Project Crossroads - Nuclear Test Film (1946)

Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy
0800002 - Project Crossroads - 1946 - 41:30 - Black & White - Project Crossroads was a series of two nuclear tests, Able and Baker, the first tests conducted at the Pacific Proving Ground, near the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. These were the fourth and fifth nuclear detonations in history, following the Trinity test in July 1945 and the two weapons dropped on Japan to end World War II.
The two bombs used in Crossroads were of the Fat Man configuration, very similar to the implosion-type weapons tested at Trinity and dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. It had a plutonium pit. The only other nuclear weapon available at the time was the uranium gun-type Little Boy, which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The Fat Man was a more complex weapon than Little Boy, thus needing more testing to gain experimental data.
On July 24, 1946, the Baker shot was set off in the Bikini lagoon at a depth of about 90 feet with a yield of 21 kilotons. Two million tons of water were contained in the eruption and two million yards of sediment were removed from the lagoon floor. Nine ships were sunk.

[@faithoneil3064]

My grandfather was a ww2 veteran during Operation Crossroads as a mm2 in the Navy during the beginning of the bikini atoll atomic bomb testing. He later died of what the doctors called “Asian cancer” which I’ve researched and never heard of. The cancer he actually died from was caused by the radiation he got from the atomic bomb testings during his time of service. The things he must have seen during that time astound me. I can’t even imagine. Miss him every day. The greatest generation of all time.

[@theconservativechristian]

My grandfather also got cancer twice was lucky to beat it but died at the age of 90 from a stroke, technically he died from a botched surgery of a feeding tube that busted his insides up but that’s another story. He never smoked and got lung cancer twice, he was a top officer in the Navy during ww2. Makes me wonder if this is what caused him to get cancer?

[@AustralianChristianFascists]

The generation of liars. Sorry but you grandfather told you a pack of lies.

[@JoeVinson]

Was he on one of the boats in the circle? My uncle was. I am trying to find more on that, because I can remember him telling me about being on the boat when the bomb was ignited.

[@d.s.7982]

If radiation cause cancer ,and than why do they use radiation to kill cancer in patients . Is something going over my head ?

[@d.s.7982]

Yes radiation causes cancer

[@johntheleprechaun178]

My great grandfather was Col. Hermann S. Zahn. He died when I was three in 2007, so I couldn't really ask many questions. His plane was the Big Stink and was later renamed Dave's Dream. I'm not sure if he captained it during the testing, but his old plane was Dave's Dream, which dropped the bombs during Operation Crossroads.

[@l8tbraker]

"On 1 July 1946, Dave's Dream while under the command of Major Woodrow Swancutt (who would become a major general in the United States Air Force) dropped the "Fat Man"-type atomic bomb used in Test Able of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll."

[@conz3155]

My dad AND my husbands,' dad were there during the testing. They were both sailors. My dad was on a battleship carrying men to work and his dad was on an aircraft carrier which the scientists used to do their research. I'm proud of my daddy and I miss him every day. I wish he had lived to see this.

[@spactick]

wow! what an amazing legacy

[@vernalc2449]

I have seen countless videos of several atomic blasts but this one was the FIRST comprehensive documentation of the after-effects of any blast. All previous videos I have seen simply show the explosion and then cut away. TY for the detailed description and video of the after-effects.

[@onethreefiveeye]

Almost more impressive than the correct synchronisation of the chemically based detonation to initiate the physical part of the bomb, is the development of the optical devices to document this whole madness.

[@boxofrocks39]

I say the us should have kept the prinz eugen for a naval museum

[@simonjackson7269]

Print Eugen was involved in the sinking of HMS Hood along with the Bizmark…

[@michaelmcdonald3057]

And the madness continues to this day!

[@iCyWEdontCi2i]

@michaelmcdonald, YES, were jus living with some of the leftovers... And now, even more now that those NucIear PIants have Expired and leeching into our Neighborhoods, let alone the waste that will last longer than man himself.

[@dimitriisov1262]

"One thing was certain however, the dangerous radioactive particles in the cloud had become so widely scattered that no longer was there any danger to the surrounding area" 😅

[@pennybenton5607]

My Dad went through hell. Sworn to secrecy, kept his word. 5 grown kids and Grandkids left with the physical affects.

[@mariuszfidzinski7474]

Sorry for him, and his washed up brain /and genitals/... Compassion is one thing - being stupid is another... I'm seriously sorry for your Dad...

[@pennybenton5607]

@@mariuszfidzinski7474reading is fundamental. Do some research before you state such foolish comments.

[@toesovernose]

Mariusz Fidzinski What would make you comment something like that??? It didn't even make sense and it was insulting! Smh...🤔

[@werekief29]

My Grandfather was also there as a 18 yr old in the navy aboard the USS Current ARS-22. He lived to 91 and told us how almost all of his friends in the navy died from thyroid cancer.

[@pennybenton5607]

@@werekief29 I'm sorry your Grandfather endured that hell. How amazing though living to 91!! He has my respect and adoration for his service!!

[@thevox1075]

I feel bad for the animals.

[@mcduck5]

It seams crazy that only 18 months earlier most of these ships were in the heat of battle. Nevada, Saratoga and enterprise should have been preserved!

[@joeb7373]

Actually a part of the USS Nevada was, and as far as I know still preserved. Lengths of the Nevada’s anchor chain were used as landscape(?)borders around Hartman Hall, the ROTC building at the University of Nevada, Reno. I remember them back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. That area of the campus has been obliterated and rebuilt. I don’t know if they were relocated.

[@jerrymarshall2095]

People back then didnt screwaround,

[@larryjohnny]

Stupid research... Just admit you want to blow shit up.. The world, nature, and neighbors be damned! Should be fined for this now& the we ruined the bikini islands for what? To confirm this bomb kicks ass! Didn't we already test the hell out of this in Vegas, NV

[@1950Chimaera]

@ChaosTrident Chaos, dost thou rave? LOL!...OK... You are right , but I don't think it had any effect on global warming. Most of THAT effect is from dems' HOT AIR.

