Operation Crossroads

21

Br. experts studying results of Bikini test

Many scientists and two M.P.’s to report

LONDON, July 1 (UPA) – Naval and military experts in London are today studying unofficial reports of results of the atom bomb explosion on ships in Bikini target area, while they await a highly-detailed and scientific summing up of the experiment, which will come to them through their own channels.

Britain’s two members of Parliament who watched the test – Mr. F. Beswick (Labour) and Commander A. H. P. Noble (Conservative) were on the vessel Panamint, with other delegations whom the U.S. government had invited. They may be away for as many as three months if they think it necessary.

A party of British atom scientists is also at Bikini, and the data which they obtain will be passed on to Prof. J. D. Cockroft, director of Britain’s atomic research station at Didcot.

Today most of Britain’s atom scientists, headed by Prof. Cockroft, are meeting at Oxford for a secret session of the Empire Scientific Conference to study first reports of the Bikini test.

In the Trafalgar Square, there was a minor “anti-atom” demonstration today, at which protests were made against the use of atomic energy for war purposes.

Daily Worker’s comment

Dropping of the fourth atomic bomb on Bikini lagoon has “accomplished nothing that could not be predicted and in some respects even less,” according to the Daily Worker today.

In the absence of any comment in Moscow Press or over Moscow Radio, diplomatic circles had looked to the Daily Worker, organ of the British Communist Party, for probable attitude Moscow will adopt towards the Bikini test.

The newspaper theorized that the real purpose of experiment was to test naval architecture. “In this connection, it is worth noting that the only serious rival to the U.S. Navy left afloat is that of Great Britain,” the paper said.

22

Seismic wave of superficial character

ROME, July 1 – The National Institute of Geo-Physics announced today that seismic instruments “of extreme sensitivity, especially constructed to show shocks of very distant origin” recorded at 10:40 p.m. (GMT) last night – 40 minutes after the atomic bomb went off – “a seismic wave of superficial character.”

Cautiously, the institute said, the movement “could be attributed to an agitation taking place at a distance approximately that between Rome and Bikini.”

Also observed were certain variations in the magnetic field, “practically coincident with the time of the explosion,” which were being further studied.

The Italians also anxiously watched the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, lest pressure on the earth’s crust from the bomb might produce activity. Early this afternoon, however, no reports had reached Rome that either of the volcanoes were active.

23

No defence yet against atom bomb

YORK, July 2 – The Archbishop of York, said today that it was sheer wishful thinking to assume that some infallible defence against atomic weapons will be discovered. “No responsible man of science holds out any such prospect,” he declared. “Unless man masters the atom bomb his destruction is certain.”

Dr. Garbett thought that the most practical proposal yet made for controlling the atom bomb was that of the United States – the creation of an Atomic Development Authority which would override national sovereignty and could not be subject to the veto of any one nation.

24

L’Aube (July 3, 1946)

A BIKINI : consigne du silence

La censure américaine masque-t-elle un échec ou garde-t-elle un secret ?

Comme nous le redoutions hier, les autorités militaires américaines s’opposent à ce que soient divulgués les résultats de l’expérience, et les journalistes admis sur les lieux s’en indignent : l’un d’eux a câblé hier le message suivant :

J’ai reçu des ordres écrits qui m’empêchent de vous dire ce qui s’est passé dans la lagune de Bikini.

Je ne puis pas vous révéler si j’ai ou si je n’ai pas survolé ce matin la zone d’expérience.

Je ne puis pas davantage vous confier si j’ai ou si je n’ai pas vu la flotte.

Mais rien ne m’empêchera de vous faire connaitre mon opinion personnelle : à savoir, qu’il s’agit d’une expérience des moins satisfaisantes et qui, de plus, comporte un élément extrêmement suspect que ne saurait écarter cette soudaine obligation du silence imposée à un groupe déterminé de journalistes.

La censure cherche-t-elle à cacher quelques détails qui intéressent la défense nationale des Etats-Unis ou veut-elle simplement masquer un échec qui peut être préjudiciable à une politique d’intimidation ?

Les résultats actuellement connus

Les rares dépêches qui nous sont parvenues hier confirment que les dégâts sont relativement minimes :

  • Une grande partie des porcs, des chèvres et des rats placés sur les navires cibles ont été trouvés bien en vie, à l’exception peut-être de ceux qui se trouvaient au centre même de l’explosion.

  • Le vice-amiral Blandy annonce que cinq navires ont été coulés : deux contre-torpilleurs, le croiseur léger japonais « Sakawa » et deux transports de 12.000 tonnes. Le sous-marin « Skate » a été mis hors d’usage ainsi que six autres bâtiments : vingt-cinq ont été gravement endommagés et trente-sept autres ne sont pas examinés à fond.

  • Une bombe de 1.000 kilos, placée à bord d’un navire, n’a pas explosé ; et des voitures placées sur le pont du « Nevada » sont apparemment en bon état.

