Operation Crossroads

82

Fear that U.S. is imperiled slows atom bomb legislation

By the Associated Press

A report that Oak Ridge security officers think “the peace and security of the United States is definitely in danger” threw a roadblock against the administration’s atomic control legislation today.

House Republicans showed a disposition to sidetrack all such bills until world conditions become more settled.

Rep. Elston (R-Ohio) put it this way: “Before we talk about entering into international agreements concerning atomic energy, we should reach other agreements concerning the future of world peace. We shouldn’t put the cart before the horse.”

He was commenting on a report read to the House yesterday by Rep. Thomas (R-New Jersey), ranking minority member of the Committee on Un-American Activities.

Foreign links seen

The report, by Ernie Adamson, chief investigator for the committee, said he and Chairman Wood had been investigating “subversive activities” at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, atomic project and had found that:

  • Members of scientific societies there “are very active in support of international civilian control” of atomic materials and are “devoted to the creation of some form of world government.”

  • Some officers of the societies “admit communication with persons outside of the United States…”

  • “The security officers at Oak Ridge think that the peace and security of the United States is definitely in danger.”

Walter C. Beard Jr. and John H Bull of the Oak Ridge Engineers and Scientists said in a statement last night their organization “has at all times remained within the security bounds” defined by the Manhattan district security officer.

“We never have been accused of violating project security,” they asserted.

Bikini report also filed

Along with the House Committee report, the lawmakers had a matter-of-fact digest of the damage wrought by the Bikini test bomb.

This report, submitted by a special evaluation board, composed of Army and Navy experts and headed by Dr. Karl T. Compton, noted physicist, was released by President Tinman at his news conference yesterday.

The findings of the Compton Board, which was created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were paralleled by those of a presidential board headed by Sen. Hatch (D-New Mexico), which likewise were made public by the president presenting a “laymen’s point of view.”

The Compton Board said that although the Bikini bomb exploded some 1,500 to 2,000 feet west of the target, it behaved about as expected and that “in general no significant unexpected phenomena occurred.”

The Compton Board also said more ships than ever before were damaged by a single explosion – an oblique answer to some observers who thought the bomb’s effects were less than were to be expected.

More direct on this point was the Hatch board, which said that the critical observers were a “conservatively safe distance” from the explosion, and that the bomb’s effect “was of the same order of magnitude as in the case of previous atomic detonations.”

Both groups said that the initial test was justified, and the Compton commission – with which the others agreed – said that the second test, under water, still to come, “is equally desirable and necessary.”

Surveying the results, this group listed the ships sunk and damaged, and noted:

“It should be pointed out that since the targets carried no personnel the fires were uncontrolled and undoubtedly there was more damage than there would have been under battle conditions.”

Pursuing the point that the bombed craft were unmanned, their report said: “Examination of the flash burn effects produced by the initial radiation from the explosion indicates that casualties would have been high among exposed personnel. However, it is the opinion of the board that persons sheltered within the hull of a ship or even on deck in the shadow of radiation from the bomb would not have been immediately incapacitated by burns alone, whatever might have been the subsequent radiological effects.

“Within the area of extensive blast damage to ship superstructures there is evidence that personnel within the ships would have been exposed to a lethal dosage of radiological effects.

“Personnel casualties due to blast would no doubt have been high for those in exposed positions on vessels within one-half mile of the target center. Beyond this, any discussion of the blast effect upon personnel will have to await the detailed reports of the medical specialists.”

Ship design changes urged

Stressing the importance of the initial experiment, the report said: “The test has provided adequate data of a sort necessary for the redesign of naval vessels to minimize damage to superstructures and deck personnel from this type of bomb.”

The House originally was slated to start debate next week on domestic atomic energy control legislation, including the administration-backed Senate bill providing for exclusive civilian control through a five-member commission.

But after hearing Rep. Thomas’ Oak Ridge report, members of the Rules Committee showed a disinclination to send any measure along for floor discussion.

Rep. Elston said: “The way things stand now the bomb is under control of the Army and we know the secret is safe. It will remain that way so long as there is no legislation changing the status.”

83

The Pittsburgh Press (July 12, 1946)

Atomic test spurs change in ship design

Army-Navy board reports on Bikini

WASHINGTON (UP) – Atomic experts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported to President Truman yesterday that the atomic bomb dropped at Bikini “damaged more ships than have ever before been damaged by a single explosion.”

A preliminary report of the Joint Chiefs of Staff evaluation board said the test demonstrated the necessity for redesigning naval vessels to minimize damage to superstructures and to deck personnel of naval craft from atom bombs.

