Destroyed in 43 seconds

Deadly Hiroshima attack triggered fearsome prospect that still reverberates today

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THE all-clear had just sounded on a sunny August morning in Hiroshima, when the sky exploded in a tremendous flash of light and a loud booming sound.

A new era was beginning, but the 350,000 people of a city vital to the Japanese war effort had been going about as normal, ignorant of their unwanted role in history, as the first victims of an atomic bomb.

At 8.15am local time, Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the B29 USAF bomber Enola Gay, named after his mother, dropped Little Boy, a 9,700lb uranium device, from 31,000 feet.

Forty-three seconds later, it detonated 1,900 feet above the busy streets, creating an intense blast wave and setting off a firestorm.

Half of the city's population was killed or injured. Every building within a mile of ground zero was destroyed.

This was the "utter devastation" the Allies had threatened if the Japanese did not agree to surrender terms.