[@1950Chimaera]

@ChaosTrident I agree with you. i think what we have to realize is the post-WW2 paranoia by the US Gov. there was a general feeling the world allowed both Japan and Germany to get away with too much before the Allies realized they HAD to commit to a FULL, NO holds barred, WAR effort to shut them both down completely. Neither country surrendered when they realized they had lost the war, or surely WILL have lost the war. They both backed up onto their home turf, as they WERE ready to sacrifice ALL of their population to continue to resist. My Dad was in one of the two marine deployments that occupied Nagasaki, and did most of the cleanup effort to help the city and its occupants recover. The Japanese were a proud, honor-driven people and they were respected highly by my father. and he paid the price much later in life with a deadly, violent prostate cancer. (BTW-I was born in 1950 and have issues myself.) He was shocked by the bomb, and as a human, he was not perfectly resolved to the human destruction, but he WAS convinced the Japanese WOULD have fought on another year at least, which would have killed at least a million more people and would have DESTROYED 90% of Japan's culture, by a carpet-bombing campaign that consumed ALL of Germany's major cites and killed a vast amount of civilians, also. Either way, Atom Bomb or carpet bombing, millions of civilians could have died.

[@alizaarielza95]

37:17 This scene remember me from Godzilla Movie (1998) Edit : R.I.P. Nagato & Prinz Eugen

[@jbalish102]

Warning: Most commentators in this thread think the Cold War was about fighting colds.

[@Kharkovkid]

My brother used to say that in a hundred years, people will think the Final Solution was just another conditioning shampoo...

[@Steeyuv]

I thought it was about bikinis.

[@jeffreyabeld921]

#Coronavirus

[@captainphilippines8461]

And that’s how a talking Sponge was Born

[@tigermanmccool4037]

Patrick Star (the starfish) got to much radiation & that's why he drools a lot

[@kingmissile809]

PURE SCIENCE

[@terrys6899]

don't forget the Kardashians too

[@M0nkZer0]

LMFAO 😂😂

[@alphared4655]

@@terrys6899 🙏

[@randy109]

22:10 The heavy Battleship, Nevada held up well at under 700 yards from blast. Surprising how powerful an armored Battleship is built.

[@l8tbraker]

randy109 As the designated target ship for "Able", the Nevada was lucky that day. Had the bomb exploded over the Nevada as planned, at least nine ships, including two battleships and an aircraft carrier, would likely have sunk.

[@micn.8763]

yep-- due to the framing of heavy steel beams and double-bottoms of this class, they were tough ships... BUT, xtremely vulnerable to plunging fire from ships of its own class-- 12" shells or bigger were of course catastrophic when hitting a boiler room or powder magazine, but the ships held up well to torpedoes....

[@tbamagic]

Nevada should have been a museum ship. The only battleship to get underway at Pearl Harbor! Fought in nearly every theater of WW2

[@danieldevito6380]

Don't forget that these were underwater destination. Water is a tremendous shock absorber because it doesn't compress.

[@pyroarchy]

@@danieldevito6380 not compressing makes it a horrible shock absorber. hence why small depth charges worked so well, you only had to be near the sub to drastically hurt it.

[@victabeer3960]

How pissed off would you be getting your pristine Islands vaporised and irradiated?

[@IrishTechnicalThinker]

This is definitely pure insanity.

[@Moo01100]

Listen to the narrator around 29:30 - 31:30 - the storyof the King who unselfishly gave his island to the navy so they could bomb the fuck out of it. And he talks about this, without the slightest sense of distant irony.

[@ebolalegion]

Saying they were mandated to leave by the US Government doesn't sound as nice.

[@BPJJohn]

its obvious he got a big payout from the U.S. government for his cooperation.

[@Vidar.m]

does not matter if he gave them the right to do so do you really think he knew what it meant?! ofcourse not

[@pennybenton5607]

Next wknd Mark's the 75th Anniversary of our late fathers nuclear exposure in both Baker and Able tests. We are the children of government testing watching this generation follow is disturbing. God bless these brave men and women. Miss you Dad....

[@Springbok295]

My father was there participating in Able/Baker. He had a chance to go onboard the Nagato and Prinz Eugen. He said the Prinz was a piece of art while the Nagato was pile of junk.

[@l8tbraker]

Cannot speak to their construction, but consider: Nagato was launched 1919, Prinz Eugen 1938, entered service 1940. The Nagato saw lots of action; she was struck by several bombs in July 1945. The Prinz Eugen's only damage during the war was a 1942 torpedo hit, which severely damaged her stern. She was repaired and returned to service as a training ship. No doubt the cadets kept her in good order. She spent mid-1945 to mid-1946 in the US.

[@Springbok295]

l8tbraker His view of Japanese ships was negative from the standpoint of crew amenities as compared to ours and the German Navy. The IJN certainly provided the barest most Spartan designs for crew accommodation. My father served aboard the Pennsylvania (hammocks for sleeping) '44-early/mid '45 before transferring to a tin-can and shore patrol duty in China (by Fall '45) He hated the "Pagoda" design for the IJN battlewagons. He thought it looked ramshackle but he loved the Prinz. He said her engine casings were covered with fine engravings.

[@jq747]

Not surprised. The Yamato, the mightiest battleship ever built, was sent to the bottom by a few planes. The anti-aircraft on IJN ships was abysmal.. the 20mm guns carried puny 15 round magazines, which spent more time being reloaded than actually firing, and they didn't even install shielding to protect the gun crews for Christ sake. Meanwhile their biggest & best aircraft carrier (Hiyo) was sunk by a single torpedo, thanks to bad damage control and a serious design flaw which caused leaking fuel and vapors to accumulate, until a generator spark blew it all to hell. Fucking idiots. Japanese engineering and manufacturing was utter crap, a stigma they would spend decades trying to shed. (Which they finally succeeded, since Japanese manufacturing is known today for its high quality).

