Operation Crossroads - Billy Mitchell's Dream Test?

Today we take a look at the USN's big idea of nuking almost 100 ships to see what would happen.
Sources:
archive.org/do...
www.history.na...
OPERATION CROSSROADS - LEST WE FORGET! An Eyewitness Account, Bikini Atomic Bomb Tests 1946 by William L. McGee with Sandra V. McGee
nsarchive.gwu....
"Crossroads at Bikini", Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute
Footage from US National Archives video codes:
428-NPC-15502/17480/15499/17470/13396/15523/17485/13114
Naval History books, use code 'DRACH' for 25% off - www.usni.org/p...
Free naval photos and channel posters - www.drachinifel.co.uk
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'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@bkjeong4302]

Had Test Able been on target, how different would the results have been?

[@liberalsockpuppet4772]

Outstanding footage Drach! Where did you find this?

[@brendonbewersdorf986]

Im curious I know some people dive the wrecks of operation crossroads due to their shallow depth but is there still a risk of radioactive contamination?

[@memeboy8207]

How were naval bases nuclear weapons such as iwoa's nuclear shells and various nuclear torpedoes were to be deployed and used.

[@Cbabilon675]

If you had been present during the testing, what kind of tests do the ships would you have wanted to see personally?

[@andreasfasold9841]

Decades ago I met a german veteran at a bar in Hamburg. He served on Prinz Eugen and told me after the war he was part of the german crew that stayed on board and brought it to the West Coast. The old fellow was so devastated about what the Americans did to "his" ship.

[@khaelamensha3624]

Quite understandable...

[@amandahugankiss4110]

Yeah.. Don't care about german feelings. lol Old fuck should have stayed home.

[@Tomyironmane]

I suspect the crew of the Nevada felt similar. But with orange paint.

[@PeterNebelung]

My father was aboard during the Channel dash. Never saw much, was basically tied to the radio room.

[@91Redmist]

I can understand his grief. But I'm surprised it wasn't scrapped first by the Germans when Hitler ordered much of the surface fleet junked to be reused in other military areas of need.

[@wesinman2312]

My father was present at Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll. He volunteered for the hazardous pay. He was a radar tech, but for this operation he told me he mostly unloaded supplies. He was only 18 yrs old and aboard the USS Dixie AD-14. They were given goggles to watch the explosions, but my father took his off and took 2 photographs. He also told me they walked on the atoll barefoot with Geiger counters measuring radiation after the explosions. Many suffered ill effects, but he never did. Unfortunately, my elementary school borrowed the photos for some sort of display and we never got them back. He passed away in 2009.

[@jasondouglas6755]

Why did the school refuse o return them?

[@Paciat]

@@jasondouglas6755 They must have lost them.

[@kennethdeanmiller7324]

I'd see if I could find the negatives for the photos. Cause back then when you took pictures & had them developed you would receive the photos & the negatives. If you have the negatives, of course, you can produce more of the photos.

[@wesinman2312]

@@kennethdeanmiller7324 Oh, that was 60 yrs ago, if there were negatives I would have found them long ago. I'll tell you what this discussion did for me, I was inspired to contact my old school by phone. I told them my story, and they gave me the email address of the principal. I wrote her a detailed email all about these photos, and asked if she could search for them. I am hoping for a miracle. You never know, maybe they are in a drawer somewhere, maybe someone has seen them. So far she has not answered back, but I am hoping. Wish me luck, and thanks to everyone. Whatever happens, I am proud of my father who participated in this historical event.

[@wesinman2312]

@@jasondouglas6755 They didn't refuse, but I think they forgot to return them. And part of the fault may be ours, my family moved from NC to Fla that summer. Perhaps my father forgot to ask for them back. It was so long ago, I was only 10, now I am 69. My father passed in 2009.

[@TheSlaughtermatic]

I had an uncle that was a cook on the Fall river. When asked what an atomic explosion looked like he would just smile and say "I don't know, I was in the galley making doughnuts." He never had any health problems attributable to radiation exposure.

[@Captain_Seafort]

31:50 "Gravity looked up, realised something was amiss, and reasserted itself". Nice touch of Douglas Adams. :)

[@paulseifert6598]

Two of the USS Pennsylvania's main gun barrels are on display in a park just down the road from me. When people ask why they didn't save any of the rest of the ship, I tell them "Because it was too radioactive" - it usually takes a second or two for those who know their naval history to connect the dots and realize she was a Crossroads target. The rest? When I tell them "Know that famous film footage where that cluster of ships get blow up by a nuke?" THEN the lightbulb comes on....

[@robertstack2144]

The most famous is the closeup where one can see the USS Arkansas, heavy cruiser in the vertical completely out of the water. See the right side of the rising water mass.

[@jesperlykkeberg7438]

"THEN the lightbulb comes on...." Ok, wise guy, you mean the bright question "So, why weren´t the guns also too radioactive, then?" ...and your lightbulb reply: "apparently because it was all a fish story. A load of mumbo jumbo!"

[@robertstack2144]

They did try to decontamination three ships. After many attempts the did salvage some of the things that did not have crevices and hiding places for the U-239. The ships bells are a wanted item. Guess your area was lucky to get just the gun barrels. Only about 2-4% of the plutonium actually was involved. The rest pollutes our earth.

[@iKvetch558]

IIRC, LeMay was the head of Research for the USAAF at that point, and was thus nominally in command of the USAAF portion of Crossroads. He was LIVID over the failure of his people to get even close to the target during Able.

