Operation Crossroads

42

The Evening Star (July 5, 1946)

Undersea atomic test scheduled by Blandy for July 25 at Bikini

Admiral expects blast to cause 70-foot wave in lagoon

ABOARD USS MOUNT MCKINLEY (AP) – Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy today set July 25 as the tentative date for the detonation of Bikini’s second atomic bomb, this one “an attack against hulls.” It will be exploded slightly under the surface of the lagoon.

A full-dress rehearsal was scheduled for July 19.

The chief of Task Force 1 told newsmen he had scaled down his original estimates of a 100-foot tidal wave resulting from the subsurface blast. The wave, he said, probably would be no more than 70 feet. This would be enough to send green water over Bikini Island.

Adm. Blandy expects some form of radioactive cloud to result from the spray blown up from the underwater explosion. Contamination of ships by the spray and by solid water tossed onto their decks are expected to be a factor in delaying their return for inspection.

The admiral in a reappraisal of the airborne drop termed it a “miss of appreciable dimensions” because of wind and other uncontrollable factors but asserted, however, that “nothing went wrong with this test to prevent it from being a complete success.”

As greater refinements in calculations are made, he said, the airborne bomb will be shown to be stronger than first estimated and closer to the Nagasaki bomb in potency.

“It was not just a firecracker,” Adm. Blandy declared.

The admiral said the test was a success because the target fleet was arrayed to take care of the possibility of a miss. He cited ships heavily damaged as an example of how a good cross-section of a modern fleet can be affected – the battleship Arkansas, the heavy cruiser Pensacola, the light cruiser Sakawa, a submarine and transports.

In addition, the carrier Independence was damaged beyond repair and five other ships were sunk.

Capt. Shields Warren, radiological specialist, reported meantime that about 10 percent of the 3,600 animals aboard the target fleet died from the atomic blast, radiation or drowning.

Explaining that laboratory examinations are only beginning. Capt. Warren said “as far as we can tell, some died of the air blast and others, we think, of radiation.”

Salvage parties who entered the lagoon a few hours after the explosion saw live animals aboard the Japanese cruiser Sakawa, which went down the next day. Presumably the animals aboard drowned.

Scientists are pleased that no more animals were killed because live subjects are wanted.

Capt. Warren, referring to delayed effects of exposure to radiation, said he expected “a considerable number” of deaths later on.

43

Scientists in storm-tossed plane win fight to save Bikini records

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A desperate battle scientists played to keep vitally important atom bomb records from being lost in a storm-tossed Army transport plane was recounted today by a Philadelphia newspaperman, who said he is “still shaky” from the experience.

“At one time we thought we would have to bail out and lose the records from Bikini,” said Alfred M. Klein, a staff correspondent for the Philadelphia Record. He said the huge transport ran into a thunderstorm over Nebraska early yesterday.

“The storm lasted about 30 minutes,” Mr. Klein said, adding in a copyrighted story:

“I saw them (the scientists) disregard the pilot’s orders to take to their parachutes. They threw themselves on the heavy cases and instruments which had torn loose from their lashings. By holding down the boxes and steel cases with their bodies, they prevented them from crashing into the tail of the plane and ripping out the sides of our C-54.”

Mr. Klein said the plane’s flight after passing over Nebraska was “normal.” The ship landed at Dayton, Ohio, for minor motor adjustments and then continued to Washington, where it landed at 7:30 a.m.

The pilot of the plane was Capt. Walter Ketron of Kingsport, Tennessee, and the navigator, Lt. James A. Creighton of Kittanning, Pennsylvania, Mr. Klein said.

The newspaperman said the passengers, among the first to return from the atom bomb experiment, included Col. George W. Goodard, chief of the Army’s photographic laboratory at Wright Field, Dayton; Dr. Duncan E. MacDonald, professor of physics at Boston University; A. H. Katz of Dayton, civilian physicist attached to the Army Air Forces; Dr. Elmer Haskins, Boston mathematician; William Hagen of Wellesley, Massachusetts, associate professor of physics at Boston University; Lt. Walter S. Hood of Ashland, Ohio, and Capt. Ralph Gardiner of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At Wright Field, Col. Goddard described the experience as “the worst storm I ever encountered in my 27 years with the Army Air Corps.”

“When we took off at San Francisco,” he said shortly after landing at Wright Field, “we were told only to expect scattered thundershowers. Instead, we had about an 85-mile-per-hour wind, severe lightning, heavy rain and hail.

“Five more minutes of that and we would have had to abandon the plane.”

Col. Goddard said that Lt. Hood, who works in the Wright Field photographic laboratory, received a leg injury when some of the storm tossed plane’s cargo pinned him.