[@demonikfunk]

a few? she took 27 bombs and 17 torpedos

[@l8tbraker]

***** Well, it was a dreadnaught class ship, and the Brits built the first one, so....

[@nerblebun]

I worked in the Marshall Islands for several years.I dove the Bikini Lagoon before it was opened up for sports diving.I've stood on the deck of the Saratoga as well as explored the Prince Eugene which lies rolled half over in the Kwajalein Lagoon.

[@bogdanmirzakabilov]

How's your cancer screening?

[@Wonkabar007]

Sucks to be a stowaway on the LSM-60

[@chrislondo2683]

And all of a sudden....

[@nerblebun]

I dove the Prinz Eugen several times in the early 90's while working on Kwajalein. Also dove Bikini Lagoon & stood on the deck of the Saratoga. Mostly visited Bikini because of a nurse working there. Nancy was a rare, extremely friendly round eye in a sea of native girls. Today there's a sports diving shop on Bikini. Still can't eat the coconuts from Bikini or Enewetak Lagoon islands. Contain enough Strodium-90 to be dangerous. Oh yeah, ""The Dome" which was supposed to seal radioactive top soil & old radiated equipment is leaking like a sieve.

[@SRFDriver]

I designed some of the instrumentation that flew on the Delta 181 Thrusted Vector mission. It was classified at the time--I was surprised to find a Wikipedia article on it as I was writing this. Anyway, I also worked on Kwajalein in the middle 80s. We used to take a C-130 "ferry"up to a radar site on Roi-Namur. The pilot would fly a couple hundred feet above the water with the rear ramp open so that it wouldn't be so terribly hot inside. I remember those days very fondly.

[@firstlast6781]

Interesting

[@nerblebun]

@@SRFDriver: I should have transferred to Roi. Flew up there at least twice a month to dive with buddies. Took a week of leave & spent it on uninhabited 6th Island. Friends dropped us off by boat with plenty of scuba tanks, gear, food, fresh water, about a dozen ice chests of beer, and three native girls. Learned quite a lot about Marshallese tradition & how to find water on an uninhabited island from those ladies. We ate coconut crab, lobster, or Giant Clam almost every night. It was monumental stepping onto a mile long beach without a single footprint.

[@SRFDriver]

@@nerblebun I hope you took the time to explore--lots of WWII bunkers and such still there. I remember specifically a command bunker with reinforced concrete columns that were just hanging like stalamites (or is it stalagtites?). There was another building that had heavy steel doors with concrete partitions on either side of it. One of the partitions had been hit by a shell that took a half-moon chunk out of the partiton and then impacted the wall next to it. I took a photograph of it by lining up the shell crater in the wall with the half moon chunk out of the partition. I really should post those pictures on my page--they would probably be more interesting than what I have on there now. Lol

[@nerblebun]

@@SRFDriver: Did my best to explore every bunker on the islands. Roi had most the old Japanese structures. Hospital, Command building, bunkers, warehouses, and even the water tanks where they tested torpedoes. Most interesting to me was the Japanese "saltwater concrete" used to build the structures. All the buildings & bunkers took direct hits from the big guns fired from our Navy Destroyer's & bombs dropped aircraft, but didn't receive much damage. Mostly dents or a few chunks blown off here & there. The formula for that particular saltwater concrete, partially made with crushed coral (hence the Japanese pools blasted from the reef), has been lost. So far, no ones been able to duplicate its strength.

[@notyou1567]

Beautiful!

[@West_Coast_Gang]

This is an amazing video, thanks for preserving it 1:27 is going be extremely helpful, as i intend ti make a model of the Nevada

[@lingcod91]

Now keep in mind CLASS, both of these test detonations are considered small . . . 15,000 tons . . . just in case you are not impressed or in awe of the tremendous force. When BAKER went off you can see a dark shape in the right side of the erupting column of water. Navy brass dismissed it as just a shadow. Others say it was the ARKANSAS, lifted and stood on it's nose. Well, it was close enough and is in fact lying on the bottom.

[@krill3333]

The plutonium bomb had a range of between 19 and 21 kilotons

[@krill3333]

@Thane Mac No, he's right at tons. The Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons max yield. Estimated at 11 kilotons actual yield.

[@krill3333]

@Thane Mac 15 thousand tons is 15 kilotons

[@krill3333]

@Thane MacThere is no difference in measure. You can say a bomb will yield 15,000 tons, for instance, or 15 kilotons. Same thing. The Crossroads Bravo shot yielded approximately 19,000 tons or 19 kilotons.

[@puppetsock]

You can see the shadow lingcod91 refers to at 36:38. You may need to let it play a bit. The shadow is at the left, poking up out of the spray at water level. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Arkansas_(BB-33) was a 562 foot long dreadnought, 26,000 tons empty. The shadow seems to be in about the right location and moving correctly to be the ship.

[@Legitcar117]

Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New York, and Saratoga should have become museums

[@lordsheogorath3377]

LegitGaming117 At 37:20 you can see the battleship Arkansas taking flight in the bottom right of the spray. That's right a flying battleship. Nukes are scary.

[@Legitcar117]

I know right, the bomb must have been powerful to bring an entire battleship out of the water.

[@BritanniaPacific]

I thought they were cut up after surviving a blast like that, or they were sunk. Whatever it was, I'm surprised they did, after all that radiation and all.

[@Legitcar117]

they were sunk by gunfire and torpedoes after the nuclear test. Nevada was sunk by gunfire off of pearl harbor, same with new York. Arkansas and Saratoga are still in bikini atoll sunk. Pennsylvania was sunk outside of of Kwajalein atoll.

