Above and Beyond (1952)
Directors: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama.
Starring: Robert Taylor (Col. Paul W. Tibbets, 509th Composite Group CO), Eleanor Parker (Lucey Tibbets), James Whitmore (Maj. William Uanna, Security Officer, Operation Silverplate), Larry Keating (Maj. Gen. Vernon C. Brent), Larry Gates (Capt. William 'Deak' Parsons, USN), Marilyn Erskine (Marge Bratton), Stephen Dunne (Maj. Harry Bratton, Co-pilot B-29 tests), Robert Burton (Gen. Samuel E. Roberts, Tibbets' CO in Africa), Hayden Rorke (Dr. Ramsey), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Van Dyke), Jack Raine (Dr. Fiske), Jonathan Cott (Capt. Dutch van Kirk, navigator), Jeff Richards (Maj. Thomas Ferebee, bombardier), Dick Simmons (Capt. Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot), John McKee (Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury, Flight Engineer).
bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) by Col. Paul Tibbetts, commander of the Enola Gay
Historical Background:
1945 (May 10-11) -- the Target Committee at Los Alamos (where they created the atomic bomb) recommended several different places in Japan as targets: Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama and the arsenal at Kokura.
1945 (July 25) -- General Carl Spaatz was ordered to bomb one of the targets as soon after August 3 as weather permitted.
Hiroshima was chosen because as the first target. It was chosen because it was a large city, had an important army depot and that the bomb effect would be greater because Hiroshima is surrounded by hills, thereby concentrating the effect of the blast.
The decision was made to go on August 6 because there was a cloud formation over Hiroshima.
1945 (August 6) -- the B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, took off from Tinian airbase in the West Pacific. The flight to the target took six hours of flying time.
During the flight, Navy Captain William Parsons armed the bomb, known as "Little Boy." (It had been left unarmed to minimize the risks of explosion during takeoff.) The weapon carried 60 kg (130 pounds) of uranium-235.
Accompanying the Enola Gay was The Great Artiste (a recording and surveying craft) and the the photographing plane.
The bomb was dropped around 8 o'clock in the morning over the center of Hiroshima, exploding about 2,000 feet above the city with a blast equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT. From 70,000 to 80,000 people were killed instantly. The radius of the blast zone was about 1 mile. Fires raged in an area of 4.4 square miles. About 90% of Hiroshima's buildings were either damaged or completely destroyed.
Including the deaths through radiation poisoning, the total dead in Hiroshima was around 145,000.
Return to Home Page (Vernon Johns Society)