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The Atomic Bomb code Name "Fat Man" Dropped on Nagasaki 09AUG1945

Atomic bomb code name "Little Boy" Dropped on Hiroshima 06AUG1945

THE OFFICIAL ORDER TO DROP THE BOMB

During the Spring and summer of 1945, Truman had verbally confirmed proposals presented to him by Stimson and Byrnes to use the bomb. According to General Groves, Truman's decision "was one of noninterference--basically a decision not to upset existing plans." Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, the commander of the newly created U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, requested a written order authorizing the use of the bomb. After long-distance communications with Stimson, who was with Truman in Potsdam Gen. Thomas Handy, the Acting Army Chief of Staff in Washington, issued the order to Spaatz on July 25. President Truman could have reversed the order had Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks during World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United Sates of American under U.S. President Harry S. Truman. After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed on August 9, 1945 by the detonation of the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb over the city of Nagasaki. These, to date, are the only uses of nuclear weapons in warfare.

Target

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

Tokyo Fire Raid

Average of 93
Attacks on Cities

Dead/Missing

70,000-80,000

35,000-40,000

83,000

1,850

Wounded

70,000

40,000

102,000

1,830

Population Density

35,000 per sq mile

65,000 per sq mile

130,000 per sq mile

?

Total Casualties

140,000-150,000

75,000-80,000

185,000

3,680

Area Destroyed

4.7 sq mile

1.8 sq mile

15.8 sq mile

1.8 sq mile

Attacking Platform

1 B-29

1 B-29

334 B-29s

B-29s

Weapon(s)

'Little Boy' 15 kT (15,000 tons of TNT)

'Fat Man' 21 kT (21,000 tons of TNT)

1,667 tons

1,129 tons

ENOLA GAY B-29

Manufacturer:

Boeing Aircraft Company

Assembler:

Glenn L. Martin Company,
Omaha, Nebraska

AAF Serial Number:

44-86292

Engine:

Four Wright R-3350-57 Cyclone

Horsepower:

2,200 hp/engine

Wingspan:

141 ft. 3 in.

Height:

29 ft. 7 in.

Weight:

#70,140 empty

Propellers:

Curtiss Electric four-blade 16 ft. 7 in.

Maximum Speed:

360 mph (576 km/h) at 25,000 ft.

Stalling Speed:

125 mph

Range:

3,250 miles Loaded

Crew:

12 (usually 10)

Armament:

20,000 bomb (other B29s were equipped with 10 machine guns and a 1x20 mm cannon)

The B-29 Superfortress bomber was the single most complicated and expensive weapon produced by the United States during World War II. Nearly 4,000 B-29s were built for combat in the Pacific theater, including the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Assembled on a rush basis by a vast manufacturing program that involved hundreds of thousands of workers, the B-29 boosted the Allies' wartime fortunes as it transformed the economies of cities and towns from Seattle, Washington, to Marietta, Georgia, and from Wichita, Kansas, to Woodridge, New Jersey.

The end of World War II

Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its total and full surrender to the Allied Powers. Signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945 officially ended the Pacific War and therefore World War II.

Japanese Upper Ranks aboard the USS Missouri

Gen Douglass MacArthur Signs the Formal Surrender

Japan Signs the Formal Surrender on board of the USS Missouri

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