[@PUNCHYOURFACEreal]

LegitGaming117 many of them should have but the navy decided that if its obsolete it gets sunk.

[@Wildstar40]

Now you know how we've always talked about something going wrong with the bomb. The bomb Dimitri, the bomb.

[@robertduncombe7684]

I do believe Lincoln, that you have spent many hours pondering the wonderfulness of the big board...

[@spikespa5208]

Yes, President Muffley.

[@adamrspears1981]

"You sank my battleship!.....& irradiated a bunch of people & their home!"

[@jamesedmond3351]

$20 and some trinkets and necklaces. Oh, and 2 cases of spam mystery meat.

[@stevelamperta865]

They have the nerve to call this a courtesy video ! If you'll excuse me , I have to go vomit now...

[@SRFDriver]

Welcome to reality--the world is not the rose-colored place you think it is. And if you think THAT is bad you ain't seen nothin' compared to what's coming if China doesn't stop antagonizing the world. If you don't know what I'm talking about then do some research on what China is doing RIGHT NOW in the South China Sea

[@tinafoster8665]

3:38, one of the parts sanitized starts out, "fastened atop": THIS IS THE ANIMAL CAGES , and was of course one of the most ghoulish parts of the entire experiment and was very understandably "sanitized" out.

[@tbamagic]

Poor King Juda.....his people's ancestral home...ruined forever......

[@TeePole59]

The Able shot was impressive but missed the AP, the USS Nevada, by something like 1800 yards (Yay for AAF!). The Baker shot was even more impressive as it was suspended underwater in the middle of this herd of sacrificial lambs but from a radiological standpoint it was messy, messy, messy. I would also note the irony of the Nevada being involved in these two shots as it is named for the state where the bulk of our future mainland nuclear testing occurred.

[@user-bf9le4qq2w]

convenience, compliance and complications ✊️ 😑 damnnn

[@sandpounder3443]

"I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees... I said turn down all this radiation please"

[@SRFDriver]

Two more: Talking WWIII Blues by Bob Dylan and World War III by Root Boy Slim. It is EXCELLENT! It's on KZbin. So is the entire album ZOOM! which is also excellent. I miss him.

[@paulh33]

So sad. Also search John Pilger's - "The Coming War On China" Documentary. The first part he visits the Marshall islands and interviews the people.

[@jq747]

"Hmm the war's over.. what to do.. let's park 50 ships in the same vicinity and drop a nuke right in the middle!" God I miss the 40's & 50's ;)

[@rockets4kids]

Those were all ships which were going to be scrapped anyway. They had more value for their test data than as ships.

[@spikespa5208]

@kevin m Grow up.

[@mastervoz]

You're 80+ years old?

[@nebtheweb8885]

@kevin m You really should follow your own advice. STFU.

[@spikespa5208]

@kevin m Put a cork in it, child.

[@borntorazehell777]

dang those battleships can sure take a beating and keep going.

[@ChildovGhad]

These tests say a lot for the ship builders that designed and built them. Those ships did exactly what they were designed to do, with most holding up pretty well against something that the builders never imagined.

[@ImNicilis]

Borntorazegames yeah but as of now battleships are just a chunk of metal. Nuclear technology would demolish these ships and countries dint use them anymore

[@audioproductionmusicproduc8518]

When will HBO make miniseries to portrait Americans as evil for killing all these people who were present there and animals they used for these tests like they did with their Chernobyl miniseries?

[@thenglar]

I recently discovered that a distant granduncle Cecil Huber from Minnesota was on the destroyer O'Brien during the test. Obviously he died in 1959 with only 32 years.

[@jonaspucko78]

How come the blast is heard immediately with the visual explosion? At such large distance from the epicenter, the sound wave will take several seconds to reach the camera. They sync'ed the sound after, but why? Seems dumb.

[@brettatton]

They add the sound of the explosion. You would not hear the explosion immediately along with the flash. The speed of sound is much slower than the speed of light.

[@gemini-mg6sc]

It's a damn shame many of them didn't become museum ships.

[@chrislondo2683]

I want a remaster of this.

[@fidziek]

For those with learning difficulties, drones are not really unmanned aerial vehicles, there are pilots driving them through very efficient (low latency) sat and others com con... so just imagine what is possible

[@holymelon8011]

Wow how nasty

[@thomassteyer-lq7nt]

My Popie was there. Mom told me he helped clear native off the islands. He passed away from cancer in 1982 Way before I was born. My Aunt said that he was a "Nuclear Vet". He was in the US Navy then.

[@janebrown1706]

Watching and crying as I write, and am just as appalled as I was in 1982 when I first watched 'On the Beach' film, aged 30. I think my folks had the book but hid it, and never took us kids to see the film.

[@hockeypnc3]

anyone have the link of the govt commercial where they show the island people all happy?

[@mfuckersssss]

the island people are all dead now thanks to another test held at later date

[@classicnescafe6786]

from the DATE upload 2010. now i watch in the year 2020. its been 10years

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

How much did this all cost ? including ships from other nations ?

[@lukestrawwalker]

War booty (ships of other nations) Captured and "hey it's ours now!" If you have to ask how much it cost, you can't afford it... LOL:) Probably a few million bucks in those days, probably a hundred or couple hundred million in today dollars. They're called 'military exercises' now and this sort of thing goes on all the time, just without the nukes for the fireworks show at the end... the military is the largest user of fossil fuels; tanks and ships and military trucks and planes get atrocious fuel economy, and the more heavily armored they are the more fuel they use... Eisenhower didn't warn us about the "military/industrial complex" for nothing....

