509th Composite Group: They Delivered the Atomic Bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This is a 1945 photo of the Headquarters of the 509th Composite Group at North Field, Tinian, the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. This rather straightforward picture of the gate sign and a few jeeps reveals one of the greatest secrets of World War II: this is the atomic bomb delivery team that was trained and led by Col. Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945 Tibbets' B-29 (the "Enola Gay") took off from this base, flew over Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On 9 August they repeated the effort by dropping a second bomb on Nagasaki.

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