  • Les observateurs déclarent que des oiseaux volent tranquillement au-dessus de l’île à peu près intacte ; des cygnes nagent en paix. On ne voit pas de poissons morts.

Pas de conclusions hâtives

Cependant, on peut se demander si la désintégration ne se produit pas lentement et si nous n’en verrons pas les effets sur les animaux et sur les navires mêmes dans plusieurs semaines. Il faut, en effet, se rappeler que beaucoup de Japonais sont morts longtemps après l’explosion d’Hiroshima et alors qu’ils semblaient n’avoir pas été atteints.

Radio-Moscou rompt le silence

Ce n’est qu’hier que la presse et la radio soviétiques ont rompu le silence sur l’expérience de Bikini. La dépêche diffusée par radio-Moscou ne pouvait pas être reproduite avant aujourd’hui dans la presse de province de l’URSS.

25

LA SECONDE BOMBE ATOMIQUE
celle du 22 juillet
éclatera sous l’eau

La radio américaine déclare que, lors de l’expérience atomique qui aura lieu le 22 juillet, la bombe éclatera à environ 8 mètres au-dessous de la surface de l’eau. L’amiral Blandy estime que l’explosion coulera tous les navires qui auront subi les effets de la bombe.

26

The Evening Star (July 3, 1946)

59 of 73 ships were damaged or sunk by A-bomb, Navy says

Gen. McAuliffe says weapon could force any nation, including U.S., to quit war

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN (AP) – Fifty-nine of Bikini’s 73 target warships were damaged by the atomic bomb, the Navy reported today, with damage ranging from total to negligible.

Five, including one modern cruiser, were sunk; nine others, including two battleships, two cruisers and a carrier, were “heavily damaged.” Damage to small craft was not tallied.

The Army’s official ground forces observer, Maj. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, concluded the new weapon could force any nation, even the United States, to quit a war – although he believed it would be more effective against cities and industries than military targets.

“I hope I never see another one like that thing,” he sighed to newsmen. He said he knew of no defense except to shoot it down, or to send airborne troops to its source of production in an enemy country.

He said he did not believe any man could have survived on the decks of the target vessels in the innermost, hardest-hit group.

Test animals left aboard the fleet survived the first blast, however; even those aboard the centrally anchored Nevada still lived. But whether their exposure to atomic rays would prove fatal within the next few days was to be determined. Sailors said one goat on the Nevada’s quarterdeck was “mighty sick.”

Similarly, eight white rats survived a ride directly through the atomic cloud itself, but they may die within three or four days, Col. R. E. Jarmon, chief of the Army’s Wright Field Evaluation Board, reported. The rats were the sole passengers in a B-17 drone.

Centrally-anchored target ships still were emitting deadly rays today, said reports from Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy’s flagship, the Mount McKinley. Included in this “hot” group were the Nevada, Arkansas, submarine Skate, transport Crittenden, a yard oil tender and a floating drydock. The Skate was beached at Enyo Island, more than four miles from Bikini, because Navy officers feared its radioactivity might contaminate Bikini’s swimming beach.

All vessels are expected to be ruled “safe” by tomorrow. The waters of the lagoon itself were termed safe today, except in the immediate vicinity of the radiating ships.

Independence to be beached

The carrier Independence, built on a cruiser hull, was towed several miles from the test anchorage, presumably to be beached for easier observation on her heavy damage. The most that could be said for her was that she still floated. There were gaping holes in her sides, steel plates and girders were buckled and twisted. Her superstructure was missing.

Also heavily damaged were the heavy cruisers Salt Lake City (newly added to the list) and Pensacola, battleship Arkansas. Japanese battleship Nagato, submarine Skate, destroyers Stack and Rhind and a tank landing ship. Sunk were the modern Japanese cruiser Sakawa, transports Gilliam and Carlisle and destroyers Anderson and Lamson.

The extent of heat damage to some of the more distant parts of the target fleet showed human survival would have been doubtful. Ships a mile from the center of the blast were burned and blackened as though by a tremendous blast furnace. Anyone on their decks would have burned to death in an instant. Oddly, aboard the much nearer Nevada, only parts of the ship were thus affected, and goats lived through it.

Compton sees menace to men

Studies of animals’ injuries will probably show whether enough crewmen would have remained to operate the stricken ships, concluded Dr. Carl Compton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He heads President Truman’s evaluation board and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Emphasizing that “there is no need to apologize for results of this test,” Dr. Compton observed that the single bomb would certainly have had serious effects upon personnel within a half-mile of the bullseye.

He also pointed out that “most of the damaged ships would have been quite ‘blinded,’ by destruction of their radio and radar.”

Superstructures of ships of tomorrow, he observed, probably will be redesigned.

All in all, “the experiment was thorough enough to bring out, when studies are completed, all the data we now think we need.”

More damage under water

Dr. Compton predicted the underwater test in three or four weeks will do more damage.