[@l8tbraker]

The name of the B-29 that dropped the Able test bomb was "Dave's Dream". Here's an article about the plane, which had been named "Big Stink" for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Stink_(aircraft)

[@bogey18991]

And no sea life was harmed in the making of this video

[@dr.hugog.hackenbush9443]

*DO YOU FEEL IT NOW, MR. CRABS?*

[@pressureworks]

Bikini Atoll is still too radioactive for human habitation.

[@iancanuckistan2244]

And to think that all the calculations were done on slide rules and all the electronics were done through vacuum tubes.

[@Joe-gu6oe]

Weren't many of these damaged ships taken to Hunter's Point Ship Yard, SF, CA? * The USN is responsible for some of the best days of my life but, I was stationed, aboard ship, in dry dock for apx eight months in 1972-3. Would radiation have still been dangerous to my health? I am interested in only the truth. * I now have PD and CKD-3.I was never told of Hunter's Point's past history. Who was I to go against the wind?

[@SRFDriver]

Yes, some were sailed there and some were towed.

[@uberkloden]

Nice. I was there and played in water there hunters point. Now I have cancer

[@Joe-gu6oe]

Since I made the above post, I have discovered the ship I served on was, for a while, within 12 miles of Vietnam and i qualify for compensation for Parkinson's Disease. A good friend qualifies for the bladder cancer

[@BumbleBee-kg5ig]

The Nevada was sunk at pearl harbor, repaired then set a blaze by an atom bomb, what a waste of money. So many of those ships would have been great as a museum piece.

[@whatsyurprob158]

No, the Nevada was beached as she tried to make her way to open water. The channel would've been blocked had they sunk her. If you're going to teach, at least learn what you're talking about.

[@SRFDriver]

So let me get this straight: They could use them to learn something or they could prop them up somewhere for you to gawk at? I'm glad YOU weren't in charge.

[@BumbleBee-kg5ig]

@@SRFDriver so blowing up ships with an atomic bomb and destroying the environment was more important than learning about history. There is no need to be an asshole about a comment. You are a fucking Jack ass Im glad you were not in charge.

[@SRFDriver]

@@BumbleBee-kg5ig My reply to your first sentence is "Yes, at that moment in time it WAS more important to blow ships up with an atomic bomb than to prop up a bunch of scrap iron for people to gawk at." If you do a little research (which you clearly have not) you will learn that the cold war was just beginning and the US and Russia were in the process of learning as much as possible about the weapons in order for each to protect their countries from the other--an entirely different discussion. If the Russians had not been GIVEN the ability to threaten the US with nuclear weapons things might have been different, however that's not the way the cards were dealt. Your freedom to sit on your little perch in 2020 and judge people's actions from 75 years ago is a direct result of those actions. As far as my being an "asshole" about it--from where I'm sitting your having had to resort to name-calling from the start merely highlights your inability to debate the FACTS. Reach out again when you have something USEFUL to offer. And finally, as far as my not having been in charge is concerned although my career in electrical engineering began in 1972 I spent almost 40 years either directly or indirectly involved in that effort, so I know something about it--unlike YOU. Your move...

[@BumbleBee-kg5ig]

@@SRFDriver all I was stating is that is was a waste. Some of those ships would have been nice to see in real life. The steel was wasted and could have been broken down for other things. They had already dropped 3 atomic bombs and it should have been assumed what would happen to a ship when hit by one (sunk or unusable). You came straight out at me for making a simple statement, in which case makes you an asshole. There was no need to come out that strong.

[@faffaflunkie]

How come the Navy wasn't worried about someone *getting killed* by a *flying battleship* on _Baker_ day?

[@chinatype2bassrocker809]

Because they were convinced that battle ships could not fly.

[@ChildovGhad]

Because they had at least a basic understanding of physics and mathematics.

[@ChildovGhad]

@William Wright Actually, the bombardier was about as far off as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and a lot closer to the target than the one dropped on Nagasaki. He did a damn fine job of it, for the technology of the time.

[@highcloud530]

I was in the NAVY 35 to 40 years after this happened trust me the navy worries not about such things they just patch you up afterwards... NAVY stands for Never Again Vollunteer Yourself

[@HaZe_Da_PuPPy]

Cuz it would take a Gigaton detonation to send one of those ships flying

[@Lockbar]

Too bad so many historic ships had to be lost there.

[@pennybenton5607]

We toured the ship our Dad was on in these tests. Double exposure!!

[@Lockbar]

@@pennybenton5607 Sorry to hear that, Do your teeth glow in the dark??

[@Matthewseven13]

What a shame to destroy so much equipment.

[@1skipdallas]

Equipment can be replaced. The knowledge gained was the objective of these tests.

[@mariuszfidzinski7474]

@@1skipdallas bullshit

[@user-cr4gd8gh4r]

Are any of the servicemen involved with Operation Crossroads still alive?

[@questmotion]

6:02 3 "navy's radio-controlled drones". Thought it was worth pointing it out, I knew the germans had radio-controlled devices such as the "golliath" but I never knew they already had drones in 1946. So little time, so much to learn !

[@l8tbraker]

questmotion Radio controlled planes were experimented on as early as the First World War. After Crossroads, Drones continued to be used to collect samples from the bomb tests and to study blast effects of the bomb. It was discovered (by accident) that planes with pressurized cockpits could fly through the clouds with no ill effects on the the human crew, after which most of the sampling was done by manned aircraft.

[@stevegoesrogue]

There were radio controlled B-25's or B-17's (can't remember which) that were packed with explosives and used as Kamikaze planes in Europe. They were first piloted by a two man crew until close to the target, who then switched the radio controls on and bailed out. A trailing bomber of the same make which was outfitted with the controls needed to guide the drone to its target. This method of bombing wasn't very popular though, as the bailing pilots and co-pilots would often die from slamming into the plane at full speed.

[@l8tbraker]

stevegoesrogue It was called Operation Aphrodite.

[@Niever]

Yeah, technology really leaped during and after that war. The Germans also invented night vision and were using it. Mainly eastern front though, very unwieldy, sensor was the size of a giant flood light and the portable version looked very heavy.

