The auction will take place in New York on June 5. There is nothing else like this out there.’Īlso in the sale are four photos, a Mohawk watch, a bombers patch, 13 badges and uniform pins and an almost unused AAF cloth chart of the East China Sea, Japan and South China Sea previously owned by 2nd Lt Gackenback And that particular moment changed the whole world around. ‘It shows an iconic moment in history, of which this is the only privately taken photograph. But once upon a time, you flew a plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, in Japan, on a Sunday morning Aug and a bomb fell. ‘This poignant photograph has never been published. ‘Russ kept hold of the photo until the 1990s when he sold it, along with other memorabilia from the raid, to a private collector in the U.S who has had it ever since. ‘There were official photographs of the explosion but this is the only personal photograph that was taken. Three days later, in the pre-dawn hours of August 9, a B-29 named Bockscar(a pun on. 6 hours later at 8:15am Japan time, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The crew named the bomb they were carrying Little Boy.
At the time they were at about 30,000ft and 12 miles from the blast. Paul Tibbets of the US Army Air Force, who had named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay. ‘As his plane banked away from the blast he took the camera out and snapped this shot. Russ was not supposed to have taken his personal camera onboard but he did.
#Was the enola gay named after a women full#
‘The plane was full of scientists and journalists who were there to study and report on the blast. Tom Lamb, from auctioneers Bonhams, said: ‘Russ was the navigator onboard Necessary Evil, one of two planes accompanying Enola Gay on the bombing raid. On August 15 Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan, effectively ending the Second World War. Destroyed: A fire engine in Hiroshima left twisted and burnt out by the atomic bomb