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Above And Beyond (1952 Film)
''Above and Beyond'' is a 1952 American World War II film about Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. Directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, it stars Robert Taylor as Tibbets and features a love story with Eleanor Parker as his wife. James Whitmore plays security officer Major Bill Uanna. The story of the dropping of the atomic bomb is treated as a docudrama with an effort to recreate the training and operational aspects of the military units involved in the Hiroshima mission. Plot Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. ( Robert Taylor) is assigned to a dangerous mission in testing a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The perilous assignment has caused his wife Lucy (Eleanor Parker) to worry for his life and whether their marriage can survive the constant separations. After a year of scrutiny, Maj. Gen. Vernon C. Brent (Larry Keating) who championed Tibbets as a test pilot, selects him to lead a new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank (13 August 1913 – 13 October 1988) was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He is known for his partnership with Norman Panama and their work on films such as ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and ''The Court Jester'' (1956). He also directed films such as ''Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell'' and '' A Touch of Class'' (1973). Life and career Born to a Jewish family, Frank met his future collaborator Norman Panama in 1933 when they were both at the University of Chicago. After graduating, they formed a partnership in 1935 which endured for four decades; first writing for Milton Berle before becoming writers for Bob Hope's radio show. In 1941, they sold their first script to Paramount Pictures, ''My Favorite Blonde'' (1942), which starred Hope. They worked for Paramount for five years where, among others, they wrote ''Road to Utopia'' (1946), starring Hope and Bing Crosby, for which they received an Acade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict so far. In the final year of World War II, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This undertaking was preceded by a conventional and firebombing campaign that devastated 64 Japanese cities. The war in the European theatre concluded when Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, and the Allies turned their full attention to the Pacific War. By July 1945, the Allies' Manhattan Project had produced two types of atomic bombs: "Fat Man", a plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapon; and "Little Boy", an enriched uranium gun-type fission weapon. The 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces was trained and equipped with the specialized Silverplate version of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Sterling Parsons
Rear Admiral William Sterling "Deak" Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the ''Enola Gay'', the aircraft which dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the bomb in flight. While the aircraft was ''en route'' to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission. A 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Parsons served on a variety of warships beginning with the battleship . He was trained in ordnance and studied ballistics under L.T.E. Thompson at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Gates
Lawrence Wheaton Gates (September 24, 1915December 12, 1996) was an American actor. His notable roles include H.B. Lewis on daytime's ''Guiding Light'' and Doc Baugh in the film version of ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1958). He played the role of H.B. from 1983 to 1996 and won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor at the 1985 awards. (He had previously played the role of District Attorney Eric Van Gelder on ''Guiding Light'' in 1977 and 1978.) Gates may be best remembered for his role in the 1967 film version of '' In the Heat of the Night'', where his character, Eric Endicott, is part of a famous scene involving his slapping Sidney Poitier's face, and gets slapped in return. Early years Gates was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As a chemical engineering student at the University of Minnesota, he acted in student plays. Some of his early acting experience came at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. His interest in acting led him to change his collegiate focus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uzal Girard Ent
Uzal Girard Ent CBE (March 3, 1900 – March 5, 1948) was an American Army Air Forces officer who served as the commander of the Second Air Force during World War II. Biography Ent was born on March 3, 1900, in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He served in the infantry from 1917 to 1919, and was commissioned into the US Air Service from West Point in 1924. In 1927, he married Eleanor Marwitz with whom he would have a son named Girard. On May 30, 1928 he was the co-pilot of a balloon in the National Balloon Race starting at Bettis Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the race, Ent's balloon was struck by lightning over Youngstown, Pennsylvania. The lightning strike killed the pilot and set the balloon's hydrogen filled envelope on fire. Ent could have parachuted to safety but, instead, chose to stay with the balloon, attempted to rescue the pilot and successfully piloted the balloon to the ground. For this act of heroism, Ent was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silverplate
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop an atomic weapon, "Silverplate" eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well. The original directive for the project had as its subject line "Silver Plated Project" but continued usage of the term shortened it to "Silverplate". Testing began with scale models at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, in August 1943. Modifications began on a prototype Silverplate B-29 known as the "Pullman" in November 1943, and it was used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944. The testing resulted in further modifications to both the bombs and the aircraft. Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ordered in August 1944 to allow the 509th Composite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul W
Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Christian missionary and writer *Pope Paul (other), multiple Popes of the Roman Catholic Church *Saint Paul (other), multiple other people and locations named "Saint Paul" Roman and Byzantine empire *Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (c. 229 BC – 160 BC), Roman general *Julius Paulus Prudentissimus (), Roman jurist *Paulus Catena (died 362), Roman notary *Paulus Alexandrinus (4th century), Hellenistic astrologer *Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (625–690), Greek surgeon Royals *Paul I of Russia (1754–1801), Tsar of Russia *Paul of Greece (1901–1964), King of Greece Other people *Paul the Deacon or Paulus Diaconus (c. 720 – c. 799), Italian Benedictine monk *Paul (father of Maurice), the father of Maurice, Byzan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silverplate B-29 Enola Gay
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop an atomic weapon, "Silverplate" eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well. The original directive for the project had as its subject line "Silver Plated Project" but continued usage of the term shortened it to "Silverplate". Testing began with scale models at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, in August 1943. Modifications began on a prototype Silverplate B-29 known as the "Pullman" in November 1943, and it was used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944. The testing resulted in further modifications to both the bombs and the aircraft. Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ordered in August 1944 to allow the 509th Composite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enola Gay
The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the destruction of about three quarters of the city. ''Enola Gay'' participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in a secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead. After the war, the ''Enola Gay'' returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. In May 1946, it was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Later that year, it was transferred to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinian
Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern Marianas. Tinian's largest village is San Jose. History Spanish colonial period Tinian, together with Saipan, was possibly first sighted by Europeans of the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, when it made landfall in the southern Marianas on 6 March 1521. It was likely sighted next by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa in 1522 on board the Spanish ship ''Trinidad'', in an attempt to reach Panama after the death of Magellan. This would have happened after the sighting of the Maug Islands in between the end of August and end of September. Gonzalo de Vigo deserted in the Maugs from the ''Trinidad'' and in the next four years, living with the Chamorros, visited thirteen main islands in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its west by Nevada. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin. Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendover Air Force Base
Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II, it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit that carried out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Wendover was used for training exercises, gunnery range and as a research facility. It was closed by the Air Force in 1969, and the base was given to Wendover City in 1977. Tooele County, Utah, assumed ownership of the airport and base buildings in 1998, and the County continues to operate the airfield as a public airport. A portion of the original bombing range is now the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) which is used extensively by the Air Force with live fire targets on the range. Origins Wendover Air Force Base's history began in 1940, when the United States Army began looking for additional bombing ranges. The area near the town of Wendover was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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