Piloted Photo Ship For First Atomic Bomb Drop

George Marquardt's memory of the atomic blast over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

"It was like the sun had come out of the ground and just exploded," he often recalled.

Marquardt (above, seated, second from left), a former Army Air Forces pilot whose B-29 was chosen to photograph the historic bomb blast over the Japanese port city, died at a nursing home in Murray (UT), on August 15.

It was just one day after the 58th anniversary of the Japanese surrender and the end of World War II. Marquardt was 84 and suffered from Parkinson's disease.

That Historic Day

As he flew toward Hiroshima from Tinian, north of Guam, August 6, Marquardt's B-29 -- Necessary Evil -- was to the left and rear of Col. Paul Tibbets' Enola Gay, the ship carrying the atomic bomb dubbed "Little Boy." On the right and to the rear of the Enola Gay was Maj. Charles Sweeney's bomber, which carried blast-gauge instruments that would be dropped by parachute.

Marquardt's B-29 never got closer than 15 miles to Hiroshima, but Marquardt later said the blast "felt as if a monster hand had slapped the side of the plane." The light from the 9,700-pound uranium bomb with the destructive force of 20,000 tons of TNT was so intense that Marquardt could not even see his co-pilot, Jim Anderson.

Bernard Waldman, the Manhattan Project scientist on Marquardt's plane, was equipped with a special high-speed movie camera loaded with six seconds of film to record the blast. But in his excitement, Waldman forgot to open the camera shutter, and none of the film was exposed.

In defiance of orders, however, a crew member had sneaked a camera on board and took a picture of the explosion.

"I have never for one moment regretted my participating in the dropping of the A-bomb," Marquardt told the Salt Lake Tribune in 1995. "It ended a terrible war."

Marquardt was born July 14, 1919 in Princeton (KY). He grew up in the small Ohio River town of Golconda (IL). In March 1941, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army Air Force.

He received his wings at Kelly Field in Texas and in 1943 was assigned to the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, which became part of the 509th Composite Group at Wendover Field in Utah. Fifteen crews were being trained there to drop a large, unnamed bomb for the top-secret mission that they were told only would "shorten the war."

Marquardt is survived by his wife Bernece; sons Steven, Michael and Chris; daughter Michelle Judy; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

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