Humans, had they been aboard the Prinz Eugen at the time of the atomic blast, would have been pelted with small metal balls about the size of birdshot. Thousands of these pellets fell into the Eugen’s decks. Still radioactive, they were washed overboard today with hoses.

Scientists are puzzled about the source of the pellets, an entirely new hazard for personnel in atomic bombs. Some suggested they are pieces of the bomb itself, but if that is true it is surprising because it is believed that all bomb metal vaporized.

The Eugen was nearly two miles from the bomb blast. It was only slightly damaged.

Russian scientist comments

Among scientists commenting today on Monday’s test was Prof. Simyon Alexandrov of the Soviet Union, who suggested another experiment in the air be conducted before the underwater test is held.

“The test was conducted brilliantly and the explosion was obviously terrific,” he said, “but the air blast was rather weak. Observers have little data upon which to draw conclusions.”

Prof. Alexandrov said engineers “should be put to work to get a higher degree of efficiency from the bomb.”

Senators discuss damage

Sen. Cordon (R-Oregon) said he would have a far better idea of the test “if only I could talk to one of those goats I saw calmly munching hay on the decks of the bombed ships. I was impressed that much wood on the target ships was scarcely charred

Sen. Hickenlooper (R-Iowa) said he was warned before coming out not to expect too much structural damage. “The heat seemed probably the worst effect.”

Gen. Joseph W. Stillwell, member of the Joint Chief of Staff Evaluation Board, reserved judgment until he can assemble all the facts. “I’m trying to keep a completely open mind,” he said. “When I know at what height the bomb burst above the fleet and the efficiency of the bomb, then I’ll be able to begin forming an opinion.”

28

The Pittsburgh Press (July 3, 1946)

Bikini test ‘blackmail,’ Russians say and hint U.S. Navy hides results

American A-bomb drill kills confidence in talk of disarmament, Reds charge

LONDON (UP) – Russia charged in a Moscow broadcast today that the Bikini atom bomb test undermined confidence that the United States was serious in talking about disarmament in the field of atomic weapons.

The Russians implied that the Bikini test was part of American “atomic diplomacy.” This they denounced as “common blackmail.” And they suggested that the U.S. Navy was holding back information on results of the test.

In the first Soviet reaction to the Bikini test, Boris Isakov, commentator for the newspaper Pravda, said in the broadcast:

“The atom bomb has thoroughly undermined the confidence one had in the seriousness of American talk of atom disarmament.”

At the same time, the Soviet government newspaper, Izvestia, attacked Gen. John C. H. Lee, U.S. Mediterranean commander, for a speech he made in England. Izvestia, in a broadcast, accused Gen. Lee of “talking like Goebbels” when he compared Anglo-Saxons with “backward” Russians.

Meanwhile, Pravda noted that the results of the Bikini test as reported were more modest than had been expected, but suggested that the American Navy was holding back facts.

The Russians discounted the reports of small damage and said that more important results may have been obtained “in view of the secrecy surrounding the tests.”

“The test confirmed that atomic arms possess huge destructive power,” they said. “However, the results were more moderate than the American press had been forecasting.”

And once again the Russians assailed Bernard Baruch’s atomic control plan.

The Baruch plan suggested atomic control be vested in an international group and that when it was functioning thoroughly the United States would destroy its store of atom bombs.

The Russians denounced the plan earlier, charging that America was bent on world domination through use of the atom bomb.

Pravda said the “true spirit of atom diplomacy is fully revealed by The New York Herald Tribune commentator, Eliot,” (Maj. George Fielding Eliot) and continued:

“With incomparable cynicism he suggests the United States should
exploit the atom bomb as a diplomatic weapon to achieve political concessions.

“Then he comments on the very large series of issues in which, according to his opinion, the United States should get concessions from the Soviet Union. The sum total of these issues comprises all the most important questions in the international situation, ranging from the Adriatic to Korea.

Like ‘common blackmail’

“Eliot’s program very much resembles the most common blackmail. But that of course is what atom diplomacy boils down to in all its aspects. Atom diplomacy by no means becomes more attractive when it is accompanied by lightning and explosion effects like those demonstrations in the Pacific July 1.”

Early today another Soviet broadcast accused Gen. Lee of abandoning “even the elementary sense of decency” in a speech quoted as comparing Russia in a derogatory way with America and Britain.

Gen. Lee, U.S. commander in the Mediterranean, was accused by the Soviet government newspaper, Izvestia, of trying to “sell outdated racial goods.” The radio said the attempt was made in a speech at a ceremony given in his honor at Bristol, England, June 21 when Gen. Lee received an honorary degree of doctor of laws there.

Rap American general

“From the British port of Bristol, once famous for its slave traffic, we hear the rank voice of the latest apologist for Anglo-Saxon theory,” the Russians said.

Gen. Lee, it said, appealed to the British and Americans “to be patient in their relations with Russia, inasmuch as the Russians are as much as 100 years and more behind the Anglo-Saxons among respected civilized countries.”

