National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. I didn't even know what an atomic bomb was until that day."īecker says he delivered a set of prints from the lab, including the one that McGlohon shot, to the general's quarters around midnight the night of the 6th.Ī decade or so ago, Elmer Dixson gave his collection of wartime photos, including the one McGlohon says he shot, to the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum in Tyler, Texas.Paul Tibbets waving from the Enola Gay 's cockpit before taking off for the bombing of Hiroshima "We didn't know there was going to be an atomic bomb. "I sent them out that day," says the 91-year-old retired officer, now living in Reno, Nev. If officials knew the photo was taken by a plane that was in the area by mistake, Samuelson believes they might have intentionally covered up the oversight to avoid having to explain it.Ĭlarence Becker, who was operations officer for the 3rd Photo Squadron, corroborates McGlohon's report. It is credited to a 20th Air Force plane that was actually miles away at the time. Because McGlohon's plane wasn't supposed to be in the area, lab techs would not have known he took the picture. The film McGlohon delivered to the lab was commingled with film from the Enola Gay's reconnaissance plane and other photo planes that were sent toward Hiroshima later. McGlohon says his plane did not fly through the cloud.
They would have passed over the city before the mushroom cloud had time to reach their altitude, Samuelson says. He also has a copy of the flight's mission report, indicating the route the plane traveled that day and noting the rising cloud the crew had seen.Īt the moment the bomb exploded, McGlohon and his crew were approaching Hiroshima at about 27,000 feet and flying at least 275 mph. McGlohon's unit, now under the 8th Air Force, was not on the distribution list. The Enola Gay, stationed on nearby island of Tinian, was part of the 20th.īefore the bombing, an order was issued to the 20th Air Force barring its planes from flying within 50 miles of Hiroshima the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, McGlohon's photo reconnaissance unit was working out of Guam under the 8th Air Force, having been transferred from the 20th Air Force just three weeks before. Samuelson has read stacks of books, spun through rolls of microfilm, spent hours interviewing World War II veterans, talking with museum curators and historians and studying flight logs of the 3rd Photo Squadron and other military minutia. Those led him to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which took him to Maxwell Air Force Base, home of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, and to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Naval Institute in Annapolis, who was intrigued enough to suggest other sources. Now on a quest, Samuelson started by consulting a general at the U.S. It irritated Samuelson that somebody would dismiss the eyewitness account of a man who had given more than four years to military service. He first met McGlohon at a veterans' group meeting in 1998, and had him speak to a similar group at Fearrington Village in 2008. Only after it was relayed in an Internet forum did anyone suggest outright that McGlohon was some kind of poseur. Over the years, McGlohon told the story to civic groups, friends, anyone interested in military history. The print bears a date from the processing lab of Aug.
The right half is a mass of smoke that obliterates the rest of the city.
One clearly shows the docks on the south side of Hiroshima in the left half of the frame. Indeed, the squadron's lab chief, Elmer Dixson, had brought home copies of many key photos, some still marked "SECRET."