[@lukestrawwalker]

More like remote controlled planes... they had a guy on the ground with an RC controller to take them off and land them, then a guy in the air in a chase plane took over and flew them once they were airborn... even had cameras on the instruments radioing back images to the chase plane, for the back seater to fly the 'drone' by reading the instruments...

[@GabrielBarbosa-gs6vk]

To think that today the metal armour of such vessels is considered high end steel for some applications due to them being from before atomic age, and as such have less radioactive debree as per say l. And they took tons of such and just contaminated it beyond imagination, of course they didn't knew about such effects until much later, but still a huge miss.

[@gallowsradio]

Wow! it's still amazing what men can create. And yet...

[@alphared4655]

Love the channel. One huge vid dump (let's call it a vid bomb) with amazing footage. Atom bombs fascinate me. Beautiful and wonderful in many eery ways, but I don't agree with this at all.

[@virgilmountjoy3734]

Wow when you look back at this, it is really creepy. Mona tone speaker with a orchestral melody. It makes this sound like every thing is ok and this wasn't a really stupid thing to do

[@UCCLdIk6R5ECGtaGm7oqO-TQ]

The use of music itself should be a giveaway that it is a propaganda piece used to manipulate the viewer.

[@harrisonc985]

dang the ijns Nagato was a frikin tank. so close to the epicenter yet mostly u damaged! even in the second one it took a whole 5 days to sink because they put so many watertight compartments inside.

[@HaZe_Da_PuPPy]

37:02 or from the radioactive tsunami that was formed from millions of gallons of radioactive water as it fell back to earth from the blast

[@frame5098]

Is there any videos of unmanned ships during a megaton detonation?

[@lukestrawwalker]

Not that I'm aware of. This was the only real purposed test of naval ships, the idea was to see what sort of damage could be expected to ships at anchor and in various aspects to the blast-- like side to the blast, facing toward or away from the blast, oblique angles, various types of ships, distance, etc. Basically "if we decided to bomb a major port what would the results be?" This was strictly an 'effects test" (IOW, what effects on the ship and materials and test animals and stuff could we expect?) and not a "weapons test" (which is designed to test a new design of bomb or new principle in bomb construction or design, or a new bomb component like a primary (fission part) of a thermonuclear weapon or arrangement of components... new "physics package" as they were called). There's some cool footage from inside one of the "squaw" submarine hulls during the Operation Wigwam test. Wigwam was originally to be part of Operation Crossroads, which was originally to be three tests-- one air dropped and detonated in the air, one shallow underwater (which was Baker detonated 90 feet below the surface) and one deep water test (which would have been shot Charlie IIRC). The Charlie test was cancelled and later performed as wigwam. 3 dummy submarines were constructed and fitted with instruments, suspended from cables under surface barges strung out in a miles long, with the last barge suspending the bomb deep below it on a cable. The deep underwater detonation was used to test the integrity of submarine hull construction with distance; having the hulls suspended from surface barges would prevent them from sinking, and allow their recovery and inspection. Cameras were installed in the "squaws' as the subs were called, filming the interior during the blast. One of the cameras is filming the well-lit interior of the squaw one moment, and in the next frame, is filming bubbles in the water that has filled the sub up to the camera pressure vessel it was enclosed in... a camera's eye view of a sub implosion, if anyone wants to see what the Titan sub implosion would have looked like...

[@liminalreality9617]

"Let’s eat!!!!" **SpongeBob trips on a rock** **SPLAT** 35:33

[@ltfenn88]

What a massive waste of money.

[@TheGryxter]

21:31 - So the brass decides to "walk the decks" to see the damage first hand after the blast (with absolutely no protection). Somehow I don't think that sounds like a good idea. But hey, what do I know about radiation, us E-4 peons didn't have a "need to know". I suppose weeks or maybe months later they had no trouble going number 2,...voluntarily or involuntarily!

[@spikespa5208]

My father sailed on the IX-300 (Prinz Eugen) to Crossroads. Witnessed both tests. Was sent on board after Baker and spent some time until the boffins came and said everyone off! Lived to age 79, no chronic illnesses. Just lucky (for me also) I guess. .

[@csbaca1]

Operation greenhouse, George shot was the 1st thermonuclear explosion. Deuterium and tritium applied.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Boosted fission technically... thermonuclear reactions but most of the yield was fission.

[@mackknife8414]

So how much radiation did they get. Going in after that

[@laksamanasuhendra5868]

so this what happened to the Prinz Eugen?

[@KatyushaLauncher]

Yup, and later she capsized and sunk at Kwajalein Atoll

[@pete3050]

Department of energy, code name for weapons of mass destruction also known as WMD

[@mikecrodot6767]

I can imagine King Judah " generously" giving his island to heapum big admiral

[@silvercastle777]

I agree , one of many times I think the USA was wrong

[@peterlomax5133]

He did. Imagine how he felt later?

[@lukestrawwalker]

He did, but he didn't realize what would happen afterwards... the US guys knew about radiation, but only the scientists really understood it, and even then their understanding was elementary compared to what we know now. The brass understood it but as a theoretical thing not in any firsthand sense and ignored the implications. The natives had NO CLUE this would poison their world forever and keep them from ever being able to return... they thought they were doing something good for the world, little did they know...

[@PureNRG2]

After the detonations, Bikini Atoll was later reopened as a nude beach and renamed No Bikini Atoll.

[@ChildovGhad]

Actually, it became Bikini Bottom, populated by mutant sponges and stuff at the bottom of Bikini Lagoon.

[@psyclepath1964]

BAHAHAHAH!!!! 🤙😎

[@jaysonleban7227]

As a Marshallese I found this comment as racist!

[@pop5678eye]

Ah nuclear test films... edit for sound for the simple minded... who are led to believe that sound travels the same speed as light...

