The historic mission was the first use of nuclear weaponry in war. The blast killed between 70,000 and 100,000 people and injured countless others. 6, 1945, when Tibbets flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and released a 10,000-pound atomic bomb dubbed 'Little Boy.' His confidant Gerry Newhouse explained that Tibbets had concerns that his detractors would protest at his gravesite. Tibbets' wishes were not to have a funeral or a headstone. Tibbets, who maintained that he didn't have any regrets about the World War II mission, had been in decline for months. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday at his home in Columbus, Ohio after suffering a number of health problems. Read a timeline of the World War II bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Paul Tibbets, who flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died after suffering a number of health problems.