Official photograph of the Office of Chief of Engineers, now in the collections of the National Archives. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation. Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, returns after the strike Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from the Mariana Islands on August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, where, with the dropping of the atomic bomb, it heralded a new and terrible concept of warfare. Image: 77-BT-91: Tinian Island, August 1945. Four days later, Japanese submarine, I-58, sank Indianapolis, northeast of Leyte.Ī replica of Little Boy can be found at ' In Harm's Way: Pacific' exhibit area in the National Museum of the Navy, Bldg. Previously, on July 26, the bomb, along with ' Fat Man' was transported to Tinian Island by USS Indianapolis (CA-35) for final assembly. A U-235 projectile fired down a gun barrel collided with a stationary element, causing a mass increase leading to nuclear fission. Nuclear fission was achieved by the collision of two parts of active material (Uranium-235). The gun-type weapon possessed the power of 26,000,000 pounds of high explosives.
The bomb weighed 9,000 pounds and had a diameter of only 28 inches. The bomb was dropped by a USAAF B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, piloted by U.S. The atomic bomb used at Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, was 'Little Boy'.