The radio said Gen. Lee referred to Russians as “some tribe in need of the civilizing influence of the Anglo-Saxon countries,” and expressed belief that they achieved their greatest successes with American machines.

Gen. Lee was accused of using “the language of the late Goebbels,” Nazi propaganda minister, in calling American diplomats “missionaries” to Russia, as if the Americans were “a notorious expedition of white conquerors in the African jungles, where they appeared with glass beads in one hand and a gun in the other.”

“We do not know what set the general’s tongue wagging when he tried to sell these outdated racial goods, but it is obvious that even the elementary sense of decency abandoned him,” the Russians said.

29

Bikini test A-bomb exploded too soon

SAN FRANCISCO (UP) – The Operation Crossroads atomic bomb, “through some human or mechanical error,” exploded three seconds ahead of schedule, NBC Correspondent W. W. Chaplin asserted today in a broadcast from Kwajalein.

It was for this reason, Mr. Chaplin said, that there was no greater damage among the target vessels in Bikini lagoon.

“This means it blew roughly a mile and a half higher than planned,” he said, “and so the greatest force blew skyward and not down. This bomb burst approximately four times higher than the one at Nagasaki, which explains why the same bomb which tore the heart out of that city only sank five vessels, seared a few others and left the goats alive in the Bikini test.”

30

Writers find Bikini ships charred ruins

None would have lived on decks
By Frank H. Bartholomew, United Press staff writer

The first party of correspondents has been allowed to board damaged target ships in Bikini Lagoon. They later inspected Bikini Island itself. Frank H. Bartholomew, United Press vice president, a member of the party, tells in the following dispatch what they saw.

BIKINI ISLAND (UP) – A party of correspondents today inspected the awful devastation unleashed by the atom bomb on target ships in Bikini Lagoon.

We visited the U.S. heavy cruiser Pensacola, which was badly damaged but still floating, and the former German cruiser Prinz Eugen, which suffered superficial damage only.

The Pensacola, whose bridge was 250 yards from the bridge of the target ship Nevada, was a charred and blistered shambles above water. No one was allowed below the decks.

Ammo unexploded

Numerous areas on the deck were ringed with red paint marked: “warning–radioactive.”

“I would estimate that topside casualties – had the ship been manned – would have been 100 percent,” said Capt. D. J. Ramsay of Redding, Massachusetts.

“Below decks, casualties would have been about 50 percent, although boilers and engines were intact and ammunition did not explode,” he said.

Blast crumpled stacks

Both the Pensacola’s great stacks were crumpled and blown parallel to the deck in a direction opposite in the blast. The open deck area between them was blown downward four feet.

Oak planking on the foredecks was reduced to ashes as was a pile of tin cans. Food from the cans was blown out and burned.

“That’s Army quartermasters’ gear,” Capt. Ramsay explained. “It was spread out on the deck for the test.

“What was it? I don’t know – just a bunch of junk. If they hadn’t dumped it here we wouldn’t have had this much of a fire,” the forthright captain added.

The only thing the Army appeared to have saved was a stack of snowshoes on the after deck which was intact.

Hurricane blowtorch

The 650-foot-long Prinz Eugen is best described by her captain, A. H. Graubart.

“It looks like a hurricane had passed over her with a blowtorch,” he said.

Bikini Island, which we inspected next, showed no damage at all. All Army, and Navy photographic and experimental towers were intact, including a wooden tower on the beach facing the lagoon nearest the bullseye. No palm trees were blown down.

31

A-bomb called way to quick victory by famed Gen. McAuliffe

No country, including U.S., could stand up under weapon, says Army official

OFF BIKINI ATOLL (UP) – The Bikini atom bomb test has shown that no nation, not even the United States, could keep on fighting a war if its industries and cities were subjected to atom bombing, a high Army official said today.

Maj. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, Army ground forces adviser to Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, told a press conference after an inspection of atomic destruction in Bikini Lagoon that the missile “lived up to expectations” as a destructive force.

“If we had possessed this weapon early in the European War, it would have been so terrific that the Germans would have quit as the Japanese did, before the invasion became necessary,” Gen. McAuliffe said.

“If an enemy dropped a bunch of those things around Washington, New York and Detroit and Pittsburgh, do you think we would continue to fight?” he asked.

“I doubt it.”

Tour target ships

Gen. McAuliffe, who once replied “nuts” to a German demand that he surrender Bastogne, toured the wounded target ships yesterday with Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and Adm. Blandy, director of the 100-million-dollar Operation Crossroads project.

The three top officials saw how the mighty flash sank five ships, wrecked two others beyond repair and did varying degrees of damage to nearly 30 more vessels.

On Kwajalein, Mr. Forrestal disclosed that from “all available evidence,” the atom bomb’s efficiency was “apparently pretty near the top.” He said he was convinced that the test showed the need for working in “closest cooperation with our citizen scientists.”

