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The 20th’s campaign came at a cost of over 500 B-29s lost in combat or operational and training accidents with their crews either killed, injured, missing-in-action, or becoming prisoners-of-war.ī-29s dropping bombs on Japanese-held targets near Rangoon, Burma in February 1945.Īs the American strategic bombing campaign reached its crescendo against Imperial Japan, the United States was developing a new weapon. Additional raids on selected targets and the aerial mining of shipping lanes effectively left Japan isolated and in military, economic, political, and social shambles by the end of July 1945. Approximately 300 B-29s attacked Tokyo in March 1945, killing upwards of 100,000 people and destroying one-fourth of the city in a single 24 hour period. The 20th aimed to destroy Japanese industry and kill or drive away its workers by burning the mostly-wood cities to the ground.
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The failure to achieve results with daylight, high-altitude, precision bombing in the unique operational environment over Japan led to a switch to low-level, nighttime, firebombing raids. The nationwide effort to manufacture the technologically-sophisticated B-29 included factories in Washington, Kansas, Nebraska, and Georgia turning out complete aircraft and thousands of sub-contractors producing smaller components and equipment.Īfter a long and challenging development phase, the B-29s of the 20th Air Force went into combat against Imperial Japan in June 1944 from bases in India and China and in November 1944 from the Mariana Islands. It also had advanced tricycle landing gear and was the first bomber to have an analog computer-controlled defensive armament system and a pressurized and heated fuselage that meant the 11-person crew did not have to wear oxygen masks and heavy, bulky clothing during long missions. Designed to fly farther, faster, and higher than any other bomber, the combination of the B-29’s aerodynamic, structural, and propulsion innovations allowed it to carry 5,000 pounds of bombs to a target 1,500 miles away while cruising at 220 miles per hour at altitudes up to 30,000 feet. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was the most advanced propeller-driven airplane in the world in 1945, making it the ultimate definition of a “modern” airplane. As a new and deadly weapon, an atomic bomber, Enola Gay facilitated a turning point in human history as it ushered in the dawn of the Atomic Age and the threat of nuclear war. The delivery system for these bombs, the Superfortress, represented the latest advances in American aeronautical engineering and bomber design, and its use in the skies over Japan reflected the evolution of strategic bombing doctrine. Another atomic attack on Nagasaki followed three days later. The Enola Gay Hangar in Wendover, a temporary holding place for the Enola Gay airplane, is a work of emblematic architecture that signifies what some historians call the most important event of the twentieth century, the first deployment of an atomic bomb.On August 6, 1945, the crew of a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare, called “Little Boy,” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The following day he piloted it over Japan and dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Colonel Paul Tibbets named the airplane after his mother, Enola Gay. One of these planes was brought to Wendover on July 14th, where it was stationed for two weeks before being flown to Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean. The Boeing Superfortress B-29 was a bomber modified for atomic bomb missions and given a unique silver-plate finish.
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The hangar was used to store B-29 bombers, then the most complicated and expensive weapon delivery system ever built.
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This structure is 200 by 228 feet, the largest hangar on what during WWII was the largest bombing range in the world. Enola Gay Hangar, Wendover Airfield, Wendover, UT, 2010