Ferebee, then 26 and a veteran of 64 combat. 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. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, has died at age 92. Army Air Corps bombardier and Mocksville native, dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Pilot of Enola Gay Had No Regrets for Hiroshima. The plane had been named by Tibbets after his mother. On August 6, 1945, Major Thomas Wilson Ferebee, a U.S. Tibbets Jr., who led a crew of 12 men on a mission that would change the history of the world. It was carrying a 9,700 top-secret bomb named Little Boy. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Įarly in the morning of August 6, 1946, a US Air Force B29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off from the its base in Tinian, near Guam, and headed for the city of Hiroshima in southern Japan.In 2002 he said: "I thought, yes, we're going to kill a lot of people, but by God we're going to save a lot of lives." It indicates the ability to send an email. Air Force B29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off with a 9,700. Here's what the crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay saw after dropping the first atomic bomb in history. Towards the end of his life, US Air Force pilot Paul W. Here’s why the pilot of Enola Gay had no regrets about dropping the first atom bomb Early in the morning of August 6, 1945, a U.S.Following a second atomic bomb attack on the city of Nagasaki three days later, Japan surrendered, bringing World War II to an end.It killed 80,000 people immediately, and tens of thousands more died later of radiation and injuries. It was the first atomic bomb attack in history and destroyed the city.On August 6, 1945, the B29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.