[@666Blaine]

He commissioned a study that found severe aerodynamic problems with the Fat Man bomb.

[@cdfe3388]

You know what they say: “Almost” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear munitions!”

[@hektor6766]

"Bombs Away" LeMay wanted to see some damage. They took all the fun out of it for him.

[@tomhenry897]

Couldn’t do it during war time

[@evan-douglasmason3755]

Ferebee (Enola Gay) told Swanscutt (Dave's Dream) that figures were incorrect. Ferebee calculated 1600 feet short and left. The drop missed by almost 800 yards. Whoops!

[@lynchkid003]

The Nevada was an amazing ship. She was the only ship to get underway at Pearl Harbor, but was rebuilt and used as the flagship of the D-Day landings. After taking two nuclear strikes, she was still floating, and had to be shelled and torpedoed repeatedly to sink afterwards.

[@zeedub8560]

I love a defiant ship.

[@chrislondo2683]

Don’t forget Attu, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[@garrymartin6474]

As an aside, the B 29 44-61999 "Overexposed", a photo reconnaissance version of the Superfortress which filmed much of the tests, crashed into a hillside in Derbyshire , England killing all the crew and two passengers on board. Much of the wreckage remains at the site. A memorial has been erected to those who died.

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

Easilly located with a geigercounter 😁

[@jamesthompson215]

Oh really? I've been up there in the snow so I've finally have a connection to one of the subjects on this channel.

[@stevewhite3424]

​@@notshapedforsportivetricks2912Bro...

[@mnxs]

​@@stevewhite3424What? It's funny, even if it's not true.

[@dxradioman6351]

My wife and I were on Bikini in the early 2000s for a fishing trip, the second one to visit the atoll. We fished right over the Castle Bravo site, the first thermonuclear test. The atoll is a beautiful aqua marine blue, however at the site, it is a very dark blue and supposedly cracked the earths crust. The nearest small island in the atoll to the site is Nam, maybe 300 yds away. We fished from the shore. The beach sand at Nam/Bikini is colored tan. The sand facing ground zero was scorched black. I kicked the hard crust, as it was fused together and it was the tan color underneath. They warned us not to go into the interior of the island as the vegetation was still "hot". The control of the atoll was under the DOE and we stayed in the housing for the workers. To clean the atoll , it was said they would have to remove 3' of sand and dirt from the surface of the small islands so the original people could come back. At that time, it was never done. The people were moved to an island, not an atoll, so it made their subsistence harder. US flew in food, but our food, Coke, chips, etc. made the people have diabetes. Sad. Also, sport divers from all over the world were there and shared their videos with us when they dove on the Saratoga showing planes, bombs, etc. They were going to make it into a "Peace Park" at the time. We flew from Hawaii to Johnston Is. to Majuro, Kwajalein and Eniwetok, where the planes took off from to arrive at Bikini Atoll, which is around 30 miles across, It was an adventure of a lifetime for us. Yes, the fishing was good!

[@denysvlasenko1865]

> and supposedly cracked the earths crust. No. The crust is at least 20 km thick. Castle Bravo crater is less than 100m deep.

[@vicbittertoo]

wow, what an awesome trip, well done :)

[@davelowets]

The people all got diabetes from sitting on their asses and not working or doing anything. They just sat around and got fat while chowing down on the free food supplied to them, and not having to lift a finger for it. They all complained that they wanted cigarettes from the US government also, and I suppose it's our faults that they got lung cancer from those cigs also.... 🤷🏻

[@Apollo_1641]

This post-war content is interesting and a welcome change of pace. I certainly didn't expect to hear Drach say F9F Panther" or Canberra. You've made my day!

[@wierdalien1]

Technically pre-1950

[@WarpGhost92]

I believe Korea war is the line he is not crossing due to most of the post 1950 documents still secret.

[@myparceltape1169]

Fleets depended on the wind and danger to the the fleet can come on the wind. So learn to protect your fleet.

[@enjibkk6850]

I still prefer to hear 'vertical triple expansion engine' 😃

[@xa-38]

Wasn’t expecting this one in the slightest but extremely happy it’s getting covered

[@NoPegs]

Agreed... Drach discussing Atomic-era things is new and exciting...

[@kennethdeanmiller7324]

Yeah, I actually had no idea that there had been so many ships involved until recently. When I just happened to "stumble" on some stuff about Bikini Atoll & started reading about it on Wikipedia. But the footage he showed was great and still I'm amazed at how many ships they used and the poor little piggies getting cooked alive. Wonder if anyone brought some Barbecue sauce? 😢 And that was how they got the idea for the microwave oven. 😂 Joking.

[@kennethdeanmiller7324]

I'm going to have to watch it a couple more times to be "able" to absorb it all.

[@NoPegs]

@@kennethdeanmiller7324 That's any Drachinifel video from the last three years... (Any drydock ever.)

[@richardvernon317]

@@kennethdeanmiller7324 Crossroads Kill Count Goats: 204 Pigs: 200 Mice: 200 Guinea pigs: 60 Rats: 5000

[@justinmoe3171]

It’s very fascinating to see that all of the considerations that eventually fell into place, resulting in the US’ Cold War missile-based interceptor strategy, were already there right from the very beginning

[@richardvernon317]

Missile programs in earnest started in mid to late 1943 when the German anti ship weapons appeared and Centimetric radar systems started to come on line.

