The U.S. Navy After the War, Nuclear Testing-- Part 5: Carriers Saratoga, Independence and Battleships Arkansas and Nagato

Among the warships targeted  in the Bikini Atoll  Nuclear Target Fleet were two aircraft carriers and five battleships.

They included the  Lexington-class carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3),  which survived the first  blast, but was damaged beyond repair in the second one and the light aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22), which survived both tests. Her radioactive hulk was later taken to San Francisco for further tests and was finally scuttled off the coast of  San Francisco, California.

The battle wagons used at the tests included the USS Arkansas (BB-33), a Wyoming-class  dreadnaught battleship that was crushed by the first test, and the Japanese battleship HIJMS Nagato, which was heavily damaged in the July 25 bombing and sank five days later.

--GreGen

The U.S. Navy After the War, Nuclear Testing-- Part 4

The second test  on July 25, 1946, was named "Baker" and the bomb had the code name "Helen of Bikini."  It was  deonated 90 feet underwater, which resulted in radioactive sea spray that caused  considerable  contamination on nearby ships.

According to the Joint  Chiefs of Staff's  Evaluation Board, it was a serious and unexpected problem.  The radioactive water that spewed from the lagoon 'contaminated" the ships, which became "radioactive stoves,  and would have burned  all living things aboard with invisible, painless but deadly radiation."

It also meant that the task force personnel assigned to the salvage work had to deal with contamination.  The original plan was to decontaminate the ships at the site, and that was only halted after military and civilian personnel had been exposed  to radioactive substances.

A third deep-water test that was to have been named "Charlie,"  and scheduled for the summer of 1947, was canceled due to the Navy's inability to decontaminate  the target ships of the "Baker" test.

--GreGen

U.S. Navy After the War, Nuclear Testing-- Part 2: Bikini Atoll Tests

The United States tested its first atom bomb on July 16, 1945,  at a site 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The code name for the test was "Trinity."

Just a year later, a joint Army-Navy task force staged the first atomic explosions since the ones on Japan.  The test was codenamed "Operation Crossroads" and was conducted on the Bikini Atoll, a coral reef in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.  The goal was to find out the effect atomic blasts would have on warships.

A fleet of 95 ships was gathered was assembled in Bikini Lagoon, and the flotilla was hit by two "Fat Man" plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons -- the same type dropped  on the city of Nagasaki.  Each had the yield of 23 kilotons of TNT.

The first test, conducted on July 1, 1946, was dubbed "Able" while the bomb was named "Gilda" -- a reference to Rita Hayworth's character from the 1946 film of the same name.  Gilda  was detonated at  520 feet  above the target fleet.

However, it had missed its target aim point by 2,130, it caused signifucantly less dammage than initially expected.

--GreGen

The Nagato After the War: Operation Crossroads

From Wikipedia.

The battleship Nagato was selected for the testing of the atom bombs at Bikini Atoll in Operation Crossroads.

Getting her to the site was not easy with breakdowns and leaking.

The first test of Operation Crossroads was Test Able, an air burst on 1 July 1946 when she was 1640 yards from Ground Zero (just shy of a mile) and she was only lightly damaged.  A skeleton crew boarded the ship to assess damage and to prepare her for the next test on 25 July.  

Test Baker was an underwater explosion and the ship was 950 yards away from Ground Zero (a little over half mile away).  The Nagato rode out the tsunami from the explosion with little apparent damage and had a slight list to the starboard of two degrees when it passed by.

A more thorough assessment couldn't be made because of radioactivity.  Her list gradually increased over the next five days and she capsized and sank during the night of 29/30 July.

The wreck is upside down and her most prominent features are her four propellers at 110 feet below the surface.  She has become a scuba diving destination in recent years and has been named as one of the top ten  wreck diving sites.

--GreGen

Pennsylvania Military Museum Creating New Mounts for USS Pennsylvania Guns

From the November 12, 2021, WJAC 6 NBC News by Gary Sinderson.

Staff at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg have given an update on the project to build new mounts for the pair of the battleship USS Pennsylvania's 14-inch cannons.

The guns are huge, each weighing in at close to 70 tons.  When it first sailed over 100 years ago (1916), it was one of the largest warships in the world.  It did not see action in WW I, but did see a lot in WW II and was damaged at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.

It was finally sunk after being involved with nuclear testing during Operation Crossroads in 1948.  Two of its 14-inch main guns were removed during a 1945 overhaul and were found in storage in 2009 and transported to the museum.

The guns are not damaged, but need a new concrete mount.  This is expected to happen at some point next year.

--GreGen

USS Fulton (AS-11)-- Part 3: A Busy Ship and At Operation Crossroads

The USS Fulton was at Midway until 17 October and Brisbane from  9 November.

  There she established a submarine base and rest camp, and in addition to refitting submarines between their war patrols, acted as a tender to other ships.

Milne Bay, New Guinea, was her station from 29 October 1943 to 17 March 1944 when she sailed for the U.S. West Coast for an overhaul.

Returning to Pearl Harbor 13 June 1944,  the Fulton took care of submarines for a month, then to Midway and later to Saipan.    Then to Guam where she fitted out submarines until the end of the war.

In Operation Crossroads, the testing of nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll for the six submarines assigned to the project and also served as a repair ship to others involved in it.

Decommissioned in 1947.

