Atomic Cannon - Upshot Knothole Grable (The Hot Shot)

[Joseph565112]

@TheExperimentalFreak The cameras are in strong boxes - concrete reinforced with titanium and lined with lead to prevent distortion by the inital short-wave radiation.

Old civil defense video here on youtube go into more detail about test preparedness, filming, blast effects, etc.

[TheSupafunky24]

first thing i thought was "fuck off" then i thought of the gun saying it to the shell

[TheExperimentalFreak]

How did they film this shit?

[TheShadowOfMars]

There is probably one of these pointed at Seoul on standby right now.

[Rokinggran]

Cracked sent me here!

[overusedoxymoron2003]

As badass as an atomic cannon would be, it was highly impractical. It would be a tactical nightmare. The enemy commander would hear this from his second: "Sir, they have an atomic cannon on the field. Commanders response: "Airstrike that sommbitch!"

[AntiProtonBoy]

Imagine the artillery was dud and fell short. Now that would have sucked.

[riccaliolio]

Cracked.com

[Nxtl68]

this was such an impractical weapon, the fallout alone would kill your guys too.

[Klafti1]

Thanks :-)

[hansbeimbam]

the music is from the documentary "Trinity an Beyond" and has been recorded by the moscow symphony orchestra.

[Klafti1]

whats the music?

pleas answer

[DeathBringer9000]

how the hell does the camera survive?

[CrazedNovaProduction]

I know some of those shots of the shockwaves are from different tests such as Operation Plumbbob Persilla, but what test is that at 0:47 ?

[bajesus666]

why no delay on the sound? that had to be at least 3 miles...

[racer927]

Fun fact: There were pigs in those things at 0:46 to test heat flash and blast effects

[KillerRadar]

Now make it automatic!

[4wushu]

the shot from 1:38 untill 1:48 you can see

the massive cloud down the road

now thats a creepy sight , its huge

[omcorc]

The interesting factoid about this weapon is that it is roughly the same kilo-tonnage as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

[XCartoonist]

what is that lightning next to the explosion?

[22reTOYOTA]

Thats for all the "Drama" people for the added excitement.

[Thek213]

@XCartoonist They're actually rocket trails. The distortion of the trails show the force of the shockwave.

[MrJambalaa]

this is movie named "trinity and beyond the atomic bomb movie" and scene form that..it detonated on year 1953

[yaesuham]

Hey Pseudologic, They are already here. Take a stand and get a backbone that is harder than chocolate pudding for a change. Report or kill anyone so inclined to bomb the USA. and remove idiots that harbor them from living. Just my thoughts of course.

[Pseudologic]

Don't talk about backbone you internet-typing, trash-talking, emo-lord, nerd-raging bitch.

[yaesuham]

@ Pseudologic OK I will lower my figure to 5 instead of 10. The same number as your I.Q. At least they would make the sand monkeys over there think twice about hiding out Osama, and his rabble hord! And one last thing, Name calling doesnt hurt me one bit. I dont use harsh or abusive language, just the truth, and if it hurts, then, Im not sorry.

[Pseudologic]

Hi, my name is yaesuham, I'm a member of a molestation cult and I would like to nuke anyone threatening me and my practice of telling people how to live and molesting young boys!

[bmil69]

You change your name a lot.

[yaesuham]

Too Bad we dont have about 10 of these weapsons for Afghanistan. That would break up the Taliban, Al Queda, and scare the very hair off any Osama lover there !@

[Pseudologic]

If you nuked afghanistan, the stores in the US would run out of peroxide. Every arab would be trying to make a bomb and blow it in the US.

[bmil69]

If you nuked afghanistan nobody would be stupid enough to do anything for fear they would be nuked. Pseudologic, you need to educate yourself....

[Pseudologic]

The muslims living in the US would be scared of being nuked? You are gonna nuke Detroit or LA to teach a couple of muslims a lesson? Did your mom drop you on your head when you were little?

[bmil69]

Dude, are you fucking retarded? Where did you get Detroit and LA? I dont think your mom dropped you on your head, i think she hit you in the head with a shovel after the failed abortion.

[Pseudologic]

NERD RAGE! Hi, I'm bmil and I have sand excavations in my vagina!

[bmil69]

You changed your name to bmil? Creeper....

[Pseudologic]

Hi, I'm bmil and I think if we nuked NYC, because that's where the 9/11 hijackers lived, then 9/11 wouldn't have happened, yeah!

[bmil69]

Wow you really think that? You are fucked up.

[Pseudologic]

Hi, my name is bmil, I play children's video games and think that people on the internet give two shits about my opinions!

[bmil69]

Jesus christ you have a ton of pedo nerd rage.

[Pseudologic]

Rule #1, nerd, you can't steal my insults. Get your own, ahahaha.