The experts composing the Joint Chiefs of Staff board said that because the first test was an air burst, little information was obtained on how the bomb would affect hulls of the naval vessels.

More tests slated

A shallow underwater atom bomb test is scheduled for July 25 at Bikini, and a deep-water test explosion is planned later.

Damage to hulls will be studied specifically after the second test.

Members of the board were Dr. Karl P. Compton, chairman; Bradley Dewey, Thomas F. Farrell, Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, Lt. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, Rear Adm. W. R. Purnell and Rear Adm. R. A, Ofstie.

The board said its present information was that the bomb exploded with an intensity “which approached the best of the three previous atomic bombs.”

The explosion point was 1,500 to 2,000 feet west of the target ship Nevada and approximately at the planned altitude, the board said.

The board listed the damage caused to the ships and said that personnel casualties from the blast would have been high for persons in exposed positions on the ships within a half mile of the target center.

Two sank promptly

A destroyer and two transports sank promptly. Another destroyer capsized and later sank. The Jap cruiser Sakawa sank the following day. The superstructure of the submarine Skate was so badly damaged that it was unsafe to submerge her. The light cruiser Independence was badly wrecked.

These were vessels within a half mile of the explosion point.

The battleships Nevada and Arkansas and the heavy cruiser Pensacola, also within the half-mile area, took the explosion on their after quarters. Apparently little damage was done to their hulls or main turrets, but their superstructures were wrecked.

The board said there was no doubt that these three big ships were out of action and along with many others within three-fourths of a mile, would have required extensive repairs at a principal naval base.

The board said there was little damage to ships anchored beyond three-fourths of a mile from the explosion point.

84

Gus the goat dies; bombed at Bikini

By the North American Newspaper Alliance

KWAJALEIN – Correspondents were saddened to learn tonight via the grapevine from Bikini of the death of one of the two most famous animal survivors of the Able-Day blast.

Gus the goat, renowned resident of the battleship Nevada, who greeted unblinkingly from the quarterdeck members of the first boarding party the day after the explosion, is dead.

Of his eminent contemporary, Pig 311, who pluckily leaped from the sinking Sakawa and swam until rescued, no late word has been received.

85

Atom bomb films showing at Penn

First newsreel pictures from Bikini will go on the screen at the Penn today.

MGM News of the Day has rushed a special release to Pittsburgh, and the films are said to provide a dramatic picture of this historic moment in world history.

More than 300 cameras and several million feet of film were exposed when the atom bomb was dropped. Films were rushed from the far Pacific to Anacostia, D.C., where the Navy laboratory developed them.

The footage was turned over to News of the Day for editing into the reel.

86

Wiener Kurier (July 13, 1946)

Nächste Atombombe wird ferngezündet sein

Vorschau auf den Versuch vom 25. Juli

An Bord der „Mount McKinley“ (AND.-INS.) - Unter Leitung Vizeadmirals Blandys werden gegenwärtig die Vorbereitungen für den zweiten Atombombenversuch durchgeführt und überprüft.

Wie Blandy persönlich bekanntgab, findet der Abwurf der zweiten Atombombe am 25. Juli statt. Eine Versuchsattrappe wird nach Eintritt besseren Wetters bereits morgen abgeworfen werden.

Der Abwurf der 5. Atombombe wird in die seichten Gewässer der Lagune des Bikini-Atolls erfolgen. Als Neuerung wird jedoch ein sensationeller Zündungsvorgang verwendet: Durch eine zusammenhängende Folge von Stromstößen die durch die Rundfunkstation Cumberland ausgesendet werden, wird die Bombe, die unter der Wasseroberfläche zur Explosion gebracht werden soll, vor einem frühzeitigen Scharfwerden geschützt. Der hiebei verwendete, in der Bombe eingebaute Mechanismus ähnelt einem Sicherheitsschloß mit 17 Kombinationsnummern. Donald Fink, ein Gelehrter auf dem Gebiete der Atomenergie erklärte, daß Elektrizitätswellen durch die Explosion einer Atombombe nicht verändert werden. Diese Erfahrung stelle eine wertvolle Grundlage für die Verwendung elektrisch gesteuerter Geschosse dar.

Bei dem zweiten Versuch dürften das alte Schlachtschiff „Arkansas“ und der Flugzeugträger „Saratoga“ die dem Explosionszentrum am nächsten gelegenen Schiffe sein. Admiral Blandy nimmt an daß die Schiffe bei der Explosion durch eine Wassersäule hoch in die Luft geschleudert werden.

