“We started our climb to 30,000 feet at 0740. The bomb is now alive and it's funny feeling knowing it's right in back of you. He said he had also seen the 20‐footlong, 9,000‐pound bomb before it was loaded into the plane.įollowng are excerpts from Mr. Lewis said that the crew of the Enola Gay had been briefed about its mission and shown pictures of the atomic‐bomb tests at Alamagordo, N. Laurence, who later edited the notebook, changed the sentence to read “but he arrived in Tinian too late.” Laurence “had been ordered to be aboard but this request was not put in.” Mr. Laurence, who was unable to board the flight at the last minute. The log, written in pen and pencil on the back of War Department forms as the B‐29 flew before dawn toward Hiroshima on Aug. Lewis then marked the notebook “Hold for Top Secret Clearance” and put it in a safe‐deposit box. Laurence, then the science editor of The New York Times. Lewis, then a captain in the Army Air Forces, said that he had been advised during the debriefing after the flight to keep the notebook himself. J., said he had decided to sell the notebook because “experts in the field have described it as one of the most historical documents of our era, and I didn't know what else to do with it.” Lewis, now a plant manager for the Henry Heide Company, a candy manufacturer in New Brunswick, N.
