The Pittsburgh Press (January 24, 1946)
Atomic bomb will be tested on veteran U.S. battleships
Marshall Islands atoll to be site of first of three tryouts on fleet of 100 vessels
WASHINGTON (UP) – The first of three historic tests of atomic bomb blasts on naval vessels will take place early in May in a tiny ring of mid-Pacific islands, the Navy disclosed today.
The experiments, which will determine the future of navies in an age of atomic weapons will be conducted with a “guinea pig” fleet of 100 American, German and Jap surface ships, and submarines. They include four old U.S. battleships and the carriers USS Saratoga and USS Independence.
Besides the May test, to be held in the Marshall Islands, another will take place July 1 and a third some time thereafter, probably in 1947.
American correspondents will be on hand to report to the public on the long-awaited experiment with the world’s most awesome secret weapon. No representative of any foreign nation will be allowed to attend, under present plans. But this is still under discussion.
Sen. Brien McMahon (D-Connecticut), chairman of the Senate committee, recommended that representatives of the United Nations be invited to observe the tests.
Rep. Jack Z. Anderson (R-California), a member of the House Naval Affairs Committee revealed that Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal has promised to invite all members of Congress to attend the first atomic bomb test if they desire.
Details of the joint Army-Navy operation – known by the code name “Crossroads” – were revealed today by Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy in testimony before the Senate’s special committee on atomic energy. Adm. Blandy will command “Joint Task Force One” – the armada of ships and planes that will carry out the tests.
The test scheduled for “early in May,” Adm. Blandy told the committee, will be held near Bikini Atoll which is composed of a circular group of more than 20 islands in the Marshalls area.
He said ships to be used as atomic bomb targets in the first trial include the old battleships USS New York, USS Arkansas, USS Pennsylvania and USS Nevada; the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga and USS Independence; the heavy cruisers USS Salt Lake City and USS Pensacola; 16 destroyers and five submarines.
In addition, 15 unidentified U.S. transports, landing craft and auxiliary vessels will be test targets.
Foreign ships to be included in the first test are the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which arrived at Boston yesterday, the Jap battleship Nagato and the Jap light cruiser Sakawa.
The atomic bomb in the May test will be dropped by an Army Air Forces bomber and will be timed to explode several hundred feet above the target ships, Adm. Blandy said.
To burst on surface
In the second test set for July 1, which also probably will be held at Bikini, the bomb will burst at the water’s surface.
The third test calls for a deep underwater atomic explosion on the open seas. Adm. Blandy said technical difficulties involved in this test “will not permit its accomplishment in 1946.”
Adm. Blandy told the committee that “after thorough study” the Navy “discounted” the possibility that ocean experiments with atomic bomb might set up a “chain reaction” in the sea that would dry up the oceans.
Discuss invitations
The prime mission of the tests, Blandy told the committee, is to determine the bombs effect on naval vessels “in order to gain information of value to the national defense.” Ultimate results of the experiment from the Navy standpoint, he added, will be translated into terms of future U.S. sea power.
Secondary purposes of the tests will be to give the Army Air Forces training in attacking naval vessels with the atomic bomb. Damage wrought by the explosions on military installations and equipment also will be determined.
To remove crews
Today, personnel involved in the operation will be about 20,000 men. Besides the “guinea pig” fleet, 50 additional ships will be required to transport equipment to the area and remove crews of target ships before the bombs are dropped.
Adm. Blandy assured the committee that adequate safeguards would be taken to protect men engaged in the test, observers, inhabitants of the area and chance sea and air travelers from the deadly radiation of the atomic bomb.
The question of inviting representatives of foreign nations and foreign news services, Adm. Blandy said, is currently under discussion by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and Mr. Forrestal.
“One of the most important problems in connection with these tests,” Adm. Blandy said, “will be the maintenance of proper balance between public information and security.”
“It is our hope to make available to science and to the public all appropriate information derived from this historic test.”
Navy officers explained that some test results might have to be kept secret because of their military value. For example, one officer noted, if all the ships are sunk, that fact would be of tremendous significance to other nations which might become future enemies of the United States.
In the first test, the bulk of the “ghost” fleet probably will be anchored in a general area some 1,400 yards from a sandy beach which stretches from Bikini Island, the largest in the Bikini atoll group. The Navy said water in that area is about 66 feet deep. Hence, divers would have little difficulty in inspecting the remains of any vessels which might be sunk.
To beach some ships
Adm. Blandy said the target ships for the first test will be anchored in a manner to get varying degrees of damage to the various ships of each type involved.
Some of the landing craft and auxiliary vessels will be beached.
The admiral said all possible use will be made of available modern scientific techniques and equipment to observe, measure and record blast effects of the bomb.
He listed as an example the proposed use of pilotless planes which will patrol the fleet, obtaining close-up recordings of radioactivity. Automatic motion picture cameras will record the explosion from ingenious, heavily-shielded shelters on the island ring which surrounds the anchorage site.