Everything about Operation Crossroads totally explained
Operation Crossroads was a series of
nuclear weapon tests conducted by the
United States in the summer of 1946. The series consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 21 kilotons:
Able detonated at an altitude of 520 feet (158 m) on
1 July 1946;
Baker detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater on
25 July 1946. A third planned burst,
Charlie, was canceled. The Crossroads tests were the fourth and fifth nuclear explosions (following the
Trinity test and the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki). They were the first nuclear tests held in the
Marshall Islands, and the first to be publicly announced beforehand.
General information
The series was to study the effects of nuclear weapons on ships, equipment, and material. A fleet of more than 90 vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon as a target. This target fleet consisted of older U.S.
capital ships, three surrendered German and Japanese ships, surplus U.S.
cruisers,
destroyers and
submarines, and a large number of auxiliary and amphibious vessels. Military equipment was arrayed on some of the ships as well as amphibious craft that were berthed on
Bikini Island. Technical experiments were also conducted to study nuclear weapon explosion phenomena. Some experiments included the use of live animals.
The support fleet of more than 150 ships provided quarters, experimental stations, and workshops for most of the 42,000 men (more than 37,000 of whom were Navy personnel) of Joint Task Force 1 (JTF 1), the organization that conducted the tests. Additional personnel were located on nearby atolls such as
Eniwetok and
Kwajalein. The islands of the
Bikini Atoll were used primarily as recreation and instrumentation sites.
Before the first test, all personnel were evacuated from the target fleet and Bikini Atoll. These men were placed on units of the support fleet, which sortied from Bikini Lagoon and took safe positions at least 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) east of the atoll.
In the
Able test, the weapon was dropped from the
B-29 Superfortress Dave's Dream (formerly
Big Stink of the
509th Composite Group) and burst over the target fleet. In
Baker, the weapon was suspended beneath landing craft
LSM-60 anchored in the midst of the target fleet.
Baker was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater.
Able operations went smoothly except that the test weapon was dropped between 1,500 and 2,000 feet (450 and 600 m) off target. The miss resulted in a government investigation of the flight crew of the B-29 bomber. Eventually, it was generally agreed that the bomb had a flaw in the tail stabilizer, causing the miss, and the flight crew was cleared of any suspicion. The plutonium core of the
Able shot had been previously nicknamed the
Demon core by scientists at Los Alamos after it twice went critical in experiments in 1945 and 1946; in each incident, it had killed a scientist.
The
radioactivity created by the burst had only a transient effect, and within a day nearly all the surviving target ships had been safely reboarded. The ship inspections, instrument recoveries, and remooring necessary for the
Baker test proceeded on schedule. Five ships were sunk as a result of the test.
The crews of the target ships that had been remanned following
Able were evacuated before
Baker to the support fleet east of the atoll.
Baker sank eight ships and damaged more ships than
Able. The detonation caused most of the target fleet to be bathed in radioactive water spray and radioactive debris from the lagoon bottom. With the exception of 12 target vessels anchored in the array and the landing craft beached on Bikini Island, the target fleet remained too
radiologically contaminated for several weeks for more than brief on-board activities.
Charlie was to explode deep under the surface, and indeed the test intended for
Charlie was later carried out in
Operation Wigwam.
Charlie would have tested the effects of using nuclear weapons as depth charges. However, perhaps because of the problems with contamination from
Baker, the
Charlie shot was subsequently cancelled. The official reason for canceling
Charlie was that it was felt unnecessary after the success of the
Able and
Baker tests, and it was deemed less pressing when the entire US arsenal was only a handful of such weapons.
The inability to complete inspections on much of the target fleet threatened the success of the operation after
Baker. A program of target vessel decontamination was begun in earnest about
1 August. This involved washing the ships' exteriors using work crews drawn from the target ships' companies under radiological supervision of monitors equipped with radiation detection and measurement devices. Initially, decontamination was slow because the safe time aboard the target ships was measured only in minutes. As time progressed, the support fleet had become contaminated by the low-level radioactivity in marine growth on the ships' hulls and seawater piping systems.
The 1988 film
Radio Bikini was nominated for the
Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Directed by
Robert Stone, it recounts the story of Operation Crossroads, concentrating on how it affected the Bikini islanders (they were deported
en masse to
Rongerik Atoll) and the servicemen who took part in the operation. The film almost exclusively uses archival footage, much of it in colour. Video of the Crossroads
Baker explosion is among the most often shown video of a nuclear explosion, and exists in many sources.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Operation Crossroads'.
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