Dr. Norris Bradbury; der Leiter des Versuchslaboratoriums, erklärte gestern, er nehme an, daß bei dieser zweiten Explosion nur geringe oder überhaupt keine Lichteffekte zu beobachten sein werden.

Alle nicht zu dem Versuch gehörenden Schiffe sind aufgefordert worden, die Nähe Bikinis zu meiden und kein Wasser für Trinkzwecke oder sonstige Verwendung aufzunehmen.

Das Internationale Rote Kreuz will Atombombe ächten

Die nächste Woche stattfindenden Vollversammlung der Gesellschaft des Roten Kreuzes wird ein Antrag vorgelegt werden, das Genfer Übereinkommen dahingehend zu revidieren, daß auch die Atombombe und ähnliche Waffen geächtet werden sollen.

Der Antrag wurde von dem Unterausschuß der Kommission für internationale Angelegenheiten entworfen und einstimmig angenommen.

Rußland, Polen, Jugoslawien, Frankreich und Belgien hatten ebenfalls ihre Vertreter in den Unterausschuß entsendet.

87

L’Aube (July 13, 1946)

CONCLUSIONS DE BIKINI:
La construction des navires de guerre devra être modifiée

La bombe de Bikini « a endommagé plus de navires que ne l’a jamais fait l’explosion d’une seule bombe ».

C’est ainsi que s’exprime le rapport préliminaire que le « bureau des expertises » vient de remettre au président Truman.

D’après ce même rapport cette expérience a prouvé d’une façon concluante qu’il est nécessaire de modifier la construction des navires afin de réduire au minimum les dégâts qu’une bombe de ce genre est susceptible de causer à lo superstructure et aux ponts, et de réduire également les pertes en hommes.

Le rapport rappelle que la bombe a explosé en loir et que d’autre port lo disposition des navires-cibles n’était nullement conforme à celle d’une escadre en bataille.

Déflagration et incendies

Il y e lieu de distinguer, ajoute le rapport, entre les dégâts dus à la déflagration et ceux provenant de l’incendie. Il est à noter que l’absence d’équipages a empêché de combattre le feu en temps utile. Si l’équipement divers qui se trouvait placé sur les ponts s’est montré très vulnérable, « il est curieux de constater qu’une partie considérable des munitions exposées sur les ponts et dons les tourelles des canons n’a pas fait explosion ou a souté pour des raisons indirectes, telles que les incendies »

Les pertes en hommes auraient été élevées

L’explosion de la bombe a eu lieu entre 450 et 500 mètres à l’ouest du « Nevada » et approximativement à l’altitude prévue. Les pertes en hommes auraient été extrêmement élevées, du moins pour tous les hommes occupant des postes découverts, sur tous les navires situés dons un rayon d’un demi-mile (800 mètres du centre de l’explosion).

De l’ensemble du rapport se dégage l’impression que les ex semblent pleinement satisfaits des résultats acquis, donnant aux recherches scientifiques « un ensemble de données inestimables » justifiant pleinement la dépense engagée.

Et les experts concluent : « Seules de nouvelles recherches sur une grande échelle permettront aux Etats-Unis de conserver leur position actuelle de chef de file dons ce domaine, conformément à l’intérêt de la sécurité nationale ».

88

The Evening Star (July 13, 1946)

Editorial: Evaluating Bikini

In their generalized preliminary reports on the Bikini test, the president’s evaluation board and the evaluation board of the Joint Chiefs of Staff use calm and conservative language, but they make grimly clear that the atomic bomb, in its first contest with sea power, has lost none of its terrible prestige as by far the deadliest and most revolutionary explosive force ever developed by man.

Detonated in midair over the target fleet at Bikini, it effected in comparably more damage than any ordinary bomb could have done. It sank two destroyers, two transports and a Japanese cruiser. It rendered a submarine inoperable. It “badly wrecked” the light carrier Independence. It started numerous fires on other vessels. It shattered the superstructures of the battleships Nevada and Arkansas and the heavy cruiser Pensacola, all three of which “were unquestionably put out of action,” as were many others within three-fourths of a mile of the explosion point. Beyond that distance it wrought relatively little havoc but within it, it apparently crippled most units to a degree that would normally require extensive repairs at major naval bases.

