Operation Crossroads preparations (6-29-46)

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The Pittsburgh Press (June 30, 1946)

WHAT SCIENCE FORESEES WHEN A-BOMB EXPLODES
Four waves to hit fleet inside lagoon

Blast will generate 100 million degrees
By the NEA Service

An atomic bomb will come hurtling down from a B-29 and burst over the lagoon at Bikini Atoll with a force equal to 20,000 tons of TNT.

It will explode with the brilliance of a second sun over the array of German, Jap, and overage American warships anchored in the lagoon. Operation Crossroads will be under way.

NEA Staff Artist Vic Donahue has sought to visualize that moment in the sketch at the left.

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Mighty battleships with their heavy steel armor never before have been subjected to this blast, the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind.

What will it do to the ships in the lagoon?

Four waves to spread

When the bomb explodes, a temperature which scientists estimate at 100 million degrees Fahrenheit, is generated at the center of the explosion.

Four destructive waves travel out in all directions from this superheated center of violence. The fastest traveling wave will reach the water first. This is the wave of gamma rays or energy radiations, resembling the rays of radium or of giant X-ray machines. This wave travels with the speed of light.

Next will be the shower of atomic particles from the disintegration of the atoms of Uranium 235 or plutonium, whichever the bomb contains.

Shock wave follows

Behind this wave of radioactive particles comes the shock wave – tremendous air pressure traveling with the speed of sound. Finally comes the blast wave with yet greater pressures amounting to several tons per square foot.

It may be supposed that the bomb will explode several hundred feet above the water. The exact altitude, however, will be kept a military secret.

The battleship Nevada is to be at the center of the 75 ships and painted orange to aid the flier who drops the bomb. It is hoped that the bomb will explode directly over this ship.

Ship to be twisted

Many scientists assume that the Nevada will be twisted and torn by the fourth wave, the blast wave. Insert at the lower left of the drawing is Artist Donahue’s conception of the Nevada at the instant of explosion.

Ships at greater distances from the point of detonation will suffer less from the blast wave and even less from the third or shock wave which is not as forceful as the blast wave.

These ships, however, will nevertheless get strong doses of waves two and one, namely, the radioactive particles and the radiations. These are extremely penetrating and may pierce the thick steel walls of the ships. There is also the question as to whether or not the ships themselves will not be rendered radioactive by the bombardment of these rays.

Animals on ships

Guinea pigs, goats, and other animals will be on the ships in the lagoon in order that these possibilities can be studied. Some of the animals will be on deck, others deep in the ships.

After the detonation, scientists and military men, wearing lead-lined suits resembling in appearance those of divers, will board the ships with instruments to measure various types of radiations. Mr. Donahue has pictured this at upper right.

It is supposed that the explosion will cause a momentary saucer-shaped depression in the water. Its rim will consist of a wall of water, perhaps 100 feet high. At once this wall will begin to travel outward in a sort of “tidal wave.”

Reef to break up wave

One reason for holding the test within a lagoon is so that the coral reefs will break up this wave and prevent it from spreading too far in full force.

A reaction to the spreading wave will force water back into the saucer and perhaps into a great spout high into the air. But the idea that this spout will carry ships aloft seems fantastic in the extreme.

There will be many planes in the air at the time of the explosion to photograph it from various altitudes and distances. Robot planes controlled by radio and radar will be sent in closer than pilots would dare go.

Automatic cameras and recording instruments of various kinds will be mounted on steel towers on the atoll, as pictured at upper left.

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Checking on the atom blast at Bikini will be pilotless, radio-controlled planes and landing craft. They will gather scientific data during the explosion. Radio control is by synchronized frequencies between mother plane and drone. As an individual plane can control only its one drone, a “super-mother” plane with frequencies to control all four pilotless Fortresses, will stand by in case of trouble.

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Battleship Nevada waiting to die

Atom ship garish in coat of red paint
By Frank H. Bartholomew, United Press staff writer

ABOARD USS NEVADA, Bikini Lagoon, June 29 (UP) – Strong in her quiet dignity, despite a garish coat of red paint, the battleship Nevada waits to die.

