After flying 43 combat missions, he became the assistant for bomber operations on the staff of the Twelfth Air Force. Tibbets was chosen to fly Major General Mark W. He flew the lead bomber for the first American daylight heavy bomber mission against Occupied Europe on August 17, 1942, and the first American raid of more than 100 bombers in Europe on October 9, 1942. In July 1942 the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force, and Tibbets became deputy group commander. In February 1942, he became commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group, equipped with the Boeing B-17 bomber. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. Tibbets enlisted in the army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (Febru– November 1, 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay (named for his mother), the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. **** Signed by Pilot/Aircraft Commander Paul Tibbets!