Photographs of the Bikini test were unloaded at Wright Field. Col. Goddard quoted Dr. Karl Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as saying the pictures were “of tremendous value.” Dr. Compton saw the films at Kwajalein.

Col. Goddard said Army Air Force officials at Wright Field would study the films and that later they would be taken to Washington for review by atomic researchers.

44

Red radio calls Bikini tests stimulus to armaments race

LONDON (AP) – The Moscow radio said last night that the atomic bomb tests at Bikini were “a stimulus to an armaments race – in all kinds of armaments.”

“The fog of mistrust and suspicion created by atomic diplomacy is still darkening the political skies,” Commentator I. Lemin said, adding that the Bikini test demonstrated that “the United States is striving to preserve the secret of atomic energy for use as a political weapon.

“American naval circles … say that the number of ships sunk was considerably less than was expected, which means that the fleet remains and the United States of America should preserve and strengthen its powerful Navy.

“Military history shows that new and more effective weapons do not take the place of old ones but are used in combination with them. The Pacific tests are a stimulus to an armaments race, in all kinds of armaments.

“The political significance of the tests can be summed up in two words – atomic diplomacy.”

45

The Pittsburgh Press (July 5, 1946)

Most animals survive A-bomb

But crews would have died at Bikini
By Jim G. Lucas, Scripps-Howard staff writer

BIKINI (SHS) – Five days after the atom bomb test here, 80 percent of the animals on the target ships still are alive.

The test killed 300 of the 3,101 rats, 10 of the 150 pigs and 10 of the 150 goats on the 73 target ships.

However, Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Task Force One, said it was likely that the great majority of the normal crews of the ships would have been killed or put out of action if the fleet had been manned. The wartime crews necessary to handle the ships would have totaled about 30,000.

Resistance big puzzle

The resistance of the animals to radioactivity was one of the biggest puzzles of the test. Adm. Blandy said no safe deductions could be drawn for several weeks, because more of the animals may die. But he indicated he considers their ability to withstand the first blast remarkable.

One pig, aboard the Jap cruiser Sakawa which sank 26 hours after the bomb dropped, was found swimming in the lagoon the day after the ship went down. The pig showed no ill effects of his long immersion in the radioactive water.

Some slightly damaged

Some of the ships were only slightly damaged. It was a safe conclusion, he said, that normal crews would have been able to operate them.

All the ships still afloat can be repaired, Rear Adm. T. A. Solberg, the salvage chief, said. The carrier Independence, the worst damaged, could be put into fighting shape in from seven to nine months under wartime conditions.

46

Second test of atom bomb due July 25

Underwater blast slated at Bikini
By Joseph L. Myler, United Press staff writer

OFF BIKINI ATOLL (UP) – Vice Adm. W, H. P. Blandy, director of the Operation Crossroads project, announced today that the underwater explosion of an atomic bomb to test its power against naval ships has been set tentatively for July 25.

At the same time, Adm. Blandy declared that last Monday’s explosion from the air turned out to be “a far greater success in most respects than expected.”

He said the possibility had been taken into account beforehand that the July 1 air drop might be a “miss of appreciable dimension,” which it turned out to be.

The bomb, instead of bursting within 200 yards of the aiming point on the battleship Nevada, burst around 500 yards astern and to the left, according to unofficial observers.

Adm. Blandy would not give the location of the burst. But he said that despite the fact “it was not precisely where, we wanted, we still got a very satisfactory hit.”

Adm. Blandy refused to say whether the air bomb did any interior or hull damage. However, it has been reported that ships like the Arkansas lost their boilers, owing to the force of the blast hurtling down their smokestacks. He said divers would go down in the next day or two to determine precisely what kind of damage destroyed the five ships that did sink.

Revised studies indicated that underwater test might throw up 75-foot waves which will wash over the atoll islands, Adm. Blandy said.

A practice rehearsal for Baker Day will be held July 19. But no explosion will be set off as in the case of the rehearsal for Able Day, Adm. Blandy said.

47

In second Bikini test –
A-bomb to subject ships’ hulls to giant pressure

Experiment later this month to be more important than it originally appeared
By S. Burton Heath, NEA staff correspondent

BIKINI (NEA) – What the second A-bomb is supposed to do is substantially what a depth charge does to a submarine when it is exploded close by the underwater craft but not in direct contact with it. The hull of the U-boat is crushed like an eggshell in a blacksmith’s hand.

The first bomb test at Bikini, by bursting in the air, dissipated much of its enormous force before coming in contact with the target vessels. Half of the force went upward and was lost completely. A little of the energy was directed straight downward with the rest, carrying the maximum destructive potential, spread downward at varying angles, losing vigor as it traveled before hitting targets.

But the second bomb can’t do so. Water is more incompressible than a steel rod and when it is hit it has to go somewhere. Therefore, much of the second test bombs energy will inevitably be transmitted.

