1. What’s in a Code Name?

Postcard image courtesy Beth Flippen Scheel Papers, Hoover Institution Archives. Ms Scheel was an American Red Cross worker on Kwajalein Atoll in 1946.

On 24 January 1946, Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, USN, announced plans for three postwar atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Blandy would be the Commander of Joint Task Force One and oversee 42,000 military, science, and civilian personnel, 95 target vessels, and 250 support vessels. He code-named the tests Operation CROSSROADS.

2. Dress Rehearsals for a Bomb

Officers and men assembled on the flight deck of the carrier USS Saidor (CVE-117) to rehearse the safety procedures for an atomic bomb test, June 1946 (U.S. Navy)

Before Tests Able and Baker, there were full dress rehearsals, each with their own code name: Queen Day for Able and William Day for Baker. Men on deck were given the following orders: 

1. Face away from Bikini Atoll
2. Sit on deck
3. Close eyes tightly
4. Cover eyes with bended arm against the face
5. When the order “Carry on” is announced, all hands may safely observe the beautiful display of colors in the incandescent column of cloud and the gigantic clouds, which follow the explosion.

3. Bill McGee’s Letter Home (Maybe His Last?)

The McGee Collection

Two days before Test Able on 1 July, the U.S. Navy issued Fall River officers and crew Operation Crossroads letterhead and envelopes – with the not so subtle suggestion to write a letter home, maybe their last. A special cancellation was applied to the envelope with the killer bars reading “ATOMIC BOMB TEST/BIKINI ATOLL”. Bill McGee wrote to his mother and oldest sister Doris in Seattle, Washington. If his letter sounded casual, it was because he was sworn to secrecy. The penalty for breaking the oath of secrecy was treason or even death.

4. Who Was the Only Actor To Have Their Name On An Atomic Bomb?

Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

The 23 kiloton Able bomb, dropped from the air on 1 July, was nicknamed “Gilda” after the 1946 movie of the same name. The movie’s tagline – “Beautiful, Deadly” – inspired soldiers to stencil the name “Gilda” on the bomb along with an image of Rita Hayworth, the movie’s star.It was said Rita Hayworth was furious at her likeness being used on a weapon of mass destruction. She wanted to go to Washington, hold a press conference, and protest. But Columbia studio head Harry Cohn wouldn’t let her. “It would be unpatriotic,” he said.

5. Bikini (The Swimsuit)

AFP/Getty Images

 

On 5 July 1946 in Paris, Micheline Bernardini, a 19-year-old dancer from the Casino de Paris, wore a brief two-piece swimsuit in public for the first time. It was designed by Louis Réard, an automotive engineer-turned-textile manufacturer. Louis Réard called the swimsuit the “Bikini” after the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll because the swimsuit was causing a “cultural explosion.”

6. What’s a Short Snorter?

The McGee Collection

  The Short Snorter got its name from Alaskan bush pilots. Before taking off, they would have one “short snort” and no more. At Operation Crossroads, a Short Snorter was designed to look like a dollar bill and they were signed by shipmates. Later on in civilian life, if you met up with a shipmate and they couldn’t produce their Short Snorter signed by you, they owed you a short snort.

Photo by an unidentified photographer for The Washington Post.

On the evening of November 5, 1946, a celebration was in full force at the Officers’ Club of the Army War College in Washington, D.C. The event marked the disbanding of Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy’s Joint Task Force One (JTF-1), organized in January ’46 for Operation Crossroads. At the celebroation, a photo was snapped of VAdm and Mrs. Blandy cutting into an elaborate cake with a “mushroom cloud” top. The photo sparked a nationwide controversy. The public was outraged by the cake – and Mrs. Blandy’s hat – both resembling an atomic mushroom cloud. Public sentiment was the cake and hat were in the poorest of taste and the atomic bomb was nothing to celebrate.      

8. The Gentleman Calmly Painting

Painting of the Baker bomb blast at Bikini by Arthur Beaumont, 25 July 1946.

Arthur Beaumont, the U.S. Navy’s Official Task Force Artist for Operation Crossroads, was assigned to a stateroom aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Flagship for the Target Fleet, responsible for positioning the target vessels in the Bikini Lagoon for Tests Able and Baker in July 1946. Beaumont observed the Able and Baker blasts from the bridge of the Fall River. He made over 180 sketches in pencil and watercolor, plus 16 studio paintings created in his studio aboard ship.  Fall River Yeoman 1/c John J. Skarzenski recalled: “We had these dignitaries aboard and one of them had a stateroom on the starboard side near the exec’s cabin. Right after the Test Able explosion, here was this gentleman calmly painting the cloud as it was forming.” The gentleman calmly painting was Arthur Beaumont.  

9. The Book the U.S. Government Pulled From Print

A rare copy of Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record, November 1946. (The McGee Collection)

  In November 1946, Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record was published by the U.S. Government. The photographs were graphic in nature and perhaps revealed more about the nuclear tests than the U.S. Government wanted to share with the public at the time. Shortly after publication, the book was withdrawn from circulation. In January 1947, the book was republished with a new title, Bombs at Bikini: The Official Report of Operation Crossroads, and with photographs of a less graphic nature.

– Beyond the Bombs: 9 Facts About Operation Crossroads from Operation Crossroads, Lest We Forget! An Eyewitness Account by William L. McGee with Sandra V. McGee. Available on Amazon