1946 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016HGHKI?ie=UTF8&tag=doc06-20&link... Watch the full film: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/operation-crossroads-1946.html
In Baker on July 25, the weapon was suspended beneath landing craft LSM-60 anchored in the midst of the target fleet. Baker was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater, halfway to the bottom in water 180 feet (54 m) deep. How/Mike Hour was at 0835. No identifiable part of LSM-60 was ever found; it was presumably vaporized by the nuclear fireball. Ten ships were sunk, including the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which sank in December, five months after the test, because radioactivity prevented repairs to a leak in the hull.
Photographs of Baker are unique among nuclear detonation pictures. The blinding flash that usually obscures the target area took place underwater and was barely seen. The clear image of ships in the foreground and background gives a sense of scale. The large Wilson cloud and the vertical water column are distinctive Baker shot features, making the pictures easily identifiable. The most notable picture shows a mark where the 27,000 ton battleship Arkansas was.
As with Able, any ships that remained afloat within 1,000 yards of the detonation were seriously damaged, but this time the damage came from below, from water pressure rather than air pressure. The greatest difference between the two shots, however, was the radioactive contamination of all the target ships by Baker. Regardless of the degree of damage, only nine surviving Baker target ships were eventually decontaminated and sold for scrap. The rest were sunk at sea after decontamination efforts failed.
The 167 Bikini residents were moved to the uninhabited Rongerik Atoll prior to Crossroads, but were unable to feed themselves in the new environment. Visitors to Rongerik reported the islanders were facing potential starvation by January 1947, suffering malnutrition by July, and emaciated by January 1948. In March 1948 they were evacuated to Kwajalein Atoll, and then settled onto another uninhabited island, Kili, in November. With only one third of a square mile, Kili has one tenth the land area of Bikini and, more importantly, has no lagoon and no protected harbor. Unable to practice their native culture of lagoon fishing, they have been dependent on food shipments ever since. Their four thousand descendents today are living on several islands and in foreign countries.
Their desire to return to Bikini was thwarted indefinitely by the U.S. decision to resume nuclear testing at Bikini in 1954. During the spring and summer months of 1954, 1956, and 1958, twenty-one more nuclear bombs were detonated at Bikini, yielding a total of 75 megatons, equivalent to more than three thousand Baker bombs. Only one was a "self cleansing" air burst, the 3.8 megaton Redwing Cherokee test. The rest were surface bursts producing massive local fallout. The first after Crossroads was the dirtiest: the 15 megaton Bravo shot of Operation Castle on March 1, 1954, the largest ever U.S. test. Fallout from Bravo caused radiation injury to Bikini islanders who were living on Rongelap Atoll at the time.
The brief attempt to resettle Bikini from 1974 until 1978 was aborted when health problems from radioactivity in the food supply caused the atoll to be evacuated again. Sport divers who visit Bikini to dive on the shipwrecks must eat imported food. The lagoon is teeming with fish, but none of it is safe to eat.
Following test Baker decontamination problems, the United States Navy equipped newly constructed ships with a CounterMeasure WashDown System (CMWDS) of piping and nozzles to cover exterior surfaces of the ship with a spray of salt water from the firefighting system when nuclear attack appeared imminent. The film of flowing water would theoretically prevent contaminants from settling into cracks and crevices.
The name "Bikini" was adopted for bikini swimwear during Operation Crossroads; a coincidence of explosive shock perhaps ("like the bomb, the bikini is small and devastating"), and the realization that "atom bombs reduce everybody to primitive costume."
The 1976 Bruce Conner film Crossroads utilizes research footage coupled with a Terry Riley soundtrack.
The 1988 film Radio Bikini was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Directed by Robert Stone, it recounts the story of Operation Crossroads, concentrating on how it affected the Bikini islanders (they were deported en masse to Rongerik Atoll) and the servicemen who took part in the operation. The film almost exclusively uses archival footage, much of it in color. Video of the Crossroads Baker explosion is among the most often shown videos of a nuclear explosion, and exists in many sources.
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Nuclear Testing Footage: Operation Crossroads - Part 1 (1946)by thefilmarchive10,603 views
what a waste !!! poor could feed well but they dont want them to..
wa51mmm1 2 weeks ago
Impressive documentary i must say, I didn't know so many ships were involved in the test (I also thought that all ships near the epicentre exploded and sunk, so i am surprised all ships still floated after the blast). Impressive that so many more tests have been done after the 1946 test. Sad for the living animals and natural environment in the area (and people that got sick/died in the years after the tests). Incredible that so much US tax money has been used (and the millions for repairs!!).
VideoMadnezz 6 months ago