ilhas Marshall, na qual os americanos fizeram dois testes nucleares em 1946.

A aeronave foi desativada pela Força Aérea do Exército dos Estados Unidos (USAAF) em 24 de julho de 1946 e doada à Smithsonian Institution na mesma data, sendo removida para o “Boneyard” de Davis-Monthan, em Tucson, Arizona, para estocagem. O avião foi entregue para o Smithsonian em 3 de julho de 1949 pelo Coronel Tibbets em pessoa e depois foi hangarada em vários locais até o início de sua restauração, em 5 de dezembro de 1984, em Suitland, Maryland.


Atualmente a aeronave está totalmente restaurada e em exibição pública no Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, próximo ao Aeroporto Internacional de Dulles, em Washingtom DC, sendo severamente vigiada para evitar atentados devido ao seu alto valor histórico.

well??

 

[namvet]

One of the crew felt such guilt and horror at what he had participate in, he tried to commit suicide. I saw an interview with one who said his life had been ruined by that one experience. Watch the documentary, Hiroshima - what we did to those civilians is indefensible.

The US was wrong.

had your daddy been killed in the invasion, numb nuts what happens to you?? think. i know this is hard and painful for you

 

[namvet]

Here's Dwight Eisenhower: "...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."

- Ike on Ike, Newsweek, 11/11/63

The scientists who made the bomb and the politicians who used it share blame.

LMFAO !!!

 

[regent]

The crews of the Abombs were a special unit trained to do exactly what they did.

 

[westwall]

Enola Gay, undoubtedly the most famous B-29 bomber ever built. The big question, his fame comes from an act of heroism or insanity? Click on the link below, answer this poll and leave your opinion. The link also contains a full report and photos about this important chapter of WW2. Be sure to visit and participate.


Avia o em Floripa Enola Gay


Cheers.

Anthony

Neither. It was necessity. The Japanese were arming their civilians with spears to attack the marines as they landed on the beaches. The slaughter would have been tremendous. The bombs saved far more Japanese then they killed. Far more.

 

[Manonthestreet]

American prisoners of war appreciated it. Japanese army surrendered all the time dont ya know

 

[BluePhantom]

One of the crew felt such guilt and horror at what he had participate in, he tried to commit suicide. I saw an interview with one who said his life had been ruined by that one experience. Watch the documentary, Hiroshima - what we did to those civilians is indefensible.

The US was wrong.

Gotta disagree. Yeah we killed a lot of people in those bombings but a hell of a lot more would have died had we been forced to invade. Additionally, I remember an article I read years ago making the argument that the bomb should be given the Nobel Peace Prize as once we entered the nuclear age massive wars like WWI and WWII will probably never happen again. It was an intriguing argument

 

[gipper]

Murdering women and children is immoral.

The silly myth promoted by the state, that the US needed to use the a-bombs to prevent American deaths in an invasion and to end the war, is pure silliness. There was no need to drop the bombs and no need to invade, since Japan was already defeated and had been trying to surrender for months.

 

[namvet]

Murdering women and children is immoral.

The silly myth promoted by the state, that the US needed to use the a-bombs to prevent American deaths in an invasion and to end the war, is pure silliness. There was no need to drop the bombs and no need to invade, since Japan was already defeated and had been trying to surrender for months.

your wrong. never be right

 

[Manonthestreet]

Total war is ugly... if you dont have the stomach...dont start it.

 

[BluePhantom]

Murdering women and children is immoral.

The silly myth promoted by the state, that the US needed to use the a-bombs to prevent American deaths in an invasion and to end the war, is pure silliness. There was no need to drop the bombs and no need to invade, since Japan was already defeated and had been trying to surrender for months.

Pfft....they didn't even surrender after the first bomb. We had to do it twice before they got the point.

 

[BluePhantom]

Total war is ugly... if you dont have the stomach...dont start it.

It is indeed. I am of the opinion that the most effective weapon against US troops is the video camera. When people see the ugly side of war they lose their stomach for it. As such we are forced to try to fight a "gentlemanly war"......that's a good way to get your ass kicked, especially when the other side has no compunctions about fighting dirty. That's exactly why we won our independence in the first place.

 

[westwall]

Murdering women and children is immoral.

The silly myth promoted by the state, that the US needed to use the a-bombs to prevent American deaths in an invasion and to end the war, is pure silliness. There was no need to drop the bombs and no need to invade, since Japan was already defeated and had been trying to surrender for months.

The evidence of what the Japanese did to their civilian population when we invaded Saipan, and then again during the invasion of Okinawa shows your opinion to be false. The Japanese were arming their civilian population with spears to attack the marines on the beaches in the belief that they could get under our enormous firepower advantage.

Historical fact shows this to be true. Projected Japanese losses were over 1 million civilians with a like number of soldiers killed as well. Japan was fully ready to engage in a scorched earth strategy and had abrogated all duties to their civilian population.

You are quite simply wrong.

 

[namvet]

you use your best weapon in war. use it or lose it