Task Force Survives Atom Bomb “Test”
Received Monday, 7 p.m. SAN JUAN (Puerto Rica) Feb. 27. A United States Navy Neptune plane today dropped a make-believe atom bomb over a task force comprising over 100 warships, and the referees later announced that the aircraft carrier FrankUn D. Roosevelt was knocked out of action temporarily and one escorting destroyer was declared sunk. A few other ships of the task force suffered minor damage but eontinued in action. One of the referees, Admiral Wiiliam Blandy, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, who led the Bikini atom bomb test task force in 1946, described the attack as "very successful hut not a catastrophe." He said it showed that a carrier task force could not be stopped by the explosion of one atom bomb, if it were on its toes. A flare dropped from the Neptune to emulate the bomb, exploded several hundred feet above and about 1500 yards astern of the Roosevelt. The Navy contended it could dispose its ships so that even if an aircraft carrying an atom bomb fougbt its- way ~ through a fighter screen, the fleet 's maximum loss would be only one ship.
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Chronicle (Levin), 1 March 1949, Page 5
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193Task Force Survives Atom Bomb “Test” Chronicle (Levin), 1 March 1949, Page 5
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