75 YEARS AGO AT BIKINI In July 1946, the United States conducted their first postwar atomic bomb tests at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Code named: Operation CROSSROADS. This year is the 75th Anniversary of Operation Crossroads. To commemorate the date, this is the first of 22 excerpts from the book, Operation Crossroads, Lest…
Subic Bay, Philippines, 9 Aug 1945 – I’ll never forget the first time I heard the words: atomic bomb. It was the evening of 9 August 1945. I was a Gunner’s Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy, stationed at the Naval Station in Subic Bay, the Philippines. Thousands of military personnel were also there staging for Operation…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Hampton Roads, Virginia, 31 Jan 1946 – When the war ended in August 1945, I still had thirteen months left to serve on my four-year hitch in the U.S. Navy. My discharge would be 30 September 1946, the day I turned twenty-one. My XO (Executive Officer) asked if I…
At sea aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), 2 Feb 1946 – On January 31, the USS Fall River departed Hampton Roads, Virginia for its new assignment with the Pacific Fleet. Rumors were circulating aboard ship that a new crewmember had been smuggled aboard. The full story came out in the ship’s bi-weekly newspaper,…
Aboard the USS Fall River, Limón Bay, Panama Canal Zone, 5–8 Feb 1946 – The six days from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to the Panama Canal Zone were drills, drills, drills. I was awarded Shore Patrol duty in the liberty town of Cristóbal. There were plenty of bars and nightclubs for the sailors of the world,…
USS Fall River (CA-131), Port of Los Angeles, 16 Feb 1946 – The eight days at sea from the Panama Canal Zone to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay, California, were drills, drills, drills. Everyone was looking forward to liberty with Hollywood a cab ride away. For guys who had never been…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Pearl Harbor, Mar/Apr 1946 – On 12 March 1946, the USS Fall River pulled into Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. (Hawaii would become the 50th state in 1959.) The Fall River had departed Hampton Roads, Virginia on 31 January and Pearl Harbor was the third stop on the heavy cruiser’s…
Here’s how one bluejacket described the shipboard routines on the USS Fall River en route to Bikini in April 1946… Dear Ma, I joined the Navy because I admired the way the ships were kept so clean and tidy. This week, I learned who keeps them so clean and tidy. – Love, Junior The Navy…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), International Date Line, 24 May 1946 – On 21 May, the USS Fall River (CA-131) weighed anchor in Pearl Harbor and set sail for its final destination some 2,100 miles southwest of Hawaii: Operation Crossroads at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. When the Fall River crossed the…
Aboard the USS Fall River, (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, 27 May 1946 – On 27 May at 0626 Bikini Island showed on the radar. Finally, we had arrived. As soon as we were granted liberty, a dozen Sixth Division gunner’s mates and I went ashore. We wanted to explore this place chosen for such an ominous…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, Queen Day Rehearsal, 24 Jun 1946 – Seven days before the Test Able atomic bomb test on 1 July, there was a full dress rehearsal, code named Queen Day. For the rehearsal, Commander M.E. Dennett issued these instructions: Face away from Bikini Sit on Deck Close eyes…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, 29 Jun 1946, Test Able Minus 2 – Two days before Test Able, the U.S. Navy issued Fall River officers and crew Operation Crossroads stationery – with the not so subtle suggestion we write a letter home, maybe our last. I wrote to my mother and sister Doris…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, 30 Jun 1946, Test Able Minus 1 – One day to go to the big day, Test Able on 1 July, an atomic bomb detonated in the air. There was a lot of activity in the lagoon. The USS Fall River (CA-131), under the command of Rear…
Aboard the USS Fall River, Bikini Lagoon, 1 Jul 1946, Test Able – Finally, the big day arrived, 1 July 1946 by the Bikini calendar (30 June in New York). Millions of people around the world waited anxiously by their radios for the results of Test Able. No one knew what to expect, At 0540…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, 5 Jul 1946 – Given the serious nature of the atomic bomb test on 1 July, there were no Fourth of July fireworks on the Fall River. However, the radio room was abuzz with news about a different type of explosion. On 5 July in Paris, the…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Lagoon, Jul 1946 – Tradition was if you signed a shipmate’s Short Snorter and met up with them later on in civilian life, if they couldn’t produce the Short Snorter you had signed, they owed you a drink. Aboard the Fall River, our Short Snorters looked like a…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll,19 Jul 1946, William Day – Today was William Day, the code name for the rehearsal of Test Baker on July 25. The Baker bomb would be the first underwater explosion of an atomic bomb. Nicknamed “Bikini Helen” or “Helen of Bikini”, the 23-kiloton bomb would be lowered…
Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Atoll, 24 Jul 1946, Test Baker Minus 1 – One day to go to Test Baker, the first underwater explosion of an atomic bomb. The 23 kiloton Baker bomb, nicknamed “Bikini Helen” and “Helen of Bikini” would be submerged 90 feet below the target vessel, LSM-60 (Landing Ship,…
NBC radio reports live from Test Baker, 25 July 1946. Run time 14:30. (Courtesy of Hoover Archives) Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Lagoon, 25 Jul 1946, Test Baker – At 0835 on 25 July by the Bikini calendar (24 July in New York), the 23 kiloton Baker atomic bomb was detonated underwater in…
Aboard the USS Saint Croix (APA-231), 1 August 1946 – On 1 August, I boarded the Victory ship USS Saint Croix and headed for San Francisco. Eighteen days later, as she steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge, there wasn’t a dry eye onboard — even amongst this group of newly-seasoned “old salts” who had just come from…
The heavy cruiser USS Fall River (CA-131) was the Target Vessel Control Ship at Operation Crossroads, the first post-war atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands in July 1946. The Fall River was responsible for positioning the 95 target vessels in the Bikini Lagoon for the Able and Baker bomb blasts, the first from…