We flew in low over Iwo Jima while the bomb crew checked and armed Little Boy (the uranium bomb) and once we cleared the island we began climbing to our bombing altitude of just over 30,000 feet. There was a lot of picture-taking and interviewing going on - by the military - and it was a relief to get in the Enola Gay about an hour before we took off. We had a final breakfast and then went down to the plane shortly after midnight. They briefed us that the weather was good, but they were sending weather observation planes up so we would have the best information on targeting Hiroshima. But at 10 pm we had to get up again because we were flying at 2.45am. But I don't know how they expected to tell us were we dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan and then expect us to sleep. The day before the mission we sat through briefings on Tinian island where they told us who was assigned to which plane, and we ran through what we were going to do.Ībout 2pm we were told to get some sleep. Morris 'Dick' Jepson - Weapons test officerĭr Harold Agnew - Scientist, on the observation plane
Three men involved in the attack on Hiroshima shared with the BBC their memories of a day that has stayed with them for 60 years. But to their mission's critics, the crews that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan were part of a war crime. They were young men hoping to help end World War II.