Moreover, in the opinion of both evaluation boards, if crews had been aboard the target fleet, flash-burn casualties would have been high among exposed personnel. As for men within the ships, at stations below decks or otherwise covered, they probably would not have been “immediately incapacitated,” but evidence indicates that within the area of extensive damage – stretching a half mile or three-quarters of a mile in every direction from the explosion point – they would have been exposed to lethal radiation, dying later on as many Japanese did after the shattering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That one bomb could be so gruesomely devastating may still seem almost too fantastic to be credible, but the incontrovertible fact is that that is the kind of weapon it is – new to human experience, destructive to a point difficult to comprehend, but an appalling reality nonetheless. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have shown the world what it means in relation to cities. Bikini – where the second and perhaps deadlier phase of the test, a shallow subsurface explosion, will be staged later in the month – is showing us what it means in relation to sea power. Fleets of some sort will exist, of course, as long as the oceans exist, but it is clear, as the evaluation boards point out, that ships will have to be redesigned to minimize as much as possible the awful things that the atom can do to them.

Wholly apart from its highly valuable service to the general field of science and engineering, the historic Bikini experiment thus is worth every penny spent on it, not merely as a guide to future naval planning and construction, but also as a stark reminder of the fact that nothing will be safe in this world on land or sea – if atomic energy is not subjected to a genuinely effective system of international control.

89

Seaman who sabotaged cruiser put on probation

HONOLULU (AP) – Fireman 2/c Robert J. Eby of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, who entered a plea of guilty to sabotaging the Japanese cruiser Sakawa while it was being moved to Bikini by American naval men, has been restored to active duty on six months’ probation, Capt. B. D. Wood, 14th Naval District legal officer, said yesterday.

Eby originally was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and a dishonorable discharge.

Adm. John L. Hall of the 14th Naval District, reviewed the case and reduced the sentence to 12 months’ imprisonment and a bad conduct discharge and then ordered it held in abeyance during the probationary period.

90

Films describe atom test as no words ever could

By Harry MacArthur

The newsreels too often are relegated the task of providing mere pictorial footnotes to the news you already have read and heard. By their nature they seldom come up with a news beat, telling you something you had not already learned from newspaper or radio. Theirs must always be the follow-up job, clearing up with a few pictures the confused imaginings of a scene that has been bred by a few thousand words.

Words mean different things to every reader and listener, but a picture is irrefutable. A picture is the evidence after you have heard one newscaster tell you a town has been inundated while another tells you that there is a foot of water in the lowlands, but outlying sections are untouched. The newsreels are there to tell you which one was right.

There are times, of course, when newsreels do a job that words could never do. The excellent photographs of the Hindenburg disaster should come instantly to your mind. The explosion of a large dirigible is not within the experience of too many people and the news that one has done so may or may not bring the right picture before you. Anyone who saw those memorable films, which almost carried with them the blistering heat, knows, however, what a dirigible explosion looks like, thanks to the newsreels.

Which brings us finally to the latest admirable job of the news cameramen, the reels showing the explosion of the atomic bomb over Bikini Lagoon. The sight of atomic fission in violent action is not within the experience of any great number of us – yet – but these newsreels on local screens now will give you a clearer notion of what it is like than any thousands of words of description from the correspondents or any static-ridden mutterings from the radio.

The films make one wonder what those writers on the scene, who professed disappointment with the test, were expecting. They may not have been blinded, radiation-burned or knocked overboard by the Bikini blast, but that sudden burst of flame, and the following grumbling rise of the doom-ridden atomic cloud, provide as awesome a sight as ever you have seen on any movie screen. Paramount’s is the reel we saw and if the others are edited as skillfully, any one of them certainly is worth your time and money.

91

The Pittsburgh Press (July 13, 1946)

Bigger A-bombs or more? Next Bikini test may tell

Experts need additional evidence, expect to get answer on July 25
By S. Burton Heath

BIKINI, July 12 (special) – A larger and more devastating atomic bomb than the so-called Nagasaki type, which is the current standard, might result from these Crossroads tests unless some international agreement outlaws the production of such bombs.

This development is by no means a certainty. There does not yet exist sufficient evidence upon which the experts can decide whether a larger A-bomb – or, perhaps more accurately, an A-bomb containing a more potent charge – is either necessary or desirable.

The second test, in which a bomb will be exploded under water at the center of a target fleet, now scheduled for July 25, will be essential to any decision, and even that will leave some-pertinent questions unanswered.

It is clear at this time that a single A-bomb of the Nagasaki type, exploded over close-clustered ships from a height of about 1000 feet, causes distinctly limited structural damage.

Choice of three moves

Nevertheless, the explosion and its observable results have now informed the public what the experts knew – that if any nation desired to wipe out an enemy task force with the A-bomb it would have to do one of three things:

  • Use a very much more powerful type.

  • Explode the bomb under very different conditions.

  • Use a considerable number of bombs, just as was done with conventional types before the A-bomb came along.

The second test, when it is made, will furnish evidence as to what a Nagasaki-type bomb can accomplish against sturdy capital ships when it has water to contain and pass on the vigor of its explosion.