[@ph89787]

Fun Fact: Saratoga's last captain was one Stanhope Ring. Yes, the same idiot who derped off with Hornet's Air Group at Midway. Also, Halsey had mentioned in his memoirs that "someone had the good sense not to anchor Enterprise at Bikini." Implying that he wasn't happy with Saratoga being used in the tests.

[@alantoon5708]

Too bad that Stanhope Ring did not secure himself to the bridge of the Saratoga before the test...

[@mahbriggs]

Stanhope Ring, despite his misstake at Midway, for which he was not soley responsible, was very competent both before and afterwards in his career! He was highly regarded by both his superiors and subordinates!

[@91Redmist]

​@mahbriggs Agreed. Midway had a lot of 'fog of war' moments on both sides. The IJN for their part seemed to have little idea of what they wanted to do in the crucial minutes before the US torpedo and dive bombers arrived. Also, I doubt Ring would've gotten the captaincy of such an important ship if he was such an idiot.

[@fouraces9137]

Gotta wonder how many of Ring's men at Midway died due to drowning in a hurricane or from men being left in the water and eaten by sharks. Ask the survivors from Johnston or Samuel B Roberts how they feel about Mr. Halsey and his foolish grabs for glory at his own men's expense.

[@mahbriggs]

@@91Redmist Yes, a brief look at his career shows he was not incompetent!

[@josephvarno5623]

Around 2000, I became part of a discussion board called the Skeptic Friends Network. On there, a user with the handle HuB recounted a story of one of these tests. This one of Hardtack I. He was a sailor aboard USS Chanticleer (ASR-7), a submarine rescue vessel, standing watch over USS Bonita (SSK-3). Through bad planning/lack of information, Chanticleer was in the fallout zone. He recounted that he was given a diesel shower as a means of decontamination. He had a number of issues with odd cancers and radiation related injuries throughout his life. He has been inactive on SFN since 2015.

[@Moredread25]

Crossroads is a hugely important test because it was public. It made a significant impression on the public.

[@mikepotter5718]

It convinced people that we need stronger controls on military thinking.

[@jony663]

By being public it was sobering call to civilians, politicians, friends and enemies.

[@richardvernon317]

@@jony663 Soviets were invited and turned up!!!

[@Moredread25]

@@jony663 Yes, I'd be willing to bet the pictures were much more accessible to the public and comprehendible then the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[@Moredread25]

@@mikepotter5718 I agree, but do you have a specific example?

[@TheHangarHobbit]

I always remember talking to my great uncle in the early 1980s before he died of cancer most likely caused by his being on one of the support ships for Crossroads and I asked if he was mad at the government for what happened and he said "I was standing less than 20 feet from the captain when it went off, nobody knew any better back then kid, hell our ships were covered in asbestos for fire safety. Nobody had a clue how deadly any of that stuff was." RIP great uncle Herschel, RIP.

[@kemarisite]

One quick note about the lethal does of radiation. 500 or so rem (5 Sv) is about the lethal dose for 50% of the expoaed population within 30 days (LD50-30). Lower doses will kill fewer people in that time, while higher doses will kill more people and more quickly. By about 10 Sv the radiation is affecting the central nervous system and killing everyone within a few days. Naturally this assumes whole-body exposure to penetrating radiation as happened in this test.

[@johnmoore8599]

Well, neutron bombs were built to penetrate tank armor and incapacitate the crew (2000 rem/20Sv, resulting in CNS shutdown/unconsciousness). Presumably, planners would either increase the yield to sink more of the fleet, use more weapons over the target area, or use weapons that would incapacitate most of the crews rendering said fleet inoperable, but fairly intact. The last thing you want to fight is men who know they are dying and have nothing left to lose.

[@billyshakespeare17]

I was on CVA(N) - 65 many years ago. Rumor had it the E could handle a nuclear device within a few miles due to its ability to button up (no stack like an oil burner).

[@marckyle5895]

Sort of like in The Last Destroyer book?

[@brentvfreiberger]

The main radiation effect of the Able test was the high neutron flux and the resulting neutron activation, less from fallout. Drach briefly alluded to it in discussing the effect on the test animals.

[@mjbull5156]

I have been listening to Hornfischer's "Who Can Hold the Sea", and listened to Crossroads chapters last weekend. The attitude of the USN desperate to prove it was still relevant in the Nuclear Weapons Age is fascinating how relatively cavalier they were about these tests, until they realized how bad the radiation effects were.

[@hourlardnsaver362]

I need to finish that book. I can’t help but feel more than a little sad while reading it, as it is his last published work.

[@mjbull5156]

@hourlardnsaver362 Agreed. Especially sad with his wife's forward that perhaps it was not his best work as he was progressively becoming more unwell in the course of writing it and having difficulty doing his usual research.

[@hourlardnsaver362]

@@mjbull5156 As someone who works in cancer research, reading that foreword and learning how he died hit incredibly close to home.

[@kentvesser9484]

Yeah, all the armed services were pretty cavalier about radiation well into the 1950's. I think a big part of the problem was cold war tensions increasing quickly and a lot of generals not understanding the long-term effects of radiation on their troops adequately. Many political and military decision makers were likely out of the loop on information gathered at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and those who maybe did have such information weren't at liberty to discuss what they knew. I think some of those test programs might have been altered if some of the generals and politicians had been better informed about the risks of exposure. Though part of the reason for some of that testing was to reassure the American public that a nuclear war was survivable and winnable, even if some in charge knew that not to be true once each side had 100's of bombs in their stockpiles and intercontinental bombers to deliver them.

