CHAPTER THREE: SHIP’S HISTORIES FOR THE SUNKEN VESSELS

James P. Delgado

Twenty-one target vessels and small craft sankat Bikini as a result of Operation Crossroads.The characteristics, histories, and Crossroadsrole of each vessel sunk at Bikini, as well asPrinz Eugen, are discussed here.

USS SARA TOGA (CV-3)

Characteristics

USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a steel-hulled vesselwith a waterline length of 830 feet. The

cruiser hull of Saratoga was wedded to the

flight deck, which as built was 874 feet long(later extended to 888 feet) and overhung thehull forward and aft. “Above the water linethe hull shape was determined by therequirements for as wide a flying deck aspossible. This has given a very pronouncedflare both forward and aft.’” From keel toflight deck, the depth of the hull was 74-1/2feet. The hangar deck below was built to

accommodate 90 aircraft maximum, Saratogausually carried 81 to 83 planes. Saratoga’smaximum beam was 105-1/2 feet, with a meandraft of 31 feet. Saratoga “officially” displaced33,000 standard tons in compliance with the

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Washington Naval Treaty. The vessel actuallydisplaced (full combat load) 43,500 tons--lateralluded to by “official” tonnage upgrades to36,000, later increased to 40,000, tons. Theship’s trial displacement was 38,957 tons.2Saratoga’s characteristics as an aircraft carrierwere influenced by the ship’s original design asa cruiser. Partially completed as cruisers whenthe order was given to convert Saratoga and itssister Lexington to carriers, they could not beeconomically torn apart and rebuilt. “Theprincipal dimensions of the hull, the primaryfeatures of protection against gunfire andunderwater explosion, and the design of thepropelling machinery were thus determinedbefore the plans for conversion to airplanecarriers was undertaken. This situation.,. forcedthe acceptance of elements which in a newdesign might have been changed, Thedevelopment of the machinery and ammunitionhandling spaces was practically complete, andthe airplane carrier development took placealmost entirely above the protective deck.”s

The hull was modified for the first time in1942; a torpedo blister was added to thestarboard side, increasing the beam to 108 feetand fixing a list caused by the heavy island,guns, and funnel on that side. Saratoga’s fourshafts were driven by a GE turbo-electric drive,Eight engines, two on each shaft, produced180,000 shaft horsepower at 32.25 knots.Saratoga delivered 32.28 knots on its initialtrials and 34.99 knots on its final trials. Steamwas produced by 16 White-Foster oil-burningboilers. The uptakes were swept together intoa single, flat-sided, 105-foot long, 80-foot tall(later cut down some 15 feet) funnel abaft theisland. The flight deck, 47 feet above thewaterline, was covered with wood planking,caulked and painted,4

Saratoga’s main gun armament consisted of twin8-inch/55 caliber guns in four gun houses, withan antiaircraft array of twelve 5-inch/25 caliberguns and eight .50 caliber machine guns; thelatter were later replaced with quad-mountl.1-inch machine guns. 5 In January-April 1942,following the carrier’s return to the PugetSound Navy Yard after being torpedoed,Saratoga underwent its first major wartime refit,The 8-inch guns were replaced by twin

mounted 5-inch/38 caliber guns in four houses;single 5-inch guns of the same caliber wereadded to the sponsons, replacing the original5-inch/25 caliber weapons. Thirty 20mm

Oerlikon antiaircraft guns were added, and fourquad 40mm Bofors guns were installed.

Torpedoed in August 1942, Saratoga afterrepairs was again modified; the L1-inch gunswere removed and replaced with 40mm Bofors,making nine such mounts, and twenty-two

additional 20mm guns were installed, making 52of these single-barrel weapons on board. Inanother refit in December 1943, Saratogareceived 16 more Bofors mounts; two in newportside sponsons abeam the island, seven inthe boat recesses to port, two in the boatrecess to starboard, three outboard of the flightdeck off the island, and two in the bowmachine gun galleries.e Other modificationsincluded reducing the island structure, cuttingit down to an open bridge for air operations,with the original flag plot one deck below,followed by the pilothouse and navigatingbridge, conning tower, and at flight deck level,the meteorological platform and air intelligenceoffice. The original tripod foremast wasreplaced by a pole mast mounting SK radar.In the summer of 1944, Saratoga received anSM fighter-director set of radar on the forwardend of the funnel, and a pair of H Mk IIhydraulic catapults were installed forward onthe flight deck (previously the ship had a singlehydraulic catapult). Other modificationsincluded the installation of a portside torpedoblister.’

Saratoga was heavily damaged off Iwo Jima byJapanese bomb hits on February 21, 1945,which holed the flight deck and the starboardhull near the bow, starting fires on the hangardeck. Repairs at Puget Sound hastily patchedthe hull and deck, removed the after elevator,fitted a new 44-foot square elevator forward,and filled the aft end of the hangar deck withtwo decks of berths, Saratoga was againmodified for Operation Crossroads. Nearlytwo-thirds of the ship’s armament was stripped,including two of the houses with the twin5-inch guns. Other fixtures, includingcompasses and the ship’s bell (now at theWashington Navy Yard), were taken off, and

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Bow view of Saratoga at Puget Sound Navy YardBremerton, Wmhinzton, Sevtember 1944. (VX.Naval Inshtute) - - -

aircraft, vehicles, and radar were mounted onthe ship. Blast gauge towers and otherinstruments were mounted on Saratoga.Loaded with 700 gallons of fuel oil, 15 tons ofdiesel, and two-thirds of its ammunition,Saratoga was sent to the bottom in anear-combat-ready state.8

lZiS@2f

The aircraft carrier Saratoga was originallyplanned as (CC-3), the second cruiser of asix-vessel Lexington class authorized andappropriated for on August 29, 1916, as part ofa three-year program of naval construction.gLaid down on September 25, 1920, at theCamden, New Jersey, yard of the New YorkShipbuilding Company, Saratoga was completedas a result of a post-WWI naval arms race withBritain, Japan, France, and Italy in whichconstruction efforts focused on capitalships--namely battleships and battle cruisers.

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This arms race, as well as growing interest innaval aviation, conspired to redesign Saratogabefore its launch. Despite Congressionalinsistence that all new ship construction focuson capital ships, the U.S. Navy received fundsto convert the collier Jupiter (AC-3) into anaircraft carrier. Conversion of the hybrid shipat Norfolk Navy Yard took two years beforeUSS Langley (CV-1) emerged as the U.S.Navy’s first aircraft carrier on March 22, 1922.By that time, however, plans were alreadybeing considered for the conversion of thecruisers Lexington and Saratoga into fullyfunctional fleet carriers.

The post-war naval arms race led to severalconferences, conventions, and treaties. TheWashington Naval Conference of 1921-1922 ledto international agreement to limit the numbers,sizes, and armament of naval vessels. Underthe treaty, many of the battleships and cruisersthen under construction could either bescrapped or converted to aircraft carriers.Anticipating the order to scrap the sixLexington class cruisers, the Navy preparedplans to convert one of the cruisers into acarrier. When the conference agreed toscrapping the cruisers, the U.S. converted twoships, Lexington and Saratoga, into aircraftcarriers. The incomplete hulls of the twocruisers were redesignated cV-2 and CV-3 onJuly 1, 1922, the day Congress approved theirconversion. Japan followed suit, converting thebattle cruiser Aka#” and the battleship Kagainto fleet carriers .’” At that time, work onSaratoga had progressed to the point where thecruiser hull had received its armored barbettesand decks were being laid. All of this workhad to be torn out to reconstruct Saratoga asa carrier.

Under provision of the Washington Navaltreaty, carrier conversions were limited to33,000 tons maximum standard displacement,and no more than ten low-angle guns with amaximum caliber of eight inches. Both theUnited States and Japan interpreted a clause inthe Treaty to permit adding 3,oOO tons ofantiaircraft and torpedo defenses to capitalships, to apply to their carrier conversions.As a result, while listed “officially” at 33,OOO

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tons, Lexington and Saratoga carried weight inexcess of the treaty limit, even after sacrificingsome of their cruiser armor. Saratoga was thefirst launched, slidlng down the ways into theDelaware River on April 7, 1925. The first ofthe two Lexitigton-class carriers, Saratoga’slaunch was the heaviest warship launch onrecord and in the top dozen heaviest launchesfor merchant and naval vessels up to thattime 11 The launching program noted that “thenew Saratoga, aircraft carrier, when completedand commissioned... will be the largest andfastest craft of its kind in the world.”12 Fittingout Saratoga took two years; the carrier wascommissioned on November 16, 1927, at thePhiladelphia Navy Yard. Departing

Philadelphia on a shakedown cruise on January6, 1928, Saratoga’s first aircraft landed onboard on January 11.13

The Navy considered Saratoga and Lexington asmajor successes. The most powerful carriers inthe U.S. fleet, as well as their first fleetcarriers, the two ships were, according tohistorian Norman Friedman,

as remarkable in their way as the firstBritish Dreadnought battleship launchedonly 25 years before, outclassing everyother carrier in existence. Saratoga andLexington were faster than their Japaneserivals, they could operate more aircraft,and their design was so sound that theywent to war . ..without majorreconstruction since their completion.14

Just prior to its launching, Saratoga was hailedby the Philadelphia Evening Star because “thereis no counterpart for this first Americanfirst-line carrier in any other navy ....”15 Navalofficers appreciated the vessels. Capt. MarcMitscher, naval aviation pioneer, captain ofUSS Hornet (CV-8), the carrier that launchedCol. “Jimmy” Doolittle’s strike at Japan, latercommander of the fast carrier task force, and,incidently, the first man to land a plane aboardSaratoga, testified in 1940 that

we have always felt, a good many of us,that the Lexington and Saratoga were thebest ships we have ever built for allpurpose ships, carrying the protection

and armor of a cruiser. We will havetwelve carriers that need cruiserprotection and that cannot be sent outon independent missions unless they havecruiser protection, I feel that we havetwo carriers, the Lexington and Saratogathat can be sent out on independentmissions and if they lose their cruiserprotection they can still protectthemselves with their aircraft andarmament. Therefore we feel we shouldlook into that field for futurecarriers,...ie

However, the Lexington-class carriers had one

major design flaw--the inclusion of their fourtwin 8-inch gun mounts, which could only befired in starboard broadsides. The 8-inch guns,intended to battle a surface enemy, were alsoout of place on a carrier. This was correctedafter the outbreak of war, when the 8-inchguns were replaced with 5-inch/38 caliber guns,“the correct weapon against the carrier’s truefoe: enemy carrier aircraft.”17 Despite CaptainMitscher’s sentiments, “Lexington and Saratogawere never envisaged as prototypes for aheavyweight carrier fleet. They remainedone-offs, a unique double product of theWashington Treaty....’”*

Saratoga’s prewar career was spent engaged infleet training exercises that defined a strongrole for aircraft carriers in naval warfare. Thisincluded “attacks” on the Panama Canal andPearl Harbor, usually operating in tandem withLexington, then in later years with the carriersthat followed these pioneers. Based out of SanPedro or San Diego, Saratoga operated inannual fleet “problem” exercises. According tothe ship’s official Navy history, “in the fleetproblems, Saratoga continued to assist in thedevelopment of fast carrier tactics, and herimportance was recognized by the fact that shewas always a high priority target for theopposing forces.”le

According to Friedman, “it was with Lexingtonand Saratoga--the matched giants, the biggestcarriers in the world--that the U.S. Navylearned the rudiments of carrier task forceoperations between 1927 and 1941.”2° Fleet

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Admiral W. F. “Bull” Halsey noted in his 1947autobiography

the Sara is a queen and that is why shewill always have a secure place in myheart. First, I loved her as a home; Icommanded her for two years and flewmy rear admiral’s flag on her for twomore, which means that I lived on boardher longer than I ever lived anywhereelse. Second, 1 loved her as a ship; shehelped me make my debut in the carrierNavy, and she initiated me into themarvels of fleet aviation.21

When the United States Pacific Fleet wasattacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,Saratoga was in California, entering San Diegoharbor after an overhaul at the Puget SoundNavy Yard at Bremerton, Washhgton. Within24 hours, the carrier was on its way into the

Pacific.22 During WWII, Saratoga participatedin several campaigns. Saratoga was involved inthe aborted effort to relieve the beleagueredMarine garrison of Wake Island, and openedthe American attack on Guadalcanal. Saratogapounded Japanese bases in the Gilbert andMarshall Islands, providing support for thelandings at Tarawa and flying combat airpatrols over Eniwetok and Wotje, Saratoga’saircraft struck the heavily defended Japaneseport of Rabaul and airfields at Buka,neutralizing effective Japanese counterstrikes atBougainvillea in “perhaps her most brilliantstrike of the war,” according to the Navy.2aAdmiral Halsey, going aboard the carrier atEspiritu, Sante, praised Saratoga: “Your strike,”he stated, “was another shot heard round theworld... the Saratoga, when given the chance,can be deadly.”24 Operating with a Britishcarrier and a French battleship, Saratoga struckJapanese-occupied Sumatra and Java, damaging

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port and oil production facilities. In anotherimportant wartime assignment, the carrier spentseveral months training fliers to operate atnight. Saratoga then participated in nightstrikes against the Japanese home islands asdiversionary aids during the Iwo Jimaoperation, also flying patrols over ChichiJima.25 Considered a “lucky” vessel by its crewdespite two torpedoing, Saratoga was hit hardoff Iwo Jima when five kamikazes struck theship on l?ebruary 21, 1945, killing 123 men,wounding another 192, and tearing a huge holein the ship’s side, In June 1945, the Navyannounced the damage to the by then repairedcarrier:

Fires broke out and burning planes andfuel scattered over great areas of theship. The forward part of the flightdeck was battered beyond use, Oneenemy suicider penetrated the side ofthe ship into the hangar deck where heexploded to cause a great fire. Thecrane forward of the bridge, thecatapults and many guns were batteredby the crashing planes and explodingbombsY8

