Atomic Testing 2, Nuclear Boogaloo

This disc is entitled Atomic Testing Revealed, though I'm not sure if the last disc was any less revelatory.

1. Operation Crossroads
“The primary purpose of the Bikini tests were to secure precise and accurate ship damage and instrumentation measurements resulting from atomic bomb explosions occurring both in mid-air and just beneath the surface of the water."
Commander, Joint Task Force One Presents: Operation Crossroads Able and Baker Day Tests, Bikini Atoll, Summer 1946
Ah, halcyon days…

USS Nevada is at the exact center of the target array of 90 ships, with jeeps, trucks, planes and tanks on the decks. Goats and pigs are placed on some of the ships. Luckily, we don’t have to see them being destroyed.
As for the USS Nevada, it was the ship whose band was playing "The Star Spangled Banner" on the deck just as the Japanese started bombing Pearl Harbor. It was the ship that tried to sail out of the way of blocking the harbor channel during the attack. It survived Pearl Harbor, and served in the Aleutians, supported the landings on D-Day and later the amphibious landings in Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And SPOILER ALERT, it made it through the Bikini nuclear tests still floating with superstructural damage (and highly radioactive) and was finally sunk two years later off Hawaii in 1948. (It's not enough that we nuke Nevada itself, but also anything named for that state?)

“The bomb will not start a chain-reaction in the water converting it all to gas and letting the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy, as one of my critics labeled me, exploding these bombs to satisfy my personal whim.” – Admiral William H.P. Blandy

Cameras are placed in reinforced concrete towers with lead shields to prevent the film being damaged by the radioactivity and Vice Admiral Blandy and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal cruise around the fleet to observe the preparations. (Forrestal would go on to become the first Secretary of Defense and then commit suicide in 1949 after a nervous breakdown. There are numerous conspiracy theories about this. In 2004 his suicide note was released by the Dept. of the Navy and contained a section of verse from Sophocles’ Ajax. Maybe we should resume nuclear testing if it’ll get us cabinet members who read Sophocles again.)

Dave’s Dream
July 1, 1946, B-29 and C-54 photo planes take off from Kwajalein to observe a B-29 named “Dave’s Dream” drop a bomb on the target fleet in Bikini Lagoon.
(Dave’s Dream was originally named Big Stink and under that name it was one of the planes that observed the effects of the Nagasaki raid. I’m sure the PR folks were only too happy that it had been renamed in the intervening period.) Navy PBMs take off to observe and photograph the destruction as well. AAF B-17 drones take off from Eniwetok. USS Shangri-La sends off F6F monitor planes to guide F6F drone aircraft. It’s like a mini-history of pilotless aircraft.

Blast gauges are dropped by parachute into the drop zone…then comes the explosion. It is, needless to say, an impressive explosion. The column of the mushroom cloud goes up 8 miles high. This is the real deal and it is a spectacular vision of destruction.

The drones come back with pictures and radioactive dust bags. Presents for all mankind.
The Navy drones land on Royal Island with radioactive dust filters that are removed with a moderate degree of care.

The USS Independence is wrecked from the explosion, its flight deck mangled and twisted. (Independence would finally be sunk in conventional weapons tests off California in 1951.) USS Saratoga is undamaged except for a small fire in its supply stores and the USS Nevada…has some scorched paint and the aforementioned superstructural damage.

For an interlude a delegation visits King Judah, the ruler of Bikini. King Judah apparently graciously “donated” Bikini for the tests. Of course, what else was he going to do when the US Navy shows up with nuclear weapons looking for a place to blow them up? King Judah’s cousin King Samaria of Thong Atoll fared no better.

Next up is the underwater test. Are you as excited as I am? Where’s Jacques Cousteau when you need him? When do we get to see mutated hammerhead sharks? Wait a minute—did hammerhead sharks even exist before 1946? Did we create them through sped up radioactive mutation?

Aircraft are sent up again like the last test, only this time there are radio-controlled boats sent in as well.