To be shallow explosion

The relatively small structural damage done to ships of the target fleet by the first Bikini atom bomb makes the second test, tentatively scheduled for some time late in July, even more important than it originally appeared.

The next test bomb, originally scheduled to be dropped just under the surface of the water, now may be exploded at a greater depth. The exact depth has not been announced and may be kept secret. However, it will necessarily be a relatively shallow explosion because Bikini lagoon won’t permit any extreme depth.

During the first test shot the battleship Nevada was anchored in 174 feet of water. It is believed that the second atom bomb will be set to go off at a point considerably less than that figure.

Giant wave to result

Aside from the radiation of radioactive particles, the first test looked like a violent exaggeration of a conventional bomb going off accompanied, of course, with the intense seat characteristic of the atom bomb. The next test coming up will introduce novel and potentially devastating features and the application of a sudden spasm of tremendous pressure to hulls of the ships in the target area.

In the forthcoming under-surface test, the water directly above the bomb will be tossed into the air in the form of a highly spectacular waterspout. Surface water will be propelled into a gigantic wave which may attain a height of as much as 100 feet as it forms.

The rest of the water, having been hit with the force of a super-pile driver, must go somewhere and if ships’ hulls are in the way something must give, and it undoubtedly will be those hulls. That, at least, is what most competent experts available out here foresee, and base their conclusions on well-established laws of physics, their long experience with explosives and the application of what they have learned about atom bombs from the four that have been detonated.

So the next test will subject the hulls of capital ships, weighing thousands of tons, to punishment hitherto reserved for submarines. While these battleships, aircraft carriers and cruisers reel from this treatment and are probably taking in water through broken plates, they may be swept by a hundred-foot wave pouring thousands of tons of water into their hulls from above.

The second test should not be confused with the real deep-water experiment planned for next year. The plans for that test call for an atom bomb to be exploded several thousand feet beneath the surface, somewhere in the open ocean.

With the added depth, the considerations previously discussed in this article will be both modified and exaggerated. A more intelligent discussion of what may transpire in this deep-water test will be possible after the second test later this month.

48

Atomic bomb makes X-ray 30 miles away

Sailor gets picture of his own hands

BIKINI (SS) – Sideline reactions to the atomic bomb test:

Radiation from the atomic bomb explosion was used by Hospital Apprentice Martin Macmahon of Philadelphia to make an X-ray of his own hand bones. He was aboard the USS Blue Ridge, 30 miles from the zero point.

Two-hundred yards from the beach of the lagoon over whose peaceful waters the bomb exploded, hermit crabs are as lively as ever among the coral rocks, and sea cucumbers are as imperturbably torpid in the tide-pools.

The only survivor from the Jap cruiser, Sakawa, that sank after the bombing, was a pig found swimming in the water five hours after the ship went down.

Another swimming animal, one of the goats from an LST, jumped overboard after being released from its cage. It was rescued in a hurry as a valuable scientific specimen.

Final score on the animals: Out of 150 goats and 150 pigs aboard the ships when the bomb fell, about 10 of each were killed. Living animals were found after the test on every one of the 22 ships on which they had been placed, except for the carrier Independence.

About 10 percent of the rats were killed, but they tried to supply replacements: A litter of young rats was found in one of the cages.

Most of the surviving animals were in good condition, but thirsty – the bomb blast had blown away their water supply.

49

Wiener Kurier (July 6, 1946)

Die nächste Atombombe fällt am 25. Juli

An Bord der „Mount McKinley“ (AND.-INS.) - Vizeadmiral Blandy erklärte gestern, laß der nächste Atombombenversuch am 25. Juli stattfinden werde.

Bereits am 19. Juli wird eine Art Generalprobe für den zweiten Atombombenversuch stattfinden, aber hiebei wird keine wirkliche Atombombe geworfen werden.

Viele Gelehrte erwarten sich von der Unterwasserexplosion der Atombombe eine gewaltige radioaktive Springflut, doch wird angenommen, daß die Atomwolke wesentlich geringer sein wird. Wie Blandy glaubt, wird die Unterwasserexplosion Wellen von 20 bis 25 Meter Höhe hervorrufen, und das Bikini-Atoll zeitweilig mehrere Meter unter Wasser setzen.

Das Meerwasser wird nach der Unterwasserexplosion bedeutend längere Zeit hindurch radioaktiv bleiben, weshalb eine entsprechend längere Zeitspanne vorgesehen ist, bis die Beobachtungsschiffe in die Bikinilagune einfahren dürfen.