At the war’s end Saratoga was steaming towardJapan to strike the home islands. Sent to theWest Coast for decommissioning, Saratoga wasinstead ordered to “Magic Carpet” service inNovember 1945. Saratoga ferried navalveterans back to the United States as part ofOperation “Magic Carpet.” Within 28 hours“after her last plane was launched Sara was enroute from Pearl Harbor to Alameda,California, with 3,800 grinning, happy, overseaswarriors. Her hangar deck had been madeinto the world’s largest dormitory with endlessrows of 4-tiered bunks for passengers.Recreation facilities replaced planes on herflight deck.”27 By the end of “Magic Carpet,”Saratoga had carried 29,204 veterans home,more than any other vessel. By the end of itscareer, Saratoga also held the record for thegreatest number of aircraft landed on a carrier,with a lifetime total of 98,549 landings in 17years~8 On January 22, 1946, Saratoga wasattached to Task Unit 1,2.2, the aircraft carrierunit of the target ship task group beingassembled by Joint Task Force One forOperation Crossroads. Designated as areplacement for the carrier Ranger (CV-4)which had originally been designated as a

‘i

scores who wanted to save her--andperhaps she might have been saved, hadthere been a crew aboard. But she dieda lonely death, with no man upon thedecks once teeming with life, with pumpsidle and boilers dead .... From threeo’clock on she sank fast, her buoyancygone, as the fleet kept the death watchfor a “fighting lady. ” The...Sarasettled--the air soughing from hercompartments like the breath fromexhausted lungs. At 3:45 p.m. thestarboard afte rcorner of her fli~ht deck

now; the bow is high in the air.” She

died like a queen--proudly. The bowslowly reared high; the stern sank deep,and, as if striving for immortality, theSara lifted her white numeral “3’’...highinto the sun before her bow slipped

slowly under. Her last minutes were

slow and tortured; she fought and wouldnot sink, but slowly the “3” was engulfedby the reaching waters ....the tip of hermast was the last bit of the Sara seen byman,,..34

was awash; then the loud speakers The carrier was decommissioned on August 15,

blared: “The water is up to her island 1946, and stricken from the Navy Register.35

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Point Naval Slipyard in San Francisco.28 AJanuary 25, 1946, news release showed the“gallant carrier” in dock as two 5-inch gunhouses and the majority of the lighter

antiaircraft weapons were stripped from theship. Sent to Pearl Harbor “after stripping”and reduction of personnel on April 30, 1946,Saratoga arrived there on May 7, From there,the carrier was ordered to proceed to BikiniAtoll, steaming from Pearl on May 23 in thecompany of the destroyer Anderson and arrivingat Bikini on May 31.

Saratoga was selected as a test ship forOperation Crossroads because it, as a solerepresentative of a now obsolete class, hadbeen replaced by the large number ofwartime-built Essex-class carriers now availablefor future fleet use. Additionally, the carrier’scompartmentation was “unusually complete” withmore than 1,000 watertight compartments andits “underwater protection was very similar inarrangement to that of modern battleships andlarge carriers.”3° Lexington had not survivedthe war (it was sunk in May 1942 at the Battleof Coral Sea). Saratoga was moored 2,260yards off the actual zeropoint for the Able testblast of July 1, 1946; intentionally located atsome distance to save the carrier for the Baker

test, Saratoga was lightly damaged, with a fire

011 deck that was extinguished.31 Initial array

300-yard radius of the deton~tion point.

Because this position was deemed likely to sinkthe carrier so quickly that “no photographscould be made of the behavior of her flightdeck under the severe hull pressure and waveaction expected,” Saratoga was changed to a500-yard distant mooring, within the 500- to700-yard “lethal radius” of the blast. Becauseof slack moorings and a wind change, thecarrier drifted closer in, perhaps to within 300yards of the bomb location before thedetonation~2 The ship was blown out to aposition 800 yards distant before drifting backin and sinking 600 yards from the detonationpoint.33

New York Times correspondent Hanson W.Baldwin, watching nearby as Saratoga slowlysank nearly eight hours after the blast, pennedan epitaph:

There were many who had served her inthe observing fleet and they fought withher through the long hot hours as thesun mounted .... Outside the reef--a safedistance from the radioactive waters inthe lagoon--the observing ships cruised,while the Sara slowly died. There were

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/..– —.—

1!I

Uss Am4Nwls (BB”33)

Characteristics

USS Arkansas (BB-33) was a riveted steelvessel 562 feet long overall, with a waterline

length of 555-1/2 feet, a maximum beam of 106

feet, and a draft of 29 feet, 11-1/2 inches.Arkansas originally displaced 23,066 tons

standard; the addition of deck armor andtorpedo blisters between 1925-1927 increasedthe battleship to 26,100 tons standarddkplacement. The ship had 1,448 crew and

was fitted as a flagship.38

Arkansas was heavily armored above the

waterline; an 9-to-n-inch armor belt protected

the ship amidships, The turrets were coveredby 9 to 12 inches of armor plate. The hullwas double-bottomed except in the machineryspaces, where three bottoms were fitted, Thebattleship received additional deck armorbetween 1925-1927; 3.5 inches of armor coveredthe top of the armor belt, This increased thedisplacement by 3,000 tons.

The main battery consisted of twelve 12-inch/50caliber guns, twin mounted in six turrets--twoforward, two amidships, and two aft, Thesecondary battery consisted of sixteen 5-inch/51caliber guns in casemates,s’ Between 1925-1927some of these latter positions, which were wet

[

in a seaway, were moved up to the main deck,and in 1942, ten of the 5-inch guns wereremoved, leaving three 5-inch guns in midships

casemates (known aboard ship as the aircastles) on each beam of the ship. Arkansasmounted two 21-inch torpedo tubes, which werelater removed. The battleship’s original

antiaircraft battery comprised eight 3-inch/50caliber guns. In 1942 additional AA guns were

added; as of 1945, Arkansas mounted nine quad

40mm Bofors guns and 28 single-mount lomm

oerlikon guns, In its 1925-1927 refit, ~~k~~~~~also received an airplane catapult atop turret

No. 3 and three spotter aircraft,38

Arkansas’ four screws were driven by Parsonsturbines and four White-Forster boilers which

developed 28,000 shaft horsepower at 20.5knots. The boilers vented into two stacks;between 1925-1927 when Arkansas wasreboilered, a single stack replaced the originaltwo. The coal-burning boilers installed in 1912were replaced at that time with oil-burners;Arkansas’ bunkers carried 5,425 tons of fuel oil,Other topside changes included replacing thecage mast with a low tripod between No. 4 andNo, 5 turrets. In 1942, the ship was fitted witha tripod foremast aft of the bridge; the bridgeitself was reconstructed at the same time. Firecontrol stations were located atop each mast inthe enlarged tops.s9

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USS Arkansas (B B-33), second of twoWyoming-class battleships, was a near-sister offour Florida- and Texas-class battleships, whichincluded the before-mentioned vessels as well

as USS Utah and USS New York. Arkansasand its near-sisters represented the first“modern” class of U.S. battleships. TheAmerican “dreadnoughts” were designed to winsea battles through superior fire power andspeed. Arkansas mounted six turret~ with12-inch guns, and was powered by newlydeveloped steam turbines operating at thenunheard-of speeds. Arkansas was built at theCamden, New Jersey, yard of the New YorkShipbuilding Corporation. The battleship waslaid down on January 25, 1910, just weeks afterits near sister Utah was launched from thesame yard. As Utah was fitted out, Arkansasrose on the ways. Launched into the DelawareRiver on January 14, 1911, the new battleshipwas fitted out in 20 months’ time, and wascommissioned as USS Arkansas at thePhiladelphia Navy Yard on September 17,1912.40

Prior to the First World War, Arkansas spentits career on the Atlantic coast and in theCaribbean, with one voyage to theMediterranean, Arkansas carried PresidentWilliam H. Taft to Panama in December 1912to inspect work on the Canal.4i In 1914Arkansas played an important role in theAmerican landings at Veracruz, Mexico, Inlate Aprilj Arkansas joined other ships in an

attempt to contravene the landing of Germanarms to Mexican President Victorian Huerta,who had succeeded the assassinated electedPresident Francisco I. Madero. US. PresidentWoodrow Wilson, supporting Madero backersand anti-Huerta revolutionaries as part of hisinternational campaign for human rights, andseeking to stabilize war-torn Mexico (by forceof arms if necessary), sent in troops .42Marines and bluejackets landed from U.8.

vessels off Veracruz, took the city, andprevented the landing of German weapons.After this maneuver, between 1914 and 1917Arkansas trained along the Atlantic seaboardand in the Caribbean.

Following the United States entry into WorldWar I in April 1917, Arkansas spent the first

year patrolling the eastern seaboard beforesailing to Europe in July 1918. Attached to

the 6th Battle Squadron of the British GrandFleet, Arkansas, along with near-sister Texaswas present when the German High Seas Fleetsurrendered at Scapa Flow on November 20,1918, Arkansas served as one of the honorescorts for George Washington when that vesselcarried President Wilson to France. Returningto the United States at the end of 1918,Arkansas resumed training and cruising; thistime, however, the battleship operated in thePacific. Between 1919 and 1938, Arkansasalternated in service between both coasts,spending several years in each ocean before

being attached to Battleship Division 5 of the

Atlantic Squadron in October 1938. Arkansasserved on the Neutrality Patrol in the NorthAtlantic in 1941, prior to the US. entry in

World War II. Following the Japanese attackon Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaration of

Arkansas’ bow, showing two blast gauge towers amtanks placed on the battleship for the tests.(National Archives)

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war against the United States, Arkansas servedon convoy duty, escorting vessels to Ireland,Scotland, Iceland, and French Morocco. InJune 1944, Arkansas participated in the invasionof Normandy, providing fire support on OmahaBeach. It also was used in the bombardment

of Cherbourg, and later assisted in the invasionof Southern France in mid-August of the same

year. Returning to the United States in

September 1944, Arkansas was modernized atthe Boston Navy Yard in Boston and sent intothe Pacific.43

When Arkansas arrived in the Pacific in late1944, it was the oldest and smallest of the

then-existing American capital ships, as well asthe last American battleship to mount 12-inchguns. Replaced as a first-line ship by the new

battleship North Carolina, Arkansas nonethelessplayed a major role in the Pacific war.

Arkansas provided pre-invasion bombardment atboth Iwo Jima (February 1945) and Okinawa(March 1945) as well as ongoing fire supportfor both operations. The battleship fired 1,262rounds of 12-inch ammunition at Iwo Jima and2,564 rounds at Okinawa. Through the war

Arkansas’ 12-inch guns fired 5,255 rounds inall; the 5-inch guns of the secondary batteryfired 5,123 rounds, and the ship’s lighterantiaircraft battery fired 8,422 rounds, while thebattleship steamed 134,141 miles. Returning tothe United States in October 1945, Arkansaswas readied for participation in Operation“Magic Carpet”; the veteran battleship thenmade three voyages transporting returning

servicemen to Pearl Harbor. Arkansas was

selected as a target vessel for OperationCrossroads and was prepared for the bombtests at Terminal Island, California, beforesteaming from Pearl Harbor on May 8, 1946.Arkansas left Pearl on May 20 and arrived atBikini on May 29, 1946.

Arkansas was moored off the port beam ofUSS Nevada, the target ship for the Able teston July 1, 1946, The battleship was “one ofthe three major combatant ships within onehalf ‘mile of the zeropoint.”44 The ship was thesite of the maximum measured radioactivecontamination from the Able test; a pool ofwater on Arkansas was measured at eightroentgens per eight hours. Arkansas was

moored within 500 feet of the detonation pointfor the Baker Test of July 25, 1946; it was theclosest of the target vessels with the exceptionof the vessel that suspended the bomb, LSM-60. The detonation is popularly believed tohave lifted the battleship vertically out of thewater within the blast column. Careful analysisof the sequence of movie photographs,however, shows what appears to be thebattleship’s foremast in the blast column, withthe dark “hole” thought to be the up-endedbattleship caused by the mass of the shipblocking the uplifted water column rising aboveit. Arkansas sank almost immediately the Navytechnical inspection report for Arkansas notesit disappeared within 19 seconds after the blast.According to Bombs at Bikini, “in sinking, shecarried with her the dubious honor of beingthe first battleship to be sunk by an atomicbomb, and the first battleship to be sunk by abomb that never touched her.”45

HIJMS NAGATO

Characteristics

The Japanese battleship Nagato was asteel-hulled vessel 708 feet in length overall,with a 95-foot beam and a 30-foot draft.Nagato displaced 38,500 tons standard. Theship was armored with a 3.9-to-11.8-inch belt;the turrets were protected by 14-inch thickarmor. Nagato’s armament consisted of eight16.1-inch/45 caliber guns, twenty 5.5-inch/50caliber guns, four 3.1-inch antiaircraft guns,three machine guns, and eight 21-inch torpedotubes, four above and four below the waterline.Between 1934-1936, Nagato was reconstructed:torpedo bulges were added and thesuperstructure was raised and modified. InJune 1944, Nagato had sixty-eight 25mmHotchkiss antiaircraft guns; by October of thesame year, the number of antiaircraft guns hadincreased to include ninety-eight 20mm guns.At that time, Nagato retained eighteen 5.5-inchguns; Nagato’s full load displacement at thattime was 43,581 tons.4e

Nagato’s four screws were driven by Gihonsteam turbines that developed 80,000 shafthorsepower at 26.7 knots. By October 1944,

