Paul tibbets regret
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Paul Tibbets
United States Air Force general (1915–2007)
This article is about the WWII United States Air Force pilot. For his grandson, see Paul W. Tibbets IV. For the American animator, see Paul Tibbitt.
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped a Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. In February 1942, he became the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group, which was equipped with the Boeing B-17. In July 1942, the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force, and Tibbets became deputy group commander. He flew the lead plane in the first Am
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Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets, Jr. (1915 – 2007) rose to brigadier general in the United States Air Force. As a colonel, he piloted the Enola Gay, which dropped the Little Boy bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Flight Training and Early Success
After receiving basic flight training at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas in 1937, Tibbets quickly rose through the ranks to become commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group. After leading the first American daylight heavy bomber misson in Occupied France in August 1942, Tibbets was selected to fly Major General Mark W. Clark from Polebook to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. A few weeks later, Tibbets flew the Supreme Allied Commander, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Gibraltar. Tibbets quickly earned a reputation as one of the best pilots in the Army Air Force.
War against Japan
In February 1943, Tibbets returned to the United States to help with the development of the B-29 Super
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Paul Tibbets
Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a Brigadier general for the United States Air Force from 1937 to 1966. Paul is famous for dropping the first Atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the B-29 Superfortress called Enola Gay. He was born in Quincy, Illinois.
Tibbets died of heart failure after suffering a small stroke in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.[1] His remains were cremated where his ashes were later scattered across the English Channel.
References
[change | change source]Other websites
[change | change source]- 509th Composite Group
- Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
- BBC News item announcing Tibbets' death
- In pictures: Paul Tibbets
- Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, November 2, 2007
- Obituary, The Guardian, November 2, 2007
- Obituary, The Times, November 2, 2007Archived May 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- "Hiroshima; Enola Gay's Crew Recalls The Flight Into a New Era", New York Times, August 6, 1995
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