25 Replies to “Enola Gay”

  1. A fine example of what American ingenuity achieved almost 70 years ago. In those days, the Chinese didn’t even have the wheel. The US was sending planes and pilots to help the Chinese fight off the Japanese. Now, they’re selling fighter planes to Japan, to help them protect themselves from the Chinese. The Chinese have copied a US stealth fighter, which the US can’t afford to build. US ingenuity has been replaced with state sponsored apathy.
    Is it any wonder people over the age of 50 have become so jaded when it comes to political alliances? When I hear politicians calling former enemies allies, I just tune it out. Most people would be hard pressed to identify which side most euro-asians countries were on in the last world war.

  4. Coach
    I saw GWB when he was in Saskatoon, and one of the most memorable moments was when he discussed his father and Japan.
    GWB said (paraphrasing) that “he took inspiration from the fact that two nations that were not too long ago enemies were today great friends”. If I recall the story correctly, his father fought the Japs, yet while he was President he was instrumental in relations with the Japs today. Forgive me for my vagueness, but it was sometime ago, and I’m not completely clear on the details.
    My point is this, those that you speak of need to suck-it up and get with the program. If GB sr and Jr can take heart in the fact that times do change, and redemption is possible, then it’s not much of a stretch for me to do the same.
    I miss W.

  7. I saw a program the other day called ‘Japans Secret Weapon’ about the aircraft carrier that could launch three planes carrying biological weapons.
    The I-401 program was reduced by half when the Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto died. His successor (the name is alluding me) felt that such a weapon was a ‘crime against humanity’ and kiboshed the plan to attack the USA with these biological weapons. While watching the program, I couldn’t help but think how the Japanese people (and the world) owed this man a debt of gratitude considering what the retaliation might have been had the Japs dropped Anthrax weapons on American cities.
    http://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/?p=5821

  8. Admiral Yamamoto’s plane was shot down because the Americans had cracked the Japanese “Purple” code which the Japanese thought was uncrackable.
    This allowed them to decipher all Japanese military communications, including where and when Yamamoto’s ‘Betty’ bomber transport plane was flying so that they could vector U.S. Navy fighters to shoot it down and kill Yamamoto.
    The decision to intercept of Yamamoto’s plane was hottly contested because many thought that the Japanese might figure out that the Americans had cracked ‘Purple’.
    Think how much easier it would have been to intercept that carrier and sink it with U.S. submarines.

  10. OZ
    With all due respect….
    Yamamoto’s VIP transport (a converted “Betty” Mitsubishi G4M) was intercepted by a USAF flight of Lockheed P38 Lightnings. These were the only fighter assets within range able to execute the operation.
    The Japanese trusted their “Purple Code”, similar to the German Enigma Code and because they believed the area was so far out of range of Allied aircraft that a strong escort was un-necessary.
    The operation was more a triumph of ELINT and navigation than a feat of arms. The long distances involved drop tanks and single seaters without the benefit of a dedicated navigator or modern navigation aids.
    The cracking of the Enigma/Purple codes remained classified “Ultra Top Secret” into the 70’s because the USSR had postwar adopted a similar system based upon captured Enigma machines.
    The B29 was a scary rig for it’s crews—the Double Wasp Major engines were prone to failure and fires…..due to dog the type until replacement by the B50….a B29 with newer instruments and better engines. The Soviets reverse engineered interned examples to produce the Tupolev Tu-4 “Bull”—-featuring reliable Ash 73TK engines–the USSR’s first intercontinental bomber.
    The first nukes were so heavy that the “Enola Gay” and “Bockscar” could only carry tail-guns to achieve the necessary range. They were escorted by bombless B29s and P51 Mustangs based at IWO JIMA.
    Many B29s crashed on take-off due to engine failure. The needed long runway was just barely sufficient and ended in a cliff……..Fully bombed up and fueled they needed full power from ALL engines and ALL the runway….The runway was clearly marked with the “point of no return”…the point where the B29 could still stop before going over…….
    The Japanese conducted with limited success a, long concealed, campaign of large paper ballons, armed with incendaries, across the Pacific. One penetrated as far as IOWA. Some landed on the Canadian Prairies…..
    The US government correctly kept the matter secret to deny the Japanese any evaluation of success or failure. The lack of reports convinced the Japanese the balloons were not reaching the US mainland…. hence futile and a waste of resources.
    Strange times…..people were told to shutup and did.

  11. A few months ago I came across a woman born in the 1950s whose first two names were “Enola Gay”. Nice historical tribute

  13. Talk about flying from the seat of your pants. The pilots chair looks like a bucket.
    Incredible engineering for the time.

  14. Revnant Dream, it looks like a bucket because it’s modular. When the pilot straps in, his parachute fills in the back and acts as his back cushion. Attached to his buttocks by straps to his body harness is his survival kit and inflatable life raft. These are compressed into a square container with a form-fitting top and cushion.
    (I was in the USAF and was a Life Support Systems tech. We worked on the aircraft ejection seats and their modular components, the survival kits and life rafts. While the B-29 didn’t have ejection seats, it had the other kit as I described.)

