Rain of Fire

As they turned for home and saw the utter destruction of Hiroshima, the men inside the Enola Gay were conflicted. "The war's over," one exulted. "My God, what have we done?" asked co-pilot Robert Lewis. The war was over eight days later, but the threat of nuclear annihilation was just beginning

THE ENOLA GAY The bomb was carried by a B-29 Superfortress stripped of all armament but the tail gun. The day before the mission, pilot Tibbets named the plane after his mother

Captain Robert Lewis Co-pilot

Major Thomas Ferebee Bombardier

Colonel Paul Tibbets Pilot, commander

Captain Theodore (Dutch) Van Kirk Navigator

Sergeant Wyatt Duzenbury Flight engineer

Private First Class Richard Nelson Radio operator

Captain William (Deak) Parsons Weapons officer Assigned to arm and monitor the bomb after takeoff

Second Lieut. Morris Jeppson Assistant weapons officer Assigned to arm and monitor the bomb after takeoff

Staff Sergeant George Caron Tail gunner

First Lieut. Jacob Beser Radio countermeasures

Sergeant Joseph Stiborik Radar operator

Sergeant Robert Shumard Assistant engineer

o Passage to rear cabin o "Little Boy" o Bomb released at 31,600 ft. (9,600 m)

Route of the Enola Gay [map]

MANCHURIA J A P A N PHILIPPINES U . S . S . R . CHINA

Guam Tinian Iwo Jima Hiroshima Tokyo Nagasaki: bombed Aug. 9, 1945

THE BOMB

"Little Boy" worked much like firing a gun. A small explosive propelled a uranium "bullet" down a 6-ft. (1.8-m) barrel into a uranium core, triggering nuclear fission. The bomb never hit the ground. To maximize the damage, a radar proximity fuse in the tail detonated the bomb 1,900 ft. (580 m) above Hiroshima

o Core o Bullet o Explosive o Barrel

THE BLAST The Enola Gay dropped the bomb at 8:15:17 a.m. Forty-three seconds later, most of Hiroshima was gone

HIROSHIMA o Intended target o Actual detonation center o 0.5 mile (0.8 km) o Hiroshima Castle o Ota River o 1 mile (1.6 km) o Area destroyed by blast and fire o Buildings incinerated o Area destroyed by blast o To Hiroshima Bay

AFTERMATH The mushroom cloud over the city eventually rose about 8 miles (13 km). The Enola Gay's tail gunner could still see it when the plane was 350 miles (560 km) away

HOW MANY DIED? Estimates range from 66,000 immediate deaths to 140,000 overall, with thousands dying later from the effects of the radiation

TODAY NUCLEAR WORLD The U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain possess missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead thousands of miles away. Emerging nuclear states such as North Korea, India and Pakistan have shorter-range missiles

o Countries with nuclear weapons; have signed Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)

Britain France U.S. Russia China

o Countries with nuclear weapons; have not signed the NPT

Israel -- Unconfirmed arsenal Pakistan India

o Countries with the ability to develop nuclear weapons

Argentina, Brazil, Chile South Africa Indonesia, Australia

Iran Suspected Program

North Korea Claims it has weapons

The U.S. and Russia control most of the world's nuclear warheads. Those stockpiles are shrinking, but other countries are pursuing nuclear weapons

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