Erster Versuch hat beinahe Wirkung von Nagasaki erreicht

Die Stärke der Explosion bei dem letzten Versuch sei inzwischen, so führte Vizeadmiral Blandy ferner an, Gegenstand weiterer Untersuchungen gewesen und man sei jetzt der Meinung, daß die Wirkung doch fast so groß gewesen sei wie bei der während des Krieges auf Nagasaki abgeworfenen Bombe. Blandy betonte, daß es für den Unterwasserversuch nicht nötig sein werde, die gesunkenen Schiffe zu heben. Die Ziele für den Versuch B seien in einer Konferenz mit dem Auswertungsausschuß des gemeinsamen Generalstabes festgesetzt worden und man plane bedeutend mehr Unterwasserinstrumente einzusetzen wie bei dem ersten Versuch.

Die Hauptwirkung bei einer Unterwasserexplosion werde sich gegen den Schiffsrumpf richten, während bei dem letzten Versuch die größten Zerstörungen bei den Aufbauten erreicht wurden.

Versuchstiere nach Amerika gebracht

Bei dem letzten Versuch seien von den 3600 eingesetzten Tieren ungefähr zehn Prozent durch die Explosion, radioaktive Strahlen oder Ertrinken umgekommen. Die Wissenschaftler seien sehr erfreut darüber gewesen, daß nicht mehr Tiere getötet wurden, da lebende Versuchstiere gebraucht werden Man nehme jedoch an, daß durch die radioaktiven Strahlen eine große Anzahl von Tieren später sterben würde.

Einige Tiere wurden in die Vereinigten Staaten zurückgebracht, um den Einfluß der radioaktiven Strahlen auf ihre Nachkommenschaft festzustellen. Dabei sollen einige Tiere behandelt werden, während die anderen, zum Vergleich ohne Behandlung bleiben.

Gegenwärtig ist man dabei, die erste Explosion intensiv auszuwerten, und Hund in Hand damit gehen die Vorbereitungen für den zweiten Versuch. Eine gewisse Verzögerung ist allerdings durch die Tatsache gegeben, daß einige der wichtigsten wissenschaftlichen Instrumente, die sich an Bord des Transporters „Gilliam“ befunden haben, durch dessen unerwarteten Untergang in Verlust geraten sind. Blandy versicherte jedoch, daß diese Instrumente bis zum Beginn des zweiten Versuches ersetzt sein würden.

50

Nachwirkungen von Bikini in Corumba und Sao Paulo?

Rio de Janeiro (ACA.) - Sowohl in Corumba als auch mehr als tausend Kilometer davon entfernt, in Sao Paulo, waren gestern Ereignisse zu verzeichnen, die dort als Nachwirkung der Atombombenexplosion betrachtet wurden. In Corumba klagen die Einwohner über einen nie dagewesenen undurchdringlichen Nebel, während in Sao Paulo gestern spät abend ein Sturm von ungewöhnlicher Stärke zu verzeichnen war.

In dem dichtbewohnten Tal des Paraiba-Flusses, wo große Staubwolken fast jede Sicht nahmen, wurde beträchtlicher Schaden angerichtet. Menschenmengen sammelten sich in den Straßen von Sao Paulo, um die seltsame Färbung des Himmels zu beobachten, die auf den Staub zurückzuführen war.

51

L’Aube (July 6, 1946)

La prochaine bombe atomique éclatera à 17 mètres sous l’eau

Un nouveau « Bikini » aura lieu dans trois semaines. Le vice-amiral Blandy a déclaré, hier, que le prochain essai de la bombe atomique aurait lieu en principe le 15 juillet ; une répétition générale se déroulerait le 19.

L’explosion aurait lieu sous l’eau, à 17 mètres de profondeur. Quatre navires ayant échappé à la première explosion serviront de cible, tandis que les navires endommagés seront repartis à une plus grande distance du but.

L’amiral a ajouté que, selon ses dernières estimations, le raz de marée qui résulterait de l’explosion ne dépasserait pas 21 métres et non 30, comme il l’avait d’abord prévu. Un nuage atomique serait sans doute provoqué par l’explosion.

52

The Evening Star (July 6, 1946)

Atomic rays filled air for many miles around bomb cloud

Circling plane received first warning; hair of mice turned color
By Howard W. Blakeslee, Associated Press science writer

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN (AP) – An invisible form of death filled the air for many miles around and far outside of the great mushroom cloud which arose from the Bikini atomic bomb.

What happened is still a mystery. One of the planes circling the cloud at long distance got the first warning of the invisible death when its Geiger counter, which registers the presence of X-rays and other rays, unexpectedly began to record a dangerous amount of radiation.

The pilot. thinking he had run into a current of invisible radioactive particles that had eddied far outside the mushroom, turned the plane in an escape direction. But the warning counter continued to show rays whichever way he turned and whether he went up or down.

