Chapter 6

BIKINI OVERTURE

The SUMNER and the BOWDITCH were among the first of the ships to reach Bikini. In late January 1946, the Chief of Naval Operations arranged for these ships to proceed to Bikini to make needed surveys and oceanographic studies. SUMNER did the bulk of the hydrographic surveying. Her work was especially urgent because the only available hydrographic charts of Bikini were Japanese and were quite inadequate. SUMNER and assisting ships made some use of acoustical bottom scanners, but principal reliance was placed on wire-drag methods.

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The survey was finished in April, and the data were flown to the Navy’s Hydrographic Office in Washington, D. C, where the new charts were printed. Figure 3 is a simplified chart showing the form of the 26-island Atoll. The earlier names of the Atoll’s 26 islands were difficult to spell and would have been almost impossible to handle in dispatches. Accordingly a set of simple code names was adopted by the Task Force. The two groups of names are as follows:

BOWDITCH, which arrived at Bikini on March 10, 1946, gave valuable assistance to the SUMNER.² But BOWDITCH’s main job was making oceanographic, biological, and geological surveys of the atoll. Aboard her were wave motion experts, icthvologists, botanists, zoologists, and geologists drawn from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Michigan, the U. S. Geological Survey, the U. S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Army and Navy. These men, led by Lieutenant Commander C. A. Barnes of the U. S. Coast Guard, were the first scientists to reach Bikini, and they were among the last to leave. Their most urgent job was studying the lagoon currents to find out what might happen after the B-Day explosion, which would certainly disperse enormous quantities of radioactive materials in the water. Prompt re-entry into the target area would depend largely on accurate knowledge of these previously-uncharted currents.

The BOWDITCH’s scientists also took censuses of populations of fishes, corals, and other animals, to permit later evaluation of the effects of the bombs on animal life of the atoll. Fish were caught with hook, net, and seine. In some instances, the fish were poisoned with rotenone and picked up dead. To increase the significance of the censuses, similar censuses were taken at unaffected "control" atolls, Rongerik and Rongelap, 125 miles upwind, and also at Eniwetok, 200 miles downwind. Botanists made systematic surveys of plant life, and geologists gave the atoll the most thorough going-over ever accorded one of these billion ton piles of skeletal remains.

The order to evacuate the natives came from the Navy Military Government Officer in February, when choice of Bikini as the test site became final. The Bikinians, convinced that the Tests would be a contribution to world peace, indicated their willingness to evacuate.³ Their decision was reached at a meeting of the Atoll Council. Nine of the eleven alaps (family heads) named Rongerik Atoll, 128 miles to the East, as their first choice for resettlement. Lajrwe, Paramount Chief of Rongerik, concurred in this proposal. The trip was made on March 7, 1946, on LST 1108. Although much effort was spent to establish the Bikinians comfortably on Rongerik, some dissatisfaction and nostalgia have been apparent. Whether they will remain there is uncertain; radioactivity at Bikini renders their return there unsafe at present.

Japanese mines had to be cleared from Bikini Lagoon before the support and target fleets arrived. Thirty-five mines had been located and removed during September and October of 1945 by Task Unit 96.38.1 under the Commander of the Marshall-Gilberts Area. Five more mines were removed during March of 1946 by Commander, Minecraft Pacific, Task Unit 18.11.

Coral heads were another menace to navigation inside the Lagoon. They consisted of great underwater obstructions rising nearly 200 feet above the lagoon floor. Many of them extended up to the level of the lagoon surface. Composed of corals and also deposits made by the calcerous algae, they were solid enough to damage any ships which might collide with them. Some were in positions to interfere with the mooring of target vessels or to impede the submerging of the target submarines. Accordingly, the tops of these coral heads were removed by dynamiting. Over 100 tons of dynamite were used.