[bmil69]

I didnt steal shit dude. And what "rules"? Nerd rules?

[proxcis]

Hi, I'm bmil and i suck balls for a living

[bmil69]

@proxcis

enjoy being a fag, ill be fuckin my girlfriend, she has this thing called a vagina, too bad you wont ever know what one looks like

[andreyki77]

and for the closer things like vehicles and buildings, there are special cameras to record nuclear explosion from this range, they are in shielded positions

sry for the double post

[andreyki77]

hey were able to record it by being very far from the explosion

it may seem like the camera is close, but in reality the mushroom cloud is so big that it looks this close

[WarriorTrtle]

Nuclear Radiation, Fire Burning HOT!!!

[AirpowerAirforce]

He Segregator You know Its plagerism to Say this film is yours. This footage came from Trinity and Beyond.

[gtafan47]

The thing I don't understand is; how were those cameras able to record the destruction footage? You would think that they would be destroyed along with everything else...

[demonhunter5502]

that's exactly what I wonder. Can anyone answer this question please (without being a douchebag, preferably)?

[Oneandoneself]

They did it with the two nuclear bombs but perhaps its a propagand film

[rt881389]

Yep, one airburst and one groundburst to see witch one makes the most damage...

And.. who's the winner?? Airburst off course...!

As you can this in this clip at the end..

[FractAlkemist]

the scenes are from many different nuke tests all spliced together. who would know? I do cause I have many DVD's full of this stuff and I recognize them.

Cameras are often in bunkers with several feet of reinforced concrete. Many did get destroyed anyway.

[yuothineyesasian]

I knew these weren't all from Upshot-Knothole.

[kiashamed]

The cameras are in a sealed metal box and there is a hole for the lens covered in 1 inch of plexiglass. Also, the shape of the metal box is made so that it has the least amount of wind resistance. My grandfather was involved with footage taking of surface and subsurface testing in America.

[rspikowski]

this is actually really good information, always wondered how the film would be recovered in close quarters nuclear explosions

[camarorider67]

the intersesting thing about atomic annie is it wasnt designed to destroy it was planned to be used in a defensive line along the west germany/east germany border and would be used to create a wall of radiation in case of russian invasion it would give the NATO/US forces 48 hours to get in a good defensive position, but the plan didnt get off the ground

[Thek213]

Wait a minute, just to clarify, the shockwaves overturning cars and breaking houses - that footage was NOT from Grable. They were from another test from the same era. Grable did not have any simulated civilian structures in the vicinity. Although, I must say, that if they did put civilian structures in the area, they would have gotten more or less the same thing.

[AirpowerAirforce]

Yea that footage came from either Desert Rock IV or Buster Dog Il have to go look it up but i know what your talking about I saw that footage to In a civil defence film. (I studie coldwar history)

[crish4ck3r]

0:47 Pigs in cages

[AirpowerAirforce]

I bet the bacon got a bit over cooked :)

[Serjith]

My grandfather is in this video, he actually got to fire this unholy beast.

[Eight648]

15 kilotons of pure fun.

[FretArchitect]

That's what I nicknamed my cock.

[2maximitron]

as i know,shot grable had a yield of 15kt and has been intented to cause much damage as a 27kt device called upshot-encore detonated before grable in the same blast area.

btw, 15kt equals to the bomb dropped in hiroshima.

[ccw8076]

Those vertical clouds were from rockets, they were used to measure the blast effect from the explosion.

[Weirdo10o4]

Whats the bomb at 1:45 called? Cuzz that's the most inmpressive after Tsar bomba

[lmlove80]

All the footage from this film is from the upshot-knothole grable test.

[peepeevagi]

That's just it's mushroom cloud, mega up close.

I dont think Tsar bomba left a Mushroom cloud...

[Weirdo10o4]

It did a, 60km high one.

[ccw8076]

the height of the cloud from the tsar bomba was helped by the fact that it was detonated so far from the ground

[OjciecWalczy]

almost every nuclear bomb was detonated above the ground...

just like in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[ccw8076]

however tsar bomba was detonated almost a mile and a half above the ground. very few other bombs were delivered in that way.

[OjciecWalczy]

true but this was most powerful device created by human kind. Greater height = greater destruction

[KEngel1021]

I've seen this on EBaum's World. Cool Video

[scarkilll]

Great video, perfect music!

[bkgeno]

I would like to point out that these kinds of tests were done back in the 1950's and 1960's, during the Cold War.

[predator19091]

where can you get this video?

[alexkoz93]

you fucking cruel bastards, putting animals in cages to test the effects of your WMD's. There's no need to go that far, the cars and the destroyed house waern't enough to show how powerful this weapon is.

