The tail markings of other Marianas-based bomb groups (which used letters) were substituted prior to August 6 to avoid easy recognition of 509 th planes. He writes: “The original tail markings of 509 th B-29s was a forward-pointing arrow in a circle. It was part of a ruse, according to Krauss. Which is correct?”įor the answer, we turned to Robert Krauss, historian for the 509 th Composite Group, the unit that carried out the nuclear bombing missions at the end of WWII.
The three are: a black letter P, a circle-R, and a circle-arrow. Harris says he has three pictures of the bomber on Tinian island in the Northern Marianas (its takeoff point for the bomb run), and “in each of the pictures, it has a different fin flash on the vertical stabilizer.
Stan Harris of Brighton, Colorado, writes with a question about the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Udvar-Hazy Center, but before the museum opened. The Enola Gay in 2003, shortly after moving to the Steven F.