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the rated speed of the vessel was 24.98 knots.47Steam was provided by 21 Kanpon boilers.The battleship was originally coal-fired; between1934-1936 the ship’s machinery was replacedwith new oil-burning boilers. This led to theremoval of Nagato’s forward stack. During thereconstruction, in addition to new machineryand torpedo bulges, Akzgato received a triplebottom, additional deck armor, and increasedelevation for the 16-inch guns. Nugato carriedthree observation planes launched by catapultforward of the “C” turret. According to the

U.S. Navy’s confidential report on the JapaneseNavy, ONI-221-J, issued in June 1945, “themost outstanding outboard feature of Nagato isthe large heptapodal foremast with itsnumerous tops and bridges for fire and shipcontrol purposes. The central vertical leg isthick enough to accommodate an electric liftrunning between the foretop and main deck.”4aNagato’s hull was reportedly divided into 560separate watertight compartments; its ratedcomplement was 1,333 men,4e

The battleship Nagato was built by Kure NavyYard for the Imperial Japanese Navy underprovision of the 1916-1917 Programme of NavalConstruction by that nation. Laid down in1917, Nagato was launched on November 9,1919. The first of two Nagato-class battleships(Naguto and Mutsu), Nagato was the firstbattleship in the world armed with 16-inchguns$50 Completed on November 25, 1920,Nagato served in its most famous role asflagship for Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto,Commander in Chief for the Combined Fleet.iVagato, “its entire crew manning the sides,” ledthe combined fleet in its last official publicdisplay on October 11, 1940, during anImperial review off Yokohama in ceremoniescelebrating the 2,600th anniversary of theaccession of Jimmu, Japan’s first emperor.51

Nagato was the scene of many meetings byYamamoto and his staff as plans to attack the

-. --’

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turrets_anddistinctive superstructure, at Bikini, MaY1946. (National Archi{es)

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U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor were firstbroached, discussed, and refined. Finalpreparations for the war were made aboardNagato, and Yamamoto stood aboard Nagatowith the battleship’s crew as the Pearl Harborstrike force vessels sortied. With them theJapanese aircraft carriers brought speciallymodified 16-inch shells from Nagato and itssister Mutsu that would be dropped on theAmerican ships at Pearl Harbor as bombs.One of these shells would be credited withsinking the battleship An”zona. Nagato was thescene of nervous waiting by Yamamoto and hisstaff. They first heard of Japan’s overwhelmingsuccess at Pearl Harbor when Nagato’s radiooperator received the famous “to, to, to” signalfor a successful attack’s commencement--

crystal-clear reception from the skies overOahu thousands of miles away.52

Nagato served as flagship for Yamamoto untilreplaced by the 63,700-ton super battleshipYamato in February 1942.53 Yamamoto, whenhe shifted his flag to Yamato, released theolder battleship for operational duty; thus,Nagato as part of the Japanese Main Forcesteamed with the striking force that attemptedto take Midway and the Aleutians in late May1942. Nagato, however, was not engaged incombat in the disastrous engagement off

Midway in June in which four carriers weresunk by American carrier aircraft.54

Nagato next sortied with the fleet in theMarianas in June 1944. This disastrous battle,Japan’s last opportunity to win a decisive navalengagement, ended in defeat and thewithdrawal of the fleet to Japanese homewaters.55 The fleet, with Nagato, again sailedin October 1944 to engage the American fleetat the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Nagato, information with the super battleships Musashi(sunk in this engagement) and Yamato, was hitby two torpedoes but survived, assisting Yamatooff Samar. In retreat Nagato took a heavypounding from carrier bomberq it was hit byfour bombs and was damaged by ninenear-misses .56 Upon reaching Japan, Nagatowas left at anchor at Yokosuka, awaitingrepairs that never came. Thus, the crippledNagato, tied up at Yokosuka, missed the lastsortie of the Imperial Japanese Navy in April1945. In that special kikusui (battle of certaindeath) Yamato was sunk, effectively destroyingthe Imperial Japanese Navy as a fightingforce.57

Nagato, already badly damaged, was againmauled by aerial attack while at anchor atYokosuka on July 18, 1945. The principaltarget of the attack, Nagato was moored closeto shore next to antiaircraft batteries andcamouflaged by the removal of its mainmastand stack. The battleship was pounded byaircraft from USS Yorktown (CV-1O). Nagatowas neutralized--the bridge wrecked, and thedecks and superstructure holed and damaged~sEnding the war out of action in Tokyo Bay,Nagato was the only Japanese battleship tosurvive the war afloat. Following the Japanesesurrender, Task Force Thirty-One (the TokyoBay occupation force) landed and occupied theTokyo Bay area. Navy Underwater DemolitionTeam 18 was assigned to “capture” Nagato onAugust 30, 1945. Thk act, according to theU.S. Navy, “symbolized the unconditional andcomplete surrender of the Japanese Navy.”5gUnlike some other captured vessels, Nagato wasnot brought into the U.S. Navy as a specialauxiliary, as was the case with the Germanbattle cruiser Prinz Eugen. This may have beenbecause Nagato was heavily damaged and was

57

of no use to the United States as a capitalship, The vessel was also a symbolically laden

ship, being the “flagship” of the kido butai or“strike force,” as well as the genesis point ofthe plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor, whichAmericans perceived as a vicious sneak attack,and onetime quarters of Yamamoto, who, whilea villain in the United States was still verymuch a hero to the Japanese. fVagato, notsurprisingly, was selected as a target vessel forOperation Crossroads. In early 1946 the shipwas prepared at the Yokosuka Naval Base andsteamed under its own power close to BikiniAtoll in the company of the captured cruiserHIJMS Sakawa.

Nagato’s imminent arrival was noted in“Crossroads,” the semi-official newsletter of thetests, on April 27, 1946:

Once the lofty pride of the Japanesefleet, the battleship Nagato will strike anironic contrast as she enters the atollshortly. Flying the American ensign andmanned by an American crew, she willbe the first of the ‘guinea’ ships to takeher position for what may well be herlast mooring. Then, humbly, she will

await the fateful day when the blow,mightier than the greatest salvo everproduced by man, will descend.

After its arrival at the end of April, Nagato,“the one-time pride of the Japanese Navy,” waseagerly explored by sightseeing sailors.According to the May 4 edition of“Crossroads, “ “this huge battleship appears tohave already undergone the blast. Visitors willfind that she is pretty-well shattered, her decksand bulkheads rusty, and her equipment highlypicked over, An LST alongside supplies allher water and electricity.” The vessel wasprepared by a repair ship for the tests atBikini, and then moored 400 yards to thestarboard of Nevada, target ship for the Abletest. When the bomb missed Nevada, Nagatowas only moderately damaged by the Ableblast; light plating on the superstructure was

wrinkled and light non-watertight doors were

blown off their hinges; paint was scorched.The report on the ship concluded that “the

Nagato is structurally sound . .. . The poorcondition of the ship and her equipment is dueto lack of preventive maintenance and overhaul,and to the fact that her engineering plant satidle for over a year.”e”

.s-. . J

t captured Japanese photograph of Sakawq circa 1945. (US. Naval Historical Center)

The end came for Nagato when the Baker testbomb detonated nearby on July 25, 1946,01The passing of the battleship under thesecircumstances made a profound impression onthe Japanese. Naval historian Masanori Ito

wrote:

When World War II began, the JapaneseNavy--the third. most powerful in theworld--included some of the mightiestships in naval history and was a forceworthy of the pride and trust of theJapanese people. Then, in less than fouryears, this great war machine fell fromglory to oblivion, Of ten battleshipsriding in Hiroshima Bay in December1941, nine were sunk. The lone survivor,Nagato, died at Bikini Island as a targetin an atomic bomb test.s2

HIJMS SAKXWA

Characteristics

Sakawa was a welded steel cruiser of theAgano class. Particulars of the ship are notfully documented since Japanese records weredestroyed at the time of the surrender. TheU.S. Navy’s official report on the JapaneseNavy, ONI-221-J, issued in June 1945, cites alength of 550 feet overall and a beam of 49.6feet. The vessel’s length is not cited in other

sources; its sister ship Yahagi, built at the sameyard at roughly the same time, had a length of531 feet b~tween perpendiculars, Sakawadisplaced 6,652 tons. The ship had a flush

deck, “with marked sheer to the forecastle.”The Agano class cruisers were also fitted withbulbous bows. The four shafts were driven bysteam turbines; steam was provided by sixKanpon boilers. Agano was rated at 10,000shaft horsepower at 35 knots; Sakawa probablyhad the same rating. The vessels werereportedly armed with six 6-inch/50 caliberguns, paired in three turrets, two forward andone aft. Sakawa had an antiaircraft battery offour 3.1-inch/65 caliber guns, and thirty-two25mm/65 caliber Hotchkiss guns. Sakawa alsomounted eight 24-inch torpedo tubes abovewater and carried 16 depth charges. EachAgano class cruiser also carried two floatplanesfor observation, launched from a singlecatapult .63

@KX!L

The cruiser Sakawa was built at Sasebo NavyYard for the Imperial Japanese Navy as part ofthat nation’s 1939 Programme of NavalConstruction. Fourth and last of the Aganoclass cruisers, Sakawa and its sisters were thefirst regular light cruisers to be added to theImperialyears,e4launched

Japa-nese Navy in more than tenLaid down in 1942, Sakawa was

on April 9, 1944, and completed on

59

November 30 of the same year. Sakuwu was

the only vessel of its class to survive the war.Intended for use as flagshlps for destroyerflotillas, the Aganos were lost in combat.Agano was sunk by USS Skate off Truk onFebruary 17, 1944; Noshiro was sunk by carrieraircraft from USS Hornet and Wasp on October26, 1944; Yahagi was sunk while sortying withthe battleship Yarnato on April 7, 1945.85 Theundamaged Sakawa was at the Japanese navalbase at Maizaru (on the coastline of the Sea ofJapan) in August 1945.66 After use as areparations vessel, Sakawa was selected as atarget ship for Operation Crossroads. Sakawasailed to Bikini from Yokosuka in companywith the battleship Nagato. Both vessels werereadied for the tests at Bikini by a U.S. Navyrepair ship. This work included removing the

airplane catapults, torpedo tubes, 6-inch guns,and smaller gun mounts from the cruiser.e7

Sakawa was moored off the port quarter ofNevada. The actual detonation of the Able

bomb took place some 490 yards above andslightly to starboard of Sakawa’s stern.Following the blast, observers noted that

Sakawa’s superstructure and hull had sufferedmajor damage. The superstructure aft of thebridge was smashed down, as was the stack,which collapsed forward. The mainmast

toppled forward and to port until it overhungthe side by one-third of its length. Reportsalso noted that “the tops of the after mountswere crushed, The tops of the forward mountswere dished in a fore and aft V having a two-foot maximum depression.”ss The worse

damage, however, was to the hull. “The sternwas most badly damaged .... Its deck plating wascrushed inward and shell plating about thecounter was twisted and torn open in severalplaces. Shell plating on the starboardside,..was badly wrinkled from approximatelyframe 145 aft.’”g Other damage included the

dislodging of deck fittings, the smashing of thelifeboats, and a fire that broke out on the sternand raged for two hours.70

Immediately after the test Sakawa’s stern sanktwo feet. Through the night the sterncontinued to settle as the cruiser listed to port.Some 24 hours after the test, the ship lay onits port beam, half submerged, with the stern

60

on the lajzoon bottom. Sakawa’s bow sank

beneath tie lagoon surface at 10:43 a.m. onJuly 2. According to the U.S. Navy, “floodingunquestionably started when the Sakawa’s sternwas ripped open to the sea by the blast .... Poorwatertight integrity . ..permitted progressiveflooding. After 24,5 hours the main deck was

awash. In the next hour rapid progressive

flooding, probably due to poorly fitted anddamaged hatches, vent trunks, and other fittingsin the main deck, sent the Sakawa to thebottom.”7i At the time of sinking, the Navy

tug Achornawi (ATT-148) had a line aboardSakawa and was attempting to pull the shipfrom astern to shore; the cruiser was movedastern about 150 feet when it finally sank. TheNavy was able to board and inspect the cruiserprior to sinking; “diving operations on this

vessel were assigned low priority and eventuallylimited by a time factor to recovery ofinstruments. Hence no diver’s report is

available ....”72

USS WWVZ EUGHV (IX-300)

Characteristics

Prinz Eugen was a welded-steel vesselincorporating substantial aluminum internalconstruction. It was 692 feet in length, with a

71,2-foot beam and a 24.8-foot draft, anddisplaced 19,553 tons standard. The vessel

Prinz Eupen atthe Krupp Yardin Kiel, circa1939-1940. (us.Naval Institute)

I

carried a complement of 830 crew. Thearmament consi~ted of eight 8-inch/55 caliberguns in four turrets; twelve 4.1-inch antiaircraftguns; twelve 21-inch torpedo tubes in tripledeck mounts; six 40mm Bofors AA guns; eight.30 caliber guns in four twin mounts; andtwenty-eight 20mm flak guns mounted as twoquads and ten twins. Prinz Eugen carried threeAR-196 spotter aircraft in a hangar betweenthe stack and mainmast. The planes werelaunched from a single catapult and recovered

by cranes on either side of the hangar. Theship was armored with 3.15-inch-thick verticalnickel steel side armor, with 2-inch armor onthe bridge and 20mm of armor on therange finder positions. The turret barbetteswere protected by 3.5-inch-thick steel armor;the turrets themselves were covered by two tosix inches of armor. The vessel’s three shaftswere powered by geared steam turbinesreportedly rated at 80,000 shaft horsepower at32 knots. The three complete sets of main