LeMay begins study

Lt. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, deputy chief of air staff for research and development, arrived at Bikini today to study the atomic future of Army Air Forces. Last winter, Gen. LeMay announced a multi-million-dollar air engineering development program envisaging research in atomic weapons, guided missiles and nuclear energy for the propulsion of aircraft and rockets.

Operation Crossroads spokesmen meanwhile disclosed that six target ships blasted by the atomic bomb two days ago were still too dangerously radioactive for inspection crews to board.

They included the mangled derelict submarine Skate, which was beached several miles away on Enyu Island lest its presence nearer Bikini make recreation beaches unsafe. The beaches, which were closed two days before the bomb was dropped, were reopened this afternoon.

Five ships sunk

On the basis of a preliminary study, the task force issued this revised list of casualties:

Five ships sunk; two damaged beyond repair; seven heavily damaged; five moderately damaged; nine superficially damaged and 31 negligibly damaged.

In other words, 59 ships felt the impact of the bomb to varying degrees and 14 apparently were untouched.

Of 18 landing craft exposed on Bikini Beach, none was damaged. Crews have returned to all but “hot” and heavily-damaged ships.

The sunken ships were the Japanese light cruiser Sakawa, the destroyers Lamson and Anderson and the transports Gilliam and Carlisle.

Island suffers little

United Press staff correspondent Frank Bartholomew, who toured the Bikini area in a C-54 carrier, said Bikini Island itself seemed to have sustained little damage.

No trees were down or burned from the blast which took place two miles from the beach, he reported. One lightly-constructed tropical building was unroofed but its rafters still were standing.

The beach, Mr. Bartholomew said, gave evidence of having been hit by a big wave resulting from the explosion and eight small craft were washed ashore.

Concrete stands blast

Two scientist members of President Truman’s Evaluation Board said they believed that a well-constructed concrete shelter would give good protection against the heat and blast caused by the atom bomb.

Dr. Carl Compton and Bradley Jewey agreed on the basis of preliminary unofficial observations that crews would not have been killed aboard every target ship, but that “serious personnel damage’ would be confined to the area within a half-mile radius of the detonation.

“The striking thing is how a concrete barge stood up under the blast,” Dr. Compton said. “We conclude that a well-constructed concrete shelter abut eight feet thick would give good protection against the atomic bomb – except for a very near miss.”

32

Bombed animals still face death from atomic blast

Long list of diseases may still develop even though survival of goats, pigs is astonishing
By Dr. Frank Thone, Science Service staff writer

BIKINI (SS) – The animals that survived the atomic bombing here are not safe yet. Despite the astonishing record of survival of these goats and pigs their troubles may just be beginning.

If their reactions are similar to those of human beings, here is a list of diseases they may develop from having lived through the blast of an atomic bomb:

  • Anemia, due to the destruction of the parent cells of red blood corpuscles.

  • Luecopenia or agranolocytosis, resulting from an analogous suppression of white blood cells.

  • Purpora, a kind of bleeding that follows the destruction of blood platelets that aid in clotting.

  • Infections, that may invade the body through its weakened defenses.

  • Liver degeneration, resembling toxic hepatitis.

  • Degeneration of the sex glands in both the male and female. This, however, is not necessarily permanent.

  • Loss of hair, which again may not be permanent.

  • Cancer possibly, but data from Japanese explosion sites is not old enough or numerous enough to prove anything.

The animals that preliminary survey crews found when they went aboard the target ships are going to be watched carefully for a long time to see if they develop any of the ailments on the list.

On the whole, the animals survived their little sample of hellfire most amazingly. On the old Pennsylvania, for example, 10 goats and 10 pigs had been left behind, and they were all found alive and in no apparent distress.

On one of the transports, the story was almost the same, only one of the goats had died.

Most astonishingly, however, was the score on the Nevada, the ship marked in red for the bull’s-eye the target. It had been a close hit too. for most of the red paint on her port side had been blasted black, much of her superstructure, smashed and the lighter items of Army ordnance on her after deck had become piled-up junk.

Yet all the pigs and goats placed on her foredeck were alive and at least one goat had survived the moment of inferno near her stern, though he was reported sick.

33

Concrete survives blast of A-bomb

By Jim G. Lucas, Scripps-Howard staff writer

BIKINI – Some Navy men were wondering today whether a successful defense against the atomic bomb might lie in concrete construction of ships.

In the Bikini test two concrete fuel barges and a concrete drydock survived the blast, which sunk five ships and damaged at least three-score.

Tow in the oilers

One barge, No. 2160, was badly charred when the bomb ignited cargo fuel oil stored on her. But she apparently was in good shape otherwise with her decks well above the water line.

The remaining yard oiler and the drydock, both farther removed from the blast center, suffered no apparent damage. Oiler 2160 was moored only 100 yards from the Nevada, the bull’s-eye for the test. Today the oilers were being towed in for a closeup inspection by naval construction men.

