Audiobook10 hours
Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima
Written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts
Narrated by Joe Barrett
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
From the New York Times bestselling coauthors comes a "fascinating . . . unrivaled" history of the B-29 and its fateful mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (New York Times Book Review).
Painstakingly researched, the story behind the decision to send the Enola Gay to bomb Hiroshima is told through firsthand sources. From diplomatic moves behind the scenes to Japanese actions and the US Army Air Force's call to action, no detail is left untold.
Touching on the early days of the Manhattan Project and the first inkling of an atomic bomb, investigative journalist Gordon Thomas and his writing partner Max Morgan-Witts, take WWII enthusiasts through the training of the crew of the Enola Gay and the challenges faced by pilot Paul Tibbets.
A must-listen book that offers "minute-by-minute coverage of the critical periods" surrounding the mission, Enola Gay finally separates myth and reality from the planning of the flight to the moment over Hiroshima when the atomic age was born (Library Journal).
Painstakingly researched, the story behind the decision to send the Enola Gay to bomb Hiroshima is told through firsthand sources. From diplomatic moves behind the scenes to Japanese actions and the US Army Air Force's call to action, no detail is left untold.
Touching on the early days of the Manhattan Project and the first inkling of an atomic bomb, investigative journalist Gordon Thomas and his writing partner Max Morgan-Witts, take WWII enthusiasts through the training of the crew of the Enola Gay and the challenges faced by pilot Paul Tibbets.
A must-listen book that offers "minute-by-minute coverage of the critical periods" surrounding the mission, Enola Gay finally separates myth and reality from the planning of the flight to the moment over Hiroshima when the atomic age was born (Library Journal).
Author
Gordon Thomas
Gordon Thomas is a bestselling author of over forty books published worldwide, a number dealing with the intelligence world. His awards include the Citizens Commission for Human Rights Lifetime Achievement Award for Investigative Journalism, the Mark Twain Society Award for Reporting Excellence, and an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Investigation. He lives in Ireland.
More audiobooks from Gordon Thomas
The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelee Disaster: May 7, 1902 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Enola Gay
Related audiobooks
The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Heisenberg: The Race for the Atom Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Vengeance: The Astonishing Aerial Ambush That Changed World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death of the USS Thresher: The Story Behind History's Deadliest Submarine Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBroken Arrow: How the U.S. Navy Lost a Nuclear Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackett's War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rocket Age: The Race to the Moon and What It Took to Get There Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miracle at Midway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Red Line: The Gripping Story of the RAF’s Bloodiest Raid on Hitler’s Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pegasus Bridge Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nimitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957---The Space Race Begins Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan 1942-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold True Story of American Submar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings12 Seconds Of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Landing on the Edge of Eternity: Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Founding Mothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Enola Gay
Rating: 3.8773584603773585 out of 5 stars
4/5
53 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very good to hear what happened. Hard for all sides
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lots of ironies and happenstance surrounded the delivery of the first atomic bomb. FDR backed the beginning of the Manhattan Project without the knowledge of Congress using money off the books. Max Tibbetts, a pilot with an impeccable record who had been the first to fly a B-17 on a bombing raid across the English Channel and was in charge of flight testing the B-29, a plane that had killed its first test pilot and was thought by some to be too dangerous to fly, almost didn’t get the job to drop the bomb. In an interview he admitted he had gotten into trouble in high school for a backseat “dalliance” with a girl. Had he forgotten about it or lied about it he would not have been chosen. They were looking for someone who could be totally honest. Because of that his name would be forever enshrined with the bomb and Hiroshima, a city he had never heard of.Use of the bomb was never a certainty. Neils Bohr, one of the scientists working on the project, thought science belonged to the world and wanted to open up the research to everyone. A laudable thought but in 1944? To the Germans and Japanese?Thomas focuses mainly on two participants to get differing POV: Colonel Tibbetts as he prepared the 393 Bombing Group for the mission over Japan; and Officer Yokoyama in charge of the anti-aircraft guns on the hills surrounding Hiroshima. I had always been under the assumption that Hiroshima was primarily a civilian target targeted simply because after General LeMay’s firebombing of Japan there were few cities left to bomb. But, apparently Hiroshima was home to several military industrial sites producing many weapons, although by this stage of the war raw materials were in such short supply they were barely operating. Hiroshima, was highly vulnerable to air attack. All a bomber need do was drop its load within the bowl to be almost certain of causing damage. Apart from a single kidney-shaped hill in the eastern sector of the city, about half a mile long and two hundred feet high, Hiroshima was uniformly exposed to the spreading energy that big bombs generate. Structurally—like San Francisco in the earthquake and fire of 1906—Hiroshima was built to burn. Ninety percent of its houses were made of wood. Large groups of dwellings were clustered together. The Japanese had rationalized the fall of the Marianas and other Pacific Japanese bases by saying it was a strategic withdrawal to lure the Americans closer to the Homeland where they could be more easily destroyed. In the U.S. secrecy surrounded all preparations for the atomic bomb development and attack. "Many thousands of man-hours and dollars had been spent on tapping telephones, secretly opening letters, collecting details of extramarital affairs, homosexual tendencies, and political affiliations. The dossiers represented the most thorough secret investigation until then carried out in the name of the U.S. government.I still remain a bit astonished at the naive faith everyone had in the bomb. They really had no idea whether it would work and if it did, what the results might be. How far from the center would radioactivity extend, what would be the effects of the blinding flash, were just a couple of the many questions they had. The extraordinary secrecy probably had as much to do with their fear the bomb might not work as it did that it would work.The United States, to this date, remains the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons in war.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book deals with what is probably the most controversial decision in the history of warfare. It starts slowly but don't let that deter you from reading. By the time the account of the actual flight is reached, this had developed into one of the most compelling books I have read in a long time. Even knowing the outcome, I was riveted by the masterful storytelling of this major world event. The sectioning of the book also made complete sense on reaching the conclusion. A must read for the WWII enthusiast.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thomas and Witts cover a human-made disaster; the bombing of Hiroshima from the perspectives of both the Americans and Japanese, focusing on the air crew and residents of the city. Well written.