Paul Tibbets was a Brigadier General in the US Air Force and is known for having piloted a plane to drop the first atomic bomb in military history. Initially, he wanted to pursue a career in medicine, but the memories of flying a stunt pilot never left him. He joined the US Air Force and performed combat missions in Europe, being a direct participant in World War II. On August 6, 1945, he piloted a B-29 aircraft that dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan, killing tens of thousands of people, forcing the country's government to capitulate. This event ended the war.
Early life
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born on February 23, 1915 in Quincy, Illinois, to Enola Gay (Haggard) and Paul Warfield Tibbets. The future pilot's childhood was spent in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his father was a confectionery wholesaler. In 1927, the family moved to Florida, and young Paul was sent along witha pilot who sold Baby Ruth sweets and was fond of barnstorming (performing stunts on an airplane). After the flight, Tibbets was so impressed that he declared his desire to become a pilot. He later attended the University of Florida at Gainesville and began taking flying lessons. In his sophomore year, following the wishes of his parents, he transferred to the University of Cincinnati to continue his education in preparatory medical courses. His mother and father wanted him to become a doctor, but Paul himself was determined to devote himself to flying.
Military service
Confident that medicine was not his thing, in 1937 Paul Tibbets enlisted as a cadet pilot in the US Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. In 1938, he became a second lieutenant and received an aircraft from Kelly Air Force Base in Texas. In the same year, he secretly married Lucy Wingate, with whom he subsequently had two sons. After training at Fort Benning, Paul Tibbets was transferred to Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia, where he happened to meet and befriend George Patton, then a Lieutenant Colonel. In December 1941, while training on a new A-20 bomber flying at low altitude, he heard a commercial radio station announce the attack on Pearl Harbor.
While hostilities were in full swing in the world, he was appointed to the post of commander of the 340th bomber squadron of the 97th bomber group, the pilots of which flew the Flying FortressB-17. During this time, he flew over 25 combat missions over occupied Europe and led the first bombing missions in support of the North African invasion of Algeria.
Paul Tibbets returned to the United States in March 1943 to test the performance of Boeing's new B-20 Superfortress aircraft. In September of the following year, he was elected commander of the newly formed Composite Group 509, whose top secret mission was to drop the atomic bomb. Commanding fifteen B-29s and 1,800 military aircraft, Paul Tibbets and his group flew to Wendover Army Airfield in Utah for training.
The same plane
In March 1945, the 509th moved overseas to the island of Tinian in the Marianas group. On the afternoon of August 5, 1945, Harry Truman, who was then President of the United States, agreed to use the atomic bomb against Japan. At 02:45 am on August 6, the Enola Gay aircraft, which the pilot named after his mother, and his team of twelve people took off towards Hiroshima.
Bombardment
Exactly at 08:15 local time, the first atomic bomb exploded. The explosion destroyed the city, killing almost 80,000 people in a matter of seconds and injuring nearly as many. The total number of victims after this bombing ranged from 90 to 160 thousand. The course of history and the nature of the war changed forever. When the bomber and his crew landed at Tinian at 14:58, they were met by General Carl Spaatz and all the troops stationed there.while. The general awarded Paul Tibbets with the Distinguished Flying Cross and other crew members with medals.
Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 40,000 people. The Japanese actually surrendered six days later, the official surrender papers were signed on September 2, ending World War II. Whether Paul Tibbets is considered a hero or a criminal depends only on one's point of view.
Event display
The film Above and Beyond (1952) depicts the events of World War II and depicts the participation of Paul Tibbets, in which Robert Taylor starred as a pilot, and Eleanor Parker played the role of his first wife, Lucy. An interview with him can be seen in the 1982 film The Atomic Cafe. He was also interviewed in the 1970s for the British documentary series World at War. The bomber pilot himself has repeatedly said that he has no regrets about his role in transporting or using the atomic bomb.
Life after military service
After the war, Paul Tibbets served in the Strategic Air Command and in 1959 became a brigadier general and in 1964 a military attache in India, but this appointment was canceled two years later after the Indian media called him “the greatest killer in the world. He retired from the US Air Force on August 31, 1966. In 1976, he and his second wife, Andrea, moved to Columbus, where he was president of Executive Jet Aviation,air carrier until he retired in 1985.
Paul Tibbets, commander of the B-29 aircraft that dropped the first atomic weapon used in the war, died on November 1, 2007, at his home in Columbus, Ohio. He did not demand any funeral or tombstone, fearing that this would give his detractors an opportunity to express their feelings. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered across the English Channel.