[@willyvereb]

@@kentvesser9484 Until the Lucky Dragon 5 incident almost everyone felt "cavalier" about radiation. Nuclear optimism was high in all circles. After that high-profile disaster and dozens of other cases brought up in regards of the horrifying effects the public opinion slowly turned to the other direction. It's actually a minor tragedy. Though the effects of radiation damage can be intense, thousands of times people died and suffered from the effects of burning carbohydrates or heavy metal exposure. I don't think anyone minds that fears of radiation and radioactive contamination prevented any active usage of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. What I find tragic is how hysteria about the dangers of radiation keep holding nuclear energy down. I'm not the advocate of nuclear powered cars or any such madness but we'd have greatly pushed back against global warming if nuclear powerplants would've been largely replaced coal and oil filed plants across the developed world.

[@bami2]

Able: Let's nuke this fleet and see what happens Baker: Oh, turns out fish can make their own xrays if you nuke the ocean Charlie: Yeah let's not do this

[@ph89787]

And those fish now have their own civilisation in Bikini Atoll.

[@mikeynth7919]

@@ph89787Who lives in a pineapple under the sea...

[@ph89787]

@@mikeynth7919 SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

[@WalterReimer]

The Charlie test was revived as Operation Wigwam years later, with a test of a nuclear depth charge.

[@micnorton9487]

​@@WalterReimer..yeah different ships of course and the footage is quite dramatic...

[@RCAvhstape]

This was not a topic I had expected Drach to cover!

[@WalterReimer]

NOBODY expects the Operation Crossroads video!

[@tombryant5029]

​@WalterReimer nice Spanish Inquisition reference.😊

[@khaelamensha3624]

Agreed.. Surprised and really happy! 😉

[@myparceltape1169]

But it was a good one.

[@petestorz172]

Of the 4 US BBs, 2 were quite old, with pre-all-or-nothing distributed armor schemes (USS Arkansas and New York). The other two were the oldest BBs with the all-or-nothing distributed armor scheme (USS Nevada and Pennsylvania). They would have been used as targets or converted to razor blades even without Operation Crossroads. Ditto the captured Nagato, the pretty much worn out USS Saratoga, and the nearly ancient USS Pensacola. OTOH, the pre-Fletcher-class DDs were fairly modern, and some Balao class submarines were used. The ships used suggest the thinking was: if atomic bombs obliterate these, current USN ships are very vulnerable; if these survive the atomic bombs or sink so slowly that repairs could have prevented the sinkings, current and planned ships could survive (that the crew might not survive ...).

[@blanchjoe1481]

Dear Drach, Interesting that the standard "average" throw weight in the US Arsenal is the W-87 thermonuclear warhead commonly used as a MIRV at 475 KT, the size of the Operation Crossroad bomb was plutonium fission implosion warhead of 23 KT or approximately 5.0% in strength of a current standard warhead.

[@crd260]

Crossroads is one of those "History is stranger than fiction" things. Knowing what we know today: wow. I still cannot believe they did all of this "just to see what would happen."

[@cpt_nordbart]

Tbh A lot of science is done that way.

[@saltmerchant749]

@@cpt_nordbart Not so much these days. We have ethics boards and endless paperwork now. I grumble about it, but I'd sooner have the paperwork than shortening the lives of thousands of young men just out of morbid scientific curiosity.

[@micnorton9487]

.. it is strange, but the Navy had a few warheads that they didn't need to drop on Japan so they figured they might as well go a little farther in scaring the s*** out of the Soviets...

[@jurgschupbach3059]

​@@saltmerchant749did ya get yo buusta

[@GeneralJackRipper]

We have ethics boards and paperwork because women are in charge now. @@saltmerchant749

[@pantherace1000]

My Great Uncle served on USS Pennsylvania during ww2 and would be part of the parties sent to assess damage on the ships after the Crossroads tests. Strangely enough he was the longest lived out of all of his siblings who had a tendency to have cancer of all things while he never did.

[@tobihighvoltage]

Just found myself saying "Oh Yes!" out loud when I saw that you made a video on this operation. Your channel is what kickstarted my interest in naval history about a year ago and while I've spammed my friends with tons of your videos, I've just realized I never commented on one before. I can't thank you enough for the effort you put into everything you do, making such vast amounts of information available in such an entertaining and detailed manner. I rewatch certain projects, like the series on the Battle of Jutland, countless times and always love them, while constantly finding new topics to learn about as well. Getting to look at the wrecks of Akagi, Kaga and Yorktown recently for example was one of the most fascinating things I've seen this year, with the almost mythical reputation of those ships. Thank you again and I wish you all the best going forward!

[@jefflebowski918]

My great uncle served on the USS Nevada his entire time in the Navy, he was on her at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th 1941 and at Okinawa in March of 1945. He was sad when he heard she was to be decommissioned and sunk at Operation Crossroads, he said she was "one tough lady".

[@chrismaverick9828]

She didn't sink at crossroads. She was sunk later as a gunnery target by Iowa and two other ships..... Who failed to sink her. They had to hit her with an air-dropped torpedo to send her to the bottom. A sad end regardless, but most definitely the toughest lady the USN has ever fielded in war.

[@trevorday7923]

All these years later listening to how the various parties were casually throwing nuclear weapons around is probably the most scary part in the whole thing. It's even more scary when you remember this test lead eventually to the Castle Bravo thermonuclear test which enraged Kruschev sufficiently to order the construction of the 50MT Tsar Bomba (which, had Sakharov not bottled it, was actually supposed to be a 100MT device).