If, even under those conditions, it develops that the Nagasaki type can not be counted upon to incapacitate more than one or two capital ships, then the military and naval experts will have to decide whether it would prove sound policy to step up the standard bomb’s plutonium content or to rely upon use of a larger number of Nagasaki type projectiles.

Expect changes

Some experience during the late war might suggest distributing available plutonium in a large number of less potent bombs than the Nagasaki type. But this is impossible. Persons in position to know insist that the current type contains the smallest charge that is capable of maintaining the chain reaction necessary for explosion.

The top administrators of this task force are being extremely careful neither to leap to conclusions nor to permit casual replies to questions to be so misinterpreted. But Maj. Gen. W. E. Kempner, deputy commander for aviation, after careful pondering of a question, indicated that changes in the bomb or in the method of its utilization might well result.

“We can never stand still,” he said. “We must go either forward or backward. We might well want to vary either the bomb or our use of it, to take advantage of lessons learned in these tests.”

Couldn’t be smaller

There is no apparent reason why a vastly more potent bomb than the Nagasaki type, the best yet developed, could not be produced if the experts should decide it was needed.

The Nagasaki type is the one exploded in New Mexico, at Nagasaki and at Bikini. The Hiroshima bomb was an earlier version, already obsolete when used, but utilized, as Dr. N. E. Bradbury of the Los Alamos laboratory told us, because it was on hand and seemed like a good one to initiate the Japs with.

The only reason that no larger bomb has yet been produced, according to one informant in position to know, is because it was thought the existing type was as big as was needed.

“It couldn’t be made smaller, and exploded. It was big enough to devastate 10 square miles and destroy an entire city. Why make it larger?” this expert inquired.

But that was before the bomb was tried against shins of the line, which have proven themselves infinitely more durable than a Jap city, at least.

92

The Evening Star (July 14, 1946)

Atom bomb may expose bottom of lagoon for few seconds

By W. H. Shippen Jr., Star staff correspondent

ABOARD THE CARRIER SAIDOR IN BIKINI LAGOON, July 13 – Nature is apt to go berserk momentarily when the atomic bomb gets its underwater test, or at least that is the prediction of the same scientists who called their shots quite accurately before the first demonstration.

If the deep-sea blast does the things expected, the waters of Bikini Lagoon may roll back like the Biblical Red Sea, leaving the coral floor of the lagoon scorched and exposed for several seconds.

The scientific observers also look for a tremendous upheaval of the ocean, perhaps resulting in five to 15 million tons of water being sprayed as high as 25,000 feet.

Enormous bubble expected

An enormous bubble of water is anticipated to grow at a fantastic rate, and on bursting is likely to form a gigantic waterspout and leave a great cavity in the ocean.

The scientists were careful to point out that this sort of strong magic may not come about, but they will not be the least surprised if all these tricks actually do take place.

Scientists and technicians who are now solidifying final plans for the atomic bomb’s first liquid test on or after July 25 submitted to a mass interview so that the jury of the American public will not be confused by conflicting hearsay.

No one is going to wear blinkers for the underwater blast. Brig. Gen. T. S. Power, 2480 16th St. N.W., Washington, admitted he missed the first three seconds of the flash of the first Bikini atom bomb explosion July 1 because of dark goggles. He was flying in his Superfort at 23,000 feet and 15 miles from the target.

May have four-mile range

How would the underwater blast appear anyhow to the average citizen and the wife and kids back in Washington?

The answers were given by people like Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, boss of Operation Crossroads; Dr. M. P. O’Brien, University of California oceanographer; Dr. G. K. Hartman, principal civilian scientist with the Navy Ordnance Bureau or Dr. N. E. Bradburg, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. The answer, with the exception of Adm. Blandy’s which we got on his flagship Friday, were given today at an informal press conference in the air-cooled “ready room” for pilots of the Saidor.

It is these pilots whose primary mission will be photography from their torpedo planes, bombers, fighters and helicopters.

Task Force Commander Blandy estimated that radioactive material might be projected some four miles, with downwind safety plans made accordingly. Estimates of specialists range from under two miles to five miles. The men are frank to say they are guessing, although the guesses are based on related information including under-surface tests at Solomon’s Island, Maryland.

We watched through dark glasses on July 1 and in the underwater blast there is a possibility that the heat and incandescence within the water column may be visible in the daylight. There is also a remote chance that the reduction of water particles to hydrogen and oxygen may create a reaction giving off strong light. The tall steam geyser is not expected to renew itself by secondary shock reflected from the lagoon bottom. The secondary shock probably will come as flame, heat and spray.

