The other Lewis items for auction include personal photographs from the war and his hand-drawn diagram of the Hiroshima bombing run showing the bomb blast’s expected shock wave range and the evasive flight path the Enola Gay would take after detonation. Enola Gay navigator Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member, died in Georgia in 2014. Robert Lewis died in Virginia in 1983, Tibbets in 2007 in Ohio.
Japan surrendered six days later, ending the war. Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, another US B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. “People don’t realise how many times he flew aboard the Enola Gay,” Steven Lewis said. But Tibbets only flew the Enola Gay a couple of times, while Lewis had piloted the aircraft 16 times during test flights leading up to the Hiroshima mission. The move made Tibbets a household name after his crew completed the world’s first atomic bombing mission, which destroyed much of the Japanese city and killed tens of thousands of its citizens. Photograph: NY Daily News via Getty ImagesĪs commander of the Hiroshima mission, Colonel Paul Tibbets was also the pilot of the Enola Gay, relegating the lower-ranked Lewis to co-pilot. The crew of the Enola Gay, with Captain Robert Lewis third from right.