USS Cumberland Sound hosts the Los Alamos transmitter crew. (featuring DJ Bobby O, MC Edtel and the Trinity Test Posse)

Dr. Marshall Holloway (Hollow Way? Did T.S. Eliot name all of the people in this test?) throws the switch and Dr. Ernest Titterton (really) counts down.
The underwater explosion is truly iconic because of the massive effect of the vaporized water. It is stunningly beautiful even as the destruction dwarfs even the ships. And, of course, it caused a lot of wet radioactive fallout. Wonderful.

The wall of water and fog covers the entire fleet. There is no escape from the washing.
The photographic planes return again. The USS New York is there in the blast. It survived the blast and was finally sunk in 1948 like the Nevada.

The target ships are sprayed down with water and chemicals so they can be boarded and inspected. (They were, nonetheless, highly radioactive.) Later, many of these ships were taken back to Hawaii and studied extensively. Though, what was really learned from making a large chunk of floating metal radioactive and towing it around the Pacific for a couple of years must be so important that we’ll never know.
USS Hughes is beached in sinking condition. It would be towed out to sea and sunk off Kwajalein in 1948.

Air Force General William Kepner (who started his aviation career piloting balloons) and Admiral William Parsons (the weaponeer on the Enola Gay) make a cameo appearance as supervisory observers.

IJN Nagato (Admiral Yamamoto’s flagship, the last surviving Japanese battleship) flooded and capsized five days after the blast.
7 ½ hours after the blast the USS Saratoga sank from underwater damage. The oil slick is visible from the air as the camera planes capture the sinking. The Saratoga was the second aircraft carrier in the US Navy, earned 7 battle stars in WW II and is today one of only 2 carrier wrecks open to scuba divers.

So, from the standpoint of maritime history, this film is fascinating.
The whole thing is very clinically presented until the mission statement at the end reiterating the necessity of studying bomb damage assessments to learn how to counter the threat from the atomic bomb. And how do you counter the threat of having your entire fleet hit with a nuclear weapon? Ummm, maybe burying it in 5 feet of reinforced concrete and replacing the crew with mannequins will do the trick?

Sept. 1946
“We must defend ourselves against this new and elemental force or be destroyed by it.”
Okay. Sure. Sounds great.

2. Atomic Weapons Tests – Trinity through Buster-Jangle
Armed Forces Special Weapons Projects Presents: Atomic Weapons Tests: Trinity Through Buster-Jangle

This film is like a greatest hits of nuclear testing compilation going from 1945-1951.

July 1945, Alamogordo, NM. The Trinity test in color.
Bikini Atoll, July 1946. The ship array in color.
The Able shot seems to have done very little damage from the looks of it here.
Baker shot is even more impressive in color. That wall of water looks like an avalanche—the base surge is fantastic.
April 1948, Eniwetok. Operation Sandstone. 3 weapons fired on 200 foot towers.
Drone aircraft take off to get a look. The orange-yellow explosions are otherworldly.

Animated diagrams explain how the tests will help make bombs more economically feasible by making more efficient use of fissile material. We are told a little about the difference between weapons built according to the gun principle with U-235 and those built on the implosion principle with plutonium.
Crossroads was an implosion explosion. The Sandstone tests were all about making more efficient U-235 implosion weapons. Yield per kg of active material.increased significantly from Trinity to Sandstone.
Welcome to the important work of J-Division (Weapons Testing) where we learn that we must not be wasteful when we destroy life as we know it.

Operation Greenhouse. Experimenting with smaller weapons. Making everything more versatile and useful. Research will provide knowledge for Thermonuclear Weapons. (Indeed, one of the Greenhouse tests “featured” the first thermonuclear “burn.”)

Alright, about now, if you’ve been playing the Atomic Testing drinking game you’ve tired of only drinking whenever a nuclear explosion goes off, so for a variation you can take a drink whenever you see a scientist wearing a Hawaiian shirt. There’s one now. Must have been casual Friday at Kwajalein.

