509th Operations Group
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History of the 509th Operations Group
The 509th Composite Group was created on 17 December 1944 at Wendover Field, Utah, commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets. Equipped with the B-29, the unit was formed with the specific mission of delivering the atomic bombs being produced by the Manhattan project. In the spring of 1945, the group was transferred to Tinian Island in the Marianas—within range of Japan.On 6 August 1945 one of the bombers, Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Tibbets, took off with Little Boy, the first nuclear warhead used in combat. It was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. On 9 August 1945 the 509th was once again called into action this time to drop Fat Man, another atomic bomb, on Nagasaki, Japan.
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