Bikini Atom Bomb - Operations Crossroads - 1946 | Movietone Moment | 25 September 2020
On this day in 1946, 75 ships were quarantined for radioactive contamination tests after the second nuclear bomb was dropped at Bikini Atoll. Here is a British Movietone report about Operation Crossroads.
Operation Crossroads is completed with the dropping of an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll. Tests of many kinds were put in place on ships surrounding the Atoll and special goggles issued to protect the eyes of those watching. A Superfortress took off from Kwajalein and dropped just one missile.
KS LS Bikini Atoll. SCU Admiral Blandy aboard flagship USS "Mount McKinley". Crates containing goats, sheep, etc. being lowered onto deck. Elevated shot small cases containing white mice etc. Sheep being pulled along deck by sailors. CU sheep being shorn. Ointment being rubbed onto sheep. Several shots of pigments, metals, etc. fixed to ship's superstructure. Crews abandoning ships, one carries a dog. Throwing their kit-bag into LCTs. LCT pulls away from the ship. Captain Bibby walks across the deserted deck. MS of 'all clear' signal flying from ship's mast. On Kwajalein Island, Superfortress (B29) is being prepared by ground crews. GV Superfortress. Screened atom bomb wheeled to plane. Loaded onto the plane, the bomb still screened with sheets. CU Majors Swancutt and Wood, pilot and bomb-aimer. Group shot of aircrew. CU engine turning. Superfort takes off and in flight. GV bomb doors opening as the plane approaches the target. Back aboard ship officers look through field glasses at the approaching planes. The crew put on protective goggles, those without goggles kneel on deck and cover their faces. Aerial shot of Bikini Atoll. LS explosion, cloud rising into the sky, aerial of the explosion, aerial of cloud caused by the same. CU cloud. Passing shots of the aircraft carrier USS "Independent" superstructure wrecked. Also BS USS "Pensacola". Several shots of damaged ships. Another angle shot of the atom bomb exploding and rising through low lying clouds, (smoke, etc.). Shot of rising cloud.
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