Hiroshima - Dropping the Bomb

What did crew members of the Enola Gay - the B-29 which delivered the bomb to Hiroshima - observe after they dropped the 9400-pound weapon? What did survivors see, and experience, after the device exploded forty-three seconds after “bomb’s away?”

This video clip, from a BBC documentary about Hiroshima, combines recreated scenes, interviews with air and ground witnesses, historical footage and an animation of the bomb’s firing procedure.

Lt. Theodore ("Dutch") Van Kirk, the navigator aboard Enola Gay, is the only crew member still alive 65 years later.  His message to the world, via a 2010 BBC video interview, is a plea to never-again use a nuclear weapon for any reason.

Credits

This vide clip is from a BBC documentary - Hiroshima - in which surviving members of the Enola Gay crew talk about their mission to deliver the atomic bomb to that city. The documentary is part of a significantly broader BBC series on the History of World War II.