[@PeterNebelung]

I can see where your comments about the inability of current AA fire to deal with high altitude bombers might lead to another discussion of the evolution of naval rocket/missile AA defense. Love your vids, you cover a lot of things I've never even thought about or wanted to know more about. O7 sir.

[@stevenkraft8070]

That is one amazing picture at the start of this video, of hundreds of carrier planes flying over an Iowa-class battleship (presumably at the end of WW2 in Tokyo Bay). That must have been a humbling sight for Japanese spectators who once had hope that they could have won the war.

[@jeffholloway3882]

A most interesting video, done in the great drach style, a- bombs and megalodons. Never saw the footage you showed, or that that was not the Arkansas going end to end. Great to watch, thank you, up early tomorrow to start cooking for Thanksgiving, I think I am going to go back over various livestreams, as its been awhile since one,( understand why) but missing seeing you, have a great rest of the week!!!

[@TimJackson-zs1db]

Fantastic video Drach, From memory the appalling level of contamination from Baker was due to its detonation underwater. Sodium has a huge neutron cross section and turns into Na24 which is a nasty radioisotope (albeit with a fairly short half life). The radiation dose from the remaining Pu would be negligible in comparison - and that amount scattered over an entire atoll would be too dispersed to represent a toxicity hazard.

[@robertsneddon731]

Plutonium (the Pu-239 isotope used in nuclear weapons in particular) isn't really a problem in nuclear weapons fallout compared the the rest of the fission isotope zoo. Short-lived isotopes like Na24 bred during the explosion go away quite quickly but are hot while they linger (see also I-131 which is much more abundant).

[@quinnfell3824]

Love your videos drach! Thanks for doing what you do, making us all smarter every day.

[@kendramalm8811]

When my dad was in the Marines, his unit was assigned to observe an A-bomb test in Nevada. Not sure why they were doing this, unless they wanted to have them experience it first hand so they'd know what to do in case of a real attack. He was just a radioman, nothing special except that he was based in San Diego!

[@richardvernon317]

it was more of a case of them being used to exploit a gap in enemy lines made by some form of US delivered attack.

[@CharlesFreck]

Internal propoganda. "We have this, go tell all your friends how powerful and awe inspiring it is". Then if you ever have to go and fight, you're equipped with the knowledge you have atomic weapons behind you. Especially early on, basically until mid-Korean War, the idea was that only the US had real atomic weapons, and so basically couldn't lose a war.

[@tomhenry897]

Didn’t we have soldiers around some rests

[@kentvesser9484]

There were many reasons. One was to learn how to maneuver "near" nuclear detonations. How close was too close? How long before you could move through certain areas without killing your soldiers or making them violently ill? What kind of decontamination procedures were needed. Part of it was propaganda to show the US public that a nuclear exchange was still winnable and that the threat of radiation was overblown (Clearly we wouldn't risk your sons, if this was dangerous...these are just big bombs). There was a fear in some circles that if the American public really understood radiation and fallout effects in those early years of the Cold War that they might have turned on further development of said weapons especially prior to the Soviets successful test in 1949.

[@hourlardnsaver362]

Thanks for making my Wednesday morning better, Drach.

[@yukikaze3436]

Paul Tibbets memoirs "The Tibbets Story" states that his advise and experience in dropping the 1st a-bomb was ignored and this is why the bomb in Able missed so badly.

[@chadthundercock5641]

USS Laffey: the ship that would not die

[@susanyoung6579]

Great video! Your audio is very clean, no booming. Thank you!

[@73Trident]

Thanks Drach. Highly interesting, surprised that you did this now. Sure learned a whole lot about the tests I did not know. As always your work is fantastic.

[@borisperovic5336]

a Masterpiece episode. Drach is consistently excellent. this issuance is a level above .

[@casparcoaster1936]

thanks very much, i lived in the 20th c (i was there man...(mostly smoking pot c.1958-1999)), this was a milestone about which I knew very few details, really enjoyed!

[@ronaldlake5592]

My father was on USS Pennsylvania during the second World war and was part of Operation Cross roads. He talked about watching the atomic bombs going off and seeing sound coming toward him and wanting to run to the other side of the ship to see if he could the sound going away. He was also part of the crew that was sent aboard to check on the damage to the Pennsylvania and afterworlds he and his buddy were told that they were now sterile however most of them had kids in less than a year. My father past away last August on his 101st birthday. My sister, my brothers and I plus our kids and our grand kids are all being watch by the government for the long term effects of the radiation.

[@1bskemp]

Most detailed look at Crossroads I've heard, thanks!!!

[@thebudgieadmiral5140]

There was one case of a Japanese submarine (Ha-204) sailing close to Hiroshima when the bomb detonated. Reportedly it caused severe radiation burns to the crew atop the sail.

[@mahbriggs]

Not radiation, but thermal burns!

[@robertthweatt1900]

My father was present at this test more or less as a tourist. With the accelerating demobilization, he, a mere Ensign, had become the officer on Kwajalein approving all air travel. So he approved it for himself!

