The actors in this mini-series do a fine job in trying to express the attitudes of WWII flyers and ground crew. It was common practice for bomber crews in all the theaters of operation in World War II to name their aircraft after sweet hearts, wives or mothers. This is history right here Part 2 of an interview I did many years ago with Paul Tibbets, at my Weeks Air Museum in Miami, Florida. Enola Gay was the name of Colonel Tibbets' mother. It has become urban legend that he went insane because of remorse following Hiroshima. The decision to drop the atom bomb, the secrecy surrounding the mission, and the men who flew it. With Billy Crystal, Kim Darby, Patrick Duffy, Gary Frank. One of the crew members had a depressive personality and suffered an un-related nervous breakdown later in life. Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb: Directed by David Lowell Rich. How the numbers were arrived at is anybody's guess. Presidential advisers estimated the cost of invading the Japanese islands in human lives (American lives) would be in the hundreds of thousands. American diplomats were un-aware of these attempts. The Japanese were using back door channels to find a way of surrendering with honor, or at least to surrender and preserve their Emperor.
What was the attitude of the flight crews who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Where does the name Enola Gay come from? Is it true that one of the crew spent years in an insane asylum after committing this unspeakable act? Was the action justified? The book this is based on answers many of these questions.
Hard to believe there are only two comments on this very interesting subject.