The Enola Gay didn’t end up in the water, of course, and it wasn’t until the planes were returning to Tinian that the crew heard an announcement from President Truman about the atomic bomb. “It was an easy mission, just circle around above that submarine.” ![]() “The theory was that if the Enola Gay had to land in the water, we’d fly over it and drop rafts and such,” Smith said. for a position off the Japanese coast about 350 miles from Hiroshima. In addition to Smith’s crew, the Enola Gay was accompanied by two other B-29s, one to take pictures and another to observe the bomb’s aftermath. ![]() “We weren’t scared on that one because nobody was shooting at us,” said Smith, 90. By comparison, his role on a support aircraft on the Enola Gay mission unfolded less dramatically. Missions ranged from dropping mines to disrupt Japanese shipping to unleashing 500-pound bombs on airfields, Smith recalled.
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