[@daviddeclue1622]

My dad was on the Ralph Talbot, came back on a liberty ship. He smuggled off a schematic of the radar, which we still have, went to MIT on the GI bill and got EE degree, developed some of the first ICs. He was at Bikini for so long his hair was practically bleached white. beer was $1/case, but they had no ice most of the time. His health was fine

[@siffchopf22]

just in case anyone is wondering why a ship that wasnt even close to the blast had to be decommisioned: it doesnt take a lot of radioactive material to cause serious problems. For example, 1 gram of Co-60 has an activity of 44 Terrabequerel, that amounts to a dose rate of 16 Sievert in 1m distance (Basically, stay 1m away from it for 20 minutes and youre dead). Because radioactive material is so potent (and our measuring devices are so sensitive) you start noticing some effects that usually only chemists doing ultratrace analysis are concerned about. To keep it short, you cant truly clean anything, there will always be traces left and those wont go away (its mostly surface effects like adsorption, but also chemical reactions. Cobalt for example likes to replace iron atoms in the outer oxide layer of ferrous materials to such an extent, that it actually enriches itself in those layers. The only practical way to get rid of this is removing that outside layer. Im also aware that ships are painted, but that often involves metal complexes/compounds, similar efects can happen there. Theres is shittons of research that went into the stuff they paint walls with in a nuclear power plant, to prevent exactly this to the maximum extent possible). Decontaminating a ship is certainly possible (not the ships that were to close to the blast, those cointain activity deep into the material because of neutron activation), but most likely cost prohibitive. Excellent job with the video (apart from using rems...), big thumbs up by a radiation protection guy, thats really rare to see. btw underwater test are such a big problem (at least in seawater) bcs both sodium and chlorine are easily activated by neutrons.

[@coldwarrior78]

Very well done Drach. Didn't think you'd cover this. Thanks

[@BaytreePilot]

Thanks!

[@ewok40k]

Politicians: nuking innocent lab rats is a crime! USN: thanks for the useful idea.

[@richardvernon317]

Pigs, sheep and Goats were some of the Animals used on this test. One of the first collections of Atomic test films were made into a documentary called Trinity And Beyond, The Atomic Bomb Movie in the mid 1990's which covered the history of US atmospheric nuclear tests from 1945 to 1963. In the end credits, a disclaimer "Real Pigs, Sheep and other Animals were Nuked in the making of this film!"

[@judnichols8041]

Impressively excellent work. Congratulations and thanks.

[@bkurilko]

Really appreciate the content you put together, keep up the great work

[@BillLeavens]

That was a truly excellent presentation. I have been fortunate to dive Bikini Atoll and see what Able and Baker were able to do. I think it was a crime that the U.S, Navy sacrificed Saratoga - an aircraft carrier that fought gallantly throughout the War in the Pacific and was one of the most highly decorated of all the U.S. warships. My most vivid memory is the crease that ran along the keel of the Arkansas, moored close to the Baker blast. The ship was literally folding - stem to stern - from the force of the explosion. Unfortunately, the dive operation based on Bikini that provided tour experiences has ceased operation. The small airline that serviced the island is no longer operating. It is a much more difficult adventure now.

[@Lihkan3838]

36:47 "...though that would be a VERY dead ship" that line got me 😂😂😂

[@timgosling6189]

An event also immortalised in women's fashion. The outrageously revealing new two-piece swimwear modelled at the 1946 Paris show was named the 'bikini bombshell' because of the effect it had on male observers.

[@Exkhaniber]

Really? I thought that was the "Tube top"? Gilbert Gottfried: "YOU FOOL!!!"

[@darylmorning]

I heard the story that it was called the "Bikini" because, like Bikini after Castle Bravo(in a geographic exaggeration), it's nearly not there.

[@guaporeturns9472]

Finally doing Crossroads.. been waiting a long time

[@chs76945]

OK, I'm honestly a Billy Mitchell fan, but the title of this video roffled me. Well done, Drach.

[@myopiniongoodyouropinionbad]

I'm impressed they were flying remote control planes.

[@justinmoe3171]

The US actually did use drones/remote aircraft in combat

[@khaelamensha3624]

​​@@justinmoe3171Even Germans

[@jony663]

Thank you for doing this. I was a torpedomans mate back in the 1980s and worked on an trained on torpedos from the Mk14 onward some of which had nuclear warheads. Even low yield weapons could cause a kill just based on losing electronics. Currently I prefer the pre dreadnought history, a little less all encompassing.

[@tcboes]

Lends rich context to the systems and conditions described by Brinkley in 'The Last Ship.'

[@WillParker322]

I thought this was going to be about the "video game hall of famer" Billy Mitchell lol. Still a great production.

[@johnjackson4322]

Post detonation crew instruction suggest enjoying the spectacle, rather like popping by the Covent Garden Flower Show to admire the colours. Jaw dropping.

[@brittmrmanly4982]

I watched an interview with Paul Tibbets (the Hiroshima B29 pilot) where he commented how incompetent the bombardier was on the Able shot. Tibbets said in short the bombardier didn't know what he was doing.

[@marckyle5895]

wonder what happened to him and the rest of the crew?

[@tomhenry897]

Probably How experienced was the crew? Lot of vets were discharged

[@davidbrennan660]

I am just glad Drach didn,t attempt to model the damage as in a past video.... be barely survived that footage and the aftermath. Very informative and somewhat shocking on the test subjects.

[@cpt_bill366]

I never saw or noticed the waves hitting the beach in this footage. That must have been quite a sight!

[@mjbull5156]

I have been listening to Hornfischer's "Who Can Hold the Sea". Apparently, the Able test visually and audibly was underwhelming to press members in the observation area

[@Milleneum]

July 25th, 1946 would therefore by Godzilla's birthday. Surely it was the Baker test that did it. Another great video, thanks Drac.

