Six days later, the Japanese government surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.įerebee retired from the U.S. On August 9, another bomber crew dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Forty-three seconds later, the bomb detonated, instantly killing 70,000 people. The 9,000-pound bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” tumbled from the plane’s belly and sped six miles to its target below. Ferebee, then 26 and a veteran of 64 combat missions, was napping and initially did not hear the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr., brief the crew about their top-secret mission.Īpproaching Hiroshima, Ferebee activated the plane’s automated Norden bombsight, centered its crosshairs on the Aioi Bridge and called “bomb away.” It was 8:15 a.m. from Tinian Island in the western Pacific. The 12-man crew aboard the B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off for Hiroshima at 2 a.m. Army Air Corps bombardier and Mocksville native, dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. On August 6, 1945, Major Thomas Wilson Ferebee, a U.S.