The Navy’s interest in concrete ships was aroused after examinations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There, after the atom bomb attacks, the few buildings and bridges left standing were built of concrete.

Plywood structures standing

Meanwhile, Bikini Atoll, three miles from the center of the target area, is undamaged. The palm and cocoanut trees appear not to have lost a single frond. All the towers and derricks erected for scientific instruments still are standing.

The officers’ and enlisted men’s clubs – made of light plywood – will be reoccupied later this week.

The forecast that radioactivity would contaminate the sea appears to have been wrong. Only a few hours after the bomb was dropped, small boats were operating from ship to ship, their passengers being sprayed by the water of the lagoon without apparent injury.

34

The Indian Express (July 4, 1946)

Russian press critical about atom bomb test

Faith in U.S. talk about atomic disarmament shaken
‘No preparations for destruction but attempts for perfection’

LONDON, July 3 (Reuter) – Izvestia, the official organ of the Soviet government, declared today in an article broadcast by Moscow Radio that the Pacific Atom Bomb Test had “fundamentally shaken faith in the sincerity of American talk of atomic disarmament.”

“Would it really have been necessary to carry out this complicated and costly experiment if the United States were earnestly prepared to renounce atomic armament?” asks Izvestia.

“The Atomic Test bears witness not to preparations for destruction of the weapon, but of attempts at perfecting it.”

The Russian newspaper Pravda observed today that “the atom bomb dropped at Bikini did not produce doomsday, but it blew up something more essential than a couple of obsolete ships. It thoroughly blew up confidence in the seriousness of American talk about atomic disarmament.”

“The essence of atomic diplomacy is completely uncovered by the New York Herald Tribune observer, George Fielding Elliott,” said the article broadcast by the Moscow Radio.

The article added, “He suggests that the United States use the atom bomb as a diplomatic weapon to achieve political concessions. He then postulates an extremely wide list of questions which, in his opinion, the United States should win concessions from the Soviet Union. This list covers all the most important questions in the international situation, from the Adriatic to Korea.”

“Elliott’s programme,” the newspaper declared, “is very like the most vulgar extortion. The same may be said, in the end, about atomic diplomacy in all its manifestations. It becomes by no means more attractive when accompanied by lightning and explosive effects like those demonstrated on July 1 in the Pacific.”

Quoting a TASS message from New York Moscow Radio stated that the result of the atom test came as a shock to the American public. The atomic bomb has disappointed millions of American people who, for the past few months, had read and heard fantastic anticipations concerning the Bikini test. For months, radio and newspapers had blared out that the bomb would destroy the 73 ships used for the test, cause an earthquake and set off a terrific tidal wave. But newspaper headlines, announcing that only two small ships were sunk, came as shock to the sensation-seeking people of America.”

35

Radio-active clouds may reach certain areas

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, Bikini, July 3 – Col. Ben Holzman, Chief Meteorologist for the atom bomb test, today forecast that radio-activity “clouds” created by the test would eventually reach British Columbia and San Diego. California. He emphasised that by the time the clouds reached these areas they would no longer be dangerous.

Colonel Holzman added that the atom cloud broke into three sections shortly after the blast. The lower portion, which went off to the west, would swing northward just before it reached the Philippines, then travel over Alaska and end over British Columbia, he said. The middle section dispersed shortly after the explosion. The top “mushroom” of the middle section, which reached 35,000 feet, would finally come to rest somewhere over San Diego. “By that time the diffusion would be so great, I doubt whether it could be detected,” Colonel Holzman declared.

He said that everything went according to expectations in the test, except the height of the atom cloud.

Colonel Holzman added, “It should have gone higher over water than land and we were prepared to plot the atom cloud to the stratosphere, but it did not reach even half the altitude of the Nagasaki bomb.”

Colour photographs

Remarkable colour photographs of the “death cloud” were taken during 10 minutes after the atom bomb explosion by Captain Robert Quackenbush of the United States Navy. Photographs taken from the top deck of Mount McKinley, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Blandy, Commander of the Atom Bomb Task Force, captured the full development of the “mushroom” cloud.

United States Navy Secretary James Forrestal suggested that photographs should be shown to correspondents.

Captain Quackenbush said pictures were taken with a one-hundredth second exposure at intervals of a few seconds.

36

L’Aube (July 4, 1946)

Les animaux de Bikini sont-ils hors de danger ?

Les souris blanches changent de couleur

Il faut, disions-nous hier, se méfier des conclusions hâtives. Les chèvre qui broutent en paix sur les bateaux-cibles, les cochons qui, selon une récente dépêche, « semblent en bonne santé et heureux sur le pont du « Pennsylvania », sont peut-être rongés par un mal intérieur.

C’est ainsi que les souris blanches qui ont été placées sur les avions sans pilote lancés à travers le nuage atomique ont, au bout de trente-six heures, commencé à changer de couleur et à manifester certains signes anormaux. Que leur réservent les jours prochains ?