At times the Geiger counter dial swung way over into the danger range. It was many minutes before the plane ran out of and away from the unseen menace.

Since the crew was exposed to an unknown amount of radiation, members were evacuated to the mainland for observation. Exposures such as this adventure do not necessarily mean serious injury to the men. Although such rays can be fatal, they are not usually very harmful unless persons are continuously exposed for some time.

This invisible menace was encountered above 10,000 feet altitude. It might have been a rain or particles from higher up, spilled out and carried by the wind. It might conceivably have been X-rays from the atomic cloud. This latter appears improbable because X-rays usually do not go so far in such great strength.

Mice that flew into the cloud are changing color. White mice have become brown. This color change is a surprise. Hair usually turns white or gray when exposed to radioactive rays.

These mice were in drones that either passed through the atomic cloud or skimmed into and around its edges.

All the drones brought back evidences of terrible radioactivity in or near the cloud. This invisible ray attack was the worst at about 15,000 feet altitude.

Wherever there was oil on the plane surfaces, radioactive particles stuck and piled up. Their rays penetrated the metal, driving into the plane, especially those interior positions close to oil spots. Some of these spots caught enough radioactive material to be highly dangerous.

Even inside the drone engines, oil became very highly radioactive and dangerous to life. But this radioactivity had no apparent effect on the perfect operation of the radiating engines.

A small amount of death rays piled upon the leading edges of the wing, but never so much as on the oil spots. The metal of the planes shed these unseen particles harmlessly.

The drones showed no evidence of scorching heat and it is not believed the atomic cloud was blazing hot after rising above 10,000 feet. The cloud radioactivity itself is not supposed to raise the temperature more than three or four degrees. No thermometers were carried on the drones.

One of the Navy drones was unsafe to approach for more than three days after flying through the heart of the cloud. Another was too “hot” to approach for more than 24 hours.

Would die in clouds

When these planes “cooled” it was possible to compute from the rays still present about how much there had been in the cockpits many hours earlier. While this computation was only approximate it indicated the probability that pilots in the planes in the cloud would have been killed. Pilots close to the cloud would have been risking their lives.

Radar shot at the atomic explosion and afterward at the atomic cloud behaved unexpectedly. Radar beams bounced back of! the explosion. This amazed scientists. No such thing had been expected. The probable explanation is that radar bounced back off the edges of the bubble of compressed air that formed the source of the shock wave of the explosion. This bubble is plainly visible in the photographs exhibited on the press ship.

Radar failed completely to bounce back off the atomic cloud. It had been confidently expected that radar would be able to track the atomic cloud. The explanation of this failure is that this cloud contained much less vaporized metal than had been anticipated. Metallic vapors in the cloud had been counted on to give good radar response.

1 Like
53

Secret A-bomb film is reported stolen

KWAJALEIN (AP) – Theft of a large package of top-secret atomic bomb film after it reached the United States was unofficially but reliably reported today.

A courier reportedly relaxed his vigilance over the 30- to 40-pound package at New York City to make a telephone call either at the air terminal or rail station while on his way to Rochester, New York, where the film was to be developed. A man, the reports here said, grabbed the package and fled.

The FBI is understood to be investigating the case.

All color and most motion picture and still film made of the July 1 test at Bikini have been sent by officer-couriers to several U.S. cities for processing and study.

54

‘On the other hand’ –
Mellett: Puzzles over disappointment caused by Bikini experiment

By Lowell Mellett

As near as I can estimate the popular reaction to Operations Crossroads, it is one of disappointment. There was that tone in the first news stories and that tone in the casual comment of people who read the news stories. People said, and said it with disgust, “Look, the goats on the battleships, they weren’t even touched!”

What did we expect – the end of the world? Well, maybe we did. Are we disappointed because the world still survives? No, hardly that, but–

It seems to be something like this: The Bikini business had been promoted as the biggest show on earth and then when it was performed it turned out to be less than that. It wasn’t any better than the Hiroshima show or the Nagasaki. Matter of fact, it wasn’t as good, for they killed thousands and thousands of people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and they didn’t kill anybody at Bikini.

Limited experiment

Of course, as the producers were quick to point out, the first Bikini experiment with the atom bomb was a limited experiment. It was intended only to determine what would happen to a flock of naval vessels – manned by goats and pigs – if an atomic bomb were exploded so many feet in the air above them. It wasn’t intended to determine whether the world would come to an end. Later experiments would do that. Later experiments wall include the explosion of mankind’s latest toy below the surface of the water. Then we will know. We will know whether the ocean bed can be cracked wide open, whether a great tidal wave can be created, one big enough to wash away the islands of the Pacific and maybe Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Mind you, the Army and the Navy are not promising that these things will happen. They are just saying. “Don’t go away! Keep your scats! Wait for the great after-show!”

