| "The B-29 Stretches its Wings" |
| With many thanks to Bob Watson, who was the Flight Engineer on the last flight of the Irish Lassie, for sharing the article, "The B-29 Stretches its Wings," with us. It consists of an interview with Paul Tibbets, who was the aircraft commander of the Enola Gay on her mission over Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. For easier reading, I've transcribed it from the copies of the pages Mr. Watson sent. The photos below accompanied the article, which appeared in "Fifi's Diary" in 1977, and the descriptions are, also, from the article. Fifi is the only B-29 still flying today. A link to a video of Fifi flying, as well as other excellent video clips of the B-29 Superfortresses and very interesting websites can be found on the Links page of this site. Thank you, again, to Bob Watson, for his service to our country and for sharing this excellent article. You may contact Mr. Watson here. |
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| History stood still at this moment - 0130 hours 6 August 1945. Paul Tibbets waves goodbye and seconds later he turned and started engines, setting into motion a mission that would forever change the course of world events. |
| Paul Tibbets |
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| It was a most unusual day. CAA Inspector D. K. Hudson, right, signed off the tickets of a couple of brand new B-29 pilots: Didi Morman, left, and Dora Dougherty are obviously delighted at their new ratings and their instructor, Paul Tibbets, smiled as he set the stage to solve a morale problem in the B-29 program. |
| CAF Colonel Bob Caron was the tail gunner aboard Enola Gay. Bob is featured here on Fifi's flight deck at Denver's Buckly Field in July of 1976. On the back of this interesting photo, Bob writes: "Unemployed tail gunner trying to remember which end of the airplane was his." |