Last night at 11 p.m. (B.S.T.), three hours and ten minutes after the Super Fortress carrying the atomic bomb had taken off from Kwajalein, 200 miles away, the bomb was dropped over Bikini lagoon. It exploded two minutes later.
The island with its lagoon, on which floated the principal target ship Nevada, and some seventy other vessels, some of them containing the animals fated to be used in this terrifying experiment, disappeared beneath a spreading mushroom-shaped cloud preceded by a blinding orange flash. The first blast was followed by a second, three times as intense but the noise was far less than had been expected.
An official report said the mushroom mass of the burst reached 24,000 feet in nine minutes.
A short time after the brilliant burst a wave of heat could be felt on observer ships ten miles away, and an instant later came the heavy concussion of the blast.
PILLAR OF SMOKE
An immense blaze of fire roared over Bikini in a pillar of crimson smoke, slowly settling into a lofty column of grey white smoke. The enormous cloud spread and rose thickly over the whole atoll. A great ball of fire was created by the explosion, and as it twisted blindingly a huge cloud swept up into the familiar mushroom shape that burst through clouds at 10,000 feet. The steam-like smoke of the radioactive belt went on heaving up beyond the clouds.
The bomb blast damaged radio apparatus aboard Super Fortresses circling high over the target area with reporters on board.
When the turmoil had partially cleared it was seen that the Nevada was still afloat, and on the island the silky tops of the palm trees still moved in a breeze.
Several of the target ships were on fire: the Japanese battleship Nagato, seemingly the worst affected, was down by the head.
Evidently the bomb missed its principal target, for a radio report an hour after the bomb was dropped said the Nevada was ╥apparently unhurt╙. Yet the flight deck of the aircraft-carrier Saratoga, comparatively far away from the centre of the explosion, was seen to be on fire.
FIRES DIE DOWN
Observers over the target area reported, 35 minutes after the drop, that the lagoon was growing quiet and that fires, which at first had appeared to be intense, had by then almost disappeared and were clearly far less serious than they had at first seemed.
One hour after the atomic bomb explosion a radio report from the scene said: ╥The atomic cloud has about dissipated itself.╙
Admiral Blandy, broadcasting from the bridge of the command ship the first official report, declared that the ╥drop was a success.╙ Five ships were set on fire by a storm of blast, fire, and gamma rays, he stated.
╥There were no tidal waves or any other unnatural phenomenon,╙ Admiral Blandy declared. No shock was felt aboard the Fortress flying nearest, Dave╒s Dream.
╥The radioactive cloud is drifting as we had estimated, and it won╒t endanger the ships╒ personnel and adjacent islands,╙ his report said.
Admiral Blandy said the atom bomb dropped yesterday was the same as that used last year on Nagasaki.