The narrator just called something a D-vice.
We get a quick rundown of the results of the nuclear shots.
Shot #1. Type D Pit. (Which is bigger than a Type C pit, but less ridiculous looking than a Type Double-D Pit.)
Shot #2 Easy – Lighter and smaller weapons. (You know, for the kids!)
Shot #3 George – Looks like a brain. (A big glowing fireball brain in the sky.)
Shot #4 Item – Proved the feasibility of increasing fission yield by a limited fusion reaction. (Whatever the hell that means.)

Now we get back on dry land. (Glowing green dry land.)
Each test leads to new developments and new tests. Because, like a bag of potato chips, every nuclear test leads inexorably to the next test.)
Now, they need a new test area. Where will they go? It’s like choosing the perfect place for a romantic vacation—only instead of a romantic vacation they’ll be blowing stuff up.
“Isolated from centers of population…with favorable winds…” Just like how I choose my vacation sites!
And the winner is…Indian Springs, 65 miles North and West of Las Vegas.
And what’s the jackpot awaiting Indian Springs in January 1951?
Operation Ranger: a test of 5 air-dropped atomic bombs.

And now we get to the bonus round of Fall 1951 Operation Buster – Jangle. (Which must have been the name of someone’s dog.)
5 weapons in Buster. (4 air dropped and 1 on a tower.)
Massive tent city for observers at Camp Desert Rock. (Sort of like Burning Man, only it must have smelled better.)
Soldiers and the rest are taken on buses to the test area.
Following the detonation the troops move into the test area to inspect the effects. I wonder if the effects on them were also inspected. (I’m sure they were.)
The air view is spectacular.
This was the first stockpiled weapon to be tested. No more ad-hoc home made nuclear weapons for us—it’s only name-brand store bought from now on.

Operation Jangle #1 Surface shot. Leaves behind quite a crater. Robot “weasels” are sent in to observe the crater and bring back samples. Okay, they probably weren’t robot weasels but real weasels tied to really long ropes and trained to collect and return with little containers of radioactive soil.

Jangle #2 – Underground detonation. 1 KT, 17 feet beneath the surface.
Dummy buildings, underground structures are installed to measure destructive results.
Not quite as scary as the older explosions. Something about the underground explosion leaves a person underwhelmed—at least in this film. I’m reminded of the videos of underground tests I saw on the news in the 1980s. They weren’t nearly as exciting as watching a building implosion.

The Nevada proving ground is touted as an important tool in our preparation for any future atomic war. (As well as a nice place for a romantic getaway.)

3. Operation Upshot-Knothole
Armed Forces Special Weapons Project presents a film by The USAF Lookout Mountain Laboratory

I love how the opening is a researcher pulling what looks like a history book from a library shelf and it’s titled “Operation Upshot-Knothole 1953.” (Presumably this guy was tired of reading about Napoleon or The Civil War.)

Upshot-Knothole (I’m guessing the name was chosen by renowned nuclear scientist P.G. Wodehouse) featured 11 detonations. You buy 10 and they throw in a bonus detonation for free.

We’re introduced to all the great amenities in the testing area like the Desert Rock Troop Encampment,
Mercury Field HQ, Frenchman’s Flat and the famous Yucca Flat.
The Control Point looks like a roadside barbecue joint.

We get one of those quick itemized rundowns from a researcher, in this case Dr. John C. Clark.
He begins “As usual we’re up to our necks…” What the hell kind of way is that to start? AS USUAL, WE’RE UP TO OUR NECKS is not a reassuring informed tone. It’s more like, “You know Phil, I’ve got a lot on my hands and I’ve been cutting it pretty close yet again.” What kind of ramshackle operation are you running out of that roadside barbecue joint, John Clark?

The most exciting result: Shot #4 detonated at 6,000 ft highest ever explosion up to that point. It looks like a big-ass cloud. It never touches the ground in the footage we see.
The weapons development portion is purposefully vague. Why even bother making a film like this if you’re going to be that vague? It’s not like they knew about the History Channel at this time.

