The Enola Gay flight log that recorded the world’s first atomic bombing sold at auction for $543,000 on Saturday.
The sole in-flight documentation of the American bombing of Hiroshima was made by the Enola Gay’s co-pilot Capt. Robert E. Lewis, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Ridgefield Park, NJ.
Lewis’ shock-and-awe account of the Aug. 6, 1945 mission was written in pen and pencil during the flight.
Bidding started at $400,000. The winning bidder asked to remain anonymous, auction officials said.
The world’s first atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people.
American leaders believed the strikes — which led to Japan’s surrender a week later on Aug. 15 — preempted what would have been a prolonged land invasion of Japan that could have cost 1 million American lives.
The log book previously sold for $350,000 at a March 2002 auction in The Big Apple, It was from the collection of late financial publisher Malcolm Forbes at the time.
The book was sold by an anonymous consignor on auction platform Heritage Auctions.