150-pound sea bass hooked

Reporters speculated on the possibility that the target fleet might be deluged with thousands of tons of heavy water and steamed fish, including filet of shark, tuna, sea bass and devilfish or manta ray.

Aviators in a helicopter flying from this carrier recently spotted a school of some 30 rays at the channel entrance to the lagoon, each from 25 to 30 feet across with flippers gently rolling on the surface near the fantail of Adm. Blandy’s flagship.

Yesterday sailors hooked a 150-pound sea bass and Blandy not only loaned his own boat to help them land the fish but was presently leafing through a scientific book to help identify the finny monster.

Dr. Bradburg is positive the bomb cannot explode prematurely. The detonation will be set off by an elaborate system of locks, keys and radio relays, each of which will stop the explosion.

If all seems to be going well, split-second time clocks will take over although their operation can be halted manually at any time.

It seems like precision machinery rather than a human hand will release the bomb.

93

The Pittsburgh Press (July 14, 1946)

Ships warned to avoid area west of Bikini

Atom test to make water radioactive

ABOARD USS MT. MCKINLEY, off Bikini, July 13 (UP) – Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Operation Crossroads, today ordered all ships to steer clear of the areas west of Bikini to Eniwetok on and after July 25, the date of the underwater atom bomb test.

Adm. Blandy warned all shipping that radioactive water was expected to flow westward from Bikini Lagoon for some time after the blast.

Face dangerous water

He said all ships between Bikini and Eniwetok, 200 miles to the west, would be susceptible to radioactive water. He said they might absorb the dangerous waters in condensers and evaporators. It is not altogether improbable, he said, that thunderheads, created by the bomb burst, would shower radioactive rain on craft in the area.

Adm. Blandy outlined plans for the shallow underwater test. He said plans called for an air phase rehearsal July 14, followed on July 19 by William Day, a full-dress rehearsal of the test with the exception of the actual detonation of the bomb on Baker Day.

Adm. Blandy said the “queen of the carriers,” the Saratoga, which escaped serious damage in the Able Day test, may go to her doom in Test Baker.

Sara to be target ship

The carrier, which played a leading role in the conquest of the Marshalls, will be one of the target ships centered nearest the eruption. The Sara is sure to be showered with the heavy waterfall expected from a column of water. The column, predicted to be a half-mile in diameter, will shoot thousands of feet in the air and blast ship fragments and water two miles high.

The target array has not been determined, Adm. Blandy said.

94

In wake of atom bomb –
Radioactivity, not blast, worries Navy men most

Warships like Civil War monitor likely; fleet called safest type of U.S. defense
By Jim G. Lucas, Scripps-Howard staff writer

PEARL HARBOR, July 13 – Here at the crossroads of the Pacific, Navy men, from high brass to lowliest sailor, are discussing the size and shape of ships in the atomic age.

Every man has his own ideas. There is fairly general agreement on two points:

  • Hulls withstood the blast of the atom bomb at Bikini and they can be strengthened to resist almost anything except a direct hit or a very near miss.

  • Guns must be taken below decks, or given a protective covering.

Navy men here are not so much concerned about the force of an atomic blast as they are about its after effects – radioactivity. They pot out that the carrier Independence, most heavily damaged capital ship at Bikini, could have been saved from fires and secondary explosions which left her a gutted wreck if fire control crews had been able to board her as promptly as they got on ships on the rim of the target circle.

For centuries men have been able to devise protective and counter-offenses for concussion weapons and it is likely we can build a ship able to withstand the atom bomb. But radioactivity is something new and no defense against it is yet known.

Many officers here believe that ships of the atomic age will resemble the Civil War Monitor with everything below decks. Or they may look like a steel-topped floating covered wagon with a canopy enclosing the deck. They think naval guns will be rocket shooting.

Far from forcing us to scrap our ships, the Navy believes the Bikini test will prove them our safest defense investment. With an ocean in which to maneuver, improved mobility and speed and a covering of rocket-firing, jet-propelled planes, Navy men argue a fleet will be relatively safe. Certainly, they insist, it will be safer than shore establishments.

This however does not solve the problem of maintaining and protecting shore bases on which a Navy depends for fuel and supplies.

The Navy’s role may be to station a fleet, predominantly a carrier force, far enough out to intercept atom bomb bearing planes before they reach their objective.

95

Bikini pilot becomes father of 9-pound boy

TAMPA, Florida, July 13 (UP) – The stork arrived last night with a nine-pound boy for Maj. and Mrs. Woodrow P. Swancutt of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, just 26 hours after the Army pilot landed his Bikini B-29 “Dave’s Dream,” here to be on hand for the event.