Yet more crap about Alpha Rate, Transit Time and Yield. Yes, yes. I’m sure you’ve managed to pull out some useful information yet again, folks.

Civil effects test. The Civil Defense Administration (now known as FEMA) tests houses and cars.
Nothing new to report here if you’ve seen any of the previous films.

Operation Knothole – Military Effects. Now we’re cooking
Shot 10. This shot proof tested the Army’s 280mm gun. Atomic artillery. The first gun-type weapon tested since Hiroshima. 15 KT. The fireball is impressive. You have to wonder if anyone firing off the 280mm gun could survive the aftereffects of their own weapon.

We learn a little here about the triple point confluence of the incident and reflected waves from the blast.
Gold, Tantalum, Sulfur threshold samples used to see effects.
Naval AD-2D Skyraider drones are sent up—the first time such drones are used on the continental US.
Standard blue aircraft paint proved less safe than white or unpainted surfaces. And that’s why you shouldn’t paint your house navy blue.
There you have it: IDBDA (Indirect bomb damage assessment) at its best.
Jet drones now go up. Manned fighter escorts standing by to shoot down any drones that lose control.
We have a test on parked aircraft. Parked thermal shields. Magnesium and foil provide some protection.
Not much, though. A strong tie-down will protect the plane in a head on explosion but will exacerbate the effect of a side-on strike. So, it’s back to the reinforced concrete buried underground drawing book with all this.

They might as well have tested the Three Little Pigs’ houses for funsies. Once again: well-maintained painted house with a clean yard will avoid fire damage from a blast. (And they look better too!)

A white oil fog will protect against flash? Really? Who thought that would work?

And now comes Operation Tumbler-Snapper (which was presumably named after someone’s pet hedgehogs).

Tumbler 4 measures precursor shockwave and then asks the important question: Will carbon black smoke reduce thermal energy? (Now they’re just messing with people.)
The higher the explosion the less likely a precursor shockwave.
After shot 9 all but 2 military vehicles could still be driven away.
(The people doing the driving would get sick from radioactivity, but the vehicles were still in driving condition.)
Shot 10 had some surprise extra damage. (Bonus damage! Yay!)

A smattering of knowledge from this:
Revetments stood up to 20psi.
Foxhole covers can greatly reduce inside pressures.
Revetting field hospitals provides considerable protection.
Low bursts do more damage.

And now Feats of Courage & Tests of Masonry!
Unreinforced brick did well. Walls with windows are better than walls without openings.
Reinforced Concrete is the Wonder of the Post-Nuclear World!

But here’s the feature presentation: 145 Ponderosa pines.
This is a truly iconic Cold War moment. This is the famous film of the trees that bend in the nuclear blast. 80% of those pines survive the blast.
Thermal shielding proved excellent with negligible penetration beyond the 4th row. Plant more forests. (Of course, if this had been a hydrogen bomb that protection would have meant nothing.)

And in case you were wondering if trains could hold up as well as Japanese battleships here are the rolling stock tests. Your answer is contained in the footage of boxcars disintegrating.
High bursts are required for most targets, but low bursts are needed for high drag targets. (In case you were wondering about how to target your nuclear weapons.)

4. The House in the Middle (1954)
Produced by The National Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau with the Cooperation of The Federal Civil Defense Administration
How about that for an intrusive bit of government inspired bureaucracy? The National Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau aka NCUPUFUB was probably actually a cover organization for something more nefarious. I wonder what happened to this bureau? I’m sure we could use a little bit of cleaning up, painting up and fixing up these days.

“A house that is neglected may be a house that is doomed in the atomic age.”
Also doomed? An overpriced house in a busted real-estate market.