Much construction work was required on Bikini Atoll. Principal structures built were the following:

• 12 75-ft. steel towers for mounting cameras and other technical equipment. (In view of high winds prevailing, these towers were constructed in horizontal position and then hoisted into vertical position.)
• 5 25-ft.woodtowers
• 12 20ft. x 20ft. Steel huts
• 5 Seismograph huts
• 5 “Dead-man" moorings for Test C
• 6 Photography Beacons, for aerial photography fi×es
• 1 Club (20 ft. × 200 ft.) for officers and civilians
• 1 Club (16 ft. × 300 ft.) for enlisted men
• 5 Concrete Basketball Courts
• 10 Volleyball Courts
• 4 Softball Diamonds
• 1 Trap-shooting range
• 1 Concrete athletic court (100 ft. × 100 ft.) Dressinghuts
• 1 Water distillation and distributing system
• 1 Shore patrol and dispensary building
• 3 Life-guard platforms
• 1 Seaplane landing ramp
• 2 Swim floats
• 7 Pontoon Causeways
• 1 Air-coordination station
• 3 Construction Battalion Shops
• 1 Sonobuoy work shop
• 10 Wave-height measurement poles
• 14 Shallow-water moorings for evacuation barges and other small craft
• 2 Radio beacons
• 5 25-man camps
• 1 Aerological station

This construction was done by the 53rd Naval Construction Battalion. The first group of the Construction Battalion to arrive at Bikini was a survey party which arrived on March 11. By March 20 the entire Battalion had arrived.

To reduce the insect nuisance, Bikini and Enyu Islands were sprayed every few weeks with DDT; Amen and Erik were sprayed once. These precautions proved effective.

Preparing moorings was a large job. The mooring positions had been specified several weeks in advance, plans called for mooring bows and sterns of the central target ships to prevent excessive shifting: with tide and wind.⁴

FORCE ORGANIZATION

Technical and scientific preparations were nearly complete as A-Day approached. But the success of that day was to depend fully as much on the Force Organization as on the Staff and Technical Organization.

The Force Organization was responsible for operations. After policy questions had been decided by the staff organization and after the technical requirements had been decided by the technical men, it became the responsibility of the Force Organization to execute the necessary action in the field.

The Force Organization which had been adopted by Admiral Blandy was designed especially to meet the unusual requirements of the Operation. Eight separate Task Groups were created.

Task Group 1.1, the Technical Group, was commanded by Rear Admiral W. S. Parsons, who was also Deputy Task Force Commander for Technical Direction. The group included seven large laboratory ships, several radio-controlled drone boats, and LSM-60, which was the ship from which the B-Day bomb was to be suspended.

Task Group 1.2, the Target Vessel Group, was commanded by Rear Admiral F. G. Fahrion, who had also served as Commander of the Advance Echelon and Commander of all the Naval Task Groups until the Task Force Commander’s arrival at Pearl Harbor. From his Task Group flagship FALL RIVER, Admiral Fahrion directed all operations of the 93 target vessels, including mooring them. (These vessels are listed in Appendix 9.)

Task Group 1.3, the Transport Group, was commanded by Captain W. P. Davis (Navy), who was responsible for the press ship APPALACHIAN, the observer ships BLUE RIDGE and PANAMINT, and eleven other large transport ships which were to quarter and mess the target ships' crews after those ships had been evacuated.

Task Group 1.4, the Army Ground Group, was led by Colonel J. D. Frederick. It was responsible for all operational activities by the Army Ground Group. Included were units drawn from the Signal Corps, Ordnance Department, Chemical Corps, Quartermaster Corps, and Army Air Forces. Principal activity was exposing as many types of Army equipment as possible to the explosions and determining the damage produced.

Task Group 1.5, the Army Air Group, was commanded by Brigadier General R. M. Ramey. It was responsible for all operations by Army planes. Its Air Transport Unit, comprising ten C-54’s each capable of carrying 54 persons, flew thousands of tons of Crossroads personnel and freight between Kwajalein and the United States. Its Tactical Operations Unit, comprising 13 B-29’s, flew the bomb-carrying plane used in Test A and also flew weather and radiological reconnaissance planes. Other units operated photographic planes, scientific instrumentation planes, and radio, press, and observer planes. The Drone Unit was unique in aviation history; it successfully operated 6 B-17 Flying Fortresses as drones. With no one aboard, these great planes were radio-guided through their prescribed flights across the target area, a unique and impressive feat.⁵

Their photographic and air-sampling missions were accomplished without accident to any of the participating Fortresses.⁶

Task Group 1.6, the Navy Air Group, was commanded by Rear Admiral C. A. F. Sprague. This group added to aviation history by perfecting the radio-control of drone planes catapulted from an aircraft carrier.⁷ Such planes were used for photography and for collecting air samples. The Group also operated four helicopters, fifteen PBM patrol planes, and several TBM avengers for use in guiding drone boats. Activities were based principally on the carriers SHANGRI-LA and SAIDOR.