Pinioned fore and aft by heavy anchors so she cannot swing or shift her position to avoid the blow from the air, this one-time queen of the sea awaits the end of her career in the atomic bomb test.

The curious impression of sturdiness one feels aboard the Nevada makes understandable the freely-expressed opinion of her crew that they will be back aboard her again after it’s all over.

Has full ammunition

Her officers do not share that opinion however. Signs stenciled at various installations along her deck – “danger explosives” – explain their belief.

The Nevada carries magazines full of live ammunition. It is expected that if the blast does not sink her – and it may not – the super-heat generated by the explosion will set off her magazines.

In addition to the humiliation of a slapdash coat of red paint broken with streaks of white and yellow, the dying Nevada carries a strangely assorted cargo on her main deck. There are two pieces of special armor plate laid flush and secured, one of them already pierced with test shots; there are two M-26-A Army tanks, and three seaplanes; a movie screen rigged on the foredeck, and finally eight goats and eight guinea pigs are in crates on the fantail.

Destroyer in front

With her in death row are the destroyer Hughes dead ahead, and the submarine Skate immediately astern. On her starboard side is the aircraft carrier Independence with planes and gasoline truck on her flight deck. Beyond the Independence is the Jap battleship Nagato, looking like a floating junkyard. Beyond the Nagato is the famed cruiser Salt Lake City.

To port of the Navada is a long queer craft resembling a tanker – actually a concrete yard oiler – and beyond the oiler floats the Jap cruiser Sakawa. Beyond the Sakawa and completing the Navada’s screen is the heavy cruiser Pensacola.

Carrier may go first

The opinion of the Nevada’s officers is that the Independence will “get hers” first because of her comparatively light armor protection and quantities of high-octane gas aboard.

Next to go to the bottom, they believe, will be the lighter-constructed transports completely outside the Nevada’s screen.

The officers agree the best bet to survive the atomic blast is the submarine Skate. “Those boats are really built to take it,” one said.

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Baseless fears put at rest as atom bomb test nears

It won’t blow up world, start flaming nova or sterilize men, but it may disturb Russia
By Watson Davis, Science Service director

WASHINGTON, June 29 (SS) – It is tough to have to disappoint all the disaster wishers, but the atomic bomb explosion at Bikini won’t blow up the world, put a flaming nova in the heavens, or even give ride to a new and ferocious race of insects.

The greatest risk outside the immediate Bikini vicinity will be what other peoples of the world think about it. Scientists don’t think that throwing atomic bombs in their faces is a good way to make friends and influence Russians.

As to this danger of blowing up the earth into a brand-new nova, we have it on the authority of Dr. Dean B. McLaughlin of the University of Michigan Observatory that the gigantic outbursts originate in the stars themselves and not in their satellites. And our sun is not even the kind of star in which a nova or “new star” explosion occurs. Novae, we are assured, are not planets whose physicists have carried nuclear research just a little too far.

Forest fire on iceberg

Equally positive are the physicists who tell us that there is no real chance of a chain-reaction being started that would set the atoms of the ocean of the earth’s crust to splitting and spitting out energy. Actually breaking up the two most abundant elements, oxygen and silicon, would absorb and not release energy.

Touching off the world with an atomic bomb is like starting a forest fire by striking a match on an iceberg at sea.

Letting loose a radioactive gas attack is much more likely and dangerous to those relatively close to Bikini. Unfavorable winds or rain might spray spectators with atomic debris of the bomb.

Krakatoa fear

Then there is the Krakatoa fear. In August 1883 that volcano exploded, put dust into the earth’s atmosphere that reddened sunsets for three years, and may have influenced the weather. The three previous atomic explosions weren’t Krakatoas. So why should Bikini?

The radiation blast of an atomic bomb is terrific, but the thousands of men near Bikini won’t be sterilized or suffer other such dire injury. When and if they become fathers, no race of monsters is likely to arise because of the genetic effect of atomic radiation.