[@WildBillCox13]

Hollywood has corrupted perception. This teaches us some useful lessons, but it also misinforms on a vast scale.

[@mikealvord55]

Maybe they just think you are smart enough to know it doesn’t.

[@jerrymarshall2095]

Sound traveled faster back then, we were in a different dimension of space and time.Didnt u ever watch the Twilight zone?come on man,everybody knows that.

[@virgilmountjoy3734]

Uh what?

[@jhcfight]

@Richard Hopkins Speed of sound in air 343 m/s, in iron 5,120 m/s. Speed of light in vacuum: 299,792,458 m/s 'near' is a relative term, so you're always right

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

forget the radioactivity what about the oil and fuel and whatever was on those ships ?

[@mariuszfidzinski7474]

and then... after 1945 - we observe growing CANCER getting on the world population... smoking, yeah? hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmm

[@Secter84]

@@mariuszfidzinski7474 all together with the U.S. Russia, & every other nuclear powers that have detonated nukes off There has been over 2000. Alot of those atmospheric tests that spread nuclear fallout all over the world.

[@lukestrawwalker]

@@Secter84 There's a video here on YT that shows every nuclear test detonation since 1945 in time lapse.. it's interesting.

[@marvinscroggs8648]

They really didn't know how bad it was at the time. No one should have been working around all the radiation, fallout , ect.

[@kavalkid1]

Some narration by Rod Serling!

[@Tzunamii777]

37:23 , There's the Battleship Arkansas standing on it's bow.

[@delacruzctine]

Wow!

[@YDDES]

There should be an international decree, that any country must do all weapons testning on their own ground. And, not on stolen property.

[@Secter84]

Lol bro there was so many more in the united states. It's no surprise that ppl get cancer like crazy. It's fucked up.

[@lukestrawwalker]

nuclear testing has been discontinued pretty much everywhere. US and Soviet Union agreed to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which forbids nuclear tests in the air, under water, underground, and in space. IIRC only North Korea is doing nuclear tests, and they have enough sense after all this time (and experience of the USA, USSR, China, France, and Britain) to do it underground, which pretty much contains all the byproducts... main thing they're testing for is to make sure a new bomb design works, not for effects testing like this was.

[@johnleepettimoreiii65]

Strange they would name it "the Crossroads" project, you know in the popular mythos 'The Crossroads' is where you meet the devil and sell your soul.

[@Rookie_22]

Knight at the Crossroads is an art work about life and death

[@leenamon9717]

Wow

[@lingcod91]

Only part of the story. Omitted is: thousands of sailors who developed cancers; AND what was done with the majority of remaining ships. Yep, towed to nearby islands, Hawaii, and even to our Pacific coast and sunk. Too contaminated for salvage. Brilliant, huh?

[@loulewis844]

One of the pilots that flew around the mushroom cloud of the first abomb test in bikini atoll in 1946, would later die from cancers caused by radiation exposure. he lived till 1973 at age of 55. Ships that were towed offshore of Hawaii (USS Pennsylvania & USS New York) and California (heavy cruisers USS Salt Lake and sistership USS Pensacola, Light carrier USS Independence) were sunk by torpedoes by destroyers and torpedo bombers and gunfire from warships.

[@reprieve53]

My father was there. He was on the USS Fall River. He had some medical problems post WW2. He died of Cancer in1989.

[@1950Chimaera]

@@reprieve53 My father was a USMC deployed in Nagasaki to help clean up the city. He had a prostate cancer that went through him in 1990 liked wildfire. I was born in 1950 and have some issues myself. Do you suppose I could get reparations for the damage done to my psyche? I'm kinda strange inside...

[@user-bf9le4qq2w]

they took a chance on it ... volunteering those soldiers/sailors and vessels for the sake of science ... data from tests to be analyzed ✊️ 😙

[@Bull53]

How many sailors survived exposure to the Radiation

[@dennisholt7684]

2:20 my man went diving for second

[@Moredread25]

14:44 Yeah, I'm real sure the cloud became safe after a couple hours after the explosion. Holy crap these people are exposing themselves to so much radiation when they get back on those ships.

[@SRFDriver]

You are correct: They tried to decontaminate some of the ships so that they could be sailed back. However they were unable to do so and the ships were eventually scuttled.

[@ninacorbett7306]