37

The Evening Star (July 4, 1946)

Blast consequences begin to show up in Bikini test animals

Blood deterioration observed and many may die in few days
By W. H. Shippen Jr., Star staff correspondent

First original picture of atomic bomb blast

photo.bikinitest.ap
Mushrooming as it rises thousands of feet into the sky, smoke towers from the burst of the atomic bomb dropped over the “sitting duck” naval fleet on July 1 at Bikini. This photo, made from an observation plane, is first original released in Washington. (AP)

USS APPALACHIAN, Bikini – Evil consequences of the double-punch bomb that dropped near the Nevada Monday began to show up today not only on target ships but in vital blood counts of surviving animals. Blood deterioration already has been observed in some of the latter and many are expected to die in the next few days.

While 90 percent of 150 goats, as many pigs and 3,100 rats were living when rescue teams arrived, no one can predict how many can be brough/t back alive to the Naval Medical Research Institute at Bethesda, according to Capt. R. Harold Draeger, in charge of this phase of experiment.

These animals will be taken to Washington after being gathered in comfortable crates and cages on the biological survey ship Burlesson. Col. James P. Cooney, X-ray specialist and a safety officer for Operation Crossroads, believes pigs and goats roughly approximate human resistance to radiation and will react in much the same way during the next few weeks.

Five survived on one ship

Five of approximately 20 pigs and goats survived on the cruiser Salt Lake City, which took a big blast from about half a mile and lost her stacks, masts, scout plane and parts of superstructure. These and other animals which do not die within the next few weeks are expected to survive the experiment. In Washington they will be put under observation possibly extending through several generations.

We made inquiries of boarding crews as to welfare of animals as we moved toward the Nevada under a row of blackened and scorched attack transports with radar scanners and topmasts blown away and superstructures bent and twisted more violently the nearer we got to the tanker. Some of the men tried to pick up the Jap cruiser Sakawa on Geiger radioactivity counter when passing over the spot where she went down a few hours previously, but the Sakawa was not putting out any radiation.

The most petted and pampered animal in this fleet is pig No. 311, sole survivor of the Sakawa, which we saw go down Tuesday.

Pig heads for shore

Sailors said that Pig 311 was doing the Australian crawl and heading for the beach to join a liberty party at the Bikini Boystown headquarters on Wednesday night. They are sparing no effort to bring him to Washington alive. If the fatal infection of radioactivity overtakes him, he’ll arrive pickled in alcohol.

Other distinguished survivors were rats in a cage on the signal halliards of a sunken transport. The cage was fitted with a life preserver, the scientists told us. Today the rats were slightly seasick but otherwise O.K. For the most part, however, the rats took a worse beating than the pigs and goats whose resistance roughly approximates that of humans.

Newcomers among the animals are three rats christened Alpha, Beta and Gamma, born on the bridge of the Pennsylvania about the time the bomb was dropped. Some shaved goats showed flash bums and other coated in protective cream were in better shape today.

This bomb was no 50,000-tonner according to Col. Stafford Warren, staff radiological safety officer, but, he said, he had to plan precautions for a bomb much larger than the Hiroshima bomb compared by President Truman to 20,000 tons of TNT.

This no doubt is the explanation for the fact that some reporters on this ship were spotted 18 miles out and half blinded with goggles so dark that the noonday sun looked like a Christmas tree bulb.

Many disappointed

This and the fact we were half scared with stories of temporary blindness so that writers jumping the gun to describe the spectacle in advance told how they had to hang on the rail or be blown overboard.

Most of us felt we had been sold a bill of goods at first.

On the other hand, scientists estimate that men exposed a mile from the blast would absorb five times enough rays for fatal infection. At least five ships in the bulls-eye area remained so poisonous today that no parties have gone aboard, and certain sections of the lagoon are radioactive and under observation in case the current shifts toward the occupied ships. Fishing is still prohibited, although the lagoon teems with marine life.

Capt. Draeger pointed out that there are four types of injury from an atomic bomb resulting from an air blast, a water blast, a solid blast like the sudden shifting of a deck or a bulkhead, and a radiation blast. This last is the most delayed and apt to be the most serious.

Instruments still hot

Strange things happen to food supplies like baking soda and soap. Military personnel, it was said, would be sickened or demoralized because of poisonous emanations from the metal around them or even the water they drank.

It would take “a rubber slide rule” according to experts to figure out how much steel or concrete would be needed to build a ray-proof ship. Such a ship, to be secure, would have no space for a door through which to run.

Many instruments are still too hot to approach like the Navy Hellcat ghost drone that went through the heart of the atomic cloud. Lt. Cmdr. W. A. Maurer of the flattop Shangri-La said technicians at the nearby island of Roi, where the remote-control fighters landed, still are waiting to read this plane’s instruments. All the drones catapulted from the Shangri-La were shepherded safely back to the Roi landing strip with the exception of one that took a dive into the drink.