61

turbines consisted of a high, intermediate, andlow pressure turbine, with astern turbinesinstalled in the casings of the main I.P. andL,P, turbines. The main reduction gears were

single reduction, The engines were powered byhigh pressure, Lament forced circulationwatertube boilers. The ship’s electrical powerwas provided by six turbo generators and fourdiesel emergency generators. According towartime issues of Jane’s Fighting Ships, “internalarrangements of these ships [were] reported tobe decidedly cramped and badly ventilated.”Prinz Eugen’s capacity was rated at 1,049 crewby Jane’s. In many respects, Prinz Eugenresembled the battleship Bisrnurck, its “bigbrother” and running mate: according toGerman officers from both, even trainedobservers had difficulty telling the two shipsapart at a distance when their relative sizecould not be assessed.73

kkw!t

The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was built byKrupp at their Germania Werft shipyard inKiel for the German Navy under the 1936 navalconstruction program. Laid down in 1936,Prinz Eugen was launched on August 20, 1938,in the presence of Adolf Hitler andGrossadmiral Erich Rader. The cruiser waschristened by Madame Horthy, wife of theHungarian dictator, Admiral Nicholas Horthy,74Second of four Hipper class heavy cruisers(Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Seydlitz, andLutzow), Eugen was completed in 1940 andcommissioned on August 1 of that year,Constructed principally for high seas commerceraiding, Prinz Eugen spent most of WWIIblockaded in port. After shakedown exercisesin the Baltic, the cruiser joined KMS Bismarckin Norway in May 1941, Prinz Eugen and thebattleship made their famous breakout into theNorth Atlantic, where they engaged and sankthe battle cruiser Hood on May 24; PrinzEugen’s shells were credited with setting theBritish ship afire before a hit from Bistnarckdetonated Hood’s magazines. Prior to beingmet by a superior British task force that sankBismarck after a running sea battle, PrinzEugen escaped the battleship’s fate by slippingaway to the Azores,76 Arriving at Brest,France, for sanctuary and an overhaul in June

1941, Prin.z Eugen was harassed by British airraids. While blockaded at Brest, Eugen wasdamaged by aerial bombing; a hit on July 2,1941, destroyed the main gunnery control roomand damage control, and killed 52 men.78

In another famous breakout, Prinz Eugen, withthe battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau racedup the English Channel between February 11and 13, 1942, as allied aircraft, coastal gunbatteries, and ships attempted to sink them,After its escape, Prinz Eugen operated inNorwegian waters. On February 23, 1942,however, the cruiser was torpedoed by theBritish submarine Trident in a Norwegian fjordand lost its counter. After another harrowingrun to Germany under attack by British planes,the ship was repaired and returned to serviceas a training ship on the Baltic in the summerof 1942. In October 1943 the ship rejoined thefleet as flagship of the German Baltic forces.In this capacity, the cruiser provided fire

support for German troops and panzers inLithuania and Latvia in 1944; Prinz Eugen spent

the last months of the war on the Baltic coast,supporting ground forces retreating from theRussian advance, firing more than 5,000 rounds,Surrendered at the end of the European waron May 7, 1945, at Copenhagen, Pn”nz Eugenwas taken by the United States as a prize ofwar.77 Designated IX-300 as a specialauxiliary, Prinz Eugen was taken to the UnitedStates for tests and analysis in January 1946,arriving at Boston on the 24th of the month.’a

Selected as a target vessel for OperationCrossroads, Prinz Eugen was readied at thePhiladelphia Navy Yard in February-March1946. This work involved removing two 8-inchgun barrels from turret “A” for additionalevaluation. A fire control tower was also takenfrom the ship at this time. Prinz Eugen thenproceeded to Bikini, arriving on June 11, 1946.There it was moored between two U.S.destroyers off the port quarter of USSArkansas, 1,200 yards from the zeropoint. Thevessel was not appreciably damaged in theAble test of July 1, 1946, nor in the Baker testthree weeks later, when it was moored onemile off the detonation point, but wascontaminated with radioactive fallout. Thecruiser was towed to Kwajalein for

62

decontamination along with several othervessels after the tests. The ship had a slight,but progressive leak, and on the morning ofDecember 21, 1946, it was found listing anddown by the stern. Boarding parties found theship flooding rapidly from what was believed tobe a failed sea valve. An attempt was made tobeach the ship on Enubuj Island, butunderpowered tugs and strong winds swungPrinz Eugen broadside to the beach, portside toshore, where the ship grounded offshore on acoral ledge at 5:00 p.m. During the nightthe

flooding continued, with the list graduallyreaching 35 degrees to starboard. At 12:43 inthe morning of December 22, 1946, Prinz Eugencapsized and sank.’g Subsequent dives on theship found that technically the cruiser could beraised, but radiation hazards prohibited thisaction being practical. In 1973, theDepartment of the Interior requested that theNavy relinquish title to Prinz ‘Eugen to allowscrapping of the ship to commence. A Navyteam dove and documented the wreck, andreported in June 1974 that beta and gamma

63

radiation could no longer be detected onEugen, but that the vessel had suffered severehull damage amidships, was partially imbeddedin the lagoon bottom, and required removal ofresidual fuel oil and ordnance before salvageoperations could commence, oo As aconsequence, no action to remove the ship wastaken,

USS ANDERSON (DD-411)

Characteristics

The Sims-class destroyer Anderson was awelded steel vessel with an overall length of348.3 feet, a waterline length of 341.4 feet, a36,1-foot beam, a 19.8-foot depth, and a17.4-foot draft, Anderson displaced 1,720 tonsstandard,81 The Sims-class destroyers weresupposed to have been 1,570 tons; lack ofcommunication between the Navy’s Bureau ofConstruction and Repair and the Bureau ofEngineering led to the overweight problem ofthe Sims class. As a result of this and otherproblems, the two Bureaus were merged into asingle organization, the Bureau of Ships, in1940.82 Anderson’s twin screws were driven byWestinghouse steam turbines and three oil-firedBabcock and Wilcox boilers, rated at 50,000shaft horsepower at 35 knots. The Navyexperimented with streamlining these vessels inan effort to improve speed and fuelconsumption; a rounded bridge structure on thesims class produced less wind resistance andturbulence than previous classes. Anderson’smain battery comprised five 5-inch/38 caliberguns in single mounts. The ship carried twelvetriple-mounted 21-inch torpedo tubes on deck.In mid-1941, four .50 caliber machine guns forAA use were installed. Anderson also mountedtwo depth charge racks aft.83

USS Anderson’s superstructure was badlydamaged by the Able test burst; the stacktoppled, and a fire started abaft the bridge.The fire subsided in a minute’s time, thenflared up as Anderson capsized to port. Oncecapsized, Anderson sank by the stern, Shortlyafter the Able event, Navy divers found thedestroyer in 176 feet of water, lying on its portside, with the bow imbedded in the bottom and

the stern lying 15 feet off the bottom, Thedamage that sank the ship was presumed to beon the port side; the starboard hull waswrinkled and “several seams,,.were leaking oiland air.”84 The worst damage noted wastopside; the mainmast was stripped of fittingsand the yardarm was snapped in half. Radarantenna and the stack were missing. The

deckhouses were crumpled, the No. 2 gunshield split open, bulwarks on severalsuperstructure decks were torn away, thetorpedo crane was bent at a 90-degree angle,and the starboard “Y” depth charge launcherswere ripped off the deck.a~ The Navydetermined that blast damage and a post-blastfire and explosion sank Anderson. This wasthe only occasion during the tests thatshipboard munitions detonated.

EMwi

USS Anderson was the third of twelve Sims-class destroyers. The last of the American“single stackers,” these vessels were the resultof a 1935 request by the Chief of NavalOperations for a new design for destroyers,The U.S. Navy’s General Board forwarded aproposal in May 1936 for a 1,570-ton ship withfive 5-inch guns and twelve 21-inch torpedotubes.8e Twelve destroyers were built to the

design, commencing with USS Sims (DD-409).Authorized in fiscal year 1937, the destroyers

were built by different yards to a design by thenoted New York firm of Gibbs and Cox. TheSims class had robust hulls and were heavilyarmed; more significantly, these destroyers werethe first to carry the newly developed Mark 37fire control system, which introduced for thefirst time in a destroyer a computer roombelow decks--an innovation that proved highlysuccessful in combat in WWII and was fitted toall major U.S. combatant vessels by 1945.87

Auderson was laid down in late 1938 at theKearny, New Jersey, yard of the FederalShipbuilding and Drydock Corporation (asubsidiary of U.S. Steel). The destroyer waslaunched on February 4, 1939, and fitted outover the next few months.8a Anderson wascommissioned on May 19, 1939, and began ayear-long program of tests aud trials. Sent intothe Pacific in 1940, Anderson spent a year as

64

flagship of Destroyer Division 3 until sent backto the Atlantic in June 1941. There, the

destroyer joined the other Sims class vessels inNeutrality Patrol and convoy duties betweenCanada and Iceland. Anderson was part of theescort force for three convoys. Following the

Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl

Harbor, Anderson returned to the Pacific. inDecember 1941. The remainder of the ship’s

career was spent in the Pacific.6g

Anderson served as part of the screening forcefor the Navy’s carriers during the early,

decitive battles in the Pacific. In May. 1942,Anderson operated with Task Group 17 m theCoral Sea. This force moved against t%Japanese, with Anderson screening the ~~~

.LeXin@n (CV-2), sister of Saratoga.battle, the Japanese light carrier fihoho wassunk, along with Lexington, which succumbed. toruptured gasoline lines. Accumulating gaso~

fumes ignited, setting off internal explosionsthat spread flames throughout the ship.

Anderson stood by to render assistance andrescued 377 men from the carrier, which wasthen sunk with a torpedo from the destroyerPhelps (DD-360). Anderson was recalled toPearl Harbor, arriving on May 23, 1942, whereit sortied with Task Force 17 for the Battle ofMidway. TF 17 was grouped around the

carrier Yorktown (CV-5), which had beendamaged during and quickly repaired after theBattle of the Coral Sea. At -Midway, Yorktownwas the only American carrier located by the

Japanese, who struck Task Force 17, bombi~gYorktown. A second wave of planes again

attacked as Yorktown’s crew got the fires under

control; Anderson shot down one torpedo

plan% but others got through and Yorktown was

again hit, this time by two torpedoes’ T?

destroyer managed to destroy four planes mthe two attacks. Anderson moved in to pick up

survivors as Yorktown was abandone~ 204 menwere taken off by the destroyer. Damagecontrol crews on Yorktown managed once again

to keep the carrier afloat; however, a Japanese

I

65

flagship of Destroyer Division 3 until sent backto the Atlantic in June 1941. There, thedestroyer joined the other Sims class vessels inNeutrality Patrol and convoy duties betweenCanada and Iceland. Anderson was part of theescort force for three convoys. Following theJapanese attack on the U.S. fleet at PearlHarbor, Anderson returned to the Pacific inDecember 1941. The remainder of the ship’scareer was spent in the Pacific.8g

Anderson served as part of the screening forcefor the Navy’s carriers during the early,decisive battles in the Pacific. In May 1942,Anderson operated with Task Group 17 in theCoral Sea. This force moved against the

Japanese, with Anderson screening the carrierLexington (CV-2), sister of Saratoga. In thebattle, the Japanese light carrier Shoho wassunk, along with Lexington, which succumbed toruptured gasoline lines. Accumulating gasolinefumes ignited, setting off internal explosionsthat spread flames throughout the ship.

Anderson stood by to render assistance andrescued 377 men from the carrier, which wasthen sunk with a torpedo from the destroyerPhelps (DD-360). Anderson was recalled toPearl Harbor, arriving on May 23, 1942, whereit sortied with Task Force 17 for the Battle ofMidway. TF 17 was grouped around the

carrier Yorktown (CV-5), which had beendamaged during and quickly repaired after theBattle of the Coral Sea. At Midway, Yorktownwas the only American carrier located by theJapanese, who struck Task Force 17, bombingYorktown. A second wave of planes againattacked as Yorktown’s crew got the fires undercontrol; Anderson shot down one torpedoplane, but others got through and Yorktown wasagain hit, this time by two torpedoes. The

destroyer managed to destroy four planes inthe two attacks. Anderson moved in to pick upsurvivors as Yorktown was abandoned; 204 menwere taken off by the destroyer. Damage

control crews on Yorktown managed once againto keep the carrier afloat; however, a Japanese

65

submarine launched two torpedoes that sank thecarrier and the destroyer Hammann (DD-412),a sister ship of Anderson, which wasalongside.go

Always in the front lines, Anderson screenedUSS Wasp (CV-7), which was sunk by torpedoattack on September 15, 1942. The destroyernext screened USS Hornei (CV-8) at the Battlesof the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruq in thelatter battle (October 25-26, 1942) Hornet waslost. In both cases Anderson again movedtowards the stricken carriers and rescued men;in all, the destroyer saved more than 1,000 crewmembers from the four carriers. The destroyerwas shifted from screening duty to invasionsupport in November 1942; Anderson screenedtransports carrying reinforcements toGuadalcanal and shelled Japanese troops on theisland. It then went on escort duty andanti-submarine patrols in the New Hebrides. InJuly-September 1943 Anderson served in theAleutians, participating in the bombardment ofthe Japanese garrison on occupied Kiska. Thedestroyer then screened transports and providedfire support for troops invading Tarawa.Anderson then steamed to the Marshalls for theinvasion of those heavily defended islands. Thedestroyer bombarded Wotje and screenedvessels shelling Kwajalein, Anderson was hit byan enemy 155mm shell off Wotje, which killedthe captain and five other officers and wounded18 men. While transferring the wounded offship, Anderson struck an uncharted pinnaclethat badly damaged the destroyer, which wasthen towed to Pearl Harbor for repairs.81

After repairs, Anderson was deployed to assistthe Sansapor, Morotai, and Leyte operations; atLeyte on November 1, 1944, the ship was againbadly damaged when a kamikaze struck thedeck, killing 18 and wounding 21 members ofthe crew. Anderson steamed to San Franciscofor repairs at Hunter’s Point. After theserepairs and an overhaul, Anderson joined the9th Fleet operating off the Kuriles onanti-submarine patrols and shore bombardment.Anderson ended the war by participating in theoccupation of northern Honshu after theJapanese surrender. ‘2 The ship was ordered tothe Atlantic for decommissioning. Andersonarrived at San Diego on November 8, en routeto Philadelphia. On November 14, 1945,

however, Anderson was ordered retained in thePacific “in an inactive status in view ofexperimental tests.” Selected as a target vesselfor Operation Crossroads Anderson was“stripped in preparation for use as a target...”at Pearl Harbor between January and May1946.0s

Arriving at Bikini on May 30, 1946, in thecompany of the carrier Saratoga, Anderson wasmoored close to the actual zeropoint for theAble test on July 1, 1946. Following the burst,Anderson suffered two explosions within nineseconds’ time. The ship capsized, whileburning, onto its port side, and sank withinseven minutes,84 Ironically, the destroyer thathad stood by and rendered assistance whenLexington went down, sank at Bikini withSaratoga, sister of the lost carrier.