--GreGen

The Navy's Most Unwanted Ship, USS Prinz Eugen-- Part 3: Target Ship in Operation Crossroads

U.S. navy Captain A.H. Graubart, with a crew of 8 officers and 85 enlisted men, with the help of the former German captain and 574 German crew members to help, sailed from Germany and went half way across   the globe with stops at Philadelphia and San Diego.  Along the way, everything of scientific value was stripped from the Prinz Eugen.

In San Diego, the last of the German crew was released.  With difficulty, the remaining skeleton American crew were able to reach Hawaii and from there it was towed to Bikini Atoll.  It was to be a test ship in the testing of the atom bomb at Bikini Atoll  in what was called Operation Crossroads.

A huge flotilla of American and captured enemy warships was assembled to see how they would do in an atomic test.  The Prinz Eugen survived two tests and remained afloat, though with a little flooding. Afterwards, it was towed  to Kwajelin Atoll, 200 miles away, where the leaks  continued to worsen.  The radioactive condition of the ship made repairs too risky and on December 22, 1946, it capsized about 200 yards offshore.

Today, its two propellers, minus one that was taken to Germany for a memorial in 1978 are easily visible at low tide

--GreGen

USS Helm (DD-338)-- Part 5: Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Atomic Testing

Task Force 38 retired to Ulithi, arriving November 2, 1944, after almost two months of continuous action.  After three days, they departed on 5 November and headed back to the Philippines.  The Helm later took part in the landings at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon.

The Japanese put up fierce resistance with their only remaining weapon, suicide kamikaze planes.  On January, 4, 1945, the escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay was struck and sunk.

Next up was Iwo Jima where she screen carriers and rescue survivors of the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea.  After that, it was on to Okinawa where it shot down many kamikazes.

Afterwards, the Helm did mostly patrol duty and helped search for survivors of the USS Indianapolis.  After the Japanese surrender, it took part in the occupation of Japan.  It was decommissioned in 1946 and used that summer as a target ship of the Operation Crossroads atomic tests in the Pacific.  Her hulk was sold for scrapping in October 1947.

Mr. Winslow's ship was definitely involved in a lot of action.  I wonder if any other ship was involved with that much.

--GreGen

USS Cumberland Sound: Seaplane Tender and Operation Crossroads

From Wikipedia.

In the last post, I mentioned that Pearl Harbor survivor Ludwig "Lou" Radil was on this ship during the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll.

Was a Kenneth Whiting-class seaplane tender  launched 23 February 1944 and commissioned 21 August 1944, Captain E. Grant in command.492 feet long, 69.6 beam, crew 1,077.

In October it sailed to Pearl Harbor and then to Enitowek and Ulithi where she tended the seaplanes of the  Patrol Bomber Squadron 22.  Then, the Cumberland Sound rendezvoused with the 3rd Fleet at Okinawa and sailed to Tokyo Bay, arriving 28 August 1945.  returned to the United States in November and was converted to carry returning U.S. military home.

She departed Seattle 28 December 1945 and embarked returning servicemen at San Pedro, California,  12 January 1946.

The Cumberland Sound was then assigned to "Operation Crossroads" nuclear testing. and on 19 January entered Long beach  Naval Shipyard for conversion to a laboratory ship.  She served during the atomic tests until 12 September 1946 when she returned too San Diego.

Placed out of commission in naval reserve 27 May 1947.

--GreGen

USS Bayfield (APA-33)-- Part 3: Service in WW II, Korean War and Vietnam War

 Continued from May 19, 2017.

The Bayfield then went to the Pacific and was at the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

With the end of the war, the Bayfield participated in "Operation Magic Carpet" to return veterans to the States.  It was at the atomic testing for "Operation Crossroads " at Bikini Atoll, but not one of the target ships.  It was stationed 22 miles from the detonation.

From 1946, the Bayfield was in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.  It was also active in the Korean War.

In 1954 it carried refugees from the partition of Vietnam.and was still in service during the Vietnam War until 1968.

Click on the USS Bayfield label to see the other entries on this interesting ship.

Quite a Remarkable Ship.  --GreGen

USS Nevada Reunion in 2016-- Part 4: Ship Survived Atomic Blasts

The USS Nevada was the Navy's first battleship with triple turrets. and an oil-fired steam plant.

Les Pullman, 91, of Menasha, Wisconsin, boarded the Nevada in late 1942.  He was also a 5-inch gun pointer and also remembered the 80 straight hours they had at Normandy.

Ansel Tupper, 83, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, served in the ship's navigation office 1945-1947.  He remembers it surviving two atom bomb blasts at Operation Crossroads in 1946 off Bikini Atoll, but said the ship "wasn't painted red, it was painted orange" at the tests.  It survived a test from above and one from below.

His ship was contaminated with radiation from the blasts and decommissioned, but later served as a target ship before being sunk by a torpedo about 65 miles southwest of Oahu in 1948.

--GreGen

USS Nevada Reunion Set for February-- Part 3: Held in Las Vegas

After repairs and overhaul in Bremerton, the USS Nevada was sent to the Aleutian Islands and from there to Europe where it bombarded Normandy on D-Day.  Back to the Pacific it got some payback at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  Eleven crew members were killed in kamikazes and two others killed engaging Japanese shore batteries.

Deemed obsolete at the end of the war, it was painted bright orange and became a target during Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll, atomic testing.  It didn't sink despite two atomic explosions.

On July 28, 1948, 85 miles southeast of Hawaii, it was used for target practice but again didn't sink.  Five days later, at 2 p.m., Navy and Air Force planes finally sank the plucky survivor ship.

--GreGen