Little Boy

Operation Hiroshima & Nagasaki

August 6, 1945 · Japan · Airdrop · 16 kt

A nuclear device dropped from an aircraft and exploded in the atmosphere.

Aerial photograph of the mushroom cloud rising approximately 6,100 metres above Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945, following the detonation of the uranium bomb Little Boy by the B-29 Enola Gay, 509th Composite Group, US Army Air Forces. First nuclear weapon used in combat. Yield approximately 15 kt. Official US Army Air Forces photograph, AC/AS-2 headquarters. Catalog number 58189 A.C.
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U.S. Army A.A.F. Photo

Printed in 1953

Silver gelatin print

8x10 in (20.3x25.4 cm)

Serial number, Stamp

On 6 August 1945 at 08:15 local time, the B-29 Enola Gay of the 509th Composite Group, US Army Air Forces, dropped Little Boy over the city of Hiroshima, Japan — the first nuclear weapon used in combat. Little Boy was a gun-type uranium bomb, 3 metres long and weighing approximately 4,400 kg, containing around 64 kg of highly enriched uranium-235. It detonated at approximately 580 metres above the city, producing a yield of approximately 15 kilotons. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people were killed immediately; total deaths by the end of 1945 are estimated between 90,000 and 166,000. The city was devastated across a radius of approximately 1.6 kilometres from the hypocentre. Two observation aircraft accompanied the Enola Gay on the mission: The Great Artiste, carrying blast measurement instruments, and Necessary Evil, the photography aircraft from which this image was taken. This photograph was issued as an official press print by Headquarters, Army Air Forces, AC/AS-2 — the Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Intelligence — under catalog number 58189 A.C.