Of 12 Sims-class destroyers, none survived past1948; five were lost during the war, Andersonwas sunk at Bikini in 1946, three were brokenup in 1947, and three were sunk as targets in1948.05 Anderson was stricken from the Navyregister on September 25, 1946. The ship’s belland nameplate were presented to the city ofAnderson, South Carolina, by Congressionalrequest. These had apparently been removedat Bikini and given to an Anderson, SouthCarolina, press representative on board USSAppalachiao?8

USS LAWON (DD-367)

Characteristics

USS Lamson was a welded steel destroyer ofthe Mahan class, Lamson was 341.3 feet longoverall, with a waterline length of 334 feet, a34.8-foot beam, a 9,9-foot draft, and a 1,726-tondisplacement.g7 Lamson’s twin screws weredriven by General Electric geared turbines,which were powered by four Babcock andWilcox, oil-burning, Express boilers. The ship’splant was rated at 46,000 shaft horsepower at37 knots. Armament consisted of a mainbattery of five 5-inch/38 caliber guns and threequad 21-inch torpedo tubes mounted on deck.Lamson additionally carried four .50 calibermachine guns, two depth charge tracks, and“K’’-type depth charge projectors!8

66

Loaded with 50 percent of its fuel andammunition, Lamson was badly damaged by theAble test burst, which tore off the light topsidesuperstructure, stacks, and mainmast, and badlysmashed the bridge. The vessel capsized tostarboard and sank (after floating bottom up)sometime between 200 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., fiveto eight hours after the blast. Divers found theship resting on its starboard side; “the sternwas lying in a hole which makes it appear thatthe ship went down stern first, pivoted aroundand ended up heading southwest on thebottom.”g’ Navy reports made just after Ableindicate that “the portion of the stern aft offrame 178 has twisted counterclockwise until thesheer strakes are separated about three feet.This rotation appears to pivot about thecenterline of the deck.’”o” A “large dent” wasnoted in the bottom shell plating extendingfrom the port propeller guard to the centerline,with an 18-inch-deep “wrinkle” in the main deckplating at the stern, with another wrinkle “ofvarying depth and width in the port side shellplating. It is 2.5 feet deep and 18 inches wideat frame 170 and tapers to nothing at frame130. The sheer strake appears crushed betweenframe 70 and 80.’’101 The starboard side wasnot examined because the destroyer was lyingon it.

Damage topside included the missing stacks andmainmast, “badly damaged” light superstructure,

and the foremast, which was bent aft at a 90-degree angle. “At frame 70 a Z door andframe are blown out. The port side of thedeckhouse aft of mount 2 is opened up top andbottom for a short distance fore and aft.’’102The guns remained in their mounts, “atmaximum elevation,” and the quad 21-inchtorpedo tubes “are apparently intact. Only onetorpedo is in the tubes and it is broken andhanging there.” The depth charge racks “aretwisted and torn almost beyond recognition,”with “a large number of depth charges aroundthe bottom aft. The special weapon NORD5130 was not in its chocks on the stern andcould not be located.’’103

-

Prior to World War II the United Statesfocused considerable attention on destroyerdesign and construction; in 1922 it possessedthe largest destroyer fleet in the world.104 Thebasic pattern for prewar destroyers was set withthe Farragut class destroyers of 1934; they werefollowed by larger “leader” destroyers of thePorter class of 1935-1936. The next class, andthe first to introduce “extreme steam conditions”was the Mahan class. The Mahan destroyers“incorporated prototypes of a new generation ofdestroyer machinery, which combined increasesin m-essure and steam tem~erature with a newtyp~ of lightweight, fast-ruining turbine.’’105

67

Thus was introduced a class “whose longendurance was so important for Pacificwarfare o’’lOe The Mahan class was alsoimportant in that additional above-the-waterline21-inch torpedo tubes were added and guncrew shelters were built for the superimposedweapons fore and aft for the first time.i’~ TheMahan destroyers were the first destroyersfitted with emergency diesel generators.Eighteen of these destroyers were built between1935 and 1936, among them, Lamson.

Lamson was laid down on March 20, 1934, atthe Bath Iron Works Corporation, Bath, Maine.The ship was launched on June 17, 1936, andwas commissioned on October 21, 1936, at theBoston Navy Yard. After a shakedown cruiseto South America, the destroyer proceededthrough the Panama Canal on July 1 for thePacific. For the entire month of July, Lamsonsearched the Marshall and Gilbert Islands formissing aviatrix Amelia Emhart. Returning tothe United States, Lamson was based at SanDiego for the next four years except for aone-month deployment on the East Coast in1938. Ordered to Pearl Harbor in October1941, Lamson was deployed with other vesselsin an unsuccessful search for the Japanese TaskForce on December 7-8, 1941. The destroyerwas then detached and sent to Johnston Islandto rescue civilians from the advancing Japanese.With refugees aboard, Lamson arrived at PearlHarbor on January 3, 1942,106

In February 1942, Larnson was sent south tojoin the ANZAC squadron in Fiji. Thissix-vessel squadron (USS Chicago, USS Perkins,HMAS Australia, HMZNS Achilles, HMZNSLeander, and Lamson), was formed to keepSouth Pacific supply lines open, The destroyerwas sent back to Pearl Harbor on June 1 toserve in the reserve line for the Battle ofMidway. Detached from this unit on June 13,Lamson was sent to Mare Island Navy Yardfor an overhaul before being deployed again tothe South Pacific. On October 22, 1942,Lamson and sister ship Mahan raided Japanesepicket boats between the Gilbert and ElliceIslands; together they sank a 7,000-ton armedauxiliary. After a month-long duty patrollingGuadalcanal, Lamson joined Task Force 67 andfought in the Battle of Tassafaranga and thenpatrolled the Solomon Islands as part of an

antisubmarine warfare screen until April1943.’09

Returning to Pearl Harbor on May 6, 1943,Lamson was soon dispatched to Australia. Thedestroyer participated in the bombardment ofNew Britain and was one of four destroyersthat penetrated Japanese lines some 160 milesto bombard the main Japanese naval base atMadang in New Guinea on November 29, 1943.As part of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, Lamson servedoff New Guinea and in the Marshall Islandsthrough much of 1944. On October 20, 1944,Lamson was ordered to join the Seventh Fleetand proceeded to the Philippines. InDecember 1944, Lamson was deployed offLeyte as fighter director ship for small convoysgoing through the Surigao Straits to reinforcetroops ashore, Attacked by kamikazes, theseconvoys were badly mauled. On December 6,1944, Lamson’s sister ship Mahan was sunk at11:00 a.m.; at 3:00 p.m., the convoy was againattacked, A kamikaze came in low from asternand hit Lamson’s after stack with its right wingbefore cartwheeling into the superstructure:

The flame of the explosion reached to thetop of the mast and flashed from stem tostern. 21 enlisted men and 4 officerswere either killed instantly or died ofwounds received, 1 man was missing and54 men wounded. The superstructurefrom the forecastle deck up and bothstacks were completely destroyed. Theforward fireroom was flooded. Atug.,. attempted to put out the fires but itappeared hopeless, all remaining menaboard the Lamson were put aboard thetug. Just as the USS Flusser, which wasstanding by, prepared to sink the Larnsonwith torpedoes, the tug reported makingheadway against the fires and the shipwas saved.’ 10

Towed to safety, the destroyer receivedrudimentary repairs and proceeded under itsown power to Pearl Harbor and then toBremerton for repairs. Lamson made the tripwith its torpedo tubes loaded “with enoughtorpedoes to sink a battleship” but jammed bythe kamikaze attack,’ 11

After arriving at Bremerton on January 16,1945, 90 percent of the ship’s superstructure

68

artist Grantthe destructionduring Able.:al Center)

The stern ofthe sunkenLamson afterAble. (U.S.NavalInstitute)

was removed and a new deckhouse wasinstalled; “electrical repairs on the Lamsonrequired four times more work than usually isrequired for a complete electrical overhaul ....Bomb fragmentation had pierced cables inremote places, More than 200 major circuitshad to be installed and 25 percent of the totalbattle damage repair fell to the electricalshop.’’ 112 The destroyer steamed fromBremerton on April 15 for San Diego, and thenquickly proceeded back to the Pacific.Stationed off Iwo Jima, Lmnson spent theremainder of the war rescuing downed aviatorswho ditched while returning from striking theJapanese home islands. At the war’s end, thedestroyer was sent to Sasebo as part of theoccupation force, departing for Pearl Harbor onOctober 29, and arriving there on November 9,1945. Lamson was ordered retained in inactivestatus on November 15 “in view of experimentaltests” and was sent to San Diego on November29,1’3 At year’s end, the destroyer returned toPearl Harbor, where it was prepared forOperation Crossroads.

Lamson steamed from Pearl on May 21, 1946,for Bikini, The destroyer sailed with SubmarineDivision 111, made up of Skipjack, Tuna, Skate,and Searaven, also bound for Crossroads. Onthe afternoon of Thursday, May 30, 1946,Lamson arrived at Bikini and was anchored at“Berth 142” in 21 fathoms of water, Accordingto the ship’s log for June 30, 1946, the mainengines were secured on 12 hours notice, thegyro was secured, and boiler No. 4 alone waslit for auxiliary purposes, That morning thecrew was mustered, evacuated to USS Hervico(APA-45), and the last inspection of the shipwas made. In the afternoon the fires wereallowed to die under the No. 4 boiler, theengineering plant was secured, and condition“affirm” was set: “ship is secured throughout”before the last of the crew departed. The logreported on Monday, July 1, “Anchored asbefore, 0902 Bomb for Test ‘ABLE’ wasdetonated. 0930 Lamson was reported ascapsized, with her keel in the air, as a result ofthe atom bomb detonation. In the earlyafternoon the Larnson rolled onto her port sideand sank stern first in 21 fathoms of water,’”’4

Lamson was anchored approximately 700 yardsabeam and slightly aft of the actual zeropointfor the Able bomb’s detonation. Photos taken

12 seconds after the burst show the destroyerupright, but with heavy superstructure damage;a second photograph, taken nearly six minutesafter the burst, shows the same. At 9:40 a.m.a reconnaissance plane, PBM Charlie, noted thedestroyer was on its beam ends, “on herstarboard side with her bridge structureunderwater, and the port side of her bottomabove the surface. A large oil slick... trailing toleeward.’’115 Lamson remained afloat at leastuntil 2:00 p.m., when PBM Charlie departed thelagoon; at 5:00 p.m., USS Reclaimer (ARS-42)made a quick tour of the lagoon and found “notrace of the Lanzson.’’118 Lamson wasdecommissioned on July 29 and stricken fromthe Navy Register on August 15, 1946.

USS APOGON (SS-308)

Characteristics

USS Apogon was a welded, riveted, andhigh-tensile Ba/ao-class steel submarine--311.8feet long overall, with a 27.3-foot extremebeam, a height of 47.2 feet, and a 15.3-footdraft at surface trim. Apogon displaced 1,525tons standard surfaced and 2,424 tonssubmerged. ii’ The boat’s two shafts weredriven by twin Elliot electric motors, each ratedat 2,740 shaft horsepower for a total of 5,480SHP. While surfaced, electricity was providedby four Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, eachrated at 5,400 brake horsepower. Whilesubmerged, Apogon’s motors were powered by252 Exide battery cells. Apogon was capable of20.25 knots surfaced and 8.75 knotssubmerged.118 The boat’s primary armamentconsisted of ten 21-inch torpedo tubes--sixlocated forward and four aft. Apogon carried24 Mark torpedoes. The boat also mounted asingle 5-inch125 caliber gun on deck; lighter AAguns were also fitted.

EMQzY

The United States Navy built hundreds of “fleetboat” submarines during the Second WorldWar. One hundred thirty-two of the Balaoclass, the most common U.S. submarine of thewar, were constructed at shipyards throughoutthe country, As part of this effort, beginningin 1940, an order was placed for 73 Gate-classvessels, “in response to the realization that the

70

U.S. would probably become involved in thecurrent war.’” lg Longer, tougher, and withmore endurance, the Gates were supplementedafter Pearl Harbor by an order for 132near-identical Balao-class submarines. TheBalaos were slightly reconfigured forprefabrication and were built with a highertensile steel that extended their diving depth100 feet beyond the Gato boats’ 300-footoperating limit.

Of these submarines, all 73 Gato and 101 ofthe Balao boats saw combat, all of it in thePacific.’zo These boats waged a terrible war of

attrition against Japan’s navy and merchantmarine, particularly the latter. U.S. submarinessank most of Japan’s merchant fleet, cripplingthe industrial capabilities of the empire andforcing the abandonment of far-flung outposts.

