Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima before V-J Day.
The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay released Little Boy over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Colonel Paul Tibbets commanded the aircraft, which had been named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. The mission was part of the United States’ final bombing operations against Japan.
The aircraft was accompanied by support and observation planes, but Enola Gay carried the weapon itself. The bombing was followed three days later by the use of Fat Man against Nagasaki, carried by Bockscar. Confusing Enola Gay with Bockscar is a common mistake because both were B-29 aircraft involved in the atomic attacks.
After the war, Enola Gay was preserved and eventually displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Its mission remains one of the most recognizable and debated events of the twentieth century.