May 16, 2019
Volume 49 - No. 20
By Friedrich Gomez
When we think of the greatest secret weapons of World War II we immediately think of the Manhattan Project which created the world’s first two atomic bombs (code names “Little Boy,” and “Fat Man,” respectively). These atomic bombs were, unquestionably, the mightiest and most lethal weapons unleased in human The Paper - 760.747.7119
website:www.thecommunitypaper.com
email: thepaper@cox.net
history, and their sudden appearance were like artificial suns exploding off the pages of Biblical “Revelations.” Their explosions mushroomed over 11 miles into the sky creating a seemingly unreal Armageddon image that – even in its aftermath – still could not be fully comprehended by scientists who witnessed the seemingly impossible splitting of the atom. The Little Boy – all 9,700
pounds of it -- was the first super bomb to find its target on August 6, 1945, when it was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, erasing much of the landscape below. Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay airplane which carried the bomb, was quoted as saying, “As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear.” Sergeant Joseph Stiborik, radar operator on board, remembered how the crew was
Top Secret Weapons - See Page 2
in shock and remained, mostly, in stunned silence on the return flight. The only words he recalled hearing were from copilot Lewis who uttered, “My God, what have we done?” Radarman, Stiborik, struggled later to find words, “I was dumbfounded. Remember, nobody had ever seen what an A-bomb could do before. Here was a whole damn town nearly as big as Dallas, one minute all