USS Abadejo (SS-308) was laid down at thePortsmouth Navy Yard in 1942. RenamedApogon on September 24 of the same year, thesubmarine was launched March 10, 1943. Afterfitting out, Apogon was commissioned on July16, 1943, and proceeded to the Pacific.121 Theboat made eight war patrols, sinking threeJapanese vessels totalling 7,575 tons, Apogon’sfirst patrol was out of Pearl Harbor onNovember 3, 1943. In later patrols, thesubmarine sortied from Majuro and Midway.Apogon was one of ten submarines deployed forOperation Galvanic in November 1943. In thiscoordinated action, a carrier task force,

amphibious landing force, and the submarinesworked together to invade Tarawa and theGilbert Islands and prevent a Japanesecounterstrike. Apogon and two additionalsubmarines were stationed at the entrance toTruk, the Japanese naval stronghold, in orderto attack Japanese ships attempting a sortie tothe Gilberts. One of the boats, USS Corvina(SS-226), was lost in the operation, but Apogonescaped without harm.122 Not long after this,the sub scored its first kill on December 4,1943, when Daido Maru, a former gunboat of889 tons, was sunk north of the Marshalls.123In February 1944, U.S. carrier aircraft poundedthe Japanese fleet anchored in Truk Lagoon aspart of Operation Hailstone. Following thishighly successful action, a second strike atSaipan was orchestrated with a pack of foursubmarines, including Apogon, surrounding thearea. The raid was a success, and submarinessank six ships escaping from Saipan. In June1944, Apogon sailed with three other boats,Guardfish (SS-217), Piranha (SS-389), andThresher (SS-200) in a wolf-pack known as the“Mickey Finns.” Working off Formosa, thewolf-pack sank 41,000 tons of Japaneseshipping, but Apogon did not get a kill.124 Theboat’s next sinking was on September 27, 1944,when the 1,999-ton freighter Hachirogata Maruwas torpedoed.125

Apogon played an important role incoordinating attack information with the otherboats as had been done when the sub was a

I

member of the “Mickey Finns.’’12E Apogon’s lastkill came in June 1945 as the submarinesblockaded Japanese ports and commencedfinishing off the rapidly diminishing merchantmarine of the nearly defeated nation. North ofthe Kuriles, Apogon ambushed the 2,614-tontransport Hakuai Maru on June 18, sending itto the bottom. 127 Apogon returned from its last

patrol on September 2, 1945.

Consigned to the Operation Crossroads tests,Apogon arrived at San Diego on September 11,1945, There the boat was readied for the tests.One of eight submarines selected forCrossroads, Apogon was modified to submergeand surface without a crew on board.According to Bombs at Bikini, “never beforehad there been occasion to submerge asubmarine without crew aboard, The methodused was to fill part of the ballast tanks withwater, then suspend heavy weights from thebow and stern by cables of carefully chosenlength. These weights overcame thesubmarine’s residual buoyancy and drew herdown to the desired depth. She could besurfaced again by pumping air back into herballast tanks.’’i28

Lightly damaged during Able, Apogon sankduring Baker. Shortly after sinking, Navy diverslocated the submarine in 1.80 feet of water,entered the boat, and began salvage operations,which included blowing air into the floodedhulk. The salvage efforts were abandoned,however, before the boat was brought to thesurface. Apogon was decommissioned andstricken from the Navy Register on February25, 1947,129

USS P/LOTF/SH (S3-386)

Characteristics

USS Pilotfish was a welded and riveted,high-tensile-steel submersible Balao-class boat.Pilotjish was 311.8 feet long overall, with a27.3-foot extreme beam, a height of 47,2 feet,and a 15.3-foot draft at surt%ce trim. Pilotfishdisplaced 1,525 tons standard when surfacedand 2,424 tons when submerged.’so The boat’stwo shafts were driven by twin GE electricmotors, each rated at 2,740 shaft horsepower,

for a total of 5,480 SHP, While submerged,Pilotfish’s motors were powered by 252 Exidebattery cells. Pilotfish was capable of 20.25knots surfaced and 8,75 knots submerged.131The boat’s primary armament consisted of ten21-inch torpedo tubes; six tubes were locatedforward and four tubes aft. Pilotfish carried 24Mark 14 torpedoes. As built, the boat carrieda 5-inch/25 caliber gun on the deck aft of thesail and a single 40mm Bofors antiaircraft gunforward of the sail. When sunk at OperationCrossroads, Pilotfish had been modified to alate-war configuration; the 5-inch gun had beenremoved, and twin 20mm Oerlikon AA gunshad been mounted aft of the periscope shearson the sail,

EMQY

USS Pilotfish (SS-386) was laid down at thePortsmouth Navy Yard, New Hampshire, onMarch 15, 1943. The submarine was launchedAugust 30, 1943. After fitting out, Pilotjish wascommissioned December 16, 1943, andproceeded to the Pacific after training onMarch 29, 1944, arriving at Pearl Harbor onApril 26,132 At this time submarines weredeployed in wolf-packs, and on its first patrol,Pilotfish was sent out with the pack known as“Blair’s Blasters,” which included Pintado andShark under tactical command of Capt. L, N,Blair of Pintado.i33 The boat made five warpatrols, beginning the first, to the Marianas, inMay 1944. (By this time, the Pacific war hadturned against Japan. Submarines played animportant role by sinking merchant shipsseeking to supply, reinforce, or withdraw troopscut off in the Marianas.) Subsequent patrolstook Pi/otfish to the Benin Islands, the EastChina Sea, Marcus Island, and off the southeastcoast of Japan. The submarine was not able tomake a successful attack except on the thirdpatrol, when the submarine hit and badlydamaged a Japanese cargo ship off theBonins,i34 In 1945 Pilotfish served as thecommand vessel for a coordinated-attack groupsent to the east China Sea. This group wascredited as being strategically essential to thesuccess of the Iwo Jima assault.is6 In its lastwar patrol, Pilotjish served on lifeguard picketduty off the Japanese home islands, armed withAA guns and standing by to rescue downedairmen returning from the bombing of Japan.’ae

72

1947.140 Pilotfish lies on the bottom of thelagoon at its mooring for the Baker test.

After provisioning at Guam, Pilotfish departedfor its sixth war patrol on August 9, 1945.Taking up position off Japan, the submarinewas ordered to cease hostile action on August15 when the Japanese surrendered. Aftercruising off K1 Suido on lifeguard duty andneutrality patrol, Pilot$ish was ordered to standin to Tokyo Bay as part of the fleet making theformal occupation of Japan, With 11 othersubmarines, Pilotfish was present, mooredalongside the submarine tender Proteus (AS-19),during the formal surrender ceremonies onSeptember 2, 1945.137 Departing Japan onSeptember 3, Pilotjish arrived at Pearl Harboron the 12th. From there the sub was sent toSan Francisco for lay-up after 18 months’ dutyin the Pacific, with 313 days and 75,075 milesof war patrols.i38 After arrival in the UnitedStates, the submarine was consigned toOperation Crossroads. Pilotjish was one ofeight submarines originally slated for scrappingor reserve fleet lay-up, that were insteadmodified for use in the atomic bomb tests.Lightly scorched while moored on the surfacefor Able, Pilotfish was submerged for Baker.Closest of the submarines to the zeropoint,Pilotjish was sunk by the Baker blast.

According to some accounts, Pilotfish, althoughdecommissioned August 29, 1946, little morethan a month after sinking, was in fact raised,towed away, and “resunk” on October 16, 1948,as a target off Eniwetok.’ag This report is inerror; Navy records indicate the ship was“exp’ended” at Bikini on July 25, 1946,decommissioned on August 29, 1946, andstricken from the Navy list on February 28,

USS G/U./AM (APA-57)

Characteristics

USS Gilliam was a welded steel vessel 426 feetlong overall, with a waterline length of 400 feet,an extreme beam of 58 feet, a maximum depthof hold of 37 feet, and a 15.6-foot draft.Gilliam displaced 6,800 tons standard. Thetwin screws were driven by Westinghouse SteamTurbines that developed 6,000 shaft horsepowerat 18 knots. Steam was provided by twooil-burning Babcock and Wilcox boilers. Thevessel was armed with a single 5-inch/38 calibergun, four twin-mounted 40mm Boforsantiaircraft guns, and ten single 20mm Oerlikonguns. Gilliam carried thirteen LCVPS (LandingCraft Vehicles, Personnel), one LCPL (LandingCraft Personnel, Large), and 1,032 tons ofcargo or 849 troops.’41 The superstructure waslocated in the center of the ship; two masts,one forward and one aft, were fitted withbooms and steam winches that handled cargoand the ship’s landing craft.

E&!2D!

USS Gilliam, a type S4-SE2-BU1 transport, wasbuilt under a U.S. Maritime Commissioncontract in 1944 by the Consolidated SteelCorporation of Wilmington, California.142Launched on March 28, 1944, Gilliam was thefirst of 32 Gilliam-class attack transports,specially designed vessels that served asamphibious ships. “Unlike conventionalfreighters and transports, attack transports weredesigned to unload their cargoes over the sideinto landing craft which they carried; in a sensetheir beaching craft were their mainbatteries.’’143 Gilliam was acquired by the U.S.Navy on July 31, 1944, and commissioned thenext day as APA-57. Gilliam departed SanFrancisco Bay on October 16, 1944, with 750Army troops bound for New Guinea. Gilliamferried troops to the Philippines in support ofthe reconquest of those islands and served as areceiving ship for crews and injured personnelof damaged or lost warships during the Battleof Leyte Gulf. Gilliam also participated in theassault on Okinawa. At the war’s end the

73

US. Naval Institute) -

trans~ort carried occupation troops to Sasebo,Japa~, and ferried re~urning troops home aspart of Operation “Magic Carpet.’’i44

Gilliam was selected as a target vessel forOperation Crossroads. Arriving at PearlHarbor on February 16, 1946, the ship wasreadied for the tests.’ 45 Gilliam was mooredaft of Nevada, the projected target for the Abletest detonation. The bomb instead detonatedoff Nevada and close to Gilliam, “the only shiplocated within 1,000 feet of the projectedzeropoint .“l46 The vessel sank in less than twominutes.

USS CARLISLE (APA-69)

Characteristics

USS Carlisle was a welded steel vessel 426 feetlong overall, with a waterline length of 400 feet,an extreme beam of 58 feet, a maximum depthof hold of 37 feet, and a 15.6-foot draft.Carlisle displaced 6,800 tons standard. Thetwin screws were driven by two Westinghousesteam turbines that developed 6,000 shafthorsepower at 18 knots. Steam was providedby two oil-burning Babcock and Wilcox boilers.

The vessel was armed with a single 5-inch/38caliber gun, four twin-mounted 40mm Boforsantiaircraft guns, and ten single 20mm Oerlikonguns. Carlisle carried thirteen LCVPS, oneLCPL, and 1,032 tons of cargo or 849 troops.i47The ship’s superstructure was locatedamidships; two masts, fore and aft, were fittedwith booms and steam winches to handlelanding craft and cargo.

11.@Z3!

USS Carlisle, a type S4-SE2-BU1 transport, wasbuilt under a U.S. Maritime Commissioncontract by the Consolidated Steel Corporationof Wilmington, Californiaoi4* Carlisle was oneof 32 Gilliam class attack transports.i4g Thekeel was laid on May 12, 1944; Carlisle waslaunched little more than two months later onJuly 30. Named for Carlisle County, Kentucky,the vessel was completed and acquired by theU.S. Navy on November 28, 1944.150 It wascommissioned the next day at Terminal Island,Los Angeles. After provisioning, outfitting, andsome alterations at San Pedro, the shipunderwent a shakedown cruise in December1944, First sent to San Diego for amphibiouslanding training, the transport was finallyordered to Pearl Harbor on January 23, 1945,

74

-- -.. ._PORT SIDE

RECONSTRUCTED FROM DIVERS REPORTS

fnst’s 1Y40 arawlng 0] ttte sunken Carllsle. (National Archives)

75

arriving there on January 31. The ship’s mainpropulsion motor had shorted and burned whileunderway to Pearl Harbor; after landing thetroops and cargo aboard, Carlisle was sent toSan Francisco for repairs. Returning to SanDiego in March 1945, Carlisle loaded personneland cargo and again sailed for Pearl Harbor onMarch 17, 1945, arriving on March 26, Carlislewas used for crew training in the HawaiianIslands before the vessel returned to the WestCoast in June 1945. After a trip to Seattle andSan Francisco, the ship returned to Pearl,where it was sent to Eniwetok, Ulithi, andSamar, arriving at the latter port on August 11,1945,16’

At the war’s end the ship was detailed to“Magic Carpet” service, carrying troops fromthe Philippines, Pearl Harbor, and Japan toSeattle and San Francisco. In this capacity,Carlisle had loaded 44 officers and 92 enlistedmen at Tokyo, and on January 26, 1946, sailedfor Seattle. Four days later, while at sea, theship was ordered to Pearl Harbor forassignment to Joint Task Force One forOperation Crossroads. Arriving at Pearl onFebruary 4, the ship was “stripped” during thatmonth before sailing to Bikini Atoll as one ofeighteen attack transports slated for the tests.15eMoored close to Gilliam, Carlisle was sunk bythe Able test burst on July 1, 1946. UssCarlis[e was stricken from the Navy Register onAugust 15, 1946.

ARDC-13

Characteristics

The floating drydock ARDC-13 (AuxiliaryRepair Drydock, Concrete) was built ofsteel-reinforced concrete with a lift capacity of2,800 tons. The dock’s overall length was 389feet, with an 84-foot width, and a height of 40feet, The dock floated with a 9-foot, 6-inchdraft, The dock was built of three sections; (1)the 5-3/4-inch to 6-inch thick slabs that formedthe hull, which consisted of the side, bottom,and dock floor; (2) the 5-1/2-inch-thick port;and (3) the starboard wing walls, eachcontaining a 5-inch-thick intermediate and6-1/2-inch-thick top deck. The vessel wasfurther reinforced by concrete transverse framesevery six feet, The hull was divided into eight

watertight compartments, four on each side, inaddition to fore and after peak tanks. i53 TheARDC was capable of drydocking submarines,destroyers, and LSTS. Two Christmas treeswere mounted on the wing walls for Crossroads.