Tidal waves, earthquakes and volcanoes are unlikely, particularly as the result of the first Bikini explosion in the air. The underwater explosion planned later might trigger a quake, roll up sizeable waves or, less likely, weaken the ocean floor to give rise to volcanic action. But don’t count on it.

Radio reception clear

WASHINGTON (SS) – Radio broadcasts from Europe are expected to come through clearly during the next few days. Shortwave broadcasts will not be disturbed by blackouts or fading until about July 4, the National Bureau of Standards predicts.

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A-bomb ‘useless’ in island assault

Kwajalein cited as example
By Dr. Frank Thone, Science Service writer

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, Kwajalein (SS) – Could Kwajalein have been bought less dearly in human life if we had had the atomic bomb sooner?

At the last stop before Bikini, strung on the 60-by-20-mile loop of reef, are many beautiful islands, like long emeralds. It is a costly necklace, though, for many a brave American soldier’s life was included in the purchase price.

They landed us on the island that gives the whole atoll its name Kwajalein. Once it was the biggest emerald on the chain. Even when the Japs had burrowed it full of bunkers and gun positions, they left the green cover intact.

Stripped vegetation

When the Americans came, they so completely blasted the Jap position with shellfire and airplane bombs that hardly a green thing was left alive. Kwajalein Island is like the bare metal of the setting from which the stone has been pried. Of the one-time thick growth of trees, only half-dozen or so discouraged-looking coconut palms remain and one gnarled ornamental fig tree, which an officer club carefully encloses in its patio.

Comeback would be slow, even if the densely crowded installations of the occupying forces were to be leveled and the island abandoned. It takes centuries to build a complete and balanced vegetation.

Dazed but alive

I wondered, as I walked around, if we could have bought the island more cheaply with an atomic bomb – supposing that weapon had been ready when we attacked. The island is long and narrow. A section could have been blown completely out of it by an atomic bomb blast, but the dug-in defenders outside the zone of complete destruction might have recovered from their daze in time to man their weapons.

The atomic bomb, it seems to me, is a big weapon for big targets – whole cities, whole fleets. Relatively small jobs like this island – if we ever have to commit ourselves to such captures again – will still require a good deal of hard, messy, old-fashioned fighting.

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Hospital ships stand by for emergency at Bikini

By Kenneth McArdle, North American Newspaper Alliance

BIKINI, June 29 – Plans for care of possible wounded on this Bikini test are on approximately the same scale as for a large amphibious war operation.

In addition to the regular ships’ sick bay, there will be the hospital ships Benevolence and Bountiful. Another, the Haven, will stand by to evacuate wounded to nearby island hospitals. A complete air evacuation unit also will be ready for instant service.

Apparently, every provision for the safety of observers is being taken. In addition, every facility is also being provided for comfortable convalescence if calculations prove a little off.

Women reporters, denied accreditation to Operation Crossroads on the grounds that it was no place for females, will be chagrined to learn that ladies will be present after all. Hospital ships will carry full complements of Navy nurses who will have grandstand seats.

The latest information on the cost of the Bikini experiments is that nobody, including Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, knows. Adm. Blandy denies a report that it will exceed 500 million dollars. He declares that such an estimate is based on the original cost of the ships which mostly are ready for the scrap heap.

This 42.000-man force is consuming daily 13 tons of flour, 20 tons of meat, 45 tons of vegetables, 3,600 pounds of butter, 13,200 pounds of sugar and 3,000 pounds of milk.

In addition, 10,000 pounds of fish now are under refrigeration at Bikini – but not for eating. These were taken from the lagoon for later comparison with fish subjected to the radioactivity of the bomb blast.

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‘Serious’ scientists plaster Rita’s pinup on A-bomb

KWAJALEIN, June 29 (UP) – The disclosure that the “Able Day” atomic bomb is now resting inside a fenced enclosure in a restricted section of this island ends lively speculation as to the whereabouts of the world’s most powerful weapon.

The disclosure came with the surprise announcement that the serious-faced atomic scientists had named their bomb “Gilda” and painted a pinup picture of Rita Hayworth on the bomb’s side.