As for the big bust at Bikini, they are bringing in later returns to prove that, it really wasn’t too bad. Five ships were sunk, two were wrecked beyond repair, seven were heavily damaged, five were moderately damaged, nine superficially damaged and 31 “negligibly” damaged. Only 14, as a matter of fact, “escaped the cosmic fury of the bomb.” And the pigs and goats didn’t come off nearly as well as first reports indicated. Some have died since and others are reported not feeling any too well.

All of which should give us some comfort, cause us to agree we really weren’t cheated by the $70,000,000 show at Bikini.

It should, but I’m not sure it does.

Conditioned for thrills

We’ve been conditioned for great thrills. Rocket bombs, radar, planes that travel faster than light, push buttons that obliterate whole cities. So. subconsciously or otherwise, we want to see those things happen. We’re like the crowds that turn out for automobile races, knowing there is nothing duller unless somebody gets hurt and so, subconsciously or otherwise, prepared to be disappointed if no frightful accident occurs.

We’ve become sensationalists and not only with respect to war. We not only want bigger and better wars, if we’re going to have any wars at all, but we want a bigger and better peace, if we are to have any peace at all. We want a positively sensational peace, one that will last longer than any peace ever lasted before, one that really looks permanent. I think we want that even more, even much more, than we want a demonstration that atomic bombs can destroy the earth.

Which makes it possible to complete the circle of our thinking and explain our disappointment concerning Bikini. What we’d truly like would be a demonstration, somehow, that the atom could destroy the world – without actually doing it – a demonstration so convincing that every country everywhere would be impelled to join in perfecting a permanent, unbreakable peace.

55

The Pittsburgh Press (July 6, 1946)

Real Bikini story due in 6 months

10,000 instruments must be analyzed
By David Dietz, Scripps-Howard science editor

ABOARD THE USS APPALACHIAN, at Kwajalein – Armchair strategists would do well to reserve opinions in the three-cornered argument of atomic bombs, airplanes, and battleships until the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s and the president’s evaluation boards have reported.

This may mean another six months before judgment can be passed.

Must await analysis

But no evaluation will be worth much until the 10,000 scientific instruments aboard the target ships and on Bikini have been analyzed.

Before leaving Bikini Lagoon, we visited the orange-painted Nevada, central target ship. Then we paid another visit to Bikini itself.

The starboard side of the Nevada still is bright orange but the port side was blackened by a searing flame. The superstructure was twisted. Fire control mechanisms were blown away. Clearly the ship was out of commission.

Seek data on rays

As Adm. Blandy made plain in advance, the targets did not simulate war conditions. The ships were arranged so that the scientific instruments and the ships themselves would give information of the distribution of heat pressure and radioactive rays. There was little reason to expect any damage on Bikini.

There is also the problem of how atomic bombs would be used in war. Everyone agrees that the home front would be the chief target for atomic attacks.

56

L’Aube (July 7, 1946)

C’EST PAR RADIO que la seconde bombe de Bikini sera allumée à 32 kilomètres de distance

La prochaine bombe de Bikini ne sera pas larguée par un avion. Elle sera suspendue dans une bathysphère (sphère d’exploration sous-marine), comme une cloche à plongeur, à l’arrière d’un bateau. L’allumage sera assuré par radio, d’une distance de trente-deux kilomètres.

Le docteur Karl Compton, président de l’Institut de technologie du Massachussetts et membre de la commission d’estimation, prédit que le deuxième essai fera beaucoup plus de dommages que le premier, soulevant une trombe d’eau et des vagues de grande dimension. Il estime que les observateurs pourront assister de plus près, protégés qu’ils se sont par l’eau contre l’éclatement.

57

The Sunday Star (July 7, 1946)

Coral 100 feet below surface was smashed by Bikini bomb

By Howard W. Blakeslee, Associated Press science writer

This is the second of a series of stories by Howard W. Blakeslee, Associated Press Pulitzer Prize winning science editor, reviewing some of the unexpected results of the Bikini atomic bomb test.

ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, July 7 – The atomic bomb smashed the coral on the bottom of Bikini lagoon 100 feet below the surface of the water.

This was one of the many unexpected blows struck by the air bomb released on July 1. These blows make it appear certain that navies and ships of the future must be redesigned even to meet the threat of this least formidable type of atomic attack.

Close-up pictures taken from the photographic tower show that the bomb seared everything in a circle of more than a mile in a direct blaze of fire.

A moment after the bomb was detonated a terrific tornado roared over the entire guinea pig fleet. This was an atomic tornado with a blowtorch-like center. Its apparent diameter on the water’s surface was more than half a mile.

