Tinian Island is just 40 square miles and has Runway Abla, made of crushed limestone.
On July 24, 1944, 30,000 Marines landed and eight days later had possession of the island. Of the 8,800 Japanese defenders, 8,000 died. The Marines had lost 328 men.
Four months later, the Seebees had built an airfield. B-29 Super Fortresses launched from there attacked the Philippines, Okinawa and the Japanese mainland.
On August 5, 1945, a B-29 named the Enola Gay maneuvered over a pit and a bomb called Little Boy and at 2:45 AM, August 6th, took off.
Three days later, another B-29 named Bockscar (a pun on box car) under Captain Fred Bock likewise maneuvered over another bomb pit and loaded the atom bomb going to Nagasaki.
The two bomb pits are still at the airfield which gets very few visitors.
Go WWII Sight Seeing. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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