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Lot 384
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Enola Gay Crew Signs Photograph of Bomb and Devastation of Hiroshima
Enola Gay Crew Signs Photograph of Bomb and Devastation of Hiroshima
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Description:

Enola Gay
n.p., August 6, 1945
Enola Gay Crew Signs Photograph of Bomb and Devastation of Hiroshima
Signed photograph
ENOLA GAY CREW, Signed Photograph, n.d. This sheet includes photographs of the Little Boy nuclear bomb and the destruction it wrought on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. It is signed in blue ink by four of the members of the crew—PAUL W. TIBBETS JR., THOMAS FEREBEE, THEODORE "DUTCH" VAN KIRK, RICHARD H. NELSON. 1 p., 8" x 10". Expected folds; excellent.

This sheet includes two photographs related to the mission of the Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The first photograph shows the destruction of the city and the second is a photograph of the bomb with the caption, "Little Boy, Dropped by Enola Gay and its effect on Hiroshima, Japan August 6, 1945." The sheet is signed by bombardier Tom Ferebee, pilot and commander Paul Tibbets, navigator Dutch Van Kirk, and radio operator Dick Nelson. Ironically, it was the only actual mission these four men ever flew together.

Thomas Ferebee (1918-2000) was born in North Carolina and attended Lees-McRae College. He excelled in sports and after not securing a position with the Boston Red Sox joined the Army. He was accepted into flight training and completed more than sixty bombing missions in the European theater. In the summer of 1944, Col. Paul Tibbets recruited Ferebee to be part of the 509th Composite Group. He served as bombardier in the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. After the war, he remained in the U.S. Army Air Forces, as it became the U.S. Air Force. He retired in December 1970 with the rank of colonel and worked in real estate in Orlando, Florida.

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (1915-2007) was born in Illinois and grew up in Iowa. He graduated from the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois, in 1933, and attended the University of Florida and the University of Cincinnati with plans of becoming a surgeon. Tibbets enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot the following year. His initial flights were anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic, followed by bombing missions in Europe. He returned to the United States in 1943 and helped with the development of the B-29 Superfortress. In 1945, he was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay (named after his mother), when it dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. After the war, he participated in nuclear weapons tests on the Bikini Atoll in 1946. After leaving the Air Force in 1966, Tibbets worked for Executive JetAviation, serving as its president from 1976 until his retirement in 1987.

Theodore J. "Dutch" Van Kirk (1921-2014) was born in Pennsylvania and joined the Army Air Force Aviation Cadet Program in October 1941. In April 1942, he joined the 97th Bomb Group as a navigator and flew missions in B-17s from England. He returned to the United States in June 1943 after flying 58 missions overseas. He served as an instructor navigator in Utah for the next year before joining the team that would fly the atomic bomb. He trained with other crew members from November 1944 to June 1945. He completed his service in the Army Air Forces as a major in August 1946. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Bucknell University in 1949 and 1950. He worked in various positions with DuPont for the next thirty-five years. In 2010, he became the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew.

Richard "Dick" H. Nelson (1925-2003) was born in Idaho and moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1929. Inspired by his older brother, he wanted to become a pilot. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943, but his strained eyesight diverted him from air training, and he went to radio school in South Dakota. After graduation, he went to New Mexico to be assigned to a B-29 crew. After five weeks without an assignment, he was transferred as a radio operator to the 509th Composite Group in Utah. In June 1945, he traveled to Tinian with many of the other members of the Enola Gay crew. They completed practice missions and then dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. After dropping the bomb, Nelson sent a series of coded messages back to Tinian reporting the success of the mission. After the war, he married and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. In the 1970s, he and his family moved to California.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 10"
  • Medium: Signed photograph

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March 12, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
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