<P> The release at 08: 15 (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy took 43 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at 31,060 feet (9,470 m) to the predetermined detonation height about 1,968 feet (600 m) above the city . Enola Gay traveled 11.5 mi (18.5 km) before it felt the shock waves from the blast . Although buffeted by the shock, neither Enola Gay nor The Great Artiste was damaged . </P> <P> The detonation created a blast equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT (67 TJ). The U-235 weapon was considered very inefficient, with only 1.7% of its fissile material reacting . The radius of total destruction was about one mile (1.6 km), with resulting fires across 4.4 square miles (11 km). Americans estimated that 4.7 square miles (12 km) of the city were destroyed . Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6--7% damaged . Some 70,000--80,000 people, 30% of the city's population, were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm, and another 70,000 injured . Out of those killed, 20,000 were soldiers . </P> <P> Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian to great fanfare, touching down at 2: 58 pm, after 12 hours 13 minutes . The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil followed at short intervals . Several hundred people, including journalists and photographers, had gathered to watch the planes return . Tibbets was the first to disembark, and was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot . </P> <P> The Hiroshima mission was followed by another atomic strike . Originally scheduled for 11 August, it was brought forward by two days to 9 August owing to a forecast of bad weather . This time, a Fat Man nuclear weapon was carried by B - 29 Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney . Enola Gay, flown by Captain George Marquardt's Crew B - 10, was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura, the primary target . Enola Gay reported clear skies over Kokura, but by the time Bockscar arrived, the city was obscured by smoke from fires from the conventional bombing of Yahata by 224 B - 29s the day before . After three unsuccessful passes, Bockscar diverted to its secondary target, Nagasaki, where it dropped its bomb . In contrast to the Hiroshima mission, the Nagasaki mission has been described as tactically botched, although the mission did meet its objectives . The crew encountered a number of problems in execution, and had very little fuel by the time they landed at the emergency backup landing site Yontan Airfield on Okinawa . </P>

Who was in the plane that bombed hiroshima