The young scientists disclosed that they had just “buttoned her up” (meaning the atom bomb) when they held the christening ceremony.

Some two dozen Los Alamos scientists and Manhattan District engineers got together in the fenced and barbed-wire protected enclosure to name her.

It’s a ‘glowing’ pinup

The scientists described the painting on the outside of the bomb casing as a “glowing” picture of Rita wearing the low-cut black evening gown she wore in the movie “Gilda.”

Thomas Lanahan of Princeton, New Jersey, one of the atom scientists, said they named her “Gilda” because the picture currently was making the rounds of the Kwajalein theaters.

They’re serious minded

Most of the scientists are under 30 but are considered “very serious minded” by most of the observers and correspondents here.

Lanahan said there were several other suggestions for a name for the pumpkin.

“But we narrowed down to The Outlaw, Jane Russell, and Laura, Gene Tierney, and Gilda. But most of us had seen Gilda at least 16 times and that’s no exaggeration, so there was no objection to that name.

“We stenciled the name in two-inch black letters. Then somebody suggested we needed a picture, so we found an old copy of ‘Esquire’ and cut out a movie advertisement for Gilda.”

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Last man to leave 2 hours before blast

By the North American Newspaper Alliance

BIKINI, June 29 – Dawn of Able Day will find 293 men still on Bikini atoll or on ships in the lagoon. All are candidates for the “last man off Bikini before the bomb” title. But the prospective winner is an unnamed lad whose job is to go around in a small boat, casting loose other boats from buoys.

According to the schedule, he will be picked up by the last patrol boat leaving the lagoon two hours prior to the blast.

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Weather ‘perfect’ –
A-bomb test ‘definitely on’ for tonight

Time schedule advanced one hour

ABOARD THE USS MT. MCKINLEY AT BIKINI (UP) – The atomic bomb will be dropped at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Bikini Time (5:30 p.m. Sunday ET) unless there is a last-minute, unforeseen change in weather conditions, Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy announced today.

This represents a one-hour advance in the original time schedule, the drop originally being announced for 9:30 a.m. Bikini Time.

The 42,000 Army, Navy and Air Forces men attached to Operation Crossroads Joint Task Force Number One were informed of the plans in a general announcement.

Weather ‘perfect’

Adm. Blandy said the Bikini weather was “perfect,” and that the bomb drop was sure unless conditions worsen rapidly over the 75-ship target area in Bikini lagoon.

Pittsburgh radio station KDKA will broadcast the Bikini operation from 6 to 9:30 p.m. WCAE’s broadcast is scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. KQV will broadcast from 3:30 to 6 p.m.

“I emphasize that the test is on now,” Adm. Blandy said, “and if there is no change the bomb will be dropped, but we reserve the right to change our plans if there is a weather change.”

The weather outlook appeared excellent. Lt. Gen. William E. Kepner, in charge of the air portion of the operation, said the forecast was better than during the full-dress rehearsal last week.

Men abandon ships

“Dave’s Dream,” the B-29 which will drop “Gilda,” the bomb, probably will arrive over Bikini early Monday.

Many ships in Bikini Lagoon already were flying the “Yoke” flag – red and yellow – signifying that all hands had abandoned ship in anticipation of the mighty blast.

Other crews were following suit in the remaining hours before the explosion.

Could be delayed

But at Kwajalein, take-off island for the bomb-carrying B-29, Col. Allan Clark, chief of staff for Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, air arm commander, said a wind shear – a weather condition in which winds blow in two directions – made conditions unfavorable despite possibility of clear skies.

If that condition exists on Monday, he said, Able Day will be put off because of the danger of the cross-winds scattering radiation and showering the task force with radio-active particles.

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Bomb may be dud, scientist warns nation

KWAJALEIN, June 29 (UP) – Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s evaluation board bluntly cautioned today that the American public should be prepared for the “small probability” that the Bikini atomic bomb might be a fizzle.

Dr. Karl T. Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and board chairman, said that “even if all the bombs we have at our disposal were detonated, a certain number would be sure to fizzle.”