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Operation Crossroads

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3798j

3798j

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Operation Crossroads...July 1, 1946...80 years ago the first nuclear test (Able) was conducted near the Bikini Atoll. First the inhabitants were evacuated (167). Then a bunch of ships (no longer deemed needed) were brought in and positioned. Finally a B29 was used to drop the bomb.
Shipwrecks in the lagoon include:
USS Saratoga (CV-3) —aircraft carrier
USS Arkansas (BB-33) —battleship
USS Gilliam (APA-57) —attack transport
USS Carlisle (APA-69) —attack transport
USS Lamson (DD-367) —destroyer
USS Anderson (DD-411) —destroyer
USS Apogon (SS-308) —submarine
USS Pilotfish (SS-386) —submarine
Japanese battleship Nagato —battleship
Japanese cruiser Sakawa —light cruiser
German cruiser Prinz Eugen —heavy cruiser

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Operation Crossroads - Bikini Atoll.jpg
 
Thanks for posting this. One interesting outcome - you can't just wash "radioactivity" from a ship. Note the "smiling" men with no protective gear, scrubbing the deck of one of the test ships, after the explosion.

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Some attempts were made to use high pressure water hoses on a few of the ships, but unfortunately they were using contaminated radioactive water from the surrounding sea, to attempt the scrub downs.
 
I read Studs Terkel's The Good War years ago, it was written in the 70s and was an oral history of WWII. One of the last sections was a collection of stories from the sailors and soldiers exposed to radiation during their service. It was a rather depressing part to read but terribly important. One sailor who was at bikini remembered swabbing the decks of the ships after the test and even swimming in the atoll.
 
Yea, they didn't really understand radioactive contamination, they thought of it kind of like smoke or soot that wouldn't do more than cover the surface and be easily washed away. I've seen a number of things about the Crossroads tests and the open air desert tests and moving men through the areas. And the discovered long term effects like cancer that cropped up later.
 
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