Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The day the world changed forever.
The day the world changed forever.
August 6th 1945
It was the day, the first ever nuclear bomb was dropped on a city – Hiroshima, Japan.
How it happened
Prior to the dropping of the Little Boy bomb, years of preparations and strategizing had led to the event, but what excactly happened on the morning of August 6th 1945?
All the time stamps will be local time in Hiroshima.
01.45 AM: The plane takes off
On the island of Tinian in the Pacific, a B-29 Superfortress plane named Enola gay, takes off with the bomb Little Boy aboard.
The crew consists of 12 crew memebers, and the plane is accompagnied by to obseration aircrafts.
02.20 AM: The bomb is armed
Hours before reaching the dropzone, the 9,700 lbs (4400 kg) bomb is armed.
06.30 AM: The announcement to the crew
Closing in on Hiroshima, the captain of Enola Gay, Paul Tibbets, makes an announcement to the crew, stating:
“We are carrying the world’s first atomic bomb”.
07.09 AM: Air raid sirens begins
The approximatly 255,000 residents of Hiroshima is up and about and getting on with their day, when the air raid sirens sound.
08.12: AM: Bombardier takes control
As the bombing run begins, the bombardier of the Enola Gay, Thomas Ferebee, takes control of the aircraft.
08.14.17 AM: Target in sight
The target point of the bomb drop, Aioi Bridge, comes into view, and a 60-second timer begins counting down.
08.15.15 AM: “Bomb away”
Little Boy is released from an altitude of 31,060 feet (9467 meters), as Ferebee announces “Bomb away”.
08.16.02: Detonation
43 seconds after being released, Little Boy detonates at an altitude of 1968 feet (approx. 600 meters).
Nuclear fission in the bomb begins in 0.15 microseconds.
08.16.03 AM: 80,000 lives ended
Just one second after detonation, the fireball of the bomb reaches 900 feet (274 meters) in diameter.
Temperatures on the ground reach 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3871 Celcius), and the blast wave travels at 984 mph (1583.89 kph) in all directions.
Human and animal tissue is vaporized, buildings melt and fuse together.
80,000 people are instantly killed or deadly wounded.
The months after
More than 100,000 people have lost their lives due to the effect of the bomb.
