(His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Ship Nagato. Photo USN). On 26 November, 1941, the Combined Fleet and its Kidō Butai (also known as the Carrier Striking Task Force) set sail from Hittokapu Bay in Japan’s Kurile Islands under the overall command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He had personally selected the battleship Nagato as his flagship, the […]

(Deck Department conducting decontamination drill on one of the support ships after the BAKER Test at Bikini Atoll. Photo USN). There is a corollary to the term “SNAFU.” It is “FUBAR,” which is usually the end-state of a SNAFU that goes beyond the normal regime. That was precisely the situation in the lagoon at Bikini […]

Nagato seemed all right after the Baker blast, though the Radiological Control officers told us it was unsafe to go aboard. We circled her in the land craft, and it was hard to believe that our erstwhile home was now emitting dangerous radiation. She appeared a little lower in the water, as if some seams […]

“Warfare, perhaps civilization itself, has been brought to a turning point by this revolutionary weapon.” – Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, USN, Commander of Operation CROSSROADS (Combat Artist Grant Powers painted this striking image of USS Arkansas starting to go vertical into the BAKER water column. We watched in amazement from USS Mount McKinley […]

(LSM-60 configured for the BAKER test. Shown here is the antenna used to receive the radio signal that would trigger the bomb. The mid-ship hoist used to lower the bomb to the caisson is shown just forward of the bridge. This was the first underwater test of an atomic device, and the explosion produced so […]

(Deck Department puts turns on Nagato’s anchor chains after Test Able). Between swimming in the lagoon and supervising the Bo’sun as he began to order the deck department to commence dogging hatches and assisting the technicians place their sensors there was enough to do, though the morning rains and the sultry afternoons made any time […]

(Hollywood Bombshell Rita Hayworth in her 1946 role of “Gilda.” The Fat Man A-Bomb used for the ABLE test at Bikini was named for her and her likeness was stenciled on the weapon prior to M-hour). We had abandoned ship the afternoon before the bomb dropped for Test ABLE. We were taken by landing craft […]

(Ex-Prinz Eugen in the lagoon at Bikini. Photo USN). The Navy Brass wanted to compare and contrast the survivability of both American and Axis ships, which is why the Nazi Hipper-class heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen was brought all the way from Europe for the test. By the time she arrived at Bikini, she was officially […]

The end of a dream is a hard thing to bear, even when you get used to the idea. I was thunderstruck when heather 2 leaned over and confided that we were in the last two weeks of operations at the best bar-restaurant I am likely to experience in this world. I am sure there […]

I will get to the amazing details regarding the first test at Bikini Atoll in the Operation CROSSROADS test series one of these mornings, but this is the non-operational and completely surreal debut of the Bomb, not as a secret, but as a media star- the first such outing of the Atomic Age. In contrast […]