[@nozdormu89]

When Drach mentioned the Steel eating Megladon I couldn't help but think of the DLC Truth Quest for the Video Game Maneater, where one plays a potentially Radiation powered Bull Shark. I suspect our Radioactive powered Monsterious Bull Shark was present at Operation Crossroads and had escaped undetected.

[@larryseaquist]

Fascinating. I spent many years doing water wash down and decontamination on my ships. One wonders now how much of the 'data' behind the risk calculations and decon procedures was pretty thin.

[@paulblathwayt5152]

In 1968 as a trainee ships engineer I attended a nuclear warfare "course" onboard HMS President on London's Embankment which was basically rig the fire hoses to spray the ship and you'll be fine, I think the general opinion was "nope we are all dead" We spend the rest of the day doing small boat handling on the Thames which was much more fun. The course was all of a couple of hours

[@ke7eha]

One of the dive trips i want to do starts at Kwajalen at the Prinz Eugen and transits to Bikini for around a week worth of diving on the wrecks. It requires extensive technical diving, but it sounds like a hell of a trip. The Navy built the bombs at China Lake, in the Salt Wells Pilot Plant. Everything but the core. I used to work out there when I was at the lake. It gets a little creepy after hours in the plant (I called it the ghosts of Nagasaki paying a visit). You can see the compound and the bunkers (plus the remnants of the guard towers) as you're driving out to Trona from Ridgecrest.

[@short6691]

My high school physics teacher was present as an enlisted sailor for the crossroads tests. His descriptions of the precautions taken by the fleet witnesses (he was on deck with his back turned many miles away) were frightening. He spoke about the color of the rising mushroom cloud, the pressure wave etc. His description was improved by 20 years of hindsight so not an immediate eyewitness account. But I doubt that he exaggerated too much. He died of lung cancer 26 years after the test.

[@Niftynorm1]

At the end of the war my dad was part of a group of radar and other technical ratings the Navy wanted to extend for a special test. First they were moved into an air conditioned barracks with beds that had real sheets and were given great food and offered bonuses . But after a few days with all the guys refusing to extend they were moved into a barracks with no windows and bare cots for several days to see if they would change their minds. Finally the navy gave up and processed them for discharge, very slowly! He always figured he literally dodged a bullet due to the higher cancer rates of those guys.

[@TheJsmitty85]

I liked the use of voice acting talking part in these latest updates

[@Arbiter099]

Nice work with the testimonials.

[@williamlydon2554]

13:57 USS Thompson as far i can tell wasn't a flush decker. She was a Gleaves-class destroyer. The ship before her to bear that name was a Clemson-class but was decommissioned in the 1930s. I was a bit surprised to hear a Flush deck was still in service in 1946 considering almost all were modified during the war. Just a weird thing.

[@SamAlley-l9j]

Thanks Drach.

[@greenseaships]

For a subtitle, I like the line from Star Trek First Contact. "Operation Crossroads: You broke your little ships" :D

[@vonfragesq7145]

As an OS in the US Navy, I remember running nuclear attack drills in CIC.

[@DarkFriday1408]

Fantastic video and great to see an in-depth analysis of the tests. Also, i would like to know how the hell did the Army Air Force miss the target by half a mile? Especially when the Navy also painted the target a bright color. I'm guessing that the Navy leadership had a good time making jokes at the expense of the Army Air Force after this.

[@richardvernon317]

Tail structure of the Bomb collapsed in flight was one of the reasons that the bomb missed the aim point according to some sources. The Aircraft had been called Big Stink during the Nagasaki mission and it carried two British Observers, Gp Capt Leonard Cheshire VC (of 617 Squadron fame) and Dr William Penny. It was renamed Dave Dream in 1946 before its use on the Able Shot. Penny was asked to come back to the USA by General Groves to help set up the target array for these tests.

[@WalterReimer]

Investigations suggested that one fin crumpled in flight.

[@tomhath8413]

The bomb over Hiroshima exploded about 1000 feet higher and 1400 feet away from the intended ground zero. Didn't really matter there however.

[@marckyle5895]

So the normal CEP of a Fat Man would be about the radius of a mile

[@richardvernon317]

@@marckyle5895 There was a conventional version without the nuclear core that was dropped on Japan and on occupied islands as training missions. plus a load of inert ones in the USA. Only two live nuclear ones were ever dropped. miss distance of most of the Test drops were between 900 and 1800 feet, typical miss distance for a Norden Bomb Sight at 30,000 feet.

[@mikepelland441]

Great video, Thank You

[@lewiswestfall2687]

Wow. Thanks Drach.

[@JessWLStuart]

Quite an illuminating video!

[@Sacto1654]

Interestingly, the cancelled _Charlie_ test was actually revived for _Wigwam_ test some nine years later, using a Mark 90 _Betty_ nuclear depth charge of 30 kT yield detonated 2,000 feet below the surface of the water.

[@hmsverdun]

Ah Operation Crossroads otherwise known as the one where we made Godzilla very annoyed at us.

[@E350tb]

I always thought it was Castle Bravo that woke him up.

[@hmsverdun]

@@E350tb Thats one of those which canons we are using. Tbh it was meant as a funny support the channel comment.

[@Alobo075]

Came here looking for Godzilla comments and was not disappointed.

[@hourlardnsaver362]

Also the one that may or may not have inspired the main setting of Spongebob.

[@richardvernon317]

@@E350tb It was Castle Bravo that dusted the island that the people from Bikini had moved to with a buttload of fallout!!!

