He and his crew had taken off from the island of Tinian six hours prior to this moment, then rendezvoused briefly with escort bombers over Iwo Jima. The Japanese surrendered unconditionally the next day.“Ten minutes to target,” Tibbets casually mumbled over the intercom. Hundreds of B-29s from Guam, Saipan, and Tinian - loaded with powerful Torpex bombs - converged on the Japanese city of Koromo to deliver the last attack of the war. On August 14 it was decided that an additional attack was necessary. The great destruction of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not immediately spur Japan to surrender. On August 6 at 8:15 am Hiroshima time, the bomb - named Little Boy by the Enola Gay's crew - was dropped on Hirsohima. At 2:45am on August 6, the B-29 - piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the US Army Air Force, who had named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay - took off. On August 5, 1945, a B-29 was maneuvered over a bomb loading pit and then taxied to to Runway Able at North Field. Members of the 509th were informed that their stay on Tinian would be a long one. Each atomic bomb could accomplish what took a week with conventional bombing and, as the radiation effect was still unknown, there seemed no reason to withhold using them. Scientists and military figures considered them as nothing more than large-scale conventional weapons. Oppenheimer believed that fifty atomic bombs would be needed to defeat Japan. All the bomber groups on Tinian, except the 509th, were involved in the devastating incendiary bombing raids launched against Tokyo - the 509th would only be utilized for the secret atomic bombing mission. Prior to being sent to Tinian, the 509th practiced accurate bomb dropping in Wendover, Utah. Preparations for the assembly of atomic bombs and the readying of the 509th Composite Group began on April 3. Tinian was chosen as the base of operations for an atomic attack against Japan in February of 1945. Norman Ramsey suggested that modifications be made to the B-29s. Robert Oppenheimer on August 9, 1945, Columbia scientist Dr. While Little Boy, a simple "gun-type" uranium bomb, would not have exploded had the Enola Gay cashed, Fat Man, a more complicated uranium bomb that had to be fully armed before takeoff, could have. This requirement made takeoff crashes common - a problem that planners of the atomic bomb had not anticipated. The ground literally shook as planes took off every minute of every day.īecause the round trip to Japan was close to 3000 miles, all bombers that took off from the island had to be overloaded with fuel. The Twentieth Bomber Command launched relentless attacks on the Philippines, Okinawa, and mainland Japan. Tinian was the forward operational base from which bombers flew to Japan. North Field consisted of four airfields and supported 269 B-29s. Six runways were completed within two months and Tinian soon became the biggest air base in the world. Navy construction battalions known as the SeaBees began bulldozing mere days after the island was secured. military referred to Tinian with the codename "Destination." Building an Airbase The invasion of Tinian, which began June 24 and ended August 1, was similarly difficult - over 300 Americans and 6,000 Japanese lost their lives. The U.S. generals with a stark understanding that Japan would not fall easily. Fierce fighting by the 10,000 Japanese army men and the mass civilian suicides on Saipan left U.S. The taking of Tinian was preceded by the invasion of Saipan, also part of the Marianas, on June 15, 1944. military because of its key strategic importance. Tinian, easy to supply by sea and perfect for launching air attacks against Japan, was desired by the U.S. This proximity to Japan is one reason Tinian served as the headquarters of the 509th Composite Group. The round-trip flight from Tinian to Tokyo took B-29s an average of twelve hours. One of three islands in the Northern Marianas, Tinian is less than forty square miles in size and located approximately 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. Tinian Island was the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.