1. What Does the Code Name Operation CROSSROADS Mean?
(Image from the Beth Flippen Scheel Papers, 1946. Hoover Institution Archives. Ms. Scheel was an American Red Cross worker on Kwajalein Atoll in 1946.)
After dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States military wanted to test the bomb in peacetime on warships and other vessels.
On 24 January 1946, Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, USN, announced plans for postwar atomic bomb tests. They would be 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. When asked why he code-named the tests Operation CROSSROADS, Blandy replied:
“In the face of this new knowledge, these recently discovered truths concerning the atom, so suddenly thrust upon an already chaotic world, not only warfare but civilization itself literally stands at the Crossroads. Hence the name of this Operation.”
– VAdm W. H. P. Blandy, USN
2. Dress Rehearsals for a Bomb
Men aboard the carrier Saidor (CVE-117) rehearse the safety procedure for an atomic bomb explosion. (U.S. Navy)
Before Test ABLE and Test BAKER, there was a full dress rehearsal, each with its own code name:
Queen Day, 24 June 1946, before Test Able
William Day, 1 July 1946, before Test Baker
3. Bill McGee’s Letter Home (Maybe the Last?)
(William L. McGee and Sandra V. McGee Collection)
Two days before Test Able, the U.S. Navy issued officers and crew of the USS Fall River, (CA-131) special Crossroads stationery with the not so subtle suggestion to write a letter home, maybe their last.
4. Who Was the Only Actor To Have Their Name On An Atomic Bomb?
(Los Alamos National Laboratory)
For Test Able, 1 July 1946, a 23 kiloton atomic bomb nicknamed “Gilda” was dropped over the target fleet at Bikini Atoll from a B-29 Superfortress. The bomb was nicknamed “Gilda” after the 1946 movie of the same name starring Rita Hayworth.
Her image was stencilled on the bomb, which infuriated the actress when she learned her likeness was used on a weapon of destruction.
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.
He called the swimsuit the “Bikini” after the atomic bomb tests because the swimsuit was causing a “cultural explosion.”
6. What’s a Short Snorter?
(William L. McGee and Sandra V. McGee Collection)
The Short Snorter was designed to look like a one-dollar bill. The idea was to have your shipmates sign it. Years later, if you met up with one of those shipmates, and you couldn’t produce your Short Snorter signed by them, you owed them—a short snort.
7. The Atomic Cake Controversy of 1946 and Mrs. Blandy’s Hat
(Photo by an unidentified photographer for The Washington Post.)
On 5 November 1946, a celebration was held at the Officers’ Club of the Army War College in Washington, D.C. The event marked the disbanding of Vadm Blandy’s Joint Task Force One at Operation Crossroads and was hosted by the Officers of his staff.
An unidentified photographer snapped a photo of the Admiral and Mrs. Blandy cutting into an elaborate cake which bore a resemblance to the atomic bomb mushroom cloud created by Test Baker. Looking on is Admiral Lowrey.
The public was outraged and the photo sparked a nationwide controversy. Public sentiment was the cake and Mrs. Blandy’s hat were in the poorest of taste, and the atomic bomb was nothing to celebrate. It was said the Blandys had no part in planning the event or ordering the cake.