[@pscwplb]

Cold War content on my Drachinifel?! I must away to my fainting couch!

[@richardvernon317]

Cold war hasn't started yet (just).

[@rreno496]

@@richardvernon317 the Cold War started almost immediately upon the ending of WW2, it just wasn't given the title until later. Both sides had identified each other as the "future enemy" well before the war ended and behaved accordingly.

[@lukahierl9857]

The proper cold war got going with the corean war. Remember that most of both mayor militarys was decomissioned after WW2 and the giant standing armys of russia and the us only started after the corean war.

[@rreno496]

@@lukahierl9857 When did the Cold War start and end and why? Cold War - Wikipedia The Cold War began shortly after the end of World War II, started a gradual winding down with the Sino-Soviet split between the Soviets and the People's Republic of China in 1961, and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

[@richardvernon317]

@@rreno496 Wasn't until 1947 that things really started to go south. US invited Soviet Observers to this test BTW.

[@SynchroScore]

That opening sentence reminds me of a headline and article from _Our Dumb Century_ by _The Onion_ "US Army Finds Last Place On Earth Untouched By War, Blows It To Hell".

[@vxrdrummer]

Brilliant video.

[@richardvernon317]

Spike Blandy - I am not an atomic playboy!!! Of course what not well known is the British were still involved in the Manhattan project at this point and Bill Penny was a major player in the setting these tests up.

[@vintageshed965]

Can you imagine an alternate universe, where the navy took the results of the tests, and decided to build a nuclear torpedo, which would be equipped with Mk.14's firing mechanism 😅

[@nk_3332]

No comment on Godzilla being asleep at the bottom of the lagoon? I guess that big is still classified.

[@realknothead]

I love the new intro song. So epic and cool.

[@GrayD1ce]

Problem with most to all nuclear shells is the delivery system can be in the blast and fallout range

[@benwolf2356]

My grandfather was on the Appalachian. He didn't talk about Crossroads much.

[@VeraTR909]

Those (I assume Patreon) voices for narrating quotes really adds some character to their accounts. Nostalgianerd (videogame history) does a similar thing and I love it.

[@rorypenstock1763]

I thought the exact opposite. For me, the sudden change between voices is distracting, and I don't feel like it really adds anything. Maybe I'm just allergic to high production value.

[@VeraTR909]

Interesting, essentially this boils down to a monotonous vs distracting scale, where it's perfectly ok to differ in opinions ;)@@rorypenstock1763

[@RonJohn63]

6:46 That's an interesting tail fin arrangement.

[@fearthehoneybadger]

Although Mitchell's demonstration was done on moored targets, they were also done with old aircraft using primitive targeting. Far-thinking individuals would understand that, at the rate that technology was improving, planes would soon be able to strike moving ships from higher altitudes.

[@gdolson9419]

ONLY with guided missiles. Dumb bombs (and that includes the Able test nuke) are still mostly a waste of time UNLESS delivered via dive bombing.

[@johnculver2519]

@@gdolson9419 or highly sophisticated night torpedo bombers, like the swordfish.

[@RCAvhstape]

To this day even modern high tech level bombers like the B-2 would have a very hard time trying to hit a maneuvering ship with an unguided bomb from altitude. Mitchell's demonstration was at least half a stunt in that regard.

[@tz8785]

@@gdolson9419 It only took a bit more than 20 years for the first guided bomb (Fritz X, 1943).

[@richardvernon317]

@@gdolson9419 USAAF and RAAF Skip bombers say you're talking bollocks!!!

[@fafner1]

At the time radiation limits were 10 times greater than modern standards, yet it was still impossible to board the ships to do damage control. There has been speculation that a lot of the equipment placed on the test ships to see how it would withstand a nuclear blast was subject to "midnight requisition" by crews surriptiously entering the lagoon at night and removing it.

[@nemothesurvivor]

Does anyone else feel bad for these ships? Saratoga, one of the three American interwar carriers to survive. Nevada and Pennsylvania, present at Pearl Harbor. Salt Lake City, one of the ships that arrived at Pearl Harbor immediately after the attack. Even Prinz Eugen and Nagato, spoils of war turned into glorified targets. I understand that live fire tests are necessary (even if there was debate at how necessary these tests were) and the data gained has its value, but it just feels weird that after all these ships went through, all they survived, this was their reward. I dunno, maybe I'm just too attached to all these ships since falling into the naval history rabbit hole.

[@slytlygufy]

Was this worse than being scrapped?

[@TheGamesterLP]

You can add Pensacola to that list as I don’t think there are any surviving examples of American interwar cruisers

[@Axterix13]

For most ships, to survive is to end up sold for scrap, sunk as a reef, used for target practice, or used as some type of hotel before becoming one of those prior ones. These ships just basically fell into the target practice category. Overall, can't say I feel bad for them. There's only so much money and interest to go around for keeping old warships in existence. Though it would have been nice, historically speaking, to have kept one of the Japanese ships and/or the Prinz Eugen, just because so few ships survived the war from their fleets.

[@nemothesurvivor]

@@Axterix13 I get that. Don't disagree with that. Just let me vent about my parasocial relationship to historical inanimate objects as a veiled critique on countries owning and using atomic bombs. (I say, only half joking).

[@MillerFourFingers]

Look at the fate of Warspite. If ever a ship earned a fate, even this one, that was better than what happened to her.

[@UncleJoeLITE]

Prinz Eugen did herself proud at Crossroads. She went down on her own terms. ⚓💔