Task Group 1.7, the Surface Patrol Group, was commanded by Captain E. N. Parker (Navy). It was to play an especially large part in the radiological safety operations immediately following the underwater explosion. Test B.

Task Group 1.8, commanded by Captain G. H. Lyttle (Navy), was responsible for many services, including repair, fueling, water, mail, provisions, recreation, hospitalization, and evacuation.

Lines of organization were pleasantly invisible at Bikini. Officers and enlisted men, scientists, and observers, became a part of the tropical scene.

Shrill pipes called the men early each morning. Breakfasts were varied and substantial. Plans of the day were posted. Climbing from their steel-walled living quarters to the clean gray decks, the men gave first attention to the weather. Fortunately, fair weather and cooling breezes usually prevailed. Tuna and barracuda could occasionally be seen circling the ship.

The clutter of small boats flanking each ship came to life. Coxswains and their crews climbed out along booms extending over the water; they descended by rope ladders into the yawning boats bobbing up and down on the waves. They warmed up the engines, received megaphoned orders from the officer-of-the-deck, cast off, and then picked up their loads of scientists, technicians, and inspectors.

By 9:00 a.m. thousands of men had been deposited on the target vessels. They installed apparatus, tested it, and adjusted it. They put animals aboard, placed them in their cages, filled their reservoirs of food and water. They hoisted trucks, airplane sections, machine guns and field artillery aboard and secured them to the decks with steel cables running through eye-bolts.

Boxes of pyrotechnics, canned goods, and medical supplies were taken aboard, made fast, and clearly labeled.

Meanwhile ships' engineers and their assistants were shutting down machinery and getting ready to close all watertight compartments. When the day of the test should finally arrive.

Throughout this scene of apparent confusion photographers and inspectors made their way, interminably photographing everything of interest and taking voluminous notes on ready-made forms. No reliance was to be placed on memory. The aim in the tests was not merely success or failure, but accurately-inscribed data sheets by the ton which could be referred to with confidence in the future.

Meanwhile force and staff conferences were being held on the MT. McKINLEY and good progress was reported.⁸ Press conferences were held on the port deck of the APPALACHIAN.⁹

Men lucky enough to receive liberty picked up their swimming trunks, piled into LCVP’s or whale boats and made for Bikini beach a few miles to the north. They spent the afternoons swimming, playing baseball, drinking beer and soft drinks. In the evenings they attended motion picture shows on deck.¹⁰ Recreation was made as pleasant as possible.

Rehearsals and weather dominated discussions during the last few days before A-Day. Many informal rehearsals were carried out by the various groups separately, and there was one full-dress rehearsal. This was held on Queen Day, June 24, and was completed with success.

The importance of weather was far greater than might be expected. Naturally, clear skies were desired by observers and photographers. Good visibility even from an altitude of five or six miles was needed by the bombing plane; no mistake could be tolerated in its identifying of the brightly-painted Zeropoint ship, NEVADA. High winds might have interfered with bombing accuracy and drone plane operation; unsteady winds might have permitted the radioactive materials in the air to be swept back over the support ships. Even though the winds might be steady at low altitudes, a counter current at high altitudes might have been disastrous to the support ships. But perhaps the most stringent requirement was that good weather be predictable 24 hours in advance. Only on the basis of firm advance prediction could the great A-Day program be gotten underway.

Early in the morning of June 30 the weather experts made a prediction of fair weather and favorable winds for the following day, which was to be A-Day. The word was flashed to all ships and land stations, and to the entire world. Scientists gave their instruments a final tuning up, test animals were placed at their proper locations, target vessels were closed and the crews were taken off.

By dusk the evacuation of the lagoon was well underway. For hours the support ships had been filing silently southward, out into the open sea. No longer was the lagoon filled with twinkling lights and sputtering small boats. The target vessels lay deserted, a dark cluster in front of the thin dark line of abandoned beaches. For several of the ships, the sun had set for the last time.