Finally, a film with practical advice for homeowners.
How to protect your home from nuclear destruction:
1. Take care of your goddamned fence. Don’t pile up dead grass, weeds or trash. Don’t let the fence rot. Take care of your goddamned fence. Western Civilization depends on your goddamned fence!
2. Don’t keep newspapers and magazines around Live like an ocd hermit and don’t keep anything in your house or it’ll burn and take you with it. An empty home is a survivable home!
3. To be fair, if you were in either house, you’d be dead even if it didn’t burn. Unless you’re a mannequin. Try to be a mannequin. Watch that movie with Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall and then try to be more like Kim Cattrall.
4. Paint your damn house. (And not navy blue if you learned anything from those aviation tests.)
5. Replace rotten wood. (Replace it with reinforced concrete if you know what’s good for you.)
6. Clean up your yard. (Right now!)
7. Don’t hang your laundry. It’ll burn to a crisp. (Get yourself a basement and hang your laundry there.)
8. Be the house in the middle.
9. Make sure your house has sufficient distance from the houses that do burn.
10. Encase your house in 4ft of reinforced concrete and then bury it at least 5ft underground with u-shaped covers for the air shafts. Do it now!

My favorite part of this film is when teams of boy scouts are sent out to clean up communities.
Sweet. Can we get them to try that again? We’re about due for another national clean up and it would keep everyone busy.
“Beauty, Cleanliness, Health and Safety are the four basic doctrines that protect our homes and our cities.”
That must be from the lesser known “Four Decent Things” Speech of President Eisenhower in 1954.
“Good Civil Defense is our responsibility. It is your choice. The reward may be survival!” (“May be”? Whoa, there little apocalypse pony! Why “may be”?)

“Join and Support Your Local Civil Defense”
Where’s my local civil defense? Can we toss Homeland Security and Emergency Management and change back to Civil Defense? I like the sound of it much better. Civil Defense now!

5. Operation Cue (1955)
FCDA

This film documents the Teapot tests which are renamed Cue for general consumption. (Because Teapot was too cozy?)

Now were talking about Hydrogen Bombs and not regular Atom Bombs and instead of Kilotons we’re talking Megatons.
Here’s a handy formula provided by the film: 20 MT H-bomb at 8 ½ miles = 30 KT A-Bomb at 1mile.

Meet Joan Cowan, plucky female reporter. She takes over the narration and describes her part in observing the tests of atomic weapons on everyday items and construction.
“Loss of power may be one of our bigger problems after an attack.”
Not as big as #s 1-9 on the list of problems, I would think.

Five kinds of houses are tested for structural effects and mannequins are set out to test textiles and fabrics. And the best part is the canned and packaged foods testing. Will corned beef hash and spam survive nuclear war? Tune in to find out.

On Media Hill a pile of people with hot coffee and goggles gets ready for the big moment.
Then comes the boom.
The results:
The power substation was not “seriously damaged.” It was, rather, jokingly damaged.
The rest is pretty typical of the damage assessments from other films here, until our plucky reporter/narrator lines up for the post explosion meal and says “I particularly remember some roast beef…” which she imagines could have been buried in the ground during the explosion. “Mass feeding is an important job in civil defense.” Mm-mm good! Roast beef au cesium.
Joan concludes this film by reminding us “It was a test of the things we use in everyday life.” After they’ve been viciously nuked, of course.

6. “A Flash of Darkness” Medic, Season 1, Episode 17 (originally aired 14 February 1955).
Directed by Bernard Girard Written by John Meredyth Lucas & James E. Moser

Just about when I was ready to give up and admit that even I can’t make it through another Civil Defense PSA, I get thrown a curveball. “Flash of Darkness” is an episode of the television series Medic, which ran from 1954-1956.
Right away, I have a good feeling about this because the show is introduced by Richard Boone, who plays Dr. Konrad Styner. (It’s Paladin, from Have Gun Will Travel. It’s freakin’ Paladin!) Now, I know that doesn’t mean much to a lot of folks these days, and frankly, it’s kind of a generational anomaly that I managed to be introduced to old Western TV shows at an early age, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Now, truth be told, it’s not like I’m a huge fan of Richard Boone, but after several hours of sitting through dry films about atomic testing and shelter construction tips, it’s just a real treat to be treated to some fiction—and seeing Richard Boone gives me a modicum of hope that this might (dare I dream?) actually be…good.