Photographs show that directly under the bomb the water was momentarily depressed. The water was pushed down in a shallow saucer. Under the tremendous force of the atomic slap the water reacted like an anvil.

The smashing of the coral on the bottom occurred about under this depression. This underwater smash revealed its presence by a great patch of water of light turquoise color. The normal color of the lagoon’s water is dark emerald to almost slate. Wherever coral is stirred up in small places the color changes to turquoise.

How much damage was done to the lagoon bottom is not known. But this blow, through 100 feet of water protection, shows how completely “out of this world” atom bombs are no matter whether they are less powerful than the Nagasaki bomb or even that one that laid waste to Hiroshima.

The photos are a complete visual record showing that the first Bikini bomb probably was less powerful than the Nagasaki bomb. They show not only that the Bikini cloud was just half as high as that at Nagasaki, but the base of that cloud, standing like a pillar of fire and smoke on the water, was not more than half the diameter of the base of the pillar at Nagasaki.

The first close-up shows only streamers of bright light, formless and too fast for the camera eye to catch. The second photo shows the start of a ball of fire. This fire ball is in the exact shape of the sun rising just half way over the horizon. This atomic sun, made entirely of blazing air, is more than a mile wide. It covers the battleship Nevada at the center of the target but only with one edge of the ball of fire. The main bulk of this atomic sun was to the rear and left of the Nevada.

The next photo is a surprise. The fire ball has momentarily disappeared. In its place are what looks like fog banks, perhaps nearly 1,000 feet high. Ships that were not covered by the original fire ball have waving plumes wreathing more than mast high. These plumes probably are steam vapor.

Water turned to steam

An explanation of the steam and fog banks is that the lagoon surface under and near the ball of fire was converted instantly into steam without boiling water. At temperatures above 3,100 degrees water does not boil but turns into instant steam. At the center of this fog and steam bank is rising what looks like a July Fourth fireworks display. The position of fireworks is apparently astern of the Nevada and in the direction of the carrier Independence, which carried torpedoes, ammunition and aviation gasoline.

At this point in the sequence of pictures, the carrier Saratoga’s deck fire has not started. That fire begins in the next picture, with a plain smoke plume from the deck.

In this Saratoga fire picture also begin the atomic tornado. This tornado is the start of an upshooting column of fire and cloud. In its initial shape it is a high pointed dome more than 1,000 feet tall. The edges of this dome appear dark and like smoke but the center is incandescent.

Tornado shoots upward

The tornado is narrower than the fire ball it replaces and does not cover the Nevada. The top of the tornado shoots upward, quickly forming one mushroom and then a smaller mushroom below the umbrella-like topside.

The base of this tornado remains on the water. But airplane views show it moving rapidly. The tornado moves off the face of the target fleet in about the same direction as the northeast trade winds. This atomic column appears to lift as it leaves the fleet just as storm tornadoes rise from the ground.

Just about where the tornado appeared above the steam and smoke is the area where five ships sank. That tornado base is also the area where the Independence was wrecked and from where she was towed to prevent the risk of her sinking.

Vice Adm. W. M. P. Blandy, boss of the Crossroads operation, said if this particular air bomb had been close over the battleship Nevada he believes even that mighty ship would have been sunk.

But more important for the future of navies is the fact that transports and destroyers 1,000 feet and more distant from the bomb center were sunk.

58

Scientists to discuss future of atom bomb on weapon’s birthday

Differing proposals for world control of atomic energy will be examined by scientists and government officials July 15 and 16, on the anniversary of the first explosion of an atomic bomb in New Mexico, at a conference in the Interior Department auditorium.

Secretary of Commerce Wallace and Sen. McMahon (D-Connecticut), who is chairman of the Senate special committee on atomic energy, will speak at the institute sponsored by the National Committee on Atomic Information.

Pointing out that a year of “fateful indecision” has passed since the explosion in New Mexico, Daniel Melcher, director of the National Committee, said the meeting will be the first of several throughout the country to inform the public. Representatives of government, labor, industry, religious and civic groups will take part.

Bikini test discounted

William Higinbotham, chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, who will speak Tuesday, July 16, said yesterday that scientists expect nothing of true scientific value from the Bikini tests and stressed that “the great crossroads before mankind today is not whether navies can survive, but whether civilization can survive.”

It is obvious, he said, that an enemy would rather knock out a city with one bomb than to use it on dispersed battleships, and added: “The American people will pay for turning old battleships into hulks and blasting a tropical lagoon into a deadly mess. But can humanity afford the price of shattering the cities and culture of the world?”

The U.S. and Russian proposals for atomic control, this country’s handling of atomic discoveries and the scientific facts on atomic energy will be studied at institute sessions.

Dr. Shapley to preside

Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard Observatory, and Ralph McDonald of the National Education Association, will preside at the first day’s sessions.