Hi@3!

ARDC-13 was rushed to completion in March1946 to serve as a target vessel for OperationCrossroads. No armament was fitted, and themain discharge pumps and cranes were neverinstalled, Only one anchor windlass was fitted.The vessel was only 60 percent complete whentowed to Bikini. “Otherwise, the dock wasessentially complete insofar as required toperform its function as a target ship,’’164ARDC-13 was moored off Saratoga for theAble test blast. The pressure wave from theblast came from approximately 12 degreesforward of the port beam; this cracked the portwingwall, carried away the control house,spalled concrete and strained the hull“sufficiently to open hairline cracks, for themost part, throughout the length of the dock.A few of the cracks are well defined.’’155Beached on Enyu where temporary repairs wereeffected, ARDC-13 was remoored in the arrayfor Baker, Refloated and moored in the targetarray for Baker, ARDC-13 was damaged by thedetonation, but remained afloat. It was notinspected until eight days after Baker, At thattime, “slow leakage was observed through cracksin the underwater body which had resultedfrom Test A, The rate of flooding wascalculated to be approximately 30 percent ofthat which was observed before temporaryrepairs,.,, Two days later the dock capsized asa result of progressive flooding of the port sidecompartmentso’’i58 After capsizing, ARDC-13remained afloat, with its starboard side up,until sunk by demolition charges on August 6,1946.

YO-160

Characteristics

YO-160 (Yard Oiler) was a steel-reinforcedconcrete barge, 375-feet long overall, with a56-foot beam and a 28.6-foot draft. The bargedisplaced 6,422 tons, and was registered at5,426 tons gross and 5,295 tons net. The

76

barge’s capacity was 62,900 cubic barrels of fueloil.i57

Hism?!

YO-160 was ordered by the MaritimeCommission from the Concrete ShipConstructors of National City, California. Thehull was converted to naval use almostimmediately as construction proceeded in May1943. The completed barge was acquired bythe llth Naval District, which purchased itfrom the Maritime Commission on August 31,1943, at a cost of $2,900,000.156 The barge wastowed to Pearl Harbor by the fleet tug Tawasa(ATF-92), arriving on November 5, 1943.There YO-160 was assigned to. the advancedbases in the Pacific, arriving at Funafuti in theEllice Islands in December 1943.158 Presumablythe barge spent its entire wartime career therebefore being ordered to Bikini Atoll toparticipate in Operation Crossroads in March1946.

Heavily damaged during Able, YO-160 was sunkby the Baker test blast; Navy reports credit thedescending water column as the probable cause.Photographs of the blast taken from Enyu showthe barge’s bow lifted some 36 feet by the blastwave.160 Subsequent photographs show thewater column covering the vessel. When theair cleared, YO-160 was no longer afloat. Nodives were made. The vessel was stricken fromthe Navy Register on August 15, 1946.161

LCT-414, 812, 1114, 1175, 1187, and 1237

Characteristics

The LCT (Landing Craft, Tank) was a weldedsteel “light but extremely rugged vessel designedfor direct ‘on-the-beach’ loading andunloading .... Equipped with a bow ramp..,thebottom is especially designed for‘beaching’ . . . . docking facilities are notrequired.’” 82 These standardized craft were117.5 feet long overall, with a beam of 32 feet,and a light draft of 1.5 feet forward. Theloaded draft was 3.75 feet forward. LCTSdisplaced 134 tons light and 286 tons loadedand could carry 150 tons of cargo; this couldbe four medium or three heavy tanks. TheLCT came in several models: the target LCTS

were Mark 5 and Mark 6 versions. The latterwas an improved design that permitted sternloading and had increased livingaccommodations. One purpose of the Mark 6modification was to serve as links in floatingcauseways between LSTS (Landing Ships, Tank)and the shore. They had a detachable sternplate, “with a lip beneath it for the LST rampto engage; ...the superstructure was split in halfto permit vehicles to run the entire length ofthe craft.’’1E3 LCTS were propelled by threescrews, each driven by a single 225 HP GrayMarine diesel engine that developed a maximumspeed of 9 knots. The fuel capacity was 11.12tons in addition to 140 gallons of lube oil.1e4These craft were usually armed with two single20mm antiaircraft guns. According to awartime manual, the LCT was often seen“transported on LSTS or in sections on APAsand AKAs. They are the largest of the U.S.open-deck, bow-ramp types.’’1e5

The LCT was the largest of all U.S. shipborneamphibious warfare craft and the smallest U.S.landing craft to receive numbers in their ownright. 168 LCTS were the result of a November1941 British request for a U.S. version of atank lighter for a projected European invasion.The first LCT was completed on June 29, 1942;the last wartime-built LCT was finished onDecember 22, 1944. In all, five hundred LCTS,Mark 5 models were built, along with 965 Mark6 LCTS.187

LCT-1114 was a late-model Mark 6 unit. Thevessel was one of ten LCTS requisitioned forOperation Crossroads and placed in the targetarray. LCT-1114 capsized as a result of theBaker test detonation and the resulting wave ofwater. After the blast, it was observed floatingbottom up, bow ramp secured, with the “sternawash and the bow four feet out of the water”next to ARDC-13.16* LCT-1114 remained afloatfor four days, gradually drifting in a westerlydirection “until it was finally sunk off AmenIsland with a demolition charge to prevent itfrom becoming a menace to navigation.’’ieg

Similarly, the other LCTS were sunk in the daysafter the Baker test as hazards to navigation.A total of 18 vessels were beached off BikiniIsland during the Baker test; among them were

77

I–,

I

six LCTS: the Mark 5 LCT-412, and five Mark6 LCTS--NOS, 812, 1175, 1187, and 1237, whichwere beached between the high and low tidemark on the lagoon side of the island. LCT-1187 and LCT-1237 “suffered major flooding asa result of apparent bottom damage due topounding against coral ledges and working inthe surf.’’ 170 They were also displaced by waveaction. LCT-812 suffered major damage, withits bow ramp torn free and missing after thetest; both it and LCT-412 became waterborne“as a direct result of the waves whichimmediately followed the test ....’’i71

Post-Baker inspection of LCT-1187 found that

the tanks from about midships aft werecompletely flooded. The manhole coverplate to the void below the forwardstarboard wing tank deckhouse was notsecured in place. This void was flooded.The galley was flooded to a depth of twofeet from water coming in over thestern .. .. This craft was slightly aboveradiological tolerance when boarded on 1August 1946.172

After the Baker detonation, LCT-1237 wasdisplaced about 20 feet along the beach andswung around parallel to the water’s edge.

This craft was leaking badly before thetest and by Baker day the engine roomwere completely flooded. The tanks justforward of the crew’s quarters wascompletely flooded. The tanks just aft ofthe forward stowage compartmentscontained about one foot of water, Theafter end of the galley contained 1-1/2 feetof water. The sounding hole covers weremissing from the flooded tanks.Indications are that much of the tankflooding was due to waves washing overthe vehicle deck, but leaky propeller shaftglands probably caused flooding of theengine space.’ 73

NOTES

1Rear Admiral George R. Rock, USN, “SomeObservations on the Design of Airplane Carriers andNotes on the Saratoga ant Lexingt&,” Transactions ofthe Socie~ of Naval Architects and Marine -?3ngineers,

2

3

4

s

6

7

8

9

Vol. XXXVIII (New York Society of Naval Architectsand Marine Engineers, 1928), p. 64.

Roger Chesnau, ed. Conway’s All the World’s FightingShips, 1922-1946 (New York: Mayflower Books, 1980), p.101. Also see the specifications for Saratoga in thecontract book, contract No. 199, Saratoga, in the NewYork Shipbuilding Corporation Collection, PhiladelphiaMaritime Museum, Philadelphia, and the official ship’scharacteristics card on file at the Ships History Branch,Naval Historical Center.

Rock, “Some Observations on the Design of AirplaneCarriers,” p. 64.

Ibid., p. 69, Also see Lieut. Commander J, T.Alexander, USN, “Trial Trip Data of the U,S.S.Saratoga, ” Transactions of the Society of NavalArchitects and Marine Engineers, Vol, XXXVH (NewYork: Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers,1929), p. 201.

Norman Friedman, US. Aircraft Carriers: An IllustratedDesign History (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1983),p, 48, Hereafter cited as Friedman, Aircraft Carriers,

Ibid., p. 51. Also see Saratoga, War Damage Report,Final report, Torpedo Damage, 11 January 1942, noserial, Box 615, and Saratoga, War Damage Report, 21September 1942, serial 0120, World War II ActionReports, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center.

Friedman, Aircraft Carriers, pp. 53-54.

Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Group Technical Inspection Report,USS Saratoga (CV3), Test Able, Operation Crossroads,”p. 14. National Archives Record Group 374, Records ofthe Defense Atomic Support Agency, National Archives.Hereafter cited as “Technical Inspection Report,Saratoga, Test Able;” the identical report, from TestBaker, will be similarly cited.

Navy Department Press Release, March 20, 1925. Onfile at Ships History Branch, U.S. Naval HistoricalCenter. Also see Chesnau, Conway’s All the WorldsFighting Ships, p. 10L

10Richard Humble, U.S. Fleet Carriem of World War II,fPoole: Blanford Press. 1984). DD. 18-19. Hereafter citedis Humble, Fleet C&rie& -‘ Also see Harold andMargaret Sprout, Toward a New Order of Sea Power:American Naval Policy and the World Scene, 1918-1922(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,1940), pp. 230-235.

11E, H. Rigg, “The Launch of the Airplane Carrier U.S,S.Saratoga, ” Transactions of the Society of NavalArchitects and Marine Engineers, Vol. XXXIH (NewYork: Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers,1925), p. 148.

12Launch program, USS Saratoga, April 7, 1925. Originalcow on file, Shim Historv Branch, Naval HistoricalC&iter. The same quote ‘may also” be found in thePhiladelphia Evening Star, March 21, 1925,

13Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,vol. VI, p. 339.

14Humble, Fleet Carriers, p. 21.

15Philadelphia Evening Star, March 21, 1921.

16As quoted in Friedman, Aircraft Carn”ers, p. 49.

17Humble, Fleet Carriers, p. 21.

18Ibid., p. 27.

19Mooney, Dictiona~ of American Naval Fighting Ships,vol. VI, p. 340.

20Humble, Fleet Carriers, p. 27.

21William F. Halsey and Joseph Bryan 111}Admiralllalse~s Stoy (New York McGraw-Hill, 1947), p. 62.

22Mooney, Dictionary of Amen”can Naval Fighting Ships,vol. VI, p. 340.

23Ibid., pp. 340-341.

24Cited in Ships Section, Office of Public Information,Navy Department, “History of USS Saratoga (CV-3),”(August 29, 1946), p. 5. Copy on file in Ships HistoryBranch, Naval Historical Center. Hereafter cited as ShipSection, “History of USS Saratoga.”

25Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,vol. VI, p. 341.

26Ibid., p. 341. Also see Navy Department Press Release,June 15, 1945, “The ‘SARA’s’ Luck Runs Out,” on fileat Ships; History Branch, Naval Historical Center. Alsosee a reminiscent account by an officer, Irwin Patch, Jr.,“USS Saratoga at Iwo Jima,” Shipmate, Volume LII, No.5 (June 1989), pp. 20-22. Shipmate k the magazine ofthe United States NavaI Academy Alumni Association.A detailed report on the action and the damage sufferedis found in Saratoga report, serial 007 of 21 February1945,Box 616, World War 11Action Reports, OperationalArchives, Naval Historical Center.

27Ships Section, “History of USS Saratoga,” p. 10.

29Commander, Joint Task Force One, “Report on AtomicBomb Tests Able and Baker (Operation Crossroads)Conducted at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, 1 July 1946and 25 July 1946,” Vol. 1, Chapter VII, p. 7. Copy onfile at Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center.

30Shurcliff, “Technical History,” Vol. II, p. 6.S.

31Director of Ship Material, “Technical Inspection Report,Saratoga, Test Able,” p. 7.

32Shurcliff, “Technical History,” p. 6.12.

33Director of Ship Material, Wechnical Inspection Report,Saratoga, Test Baker,” p. 8.

34Hanson W. Baldwin, dispatch of 22:02 to The New YorkTimes, July 25, 1946, from on board USS Appalachian.Press bis~atches, July 25, 1946, from nos. 2~3~ to 2644,National Archives Record Group 374, Records of theDefense Atomic Support Agency:

35Ship’s characteristics card, Ships History Branch, NavalHistorical Center.

36Chesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p. 91and Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1920 (London: Sampson Low,Marston & Co., Ltd., 1920), p. 187. Also see theoriginal contract specifications for Contract No. 97,Arkansas, in the New York Shipbuilding CorporationCollection, Philadelphia Maritime Museum, Philadelphia,and the ship’s characteristics card, Ships History Branch,Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.

37Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1935(New York D. Van NostrandCompany, Inc., 1935), p. 492, and Chesnau, Conwa~s Allthe World’s Fighting Ships, p. 91.

38Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1944-45, Corrected to April 1946(New York The MacMillan Company, 1947), p. 458, andChesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p. 91.

39Ibid.

40Contract Data, USS Arkmzsas (BB-33), New YorkShipbuilding Corporation Collection, PhiladelphiaMaritime Museum; also see James L. Mooney,Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, p. 62.

41Ibid.

42Ibid.

43Ibid.

28Ibid.

44Shurcliff, Bombs at Bikini, p. 134.