Now, the way I understand it, Medic episodes were always introduced by Dr. Styner, but didn’t always have that character in them. Fortunately, this one did.
The episode is a true “very special episode” because it was done in coordination with Civil Defense, and it really makes me wish that Civil Defense had done all their films this way.

The episode starts with an alert, which sends Dr. Styner and his nurses to take shelter in a warehouse where they have previously been designated to meet as part of a Civil Defense emergency response crew. They are met at the warehouse by an orthodontist, Dr. Dennis Gogerty (Wheaton Chambers). Sure enough, this is no drill. A red alert is sounded and Dr. Styner’s crew huddles behind some crates as an atom bomb hits the city.

“If a bomb drops they won’t waste it on a suburb…”

No time for tears as now this ragtag assortment of characters is an official Civil Defense medical team and they have to make their way as close as possible to the damage to set up a makeshift casualty center in a school in the fictional neighborhood of Morningside in this unnamed fictional city.
Dr. Gogerty is drafted into more serious surgical work stitching up wounds as Dr. Styner does what he can for the casualties that begin to pile in.

I have to admit that this show was a rare surprise. It’s a pretty gritty drama with some good acting, and I’m not just saying that because of my love of Have Gun Will Travel.

One of his first casualties is a little boy with some cuts who brings in his even littler brother who was blinded by the blast and got hit with some serious radiation. He’s a goner and you know it from the look on Dr. Styner’s face. The older brother asks if he can use a phone to call their mother, who was working downtown.
Double whammy. Sorry kid, tough day all around.

Nurse: Doctor? That little kid…is he going to be blind?
Dr. Styner: That won’t bother him for long. The amount of radiation he’s taken, he’ll be dead.
Ouch. They’re not being mealy about things in this show.

“You’re going to do a lot of things before this is over.”
I’ll bet you are.

There’s another kid who comes in. She’s hurt pretty bad.

Nurse: Aren’t you even going to give her morphine?
Dr. Styner: I haven’t got enough for the ones I can save, I can’t spare it for the hopeless cases.
Nurse: But it’s not right, it’s not human. She’s suffering. She’s in agony.
Dr. Styner: You think I don’t know it? I’m not practicing the kind of medicine you learned in nurse’s aid class. I’m not practicing the kind of medicine I learned, either. We’re out of supplies and we’re almost out of time. Our job’s to save the ones that can be saved. You call it inhuman, alright it is, but these aren’t our terms they’re the terms that were handed to us.

Alright, I’m going to admit, this piece was so gripping I watched it twice and I really want to see other episodes of the show to see if the series was as good as this episode is.
Maybe I’m beginning to feel like the characters in this episode who respond to the freeze-dried coffee they get when they finally get a minute to breathe: “Either that’s good or my critical faculties are low.”

Rioting is reported, the dentist says “Maniacs…they’re worse than the enemy.”
A radio announcement talks about the rioting and that “Looters will be shot.”
Nice to know some things don’t change. The radio announcer declares that the US has retaliated effectively. (The radio announcer, by the way, is voiced by Chet Huntley of Huntley and Brinkley fame.)

Another wave is about to hit.
Dr. Gogerty: Well here we go again. What do we do now?
Dr. Styner: We do what we can. We do what we have to.

Dr. Styner and his group are put through a helluva 24 hours for this group before they’re finally relieved by another team led by Victor Sen Yung. (aka Hop Sing from Bonanza! Did everybody in this show end up on a Western?)
They finally have a moment to deal with the death and destruction. Most of the city just went up in flames, after all.
“We can’t do anything about them. Let’s take care of the living.”

But Dr. Styner doesn’t forget to leave us with some hope.
“It’ll be better tomorrow. It’ll be a lot better tomorrow.”