Speakers the first day will include Secretary Wallace, Dr. Norman Dawes of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and C. L. Wilson, secretary of the Lilienthal Board and vice president of the National Research Corp. A dinner will be held that night at the Hotel 2400.

Sen. Tobey (R-New Hampshire), Maj. George Fielding Eliot, military analyst, Mrs. Anna Lord Straus, president of the League of Women Voters. Sen. McMahon and Mr. Higinbotham are among the speakers for the second day.

Sponsors include Philip Murray (president of the CIO), Donald M. Nelson (former chairman of the War Production Board), Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Robert M. Hutchinson of the University of Chicago, John Haynes Holmes, Norma Corwin, Norman Cousins and Clifton Fadiman.

59

Reports of A-bomb film theft in New York are unconfirmed

KWAJALEIN, July 6 (AP) – Reliable but unconfirmed reports circulated here today that top-secret film taken of the July 1 atom bomb test at Bikini was stolen in New York City while an officer-courier was using a telephone and that the FBI is engaged in an extensive manhunt. All mail packages for foreign countries were reported being examined.

There was no official comment at this headquarters for Operation Crossroads. In New York, G. E. Conroy, special agent in charge of the New York FBI, said no investigation is being made in this case by the FBI.

The July 1 test, an air burst which sank five ships, damaged more than two score others and caused other effects still being checked by scientists, was an extensively photographed event. In man-operated planes, in drones, on ship and on land at Bikini, still and motion pictures were recorded.

All the color and most of the motion and still film have been sent to the United States for study.

More than 400 cameras were set up in the lagoon just to measure the upheaval of water.

The reports heard here were that the officer-courier relaxed his vigilance over the important package, weighing between 30 and 40 pounds, to make a telephone call either from a New York air terminal or railroad station. A man grabbed the package and fled, these reports stated. The courier was on his way to Rochester, New York, where the film was to be developed.

Navy is probing loss of ‘unimportant’ film

WASHINGTON, July 6 (AP) – The Navy Department said tonight that disappearance of 1,275 feet of “unimportant film exposed three weeks” before the atom bomb test in the Pacific is “under investigation.”

Disappearance of the film was reported on June 30, said a statement issued by Joint Task Force No. 1 and announced by the Navy. Joint Task Force No. 1 is the joint Army-Navy force conducting the atom bomb tests.

While the statement gave no further details, a Navy spokesman said the film involved was the same film mentioned in news dispatches today from Kwajalein. The unconfirmed Kwajalein reports were that top-secret film taken of the July 1 test at Bikini had been stolen from an officer-courier in New York.

60

Atom bomb observers say storm en route dwarfed Bikini show

BOSTON, July 6 (AP) – Two scientists and an official photographer who took part in the atomic bomb test at Bikini said today that a storm over Nebraska while they were flying East “made the Bikini show look like a dress rehearsal.”

The three – Prof. Royal M. Frye and Prof. Duncan E. MacDonald, both of Boston University, and Capt. Ralph Gardiner of Cambridge – struck an electrical storm while they were flying eastward with records and instruments from the Pacific experiment.

In an interview when they debarked at the Logan Airport, Capt. Gardiner said, and the others agreed, that “the Nebraska storm was something that almost made us forget we’d been to Bikini with the A-bomb.”

He continued that “our cameras, instrument cases and records were bouncing all around” and that “a lot of bodies (the passengers) were also out of normal position.”

Asserting that reports of the Nebraska storm were “vastly underrated,” Dr. MacDonald said that “everything was loose and dancing around for 30 seemingly endless minutes but every fellow was chiefly concerned with sitting tight and not upsetting the ship.”

He continued that the plane’s passengers were told to put on parachutes and be ready to jump “but the plane was bouncing around so much that we couldn’t even reach the hatch to get out, and if we’d had to leave the ship the high wind would have ripped our ‘chutes to shreds.”

Dr. Frye, speaking of the bomb test, said that “the damage done by the blast was just about what was expected by all of the scientific groups.”

Dr. MacDonald added: “I think the atom bomb will be more difficult to control politically than scientifically.”

61

Seversky says A-bomb is just another bomb

HONOLULU, July 6 (AP) – Maj. Alexander de Seversky expressed his opinion today that the atomic bomb “in its present form definitely does not revolutionize the science of warfare.”

The proponent of air power, en route to the mainland after witnessing the Bikini test, acknowledged that, the bomb was “unquestionably the most efficient explosive so far devised,” but added that it “simply makes war technologically more complicated and therefore more costly.”

“While discovery of the atomic bomb is a great triumph for science and promises revolutionary changes in our existence,” Maj. De Seversky said, “the present atom bomb is still just another bomb.”