79

45Ibid,, p. 164, I am indebted to Charles Haberlein,Curator of Photoerauhs. Naval Historical Center, whoconducted a det~il;d ‘analysis of the Baker “Blastphotographs and spotted the mast in the blast column.

46Hansgeorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, and Peter Mickel,Warships of the Imperia! Japanese Navy, 1869-194S(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986), p. 28.

47Ibid,

48U.S. Division of Naval Intelligence, ONI-221-J (June194s).

49Jatws Fighting Ships, 1945, rt.p,

50Jentschura, Jung and Mickel, Warships of the ImpetiaIJaoanese Naw, D. 2& also see Ste~hen Howarth. TheF&hting Ship;’ ;f the Rising Sun: ‘The Drama of theImperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945 (New York:Atheneum, 1983), p. 134.

.51Hiroyuki Agawa, The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto andthe Imperial Navy, trans. John Bester (Tokyo and NewYork Kodansha International Ltd., 1979), pp. 200-201.

52Gordon W, Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, and KatherineV. Dillon, At Dawn We Slept; The Untold Story of PearlHarbor (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1982),pp. 503-504.

53Agawa, The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and theImperial Na~, pp. 269-270.

54Gordon W, Prange, Donald M, Goldstein, and KatherineV. Dillon, Miracle at Midway (New York: McGraw-HillBook Company, 1983); also see Mitsuo Fuchida andMasatake Okumiya, Midway: The Battle that DoomedJapan, The Japanese Navy’s Story (Annapolis, Maryland:United States Naval Institute Press, 1955).

55Masanori Ito and Roger Pineau, The End of the ImperialJapanese Navy (New York Jove Books, 1986), pp. 93-110,passim,

56Zbid., p. 181.

57Ibid., pp. 198-205, passim,

58Samuel Eliot Morison, HistoW of United States NavalOperations in World War 11, Volume XIV: Victory in thePacific, 1945 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975),p. 316.

59Certificate of Commendation on file at the USS ArizonaMemorial, Honolulu, Hawaii,

60Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Group, Technical Inspection Report,Nagato @x-Jap BB), Test Able, Operation Crossroads,”pp. 105-106. National Archives Record Group 374.

61Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Group, Technical Inspection Report,Nagato (13x-JapBB), Test Baker, Operation Crossroads,”p. 6.

62Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Nayv,p. 1.

63Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel, Wamhips of the ZmperialJapanese Navy, 1869-1945, p. 111. Also see ONI-221-Jand Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1944-45, Corrected to April,1946 (New York The MacMillan Company, 1947), p. 307.

64Zbid.

65Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel, Warships of the ImperialJapanese Navy, p, 112.

66Ibid,

67Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Group, Technical Inspection Report,Sakawa (Ex-Jap CL), Test Able,” p. 9. NationalArchives Record Group 374.

68[bid., p, 6,

69Ibid., pp. 5.6.

70Zbid., pp. 6-7.

71Ibid,, p, 5,

72Zbid., p. 8,

73The ship’s specifications are found in a circa January1946 document, “A Short Historical Sketch of the ‘PrinzEugen’ IX-300,” with “General Statements Involving theShip’s Characteristics,” Serial 1O-OOC,OperationalArchives, U.S. Naval Historical Center, Additionally,statements regarding the ship are found in Jane’sFighting Ships for 1941-1946, though these entries arenot completely reliable. Also Director of Ship Material,Joint Task Force One, “Bureau of Ships Group,Technical Inspection Report, Prinz Eugen (Ex-GermanCA), Test Able,” p. 3. National Archives Record Group374,

74Paul S. Schmalenbach and Commander James E. Wise,Jr., USN, “Prinz Eugen Album,” U.S. Naval InstituteProceedings (August 1969). Also see “A Short HistoricalSketch...” Mr. Schmalenbach was a member of Prinz

8[1

Eugen’s German crew throughout its career andaccompanied the vessel to the United States. He andthe other German members of the crew left the ship atSan Diego before it steamed for Pearl Harbor andBikini.

75Ibid.

76Ibid.

77Zbid.;, also see “Prinz Eugen,” Our Navy, July 1969, p. 7.

78Schmalcnbach and Wise, “PrinzEugenAlbum;”also seeMooney, Dictionary of Amen-can Naval Fighting Ships,p. 388.

79Captain George L. Dickey, Jr. USN, “The End of thePrinz.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceeding Aurmst 1969,pp. 149-151. Capt. Dickey, then a you~g’offic~r, was incharge of the attempt to beach Pn”nzf.?ugenat Kwajalein.

80Battelle, Inc. “Summary Report on Salvage Survey ofPn”nz Eugen, Supsalv Report No. 6-74, to US Navy,Supervisor of Salvage, Naval Ships System Command,”(June 1974), manuscript on file in the ship’s history file,Ships History Branch, Naval Historical Center.

81Chesnau, Conway’s All the Worl@s Fighting Ships, p.127. Also see the ship’s characteristics card, ShipsHistory Branch, Naval Historical Center, p. 127.

82Ibid. Also see Norman Friedman, U.S. Destroyers:AnMustratcd Ifistoy (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press,1983), p. 93. Hereafter cited as Friedman, Destroyers.

83Chesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.127.

84Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Report, Technical Inspection Report,USSAnderson (DD411), Test Able,” pp.5, 9. NationalArchives Record Group 374.

85Ibid., pp. 5-6.

86Chesnau, Conwa~s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.127.

87Friedman, Destroyerx, p. 93.

88“HistoWof USSAnderson(DD 411),” (May 26, 1948),Ships History Branch, Naval Historical Center.

89Ibid.

90Ibid.; also see Anderson, Action Report, Battle ofMidway, June 5, 1942, Serial 0109, OperationalArchives, Naval Historical Cente~ and Rober~ Cressman,That Gallant Ship: USS Yorktown (CV-5) (Missoula,Montana: Pictorial Histories, 1985), pp. 158-160.

91“Historyof USS Anderson.”

92Ibid.

93Ship’s service record, Ships History Branch, NavalHistorical Center.

94Director of Ship Material, “Technical Inspection Report,USSAnderson, Test Able,”pp. 8-9. Also see Shurcliff,Bombs at Bikini, p. 131.

95Chesnau, Conwa~s All the Workfs Fighting Ships, p.127.

96Memorandum, H. C. Bruton, Administrative Aide toCNO to Vice Admiral Carpender, June 17, 1946. Onfile in Anderson’s jacket, Ships History Branch, NavalHistorical Center.

97Ship’s characteristics card, Ships History Branch, U.S.Naval Historical Center.

98Ibid. Also see Friedman, Destroyem, p. 405.

99Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships Group, Technical Inspection Report,USS Lamson (D D367), Test Able, OperationCrossroads,” pp. 8-9. National Archives Record Group374.

100Ibid., p. 5.

101Ibid., p. 6.

102Ibid.

103Ibid.

104Chesnau, Conwa~s All the Worl@s Fighting Ships, p.125.

105Friedman, Destroyem, p. 88.

106Chesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.126.

107Ibid.

81

108“Battle History of the USS Lamson (DD367), 21 October1936 till 1 October 1945,” (October 1945), typescript,Ships History Branch, Naval Historical Center,

109Ibid.

110Ibid., also see “Commander John V. Noel, Jr, USN,Awarded Bronze Star Medal,” (October 31, 194S), pressrelease, Navy Department, Lamson file, Ships HistoryBranch, Naval Historical Center, and Capt. John V. Noel,Jr. USN (Ret.) “Homeward Bound,” Shipmate, May 1984,pp, 17-18.

111Seattle Star, June 19, 1945 and Baltimore Sun, June 19,1945.

112“The USS Haraden and USS Lamson Go Back to War,”(June 18, 194S) press release, Navy Department, Lamsonfile, Ships History Branch, Naval Historical Center,

113Ship’s service record, USS Lamson, Ships History Branch.

114Log Book, USS Lamson, entries for May 30, June 30,and July 1, 1946. National Archives Record Group 4S.

115Director of Ship Material, “Technical Inspection Report,USS Lamson,” p. 8,

116Ibid.

117Ship’s characteristicsHistorical Center.

118Ibid.

119

card, Ships History Branch, Naval

Robert C, Stern, U.S. Subs in Action (Carrollton, Texas:Squadron/Signal Publications, 1983), p, 34,

120Ibid.

121“History of USS Apogon (SS-308),” (1945), Ships HistoryBranch, Naval Historical Center. Also see ship’s servicerecord, also on file at Ships History Branch.

122Theodore Roscoe, United States Submarine Operationsin World War ZI (Annapolis: United States NavalInstitute, 1949), pp. 28S-286, 288,

123Ibid., p. 521 also see “History of USS Apogon.”

124Roscoe, United States Submarine Operations in WorldWar II, p. 343,

125Ibid., p. 527.

126Ibid., p. 364.

127Ibid., pp. 478, 527.

128Shurcliff, Bombs at Bikini, p. 141 also see plate 17,caption, between pp. 118-119.

129John D. Alden, The Fleet Submarine in the US, Navy:A Design and Construction History (Annapolis: NavalInstitute Press, 1979), p. 260.

130Chesnau, Conway’s All the Worl@s Fighting Ships, p,145. Also see the ship’s characteristics card on file atthe Ships History Branch, Naval Historical Center.

131Ibid.

132Mooney, Dictiona~ of American Naval Fighting Ships,Vol. V, p. 308.

133Roscoe, United States Submarine Operations in WorldWar H, p. 341.

134Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,p. 309.

135Ibid.

136Ibid.

137Roscoe, United States Submarine Operations in WorldWar II, p. 491.

138Mooney, Dictiona~ of American Fighting Ships, Vol. 5,p. 308-309,

139Alden, The Fleet Submarine in the US. Navy, p. 268.Also see Chesnau, Conwa~s All the Workfs FightingShips, p. 145; and Mooney, Dictionaq of AmericanFighting Ships, Vol. V, p. 308.

40Characteristics card for USS Pilotfish, Naval HistoricalCenter.

41Chesnau, Conway’s All the Worlffs Fighting Ships, p.160.

142Mooney, Dictiona~ of Amen”can Fighting Ships, Vol. V,p. 308.

143Chesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.160.

82

144Mooney, Dictionay of Amen”can Fighting Ships, Vol 111,p. 97.

145Ibid., p. 97,

146Shurcliff, Bombs at Bikini, p. 130,

147Chesnau, Conwa~s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.160.

148Ship’s characteristics card, Ships History Branch, U.S.Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.

149Chesnau, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.160.

150Ship’s service record, USS Carlisle, Ships History Branch,Naval Historical Center. Also see “Ship’s History USSCarlisle (APA-69),” (April 1, 1946) Ships History Branch,Naval Historical Center, and Mooney, Dictionary ofAmexr”can Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. l,p. 36.

151Ibid.

152Ibid.

153Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One,“Bureau of Ships GrouR Technical Inspection Report,USS ARDC-13, Test Able, Operation Crossroads,” p. 13,National Archives Record Group 374.

154Ibid,

155Zbid., p. 7.

156Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One, Bureauof Ships Group, “Technical Inspection Report, USSARDC-13, Test Baker, Operation Crossroads,” p. 3,National Archives Record Group 374.

157Ship’s characteristics card and service record, ShipsHistories Branch, Naval Historical Center.

158Ibid.

159Ibid. Funafuti is the capitol of Tuvalu (formerly theEllice Islands), and liesat 8.30 S- 179.12 Ebetween theGilberts and Samoa in the South Pacific.

161Ship’s characteristics card and service record, ShipsHistory Branch, Naval Historical Center.

162War Shipping Administration and Maritime Commission,U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Floating Equipment, LandingCraft and Misc. Vessels, For Sale (Washington, D.C.:War Shipping Administration, nsl. [ea. 19S5]) n.p. entryfor LCTS.

163~&anau, Conway’s All the Worl@s Fighting Ships, p.

164War Shipping Administration, U.S. Army and U.S. NavyFloating Equipment, n.p.

16SU.S. Division of Naval Intelligence, ONZ-54Series: U.S.Naval Vessels (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Navy, 1943) n.p.,section on landing craft. This work has now beenreprinted, with an ‘introduction by A. D. Baker 111,asUS Naval Vessels. 1943 (Annapolis: Naval Institute. .Press, 1986). ‘

166Chesnau, Conwajs All the World’s Fighting Ships, p.163.

167Zbid. Also see Major L. F. Ellis, C. R. G. Allen, A. E.Warhurst, and Sir James Robb, Victo~ in the West:Volume Z: The BattIe of Normandy (London: HerMajesty’s Stationary Office, 1962), pp. 511-512 for adiscussion on the development of the LCT.

168Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One, Bureauof Ships Group, “Technical Inspection Report, USS1,~’s 705, 816, 818, 874, 1013, 1078, 1112, 1113, 1114,1115, Test Baker, Operation Crossroads,” p. 170,National Archives Record Group 374.

169Ibid., p. 172.

170Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One, Bureauof Ships Group, “Technical Inspection Report, BeachedLanding Craft, Test Baker, Operation Crossroads,” p. 3,National Archives Record Group 374.

171Ibid., p. 4.

172Zbid., pp. 10-11.

173Ibid., p. 11.

160Director of Ship Material, Joint Task Force One, Bureauof Ships Group, “Technical Inspection Report, USSYO-160, Test Baker, Operation Crossroads, ” p. 5,National Archives Record Group 374.

83

NAPA GILLIAM

%

APA CARLISLE

—SS APOGON

3B NAGATO

%

B ARKANSAS

>s

ARDC 13

R,,.4(,$,;,

PILOTFISH

YO 160

\

.,,

“~,

CV SARATOGA

Actual positions of the sunken ships at Bikini, asplottedby the U.S. Navy, 1989. (Redrawn by RobbynJackson, HABSIHAER)

84