Operation Crossroads Wikipedia. Operation Crossroads. Mushroom shaped cloud and water column from the underwater Baker nuclear explosion of July 2. Photo taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3. A funny list porno movie names. A Beautiful Behind Womb Raider Schindlers Fist Shaving Ryans Privates. The Wilson cloud lifts, revealing the full spray column. The battleship Arkansas is right of column, along with other ships. Information. Country. United States. Test site. NE Lagoon, Bikini Atoll. Period. 19. 46. Number of tests. Test type. Free fall air drop, Underwater. Max.  yield. 23 kilotonnes of TNT 9. TJTest series chronology. Watch A Nanny For Christmas Online (2017). Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid 1. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1. Nagasaki on August 9, 1. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships. The Crossroads tests were the first of many nuclear tests held in the Marshall Islands, and the first to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps. They were conducted by Joint ArmyNavy Task Force One, headed by Vice Admiral. Get the latest breaking news across the U. S. on ABCNews. com. Blast Vegas Full Movie Part 1' title='Blast Vegas Full Movie Part 1' />William H. P. Blandy rather than by the Manhattan Project, which had developed nuclear weapons during World War II. A fleet of 9. 5 target ships was assembled in Bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of Fat Man plutonium implosion type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki, each with a yield of 2. TNT 9. 6 TJ. The first test was Able. The bomb was named Gilda after Rita Hayworths character in the 1. Gilda, and was dropped from the B 2. Superfortress. Daves Dream of the 5. Bombardment Group on July 1, 1. It detonated 5. 20 feet 1. The second test was Baker. The bomb was known as Helen of Bikini and was detonated 9. July 2. 5, 1. 94. Radioactive sea spray caused extensive contamination. A third deep water test named Charlie was planned for 1. United States Navys inability to decontaminate the target ships after the Baker test. Ultimately, only nine target ships were able to be scrapped rather than scuttled. Charlie was rescheduled as Operation Wigwam, a deep water shot conducted in 1. California coast. Bikinis native residents agreed to evacuate the island, and were evacuated on board the LST 8. Rongerik Atoll. In the 1. Bikini unfit for subsistence farming and fishing because of radioactive contamination. Bikini remains uninhabited as of 2. Planners attempted to protect participants in the Operation Crossroads tests against radiation sickness, but one study showed that the life expectancy of participants was reduced by an average of three months. The Baker tests radioactive contamination of all the target ships was the first case of immediate, concentrated radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion. Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, the longest serving chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker the worlds first nuclear disaster. BackgroundeditThe first proposal to test nuclear weapons against naval warships was made on August 1. Lewis Strauss, future chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. In an internal memo to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, Strauss argued, If such a test is not made, there will be loose talk to the effect that the fleet is obsolete in the face of this new weapon and this will militate against appropriations to preserve a postwar Navy of the size now planned. With very few bombs available, he suggested a large number of targets widely dispersed over a large area. A quarter century earlier, in 1. Navy had suffered a public relations disaster when General. Billy Mitchells bombers sank every target ship the Navy provided for the Project B ship versus bomb tests. The Strauss test would be designed to demonstrate ship survivability. Prospective Operation Crossroads target ships and support ships at Pearl Harbor on February 2. Ships from front to rear USS Crittenden, Catron, Bracken, Burleson, Gilliam, Fallon, unknown ship, Fillmore, Kochab, Luna, and an unidentified tanker and liberty ship. On the right are LSM 2. LSM 4. 65. Farther in the background are a floating drydock and a merchant ship hulk. Nine days later, Senator Brien Mc. Mahon, who within a year would write the Atomic Energy Act and organize and chair the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, made the first public proposal for such a test, but one designed to demonstrate the vulnerability, rather than survivability, of ships. He proposed dropping an atomic bomb on captured Japanese ships and suggested, The resulting explosion should prove to us just how effective the atomic bomb is when used against the giant naval ships. On September 1. Chief of the United States Army Air Forces USAAF, General of the Army. Henry H. Arnold, asked the Navy to set aside ten of the thirty eight captured Japanese ships for use in the test proposed by Mc. Mahon. 6Meanwhile, the Navy proceeded with its own plan, which was revealed at a press conference on October 2. Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, Fleet Admiral. Ernest King. It involved between 8. U. S. ships. 6 As the Army and the Navy maneuvered for control of the tests, Assistant Secretary of War Howard C. Peterson observed, To the public, the test looms as one in which the future of the Navy is at stake . Navy withstands the tests better than the public imagines it will, in the public mind the Navy will have won. The Armys candidate to direct the tests, Major General. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project which built the bombs, did not get the job. The Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that because the Navy was contributing the most men and materiel, the test should be headed by a naval officer. Commodore. William S. Deak Parsons was a naval officer who had worked on the Manhattan Project and participated in the bombing of Hiroshima. He was now the assistant to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Special Weapons, Vice Admiral. William H. P. Blandy, whom he proposed for the role. This recommendation was accepted, and on January 1. President Harry S. Truman appointed Blandy as head of ArmyNavy Joint Task Force One JTF 1, which was created to conduct the tests. Parsons became Deputy Task Force Commander for Technical Direction. USAAF Major General William E. Kepner was Deputy Task Force Commander for Aviation. Blandy codenamed the tests Operation Crossroads. Under pressure from the Army, Blandy agreed to crowd more ships into the immediate target area than the Navy wanted, but he refused USAAF Major General Curtis Le. Mays demand that every ship must have a full loading of oil, ammunition, and fuel. Blandys argument was that fires and internal explosions might sink ships that would otherwise remain afloat and be available for damage evaluation. When Blandy proposed an all Navy board to evaluate the results, Senator Mc. Mahon complained to Truman that the Navy should not be solely responsible for conducting operations which might well indeed determine its very existence. Truman acknowledged that reports were getting around that these tests were not going to be entirely on the level. He imposed a civilian review panel on Operation Crossroads to convince the public it was objective. OppositioneditPressure to cancel Operation Crossroads altogether came from scientists and diplomats. Manhattan Project scientists argued that further testing was unnecessary and environmentally dangerous. A Los Alamos study warned the water near a recent surface explosion will be a witchs brew of radioactivity. When the scientists pointed out that the tests might demonstrate ship survivability while ignoring the effect of radiation on sailors,1. Blandy responded by adding test animals to some of the ships, thereby generating protests from animal rights advocates. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, who a year earlier had told physicist Leo Szilard that a public demonstration of the bomb might make the Soviet Union more manageable in Europe,1.