Dr. J. P. E. Morrison of the National Museum told us today of his unsuccessful search for a rare bird, a long-legged rail that is supposed to haunt Bikini. He found none here or on adjoining islands, where natives seem to remember them.

38

Bikini A-bomb pilot wore symbol of college boxing days

By Harry Sheer

CHICAGO – The old faded, worn, checkered town was just as much essential “equipment” aboard Maj. Woodrow P. “Woody” Swancutt’s Bikini B-29 last Sunday as the atom bomb itself.

It is likely that even task force commander Brig. Gen. Ramey didn’t know it. … But where “Woody” Swancutt goes, that towel goes.

As if you didn’t know by now, Maj. Swancutt was the young man who piloted “Dave’s Dream” when it dropped a load of atoms on Bikini.

He was also the favorite pilot of Lord Mountbatten and a host of other bigwigs during World War II.

The towel is an ancient superstition by now. Maj. Swancutt never failed to wear it, draped over his prematurely gray hair, whenever he fought as the University of Wisconsin’s 155-pound champion, 1939-1941.

Symbol in boxing world

He never lost a match in three varsity years as a college fighter. The towel became a symbol throughout the national collegiate boxing world.

Maj. Swancutt would calmly enter the ring, toss off his silk, shiny robe carelessly, but gently take the battered old towel, fold it and hand it with obvious affection to Coach Johnny Walsh.

Everybody at ringside would grin. We grinned for three years, watching Maj. Swancutt handle “it” and win some 24 straight fights, including two national 155-pound collegiate championships.

He was the most confident fighter we have ever seen. … Confidence without the sauce. Emotionless, but with an excited pair of hands, he was a miniature Joe Louis as he poured over opponents. He could knock you kicking with a right hand.

There was only one other college fighter who could punch harder than “Woody” and that was his pal and teammate – Omar Crocker, who became an Army mortar captain and a hero of Buna Mission in New Guinea.

Girl back home

If ever a football campus idol could have seen how “Woody” Swancutt reacted to calf-eyes from co-eds, they would have called him a nut.

“Woody, had a girl bark home in Wisconsin Rapids – Kay Haza – and he never let anyone forget it.

He married her after his last Badger fight … early in 1941 … then went off to fly for Uncle Sam. He was ready then, too, as he always was in the ring and as he was at Bikini.

Maj. Swancutt was secretly taking flying lessons while fighting for the Badgers. … A disclosure which made Coach Walsh shiver for weeks after he found it out.

The Swancutts now have a young daughter, who was just four last June 1.

An ‘A’ premed student

Once upon a time, the younger Swancutt had great ambitions to become a surgeon. He was an “A” premed student, efficient and sure.

He would laugh at friends who told him boxing would jeopardize those powerful hands of his.

“Woody” was right. He was never injured, barring a broken nose and cut over his right eye.

He was always right, he and his towel – old “it” – even with the infinite atom.

39

Reds call bomb test ‘military maneuvers’

MOSCOW (AP) – The Soviet Army organ Red Star declared today that the Bikini atom bomb test was regarded by the world’s democratic press as “an aggressive gesture against all the peoples of the world.”

The paper said the United States had put herself in a hypocritical position by conducting “military maneuvers with the atomic bomb” while talking about using atomic energy for peaceful purposes only.

The Communist organ Pravda commented on the Bikini test in the same vein yesterday.

40

Maj. Swancutt given permanent rank

KWAJALEIN (AP) – The pilot and navigator of Dave’s Dream, the Super Fortress which dropped the atomic bomb at Bikini, received Regular Army commissions yesterday as first lieutenants.

The two, with wartime status as majors, are: Woodrow P. Swancutt of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the pilot, and Will Adams of San Bernardino, California, the navigator.

Other atom bomber officers are expected to be commissioned at an early date.

41

L’Aube (July 5, 1946)

La bombe atomique aurait éclaté trois secondes trop tôt…

…ce qui expliquerait que les dégâts ne sont pas ceux qu’on attendait

La défaillance du mécanisme ou celle d’un opérateur est-elle responsable du demi-échec de l’expérience de Bikini ?

Selon un message radiophonique capté à San Francisco la bombe aurait éclaté trois secondes trop tôt, c’est-à-dire deux kilomètres et demi au-dessus de l’altitude prévue, quatre fois plus haut que bombe de Nagasaki.

Environ 90% des animaux se trouvant à bord des « bateaux-cibles » de Bikini ont survécu à l’explosion atomique ; cependant ces animaux commençaient à montrer des signes d’un malaise évident.

Sur 150 porcs et 156 chèvres, 10 animaux seulement de chaque groupe ont été tués net. Sur 3.000 rats, 300 n’ont pas survécu. Un porc qui se trouvait à bord du croiseur japonais « Sakawa », qui a coulé 24 heures après l’explosion, a été aperçu nageant vigoureusement dans la lagune. Repêché, l’animal se trouve actuellement en observation.