The atom bomb test pilot must report to Roswell, New Mexico, Monday.

The new Swancutt baby is the couple’s third child. They have two daughters, Wendie, four, and Carolyn, two.

96

Wiener Kurier (July 15, 1946)

Penicillin und Bluttransfusionen für die Versuchstiere von Bikini

Blutzersetzung beginnt sich auszuwirken

Bikini Atoll (UP.) - Über 90 Prozent der an Bord der Versuchsflotte befindlichen Ratten sind nach den Erklärungen Captain George Lyons an den Luftdruck-, Hitze- und Strahlenwirkungen der Atombombe zugrunde gegangen.

Captain Lyons, der diesen Teil des Experiments leitet, gab bekannt, daß von den 150 Schweinen, 150 Ziegen und 310 Ratten, die sich auf den Schiffen im Zielgebiet befanden, 10 Schweine 10 Ziegen und 300 Ratten den erlittenen Verletzungen, beziehungsweise der Wirkung der Blutzersetzung erlagen. Ein Teil dieser Tiere dürfte jedoch nicht infolge der eigentlichen Explosion verendet, sondern verdurstet sein, da die Gefäße mit Wasser für die Tiere vom Luftdruck vielfach weggeschleudert wurden.

Man versucht, die überlebenden durch Penicillin und Bluttransfusionen zu retten, doch wird vermutlich noch ein Teil der größeren Tiere, bei denen sich die Folgen des Experiments erst nach und nach zeigen, zugrunde gehen. Tiere, die schwere Verletzungen davontrugen, werden mit Hilfe von Injektionen von ihren Schmerzen befreit.

97

The Wilmington Morning Star (July 15, 1946)

Bikini animals reported dying

Report from animal ship says animals ‘dying like flies’

KWAJALEIN (UP) – A report that Bikini test animals have begun “dying like flies” came Monday from the USS Burleson, highly-secret animal ship from which reporters have been barred.

An officer who visited the Burleson said animals that appear healthy and have a normal blood count one day “drop off the next day.”

Asked whether any animals would be taken to the United States for further study, as originally planned, the officer exclaimed: “What animals?”

The inference was that at the rate the animals were dying recently there soon would be few if any left.

On July 10, Navy Capt. Shields Warren, Harvard pathologist, said the survivors would be taken to the universities of Chicago, California, Cornell, Harvard, Rochester and Stanford and the Navy Laboratory at Bethesda, Maryland, for a long-term study of radiation effects.

Another officer said that the amazing Pig 311, fished from the waters of Bikini Lagoon after the July 1 atomic bomb explosion, still was alive Sunday.

He understood, however, that Pig 311 was showing a diminishing blood count and other internal signs of damage.

Doctors were reported trying to prevent No. 311 from becoming seriously ill by using penicillin and other treatment.

At the indicated rate the animals are dying, it now seems fairly certain the atomic bomb radioactivity at Bikini was far more deadly than many had thought.

One captain, after studying conditions aboard his target ship in the lagoon, estimated it would have been a personnel loss of 70 percent had it been manned.

98

The Evening Star (July 15, 1946)

Bikini animals die like flies of blast radiation

KWAJALEIN (AP) – Atomic bomb violence as Bikini was considerably greater than at first pictured, it was intimated today by an officer, who reported that animals which withstood the concussion of the blast now are “dying like flies.”

The officer, who visited the highly secret animal ship Burleson, said the animals may appear healthy and have a normal blood count one day and just “drop off the next day.”

When asked whether the animals would be taken to the United States for studies of the effect of radiation, as had been announced, the officer asked in return, “what animals?”

The implication was that the studies might all have to be post-mortems.

Amazing Pig 311, fished from the waters of the lagoon after the blast, is still alive, an officer reported. He said, however, he understood the pig was beginning to show signs of radiation damage, and was being given penicillin and other treatments.

99

Man to man –
Ickes: Atom bomb test held proof nations must heed Baruch words

By Harold L. Ickes

A year ago tomorrow the atomic age was opened by the explosion of a bomb in New Mexico. President Roosevelt had made one of the most momentous decisions in all history when he authorized the expenditure of more than two billion dollars in preparation for this event. A fateful year of fruitless indecision has intervened, during which the governments of the world have failed to take steps so that the human race might survive.

Suspense and suspicion are on the increase.

