We Dropped the A-Bomb

The amazing story of the crew of the B-29 bomber The Great Artiste, who flew in both missions that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Written by noted novelist and script writer Merle Miller and the radio operator of the B-29 Abe Sptizer, it is a fascinating first-hand account of the end of World War II and the beginning of the Nuclear Age.

“None of us knew for sure what the “gimmick” was, not even after the fire and smoke rolled up toward us from Hiroshima and it looked as if the sun had fallen out of the sky and was on the ground. Not until a few minutes later when we had broken away from the danger zone and Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, our group commander and pilot of the B-29 that let go with the first bomb, said over the radio, “Well, boys, you have just dropped the first atomic bomb in history.”

“Even then it didn’t sink in. I didn’t know what an atomic bomb was or what it had done to the city of Hiroshima below or what a far worse bomb would do a few days later when we let it go over Nagasaki.”