Comes with a hand-signed C.O.A. and a full historical write-up

This rare, original, and museum-grade ‘RESTRICTED’ WWII XXI Bomber Command (20th Air Force) TARGET MAP was used during the USAAF long-range B-29 bombardment operations, against Japan until mid-July 1945. Titled “KURE OKAYAMA WAN AREA - HONSHU JAPAN” this HIROSHIMA TARGET MAP was used on aerial bombardment missions by USAF navigators and bombardiers for the most accurate target information and navigation to target. This map is dated JAN 1945 and was used in XXI Bomber Command (20th Air Force) missions from March until Japan’s surrender in late 1945.

*On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. (Hiroshima time), the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima from an American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, flown by Paul Tibbets. What makes this specific TARGET MAP so rare is that this is the exact same target and navigation map to Hiroshima as the one carried on the Enola Gay. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The atomic bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the destruction of about three quarters of the city. Enola Gay participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in Nagasaki, a secondary target, being bombed instead.

In order to properly plan missions to Japan, up-to-date reconnaissance photos of the proposed targets were needed. Other than information which was used during the Doolittle Raid in 1942, there was scant information about the locations of Japanese industry, especially the aircraft industry. On 1 November 1944, two days after arriving on Saipan, A 3d Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron F-13A Superfortress (photo reconnaissance-configured B-29) took off bound for Tokyo. The 3d PRS attached to the 73d Bombardment Wing. The aircraft flew over Tokyo at 32,000 feet for 35 minutes taking picture after picture. A few fighters made it up to the camera plane's altitude but did not attack. These photos, along with other intelligence gave the XXI Bomber Command the locations of the Japanese aircraft manufacturing plants and enabled mission planners to plan missions for the combat crews to attack. In honor of his mission, the aircraft was named "Tokyo Rose".

*What also makes this specific edition of the target map very rare is the lower TRAGET legend key noting vital Japanese aerial targets and key military and industrial buildings/factories. This target map marks the exact locations of Japanese HEAVY BOMBER AIRFIELDS, FIGHTER AIRFIELDS, SEA PLANE STATIONS, NAVAL BASES, POW CAMPS, MANUFACTURING PLANTS, AIRCRAFT ASSEMBLY PLANTS, ETC.