Appendix I to SOP For Radiological Reconnaissance Aircraft
Kwajalein, Marshall Islands: 509th Composite Group, Headquarters, Office of the Deputy for Operations, 1946. Presumed first Edition, First printing thus. Stapled at upper left corner. 2 sheets, approximately 8 inches by 10.5 inches, printed on one side only. Stapled at the top left corner. This is an incredibly rare and significant item of Atomic Weapons Testing ephemera, connected with both the 509th Composite Group and Operations Crossroads. This document is dated 25 Jun 46 and appears to be part of the planning for Operation Crossroads. It appears to be a mimeographed copy. The first page is text and the second has two circular diagrams. Example 2 RDS 190 degrees T through 310 degrees T. Example 2 RDS [unclear] through 280 degrees T. Example 2 NOTE King Flight Rendezvous at 26000 and Execute Plan Baker Immediately. Pare one has a NOTE at the bottom that says "In original SOP dated 22 Jun 46 paragraph two line three, cross out the word FOX and substitute the word DOG. 1. This appendix sets down the method of determining where Jig and King flights rendezvous. The change from the original fixed rendezvous point system is necessary because any predetermined fixed point may possibly be with the RDS and so be unsuitable for rendezvous. 2. B-29's Antique 1 and 3 will proceed to original rendezvous points and hold there until Mike plus six at which time they will proceed to the new rendezvous points....Jig flight will always rendezvous north of an East Weat [sp? West] line through the target and King flight south of the same line....3. The legs of the first elliptical pattern which Jig and King fights take up will be parallel to the apparent movement of the highest portion of the cloud. Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. 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 Army/Navy Task Force One, headed by Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy rather than by the Manhattan Project, which had developed nuclear weapons during World War II. A fleet of 95 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 in 1945, each with a yield of 23 kilotons of TNT (96 TJ). The first test was Able. The bomb was named Gilda after Rita Hayworth's character in the 1946 film Gilda, and was dropped from the B-29 Superfortress Dave's Dream of the 509th Bombardment Group on July 1, 1946. It detonated 520 feet above the target fleet and caused less than the expected amount of ship damage because it missed its aim point by 2,130 feet. The second test was Baker. The bomb was known as Helen of Bikini and was detonated 90 feet underwater on July 25, 1946. Radioactive sea spray caused extensive contamination. A third deep-water test named Charlie was planned for 1947 but was canceled primarily because of the United States Navy's 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 1955 off the coast of Mexico (Baja California). Condition: Good.
Keywords: Operation Crossroads, Atomic Bomb, Atomic Testing, Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, Kwajalein, Radiological Reconnaissance, B-29, Baker Plan, Standard Operating Procedure, SOP
[Book #85749]
Price: $1,000.00