Operation Crossroads

highsea

New Member
This is kind of fascinating, it really shows the survivability of some of the big ships of WW2 in a nuclear blast. The first test, Able, missed the center of the fleet by about 450-600 meters. The damage was surprisingly low to the vessels in the target area, and radiation contamination was transient.

The Baker test was an underwater test, and the radiation contamination of the surviving ships was a lot higher due to the radioactive spray and bottom debris that was kicked up.

Operation Crossroads was an atmospheric nuclear weapon test series conducted in the summer of 1946. The series consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 23 kilotons:
1. ABLE detonated at an altitude of 520 feet (158 meters) on 1 July
2. BAKER detonated 90 feet (27 meters) underwater on 25 July.

It was the first nuclear test held in the Marshall Islands.

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 captured 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.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq76-1.htm
There is a list of the vessels that were used in the tests, and their final dispositions here:

http://www.bikiniatoll.com/Ships.html

The picture is the Baker test.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
It's interesting in light of the Cuban Crisis. The Soviets deployed 5 subs each fitted with one nuke torpedo. They seemed to think that they could mess up an ASW task force. That seems odd logic to me as the ASW dedicated CV task forces were widely dispersed and a nuke wouldn't have done a lot of collateral damage as a result.

More intereresting (from the historical perspective) is that US intel "followed" them all the way from the north eastern bases right into Cuba. They were prepared to sink them if they didn't surface on command. They hunted down all except one. More of a worry is that the Soviet sub commanders were deemed "weapons free" - they had full autonomy to launch of their own volition if they deemed it necessary.

Frightening times....
 
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