Atomic cloud over Hiroshima - NARA 542192 - Edit

Technical Sergeant George Robert Caron (October 31, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was the tail gunner, the only defender of the twelve crewmen, aboard the

B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fly ...

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 be ...

'' during the historic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Facing the rear of the B-29, his vantage point made him the first man to witness the cataclysmic growth of the mushroom cloud over

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

. Caron was also the only photographer aboard, and took photographs as the mushroom cloud ascended. Of the four

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

aircraft assigned to the Hiroshima bombing, Caron's camera and two others captured the explosion on film. Immediately before the mission, the 509th's photography officer, Lieutenant Jerome Ossip, asked then Staff Sergeant Caron to carry a handheld

Fairchild K-20 The K-20 is an aerial photography camera used during World War II, famously from the Enola Gay's tail gunner position to photograph the nuclear mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. Designed by Fairchild Camera and Instrument, approximately 15,000 were ...

camera. After the mission, Ossip developed photos from all the aircraft, but found that the fixed cameras failed to record anything. Film from another handheld was mishandled in developing, making Caron's the only official still photographs of the explosion. 2nd Lt. Russell Gackenback, Navigator aboard then unnamed ''

Necessary Evil A necessary evil is an evil that someone believes must be done or accepted because it is necessary to achieve a better outcome—especially because possible alternative courses of action or inaction are expected to be worse. It is the "lesser ev ...

'', took two still photographs of the cloud about one minute after detonation using his personal AFGA 620 camera. A handheld

16 mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

camera on ''

The Great Artiste ''The Great Artiste'' was a U.S. Army Air Forces Silverplate B-29 bomber (B-29-40-MO 44-27353, Victor number 89), assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group. The aircraft was named for its bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan, i ...

'' captured the only known motion film of the explosion. Caron's photographs of the explosion were printed on millions of leaflets that were dropped over Japan the next day. Caron graduated from

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...

(Brooklyn, New York) in 1938. In May 1995, he published the book ''Fire of a Thousand Suns, The George R. "Bob" Caron Story, Tail Gunner of the Enola Gay'' about his "eye-witness account of the momentous event when the world was catapulted into the Atomic Age, the introduction of atomic capability, the technical development of the B-29, and the events that put him into the tail gun turret of the

."Tailgunner, Enola Gay
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References

;Sources
1985 Interview with Bob Caron
Voices of the Manhattan Project

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caron, George 1919 births 1995 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Recipients of the Silver Star United States Army Air Forces soldiers Brooklyn Technical High School alumni Burials at Fort Logan National Cemetery

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External links