Manhattan Project History

From Operational History of the 509th Bombardment At 0245 Tinian time on Monday, 6 August 1945, Col Tibbets and crew took off in the Enola Gay. The crew consisted of the following people: SSgt George R. Caron, tail gunner; Sgt Joe S. Stiborik, radar operator; SSgt Wyatt E. Duzenbury, flight engineer; PFC Richard H. Nelson, […]

From “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb” by Henry Stimson In recent months there has been much comment about the decision to use atomic bombs in attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This decision was one of the gravest made by our government in recent years, and it is entirely proper […]

The story of the development of the atomic bomb by the combined efforts of many groups in the United States is a fascinating but highly technical account of an enormous enterprise. Obviously military security prevents this story from being told in full at this time. However, there is no reason why the administrative history of […]

October 15, 1945 Dear Mr. Gillespie, This letter is to acknowledge your contribution to the development of the atomic bomb. The striking success of this project was made possible by the work and sacrifices of the military personnel. According to your group leader, you are to be especially commended for seven months’ work on one […]

By Harold Agnew On the mission to Hiroshima, I was assigned to the instrument plane, The Great Artiste, which was with equipped with scientific instruments to measure the yield. I had a movie camera and after we completed our measurements, I filmed the Hiroshima cloud with black-and-white film. For the Nagasaki mission, I equipped the […]

By George Cowan A major legacy of the “Manhattan Project” is that its name and its formula for success have become synonymous with achieving seemingly impossible national objectives. What were the essential elements of the Manhattan Project? I’ve thought about this question often over the years. One thing was clear. A prerequisite for any such […]

I think there are issues which are quite simple and quite deep, and which involve us as a group of scientists—involve us more, perhaps than any other group in the world. I think that it can only help to look a little at what our situation is—at what has happened to us—and that this must […]

WAR DEPARTMENTBureau of Public RelationsPRESS BRANCH EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTATOMIC BOMB MISSION OVER NAGASAKI WITH THE ATOMIC BOMB MISSION TO JAPAN, AUGUST 9 We are on our way to bomb the mainland of Japan. Our flying contingent consists of three specially designed B-29 Superforts, and two of these carry no bombs. But our lead plane is […]

WAR DEPARTMENT.  Washington, D.C. IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 6, 1945 STATEMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR The recent use of the atomic bomb over Japan, which was today made known by the President, is the culmination of years of herculean effort on the part of science and industry working in cooperation with the military authorities. This […]

THE WHITE HOUSE Washington, D.C. IMMEDIATE RELEASE —August 6, 1945 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of […]