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President Harry Truman took full responsibility for the use of atomic weapons. On August 15, 1945, Japan agreed to the surrender terms, finally ending World War II.
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A few days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing thousands more. Despite the devastation and the deaths of thousands of people caused by the bomb, Japanese leaders refused to discuss unconditional surrender. At 8:15 a.m., over the city of Hiroshima, Ferebee opened the bomb bay doors and released an atomic bomb nicknamed “ Little Boy.” The atomic bomb exploded with a blinding flash forty-three seconds later, destroying much of the city. The plane headed toward the Japanese mainland with van Kirk and Ferebee among its crew. on the morning of August 6, 1945, Tibbets rolled down a runway on Tinian in a B-29, named Enola Gay after his mother. At Tinian, Tibbets remained the only crewman in the group who knew they had been training to drop an atomic bomb.Īt 2:45 a.m. It set up base on the island of Tinian in the Mariana chain, only fifteen hundred miles from the Japanese mainland. After completing training there, the 509th Composite moved to the Pacific theater in late May 1945. (No atomic bomb had ever been dropped, so no one knew exactly how the explosion would affect the plane above the target area.)īecause of his extensive combat experience and reputation, Ferebee was responsible for all of the bombardiers in training at Wendover Field. As soon as the bomb left the plane, the pilots were told to make a sharp turn away from the target area to protect the crew from the atomic explosion. As part of the training, bombardiers were expected to be able to drop a single large bomb with pinpoint accuracy from thirty thousand feet. At Wendover Field, Ferebee was one of the men trained in B-29 bombers for future atomic bombing missions. (Tibbets once stated that Ferebee was “the best bombardier who ever looked through the eyepiece of a Norden bombsight.”) America’s most closely guarded military secret was development of the atomic bomb. In 1944 he was ordered back to the United States and assigned to the newly formed and top secret 509th Composite Group at Wendover Field in Utah, at the special request of Tibbets. While in Europe, he flew more than sixty combat missions. He also flew as lead bombardier on the first mission during the North Africa invasion. Ferebee flew as bombardier in the lead B-17 that made the first American strike against occupied Europe. During this time, he made two lifelong friends in Paul Tibbets, a talented pilot, and Theodore “Dutch” van Kirk, a skilled navigator. He soon found himself dropping bombs over North Africa and Nazi-occupied Europe as part of the crew of a B-17 airplane. So Ferebee joined the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1941, only months before America’s entry into World War II.įollowing flight school, Ferebee received additional training as a bombardier. Unfortunately, a football injury ended these plans.
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At Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, he lettered in track, basketball, and football, and he looked forward to a major-league baseball career. He attended local public schools and excelled in sports in high school and college. Thomas Wilson Ferebee was born into a large farm family outside Mocksville in Davie County on November 19, 1918. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 2008.