"I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," he said in a 1975 interview. He said it was his patriotic duty and the right thing to do. Tibbets, then a 30-year-old colonel, never expressed regret over his role. But my one driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the killing as quickly as possible." We knew it was going to kill people right and left. "We had feelings, but we had to put them in the background.
"I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing," Tibbets told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published on the 60th anniversary of the bombing. The Japanese surrendered a few days later, ending the war. Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 40,000 people.
The blast killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and injured countless others. The plane and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb on the morning of Aug. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime. Tibbets' historic mission in the plane named for his mother marked the beginning of the end of World War II and eliminated the need for what military planners feared would have been an extraordinarily bloody invasion of Japan. Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest, Newhouse said. He suffered from a variety of health problems and had been in decline for two months. Tibbets died at his Columbus home, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day that he had no regrets about the mission and slept just fine at night. The prices noted here after the auction are considered unofficial and do not become official until after the 46th day.COLUMBUS, Ohio - Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday.
Please Note: All prices include the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium, which is paid by the buyer as part of the purchase price.
Interested parties should view this incredible archive in person. PROVENANCE: Family of Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk. This archive no doubt was used in compiling this biography. In 2012 Dutch published his biography My True Course: Dutch Van Kirk, Northumberland to Hiroshima. Dutch had his training in navigation at Kelley Field, San Antonio, Texas where some letters are from. There are no letters concerning the atomic bomb as those letters are archived elsewhere but this grouping does detail his time preparing for his historic Enola Gay flight The remainder of the letters are to Dutch from family and friends, many with envelopes bearing military addresses. This archive consists of about 300 letters of which 137 are written by Dutch to his family and friends concerning his training and early service in the Air Corp Octothrough February 7, 1944. Dutch was an exception in that he attended flight school in Chicago prior to going into service when he went into Air Corp training. Most WWII American aviators had little training going into the Army Air Corp. Van Kirk who died Jwas the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay. Pilot Paul Tibbets, navigator Van Kirk, bombardier Thomas Ferebee and fellow crew members aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress “Red Gremlin” were eventually selected as the primary members of the crew of the Enola Gay, the world’s first atomic bomber. In addition, Van Kirk was chosen as navigator aboard the aircraft that carried General Dwight D.
In addition, Van Kirk was selected to fly General Mark Clark on a secret mission to negotiate with the Free French in Algeria as a prelude to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. As a young lieutenant Van Kirk flew as navigator on 58 combat missions with the 97th Bomb Group over occupied France and later deep into Germany to some of the most heavily defended targets of the Third Reich. “Dutch” Van Kirk entered the United States Army Air Corps in 1941. ARCHIVE OF WWII LETTERS OF “DUTCH” VAN KIRK, NAVIGATOR ON THE ENOLA GAY WHICH DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB.