At 02.45 hours on the morning of 6 August 1945, a Boeing B-29
Superfortress, named after the pilot's mother, Enola Gay, lifted
off from a tiny island deep in the Pacific Ocean on one of the most
important missions in human history. The B-29 carried just one
bomb; the target was Hiroshima. The dropping of the first atomic
bomb on Hiroshima, and of a second nuclear device on Nagasaki three
days later, is known throughout the world. But what is often
forgotten is that these missions were only possible following the
savage battles to seize the Northern Mariana Islands -which,
crucially, were within the B-29's operational range of Japan. With
the capture of these islands, the defeat of Hirohito's Imperial
Japan became a certainty as for the first time in the war
land-based heavy bombers could fly all the way to Tokyo and back.
The sparsely-populated island of Tinian was turned into the biggest
air base in the world. With six runways, four of which were built
for the huge Superfortresses, it was from there that atomic
destruction of Japan began. But, before all this, had been the
battle for the island -the preliminary naval bombardment, the
aerial strikes and the amphibious assault. The story of that battle
is told here, in the words and images of the men who took part in
that memorable, and ultimately epoch-changing, campaign. Part of
this is another story, that of the warship USS Indianapolis. This
Portland-class heavy cruiser was handed a secret mission of the
utmost significance to national security', that of taking the
enriched uranium and other vital parts of the atomic weapons to
Tinian. Indianapolis succeeded in its mission, but was left to
return to Pearl Harbor unescorted, resulting in one of the most
unfortunate and gristly episodes in US maritime history. Few
stories encapsulate human endeavour, achievement, sacrifice, and
failure in quite such stark contrasts as the taking of the island
of Tinian, once the centre of USAAF operations in the Pacific and
now just a little-visited speck in the largest ocean in the world.
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