Exactly one month ago the Baruch proposal for international control of atomic energy was submitted to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. Five days later, Russia offered another plan. Fundamentally these two plans are diametrically opposed. Mr. Baruch, as do the rest of us, wants world peace. We are willing to pay the high price for it of trusteeing the atomic secret with the United Nations. Russia. too, wants peace and proposes to pay for it by an “outlawry of war” agreement, which has never worked and never will work. And Russia must know this. Meantime, even as an effort is being made to reconcile the differences in the two plans, this nation proceeds with its atomic bomb tests.

Perplexed by tests

I confess that I am perplexed as to the nature and purpose of the Bikini tests, while I am appalled by the reckless expenditure of money in connection with them. Are they for scientific purposes? In late May of this year the Federation of American Scientists stated that scientists are not professionally interested in these tests, and that they were purely military. “Scientists expect nothing of scientific value and little of technical value to peacetime uses of atomic energy as a result of these tests,” the statement said.

Further, the scientists say that their co-operation in the project is at the behest of the armed forces of the nation, a co-operation that is given reluctantly and without enthusiasm. It is the physical scientists who take this position. Biologists, ichthyologists and some other scientists say that the experiments are of value.

Are they for military purposes? Perhaps And yet it seems to me to be shocking that the United States, or any other nation for that matter, should at this time give any indication, however remote, that it is preparing for atomic warfare. This is not a time for martial gestures; it is not a time for public exercises in the art of modern war. The Navy asserts that the tests are necessary to determine what changes in ship design or types are required as the result of the atomic bomb.

Various senators have urged the experiments as a prerequisite to voting on the $5,000,000,000 naval appropriation bill. Any defense of these tests for the latter reason serves only to add fuel to the smoldering coals of distrust, since the ordinary citizen of the world will surely interpret a $5,000,000,000 naval appropriation as an effort to prepare for something other than world peace.

But let us agree that the Bikini tests are not warfare tests, nor scientific tests. Are they then diplomatic tests, designed to impress upon the peoples of the earth that some immediate international control, is imperative? Is the Bikini experiment diplomacy by intimidation? If so, it is in bad taste – and badly timed.

Navy has its say

Whatever its purpose, it is impossible to believe that the United States will not be regarded as acting in bad faith. I submit that if it were Russia that was carrying out the atom bomb tests, somewhere in the Aleutian chain of islands, let us say, a great many Americans would find cause for deep concern about the future peace of the world. One might point out that distrust begets distrust.

The Baruch proposal expands upon the excellent ideas originally embodied in the Acheson report. It is now under consideration by the United Nations and is generally regarded as a sagacious and practicable approach to the problem of atomic energy control. I feel sure that if the president were to announce on this anniversary that, because of the desperate necessity for arriving at some mutually acceptable plan for international atomic energy control, he was ordering the suspension of further tests for a reasonable time so that some agreement might be reached, it would substantially strengthen America’s position. It would raise to a high pitch faith in America’s unalterable will to peace and would enhance the probability of the acceptance of the Baruch plan.

Peace for humankind is in gestation at Luxembourg Palace, Paris, France, and not at lonely Bikini Atoll, Southwest Pacific.

The experiments at Bikini mean suspicion of our purpose; they mean rivalry generated by desperation; they mean more tests, more bombs, and more tests, until that hapless day when the reckless misuse of God’s power explodes and sweeps us all into the rubble-littered dustpan of oblivion.

100

The Pittsburgh Press (July 15, 1946)

Tampa maternity ward has big day for news

TAMPA, Florida (UP) – The maternity ward at Municipal Hospital was very much in the news today.

A 15-pound son was born to Sgt. and Mrs. William Barrett. Two older Barrett children weighed 12 and 14 pounds at birth.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Denney, both blind, announced the birth of their second daughter. Both children have normal eyesight.

A famous father, Maj. Woodrow P. Swancutt, who piloted the B-29 “Dave’s Dream” in the Bikini atom bomb test, announced that he had named his two-day-old son Woodrow P. Swancutt Jr.

101

L’Aube (July 16, 1946)

ÉPIDÉMIE MORTELLE chez les animaux cobayes de Bikini

où se déroulera vendredi la « répétition générale » de l’acte II

Les animaux cobayes de Bikini se mettent à mourir en série…

Ces animaux qui semblaient avoir sans dommage subi l’action de la bombe atomique succombent à la destruction des globules rouges du sang, consécutive à l’action des éléments radioactifs ; et cela quinze jours après « l’expérience ». L’effet de la bombe atomique serait donc beaucoup plus meurtrier qu’on ne pouvait le croire tout d’abord.

La répétition générale du « deuxième essai » aura lieu vendredi. Le système de déclanchement sera expérimenté avec un engin charge seulement de poudre.