[GoldenSowrd82]

now that is what I call mass destruction weapon lol

[BATTLEDROID678]

i like when the paint is liquifing off the bus and you see the house get vaporized. but seriously scary stuff right there!!!

[arkbien]

The fallout from these tests are what caused half of my family to develop thyroid cancer.

[segregator236]

Man, that's horrid! Deep inside, I don't think this atomic cannon is really worth it. The blast radius is actually larger than the range of this gun.

[arkbien]

Hmm... I supose , in a way it might be.... but... well, no one deserved the cancers they got from exsposer. one of my grandparents has ben dying for eight years from thyroid cancer.

[arkbien]

Hurg! Part of this reply was for another video!!

[Lesardah]

@segregator236 You are exactly right. The warhead's blast would have affected the loaders themselves. The gun would survive from this distance, but the people would not. If you see the cannon loading footage, the people run for their lives after loading. Much safer from a submarine :)

[aluisious]

@Lesardah 15kt at 10km is not going to kill anyone.

[aluisious]

@segregator236 Clearly it isn't. The shell exploded 10km from the cannon, and at 15kt the blast at that distance does not cause serious damage. Might scatter your note paper.

[Jabberwockxeno]

@segregator236

If they were to fix that issue, i'd imagine it'd be quite effective.

[iAREanthonyyy]

@arkbien have you read "The Clan of One-Breasted Women"? It's an essay that talks about that.. So sad what the government does to it's own people in the name of "protecting" the people.

[scottyea]

@arkbien sorry to hear that. Cracked sent me.

[3030COLTRON]

@arkbien u mad?

[Opelneuling]

the end!

[Tumbleweed1954]

The one at the Atomic Museum was in pristine shape when I saw it at Kirtland AFB. After 9/11 the museum was moved to Albuquerque. At the time I was there the atomic cannon had been left behind at the base due to space constraints. Too bad it's left outside :-(

[JasonJason210]

In reality the shell took about 10 seconds longer than this to reach it's destination and exploded. The film-makers of Trinity and beyond edited out those 10 seocnds. They did a lot of things like this, like timing the sound to conincide with the visuals - when in fact the sound would be several seconds later.

[segregator236]

Yeah. The shell actually took 19 seconds. You can see the clips being cut and skipped in the movie.

[swizzletik]

this is a very interesting and nifty video...20 of these artillery pieces were built, and only three still survive: one at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, one at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and one at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. All are incapable now of firing anything...just interesting and important showpieces.

[segregator236]

And what happened to the rest seventeen of those cannons?

[swizzletik]

I think they were cut up and melted down decades ago. Many, maybe all, were deployed to West Germany with the US Army. They were quickly replaced by more numerous smaller artillery pieces capable of firing lower yield nuclear warheads.

[segregator236]

Oh yeah, I remember that they were used for something else.

[kdc29]

Actually, there is still only a total of 2 I believe Aberdeen had got rid of theres.

[3floor21]

haha. The picture of the Nuke Canon in Command & Conquer Generals is this one. So cool....

[segregator236]

Yup.

[gazerman65]

Thanks for posting this. I was hoping youtube might have a video of Upshot Knothole: Grable Shot. It's probably the coolest nuclear device. :)

[segregator236]

Yeah thanks.

[Ross4916]

Thanks. I am aware of the history of the fission bomb and the industrial challenges of isolating U-235 isotope from U-238 for the first time. However, your vid was the first I'd ever seen of an atomic round delivered by artillery. It surprised me a bit that such a low yield easily delivered device had not been used since this test in 1953. Thanks for responding. You have a very interesting job & background.

[segregator236]

Yeah. This was the only test of delivering the nuke using an artillery round.

[Ross4916]

The sound and music are perfect. How old is this technology now?

[segregator236]

The nuclear bomb technology? About 50 years!

[Ross4916]

I meant the cannon w/nuke round (sheepishly).  Now I know it's from 1953.

[segregator236]

The nuclear bomb was invented 62 years ago. The cannon was built in the 1950s.

[akamrallaround]

omg. i see....

[59122038547]

they were prototype, after that they buit small nuclear cannon, it was ment to stop a soviet tank division if they would have invaded Germany. NATO troops have 100 of them in storage, just in case...

[59122038547]

they were prototype, after that they buit small nuclear cannon, it was ment to stop a soviet tank division if they would have invaded Germany. NATO troops have 100 of them in storage, just in case...

[59122038547]

they were prototype, after that they buit small nuclear cannon, it was ment to stop a soviet tank division if they would have invaded Germany. NATO troops have 100 of them in storage, just in case...

[59122038547]

they were prototype, after that they buit small nuclear cannon, it was ment to stop a soviet tank division if they would have invaded Germany. NATO troops have 100 of them in storage, just in case...