NO CERTAINTY AS TO RESULTS

Chronicle (Levin), 1 July 1946, Page 5

NO CERTAINTY AS TO RESULTS

BIKINI, Juije 80. Viee-Aflmiral Blandy has designated i 21.80 G..M.T., June *80, as zero hciur for ihe dropping of the atom bomb on the (iuineapig fleet in Bikini Lagoon. The deeision was inade after weather experts informed Vice-Admiral Blandy that cloud eover would be about 20 to 80 per cent and vi&ibility about twelve miles. Yice-Admiral Blandy can cancel the plans up to 11.00 G.M.T., June 30, witliout serious disruption of tlie programme. Tlie Superfortress carrying the atom lioinb will take off from Kwajalein, says Mr. E. W. klacalpine, representative of the Australian Press. If the weather is right tomorrow, a former New Jersey grocery store assistant, Harold Wood, flying some six miles above Bikini which lies 215 miles northwest* will press a button and say over the miciophone: "K.C.V.B.S. away. " He Is now a Major in the United Ktates Ar'my Air Force aad a yeteran of 18 months eomhat flying in Europ® wherein he bombed Berlin and Hamburg. "It was eerie experience when we sailed into Bikini Lagoon yesterd.ay to see the great silent armada .drawn up in precise naval formation, fatalistically awaiting its doonx — the world 's | greatest navy's sacrifipial' offering to this new godess of science," states the correspondent. "We passed row upon rovv of 10,000 ton attack transports, then the great aircraft earrier, Saratoga and about 1000 yards away the most grateful unit of the whole fleet, the former German cruiser Prinz Eugen. Over her stern lay the ugly vieious Japanese battleship Nagato. Just beyond the bow of this tombstone to Japanese naval might, lay the giant veteran of two wars -which fought over every ocean in the world— -U.S. battleship Nevada, the centrepiece of the sacriflce. i.hai,ned to the Nevada's decks are tanks, trucks, field pieces, aeroplanes, mortars, ambulances, automatic ' weap6'nA/..^^ gpehades'asarmament. In the' stern are eratds .of pigs and goats each writ.h an ionisa-tion tulie around its neck and with a metal indicator in an ear. The presence of these animals and all the intricate instruments on the Nevada's decks, gave rise to speculation on the expected damage from a direct hit from the atom bomb. flmre js a Rf'hool of thought which expecis the Nevada, if the bomb aimer, WoodB, strikes true, to be pulverised into dust and her particles blasted twelve miles into the upper air. If this is true then the pigs and goats will be a useless offering on the altar of science while. if they live to be of seientific value and if the instruments survive, then the destruetive force of the boipb "Will not lie as great as forecast. " The Navy Recretary, Mr. Forrestal. who is witii Vice-Admiral Blandy, attended a Tress conference aboard U.S.S. Appalachian and said the navy was under no illusion that the r,esult of the atom bomb tests could be predicted ln advanee. It would take time for data to be collected and this must he analysed and subjected to a scholarly scrutiny before any accurate result could be announced.