The Czech aboard Enola Gay, the Hiroshima bombing flight 80 years ago
This could have been just another story of an ordinary family of Czech expatriates in the United States. However, a series of circumstances led Czech-American Joseph Stiborik to leave an indelible mark on history as a crew member of the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima 80 years ago, on August 6, 1945.
The origins of Joseph Stiborik's family were only conclusively proven a couple of years ago – initially, he was believed to be a descendant of immigrants from Žďár nad Sázavou. In reality, his father, Antonín Stibořík, was born in Blazice in the Zlín region, and his mother Cecílie, née Capáková, came from Lotrinkovice, now part of Frýdek-Místek.
Antonín Stibořík emigrated to the United States before World War I, at the age of twenty. In 1907, he settled in Oklahoma, later relocating to Texas. Joseph Anton Stiborik was born in the town of Hallettsville, halfway between Houston and San Antonio, a few days before Christmas, on December 21, 1914. To his friends and family, he was known simply as Joe.
He grew up with three sisters; his brother Frank died at just one year old, and his mother Cecílie died shortly after giving birth to her youngest daughter in November 1920. By then, the family had moved to Taylor, a town with a large Czech community. The Stiboriks were very active among their compatriots; father Antonín worked for the Czech-language newspaper Texaský rolník ("Texas farmer") and later for another Czech-American periodical, Našinec ("Fellow countryman").
The family found it very difficult to cope with the pre-war developments in Czechoslovakia, where they still had relatives. The country was facing a growing threat and later direct occupation by Nazi Germany. Joseph Stiborik enlisted in the American army in October 1940, more than a year before the United States officially entered World War II. At that time, he was living in Oklahoma, was a graduate of Texas A&M University, and already had a family of his own. He was married to Helena Coceková, a fellow Czech expatriate.
Joe Stiborik had a dream of becoming a pilot in the US Army. However, this ambition was thwarted for health reasons – he was colour-blind. Despite his best efforts, including eating large quantities of carrots, he repeatedly failed the vision tests, according to his daughter’s recollections. He also tried his luck at a cadet school for glider pilots, but it had since closed, leaving him once again searching for other paths.
He eventually completed a different form of flight training that did not depend on the ability to distinguish colours, by enrolling in a radar school in Florida. During his time there, he coincidentally met US Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbets, who had already completed forty bombing missions in Europe and North Africa.
Tibbets was now involved in the development of a new generation of bombers – the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. He was later appointed commander of the newly formed 509th Composite Group, which was tasked with transporting and dropping nuclear weapons. This unit was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a gigantic scientific and military undertaking in which the US invested more than two billion dollars, and employed over 130,000 people. The result of this effort was the construction of the first atomic bomb in history.
From December 1944, approximately 1,800 personnel were selected for the 509th Group to form 15 crews for specially modified B-29 bombers, code-named Silverplate. Stiborik was assigned to one of the crews as a radar operator. His task was to navigate the bomber to its target and track enemy aircrafts. This was considered a minor issue in the final phase of the war, as the Japanese air force did not have sufficient strength or capacity to pose a significant threat to the Americans.
Stiborik was one of the oldest members of the unit – even a year older than Tibbets, the commander of his crew. Today, only one known member of the 509th Composite Group, technician Norris Jernigan, is still alive and celebrated his 100th birthday last month. In personal correspondence, he recalled Joseph Stiborik as a quiet, introverted man, but also kind and gentle.
In August 1945, the war in Europe was over. Czechoslovakia was finally liberated from Nazi occupation after six long years. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese Empire was still staunchly defending itself against massive Allied superiority. The Americans, having learned from their heavy losses in the bloody battles for the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, decided to use their newly developed nuclear weapon. According to military estimates, an invasion of the main Japanese islands would have resulted in Allied losses of as many as a million people.
Members of the 509th Group were moved to the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands – an air base that served as a springboard for the strategic bombing of Japan. On August 5, 1945, a final briefing was held, during which the twelve-member crew was partially informed of their tasks. Technical details were outlined, but according to some sources, they were only given vague information about a “very destructive bomb”.
According to his memoirs, Stiborik attended Catholic Mass that evening and packed a good luck charm for the trip – a ski hat, which he had brought back from a vacation in Salt Lake City. At half past two in the morning on August 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress bomber, named Enola Gay after Tibbets’s mother, took off from the airport on the island of Tinian.
The mission's target was the Japanese city of Hiroshima – a crucial industrial and military hub. Halfway through the flight, Tibbets handed the crew members capsules of cyanide, in case the mission failed, and revealed the details of the operation to them. They were carrying the Little Boy atomic bomb. At quarter to nine in the morning, the bomb exploded over Hiroshima.
The consequences speak for themselves – tens of thousands of deaths, an entire city destroyed, and lasting health effects on survivors. Only one large building survived at the epicentre of the explosion – an industrial palace designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel, now known as the A-Bomb Dome, part of the Peace Memorial.
Enola Gay co-pilot Robert Lewis later recalled that when he saw the flash and the ensuing destruction, the first thought that crossed his mind was: "Oh my God, what have we done?”
After the war, Joseph Stiborik returned to his family in Texas, where he lived in perfect seclusion, and practically never spoke about his wartime experiences. The only exception was in 1956, when he was interviewed in a local newspaper. Here he reminisced:
“When we released the bomb, the pilot pulled the plane into a sharp turn so we could get away from there as quickly as possible. We were about nine miles away when it exploded. We felt two strong tremors. At first, I thought it was anti-aircraft fire, but it was the shock waves from the explosion,” he said.
Joseph Stiborik was demobilized in November 1945. He continued to keep quiet about his experiences, did not attend crew reunions, but remained in contact with some of its members. The only tangible reminder of his role in history was a framed picture of the Enola Gay hanging in his office. Stiborik died of a heart attack on June 30, 1984, at his home in Rockdale, Texas. He was 69 years old.
His two sisters, Marie and Cecílie, also served in the US Army, as did other relatives. Stiborik's brother-in-law, Czech-American Arnold Cocek (Churchek), also served in the Air Force. As a flight engineer on a B-24D bomber belonging to the 528th Bombardment Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, he took part in operational flights over New Guinea. On November 21, 1943, he and his crew were shot down and killed.
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