An American Witness To The Hiroshima Bombing Who Was Not Suppose To Be There

The mushroom cloud rising over Hiroshima, Japan. The city of Hiroshima was the target of the world's first atomic bomb attack at 8:16 a.m. on August 6, 1945. The cloud rose to over 60,000 feet in about ten minutes. About 30 seconds after the explosion, the Enola Gay circled in order to get a better look at what was happening. By that time, although the plane was flying at 30,000 feet, the mushroom cloud had risen above them. The city itself was completely engulfed in a thick black smoke. Source: National Archives

He Really Did Shoot A-Bomb Photos -- News Observer

PITTSBORO -- The dropping of the first atomic bomb was a deliberately exclusive mission assigned to just three U.S. planes: the Enola Gay, which carried the 9,700-pound ordnance the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, and two other B-29s that followed at a safe distance to record the effects of the blast.

Other Allied aircraft were barred from the area of southern Japan, mostly because scientists who built the bomb didn't know exactly what it would do.

But there was one more B-29 in the sky over Hiroshima at the moment "Little Boy" was let loose, and its crew witnessed the event that helped end World War II.

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My Comment: A fascinating bit of World War 2 history .... read it all.