  15. The B-29 was also a revolutionary leap forward in military aviation in many ways. It was the first bomber with a pressurized, heated and air conditioned crew compartment, a so-called “shirt sleeves working environment”. The heat/air conditioning worked less than perfectly but this was nevertheless a massive improvement over what B-17, B-24 and Lancaster bomber crews endured in the European theater. An analog computer controlled the top, belly and side .50 cal machine guns. There were all kinds of major technical advances, many of which found their way into post-war civil airliners.
    The biggest tech. problem for the B-29 was with the first model engines used. Their development was rushed, in order to get the B-29 flying and in action ASAP. A lot of B-29s and their crews were lost because of these temperamental engines.
    The Manhattan Project cost approx $4 billion plus, while the B-29 development and construction program actually cost more, $5 billion plus. Still, that’s cheaper than the Invasion-of-Japan-That-Never-Was.

  16. Wartime built and flown Lancasters had no copilot position, a stark statement of what was expected to be their not long delayed fate.

  17. Yamamoto’s VIP transport (a converted “Betty” Mitsubishi G4M) was intercepted by a USAF flight of Lockheed P38 Lightnings. These were the only fighter assets within range able to execute the operation.
    ~sasquatch
    Thanks for that correction, sasquatch.
    I did get that part wrong.
    It’s important to get history accurate.
    The camera treatment in that B-29 cockpit is amazing, I’ve never see anything like it before.
    I’d like to see more of that.
    Maybe the interior fighting compartments of some armored vehicles would be exciting too.
    Thank you Kate.

  18. My Uncle flew, and died in a Typhoon. There is not too much written about these workhorses, but they filled an important role in the ground war in Europe. My Uncle was shot down a few times before the fatal one. I do have a book on the Typhoon, and my Uncles picture is in it.. 21 years old, I am proud of his contribution.

  19. I watched the ‘Air War’ special on the National Geographic channel the other night. One of the vets interviewed talked about the ‘information disinformation’ produced in ‘Stars & Stripes’ concerning the bombing campaign in Europe. He suggested if the American public had ever known what the real losses were there would have been kaos. US was losing 300 to 400 men per raid. The success rate of fighting off German fighters was grossly overstated. Not until the Mustang came along did that change. He stated the bombing missions were as much about drawing the German fighters up to knock them out as it was actually bombing. Allies wanted air superiority by D-DAy.
    Sad to hear that Dick Winters passed away recently. A true hero!

  20. ct
    [……Sad to hear that Dick Winters passed away recently. A true hero!……]
    The real deal….of the 403 of the 101st Airborne…(Band of Brothers, to you).
    I recall having to study his signature piece, “Bretancourt”, were his company destroyed the 105’s….textbook. He was cited as an example of leadership….as opposed to command authority.
    Currahee!!!!!

  21. coach
    [……The Chinese have copied a US stealth fighter, which the US can’t afford to build…..]
    Not really, unless they acquired the blueprints etc. Building an aircraft that resembles is not copying in the 21st century.
    The B29 the Soviets reverse engineered, in the late 40’s, is a stone hammer, technology wise, compared to the alleged 2nd generation,steath fighter.
    The Chinese clones of small Honda aircooled motors are only superficial copies. Cloning a state of the art air supremacy fighter from a picture is a fantasy.
    The Chinese do produce high quality, perfect copies of US made firearms…..except the serial #s are all the same.

  22. Spindiana Homez
    The I-401 program involved the absolutely huge I-401 submarine. This monster 5 stories tall carried 3 foldup aircraft in a watertight container….a concept attempted and abandoned by Britain in the 1930s.
    It’s size and poor discretion rate, meant it’s chances of surviving a Pacific crossing were approaching nil….and the Japanese knew that. The Japanese projected means of delivering their nuclear weapon involved a suicide submarine of normal proportions….and it’s chances of success (evading detection and destruction) were slim to none.
    After 1943, no German or Japanese submarines succeeded in repeating earlier Germany-Japan-Germany trips. Escaping detection by aircraft or patrolling surface units. Late model German U-boats did succeed in escaping to Argentina….One succeeded after a totally radio silenced and totally submerged passage.

  23. sasquatch, appreciate your expert and insightful comments. Your range of knowledge is truly astounding.
    I’ve read a lot about the Enigma machine, and the breaking of that code – could you recommend a book on the breaking of Purple?
    By the way, VDH posted a list of books re war worth reading (follows), any seconding?
    Homer—Iliad and the Odyssey (Richmond Lattimore).
    Thucydides—Robert Strassler’s Landmark Thucydides (Crawley translation)
    Sophocles—Antigone and Oedipus Rex, Ajax and Philoctetes (again, Lattimore’s University of Chicago translations)
    Virgil Aeneid—Either the Fitzgerald or Fagles translation is fine
    Petronius, Satyricon—(Sullivan translation)
    E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed
    Erwin Rommel’s Infantry Attacks about his experiences in Ted Morgan’s My Battle of Algiers: a Memoir
    Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That.
    Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman.

  24. sasquatch – looking at the behaviour of the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre in the 1930s/40s, I highly doubted pangs of conscience killed that submarine program you reference. Thx

  25. yeah ken, I had no idea you were so old.haha
    I’m referring to your lovely comment regarding your grandchild.
    I find myself turning into my dad more and more everyday. Especially when I am glued to the TV watching WW2 documentaries. Historically speaking, I figure I’m in grade 1 or 2. but it’s never too late for upgrading eh?

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