Tinian nuclear bomber base

USA puts World War II base back into operation

Satellite image from the year 2023: The refurbishment of the air force base, from which B-29 nuclear bombers took off during the Second World War, was already initiated under the Biden administration. The base can now be used again.(Bild: Screenshot, Google Earth)

The jungle has had almost 80 years to overgrow it. But now the US nuclear bomber base in Tinian has awoken from its slumber, as satellite photos show. The Americans have quietly made their ancient military base, from which the first nuclear bomber took off in 1945, operational again. Krone+ reveals what's behind it.

The islands of the Mariana Islands - the largest of which is Guam - are the furthest US territory from the US mainland. Guam has belonged to the USA since 1898, the neighboring islands of the Northern Mariana Islands since 1945 - during the Second World War they served as the US Air Force's most important base for bombing Japan. The B-29 bomber "Enola Gay", which brought the world into the atomic age by dropping the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945, took off here - on the island of Tinian. Overgrown by jungle after decades of peace, the USA has secretly redeveloped the base there - bombers and fighter planes can now land there again as they did 80 years ago.