My daughter has a friend in the local retirement community who participated in Operation Crossroads. They could not discuss it for 50 years upon threat of court-martial. This veteran was left sterile and had cancer. Due to the 50 year period, he was not able to "prove" it resulted from the blast. And not only did he see the blast, he also helped "scrub" his ship the USS Salt Lake City.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Due to radioactive decay, this is true... after one hour the radiation is half what it was at the time of detonation. It falls off very quickly but ever more slowly the more time that passes. Plus, the radiation spreads out over time diluting it over more area, which reduces the exposure levels proportionately. Now, yeah, these guys were exposing themselves to WAY too much radiation, and there was a lot of unknowns that cost these guys dearly in the future. The "neutron activation of sodium in the salt dissolved in the seawater" for instance, was interesting. Neutron activation of steel plate of the hulls of these ships was something else. You notice no respirators, no bunny suits, the guy just hopping off the boat into knee deep water and having his instruments handed down... breathing in mist or humidity laced with alpha-emitters... exposing their skin, contaminating their clothing and hands with salt water that is itself radioactive due to neutron activation (the atoms of sodium absorb a neutron and become a radioactive isotope of sodium, same with the iron atoms in steel-- this is how the neutron bomb worked-- if the intense burst of neutron radiation didn't kill you outright, if you were within lethal range, the crewmen inside Soviet tanks would subsequently be irradiated and die from gamma and X-rays caused by the iron of the tank hulls absorbing neutrons and becoming radioactive isotopes, making the tanks themselves radioactive). You'll probably see guys standing around smoking and eating or drinking, etc. and if you watch later tests, you'll see the longer this went on the smarter guys got. Now they didn't tell the grunts out in the desert shots anything, so a lot of those guys were smoking, eating, and drinking too, and for a lot of them the most "decon" (decontamination) they got were sweeping each other off with a broom, which is a joke, but if you watch the scientists and the AEC guys doing experiments out there, you'll see in those videos from Nevada Test Site, those guys will all be in bunny suits, with skull caps and respirators and their boots in baggies taped off to their legs, gloves, etc. They won't be eating or drinking or smoking til they get back and actually go through a SHOWER decon to wash off particles (why smoking, drinking, or eating is bad, or going without a respirator-- if you inhale or ingest alpha emitter particles, they literally irradiate and kill the cells in your body from the inside out... my old man worked at a nuke plant and got some "fuel fleas" on his skin from rust on the inside of a hot (radioactive) valve they loaded up and sent out for repair... "fuel fleas" is vernacular for radioactive particles... evidently he rubbed some into his skin, because he got these blisters about the size of the end of your pinky finger, which filled with pus, and then burst... basically the radioactive particle kills all the cells within about 1/8 inch from the particle emitting the radiation, all the way around and down into the flesh beneath it. These dead cells cannot resist bacterial infection, which begins to rot them, and the body sends white cells to kill the bacteria, which forms pus. Then as the outer layers of skin burst, the pus is released like a pimple, and the new cells underneath heal... but you're left with a CRATER in the skin where the dead cells were, until it finally heals up after a few weeks when the skin grows in and fills it back up. They call them "fuel fleas" because it's like a bad insect bite, like a spider bite, which kills the cells around the bite for some distance. If you ingest radioactive particles, you get a 'fuel flea' inside your body, only its in ALL directions around the particle, all the way around it. That's why the scientists later on are all wearing respirators and bunny suits and taped off booties and stuff... they don't want particles getting on them.

[@user-bf9le4qq2w]

exactly .... they were way too close to that detonation . . makes ya wonder 🤔

[@user-bf9le4qq2w]

​@@lukestrawwalkernegligence ... guinea pig gig

[@kohl57]

Yuck. I don't know what's harder to watch: the poor animals, the men forced to be guinea pigs or the veritable museum of heroic and famous ships sacrificed. Watching the USS SARATOGA sink... sad. All to prove that nuclear bombs are not nice things. We get it. In August 1945 already.

[@jamesedmond3351]

Bikini Atoll, birthplace of Godzilla.

[@d3203]

and SpongeBob

[@HaZe_Da_PuPPy]

@31:27 yeah he looks like a king

[@memearmas]

in colors this video

[@1950Chimaera]

"No Bikini Atoll"...Giggiddy!!

[@wabbitnred3609]

OMG THOSE POOR ANIMALS!!! WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD? LIKE THOSE POOR ANIMALS DIDN'T SUFFER!

[@tuitaylor9021]

Thats what I thought, I just looked at comments to see if they show what happened to them... I don't want to see the poor animals in pain.

[@notyou1567]

Fuck those animals.

[@UCCLdIk6R5ECGtaGm7oqO-TQ]

The world isn't the problem - people are.

[@marklierly9381]

I would like to know how many of the Sailors involved in these tests later died from Cancer at a young age? Were the families compensated? :-(

[@ruthlex755]

The wind blowed the wrong way and the natives on a another Island was covered in a cloud from one of the test, and had burns on their body, 🥺

[@ruthlex755]

And I found this video on the men who cleaned it up, kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6bXfnusn5iYrqM

[@whatsyurprob158]

Actually, nuclear waste isn't harmful at all after a very short period of time, and you'd know that if you were to stop listening to the LIARS of the media. RESEARCH IS YOUR FRIEND. Search, "Nuclear Physicist drinks nuclear waste", and see what you get. You'll see. Btw, I'm not the only one who knows this TRUTH. You might also want to see the latest news on, Chernobyl. The place is THRIVING with wildlife, and vegetation, ALL NORMAL. How can this be? LIARS, remember? Nuclear waste is going to be very valuable one day, and the Elite knows it!!! What better way is their to keep people away from it than to SCARE them? Edit: Don't believe it? kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5umgqWFiapgjqM TRUE STORY!!! WWG1WGA

[@spencerclark5751]

i just thought some thing's not rite.he said-while some of them just closed there eyes.

[@UCCLdIk6R5ECGtaGm7oqO-TQ]

Well you can't know because they won't ever tell you and you can't prove it anyway.

[@nneubsfl9278]

Wait a min...at about 12 mins in they said they used "pilotless drone planes"!!! They had those back then????

[@bobbybrummett7384]

I can't believe nobody said anything about the natives live on living on these islands or nearby I imagine they went through hell

[@nerblebun]

@Bobby Brummett: The natives were moved to other atolls before the blasts. Most to Ebye Island at the Kwajalein Atoll. Basically, our government moved them from their own lands onto a reservation. Sound familiar?

[@LordZontar]

@@nerblebun The Bikini natives were relocated to Rongelap and Rogerik islands. Eight years later, they got dusted by the fallout from the Castle Bravo test because of the miscalculation of the bomb yield and an unexpected shift of the winds which put the fallout column right on a direct line to those two outer islands. I think they were moved to Ebye after Castle Bravo.

[@nerblebun]

@@LordZontar: I lived in the Marshall Islands several years. Kwajalein Atoll. I know for a fact entire islands of natives where nuclear testing took place were moved from atoll to atoll several times. Most wound up on Ebye. They told me. I still have friends living on Ebye & we've kept in touch for the last 27 years.

[@HelixOrion]

Nobody: A Random: My grandfather/My dad...

[@jasonaaronscalmato6916]

still frame capture method

[@earleburtonjr9292]

Safe disposal?