I guess you can think of this show as being an exercise in serious tough love. You just got hit with an atomic bomb? Well, man up, walk it off and get to work. There’s surviving to be done. I’ll have to admit that this one show was worth the price of admission for the whole lot that I had to sit through and it left me with some degree of admiration for the thought it contained.

But then, maybe after sitting through so many shots of nuclear blasts they could have included a very special episode of Melrose Place and I would have appreciated it.

7. Military Effects Studies on Operation Castle
Armed forces Special Weapons Project
USAF Lookout Mountain Laboratory

Oh, but we’re not through with watching stuff blow up yet.
Welcome to the multi-megaton world of the hydrogen bomb. Thermonuclear destruction.
1 March 1954. They’re set to test something potentially 1,000 times as destructive as the Hiroshima bomb.

They pull out something called the Super Effects Handbook. It’s sort of like a GM’s guide to characters in a Superhero RPG, but instead, it’s just a calculation of how destructive a hydrogen bomb will be.

“Castle was a two atoll operation.”
I’ll bet it was. I must be a little punch drunk now from all the nuclear testing because that line is just hilarious to me.

Bikini Atoll and Eniwetok were used for 5 bomb tests. All Castle shots, like Ivy-Mike, were surface shots.
Multi-Megaton initial gamma doesn’t arrive until much later than in a kiloton explosion, but this is rendered academic because gamma dose doesn’t even matter in the range at which blast and heat will destroy everything.

We are again introduced to the concept of fallout which will be significant in a second or two.
Holy crap, that’s a big hydrogen bomb mushroom cloud. It’s terrifying.

And then we get to the oopsy, because Rongelap, Ailinginae, Rongerik, Utirik are shown to have (whoops) ended up in the fallout field. 229 Marshalls and 28 US servicemen were evacuated to Kwajalein because of the fallout mishap.
The film tries to downplay the results including loss of hair and lesions and burns, but the girl with the blistered arms speaks to the fact that something went very wrong here. Oops, apocalypse.
We now know that something indeed went very wrong here despite the attempts of this film to downplay the catastrophe. But nonetheless, this was a pretty big catastrophe. Sorry.
The good news is that sitting in a basement for 48 hours will allow people to sit out the worst of the dose rates. Right?

On the bright side, this is one of the better put together color films. So, there’s that.

After the accident part, the film quickly moves on to other tests.
They test saltwater spray systems for ships to wash down radiation. That’s fun.
Thermal radiation in a high yield weapon will allow just enough time to duck and cover, presuming you haven’t been vaporized.
The thermal destructive range of multi-megaton weapons is huge. 75 square miles will be destroyed in a 15MT weapon and 200 square miles will have fires and other secondary effects.
They’re also testing out the minimum safe distance for aircraft dropping bombs.
The B-36 and B-47 were tested and results were extrapolated for the B-52.
The aircraft testing is fun to learn about. Well, maybe not “fun”…

8psi will cause severe damage, 4psi is moderate. Remember that the next time you’re putting air in your car tire.
Here’s another unintentional bit of damage. Bikini base camp? Wrecked. I wonder where they’ll have the after party now.
Coconut palms are snapped by 4.25psi blast damage. The before and after pictures of the palms are devastating. (But then, really, everything related to these explosions are devastating.)

Oh, look here’s another test of sea minefield clearance using a freaking hydrogen bomb.
American Mk39 mines survive closer to the surface, the deeper you get the more likely you get of having 60% of your sea mines survive. So, in other words, even using a thermonuclear weapon will not get you clear of a naval minefield. I think we can extrapolate from this that the ideal place to live in a thermonuclear war is in a small metal ball in the sea.

The most significant thing we get out of this film is the fallout. We can finally talk about death rays and poisoning the earth with long term after effects of radiation.

8. This is Not a Test (1962)
directed by Fredric Gadette
written by Fredric Gadette, Peter Abenheim, Betty Lasky
Allied Artists Television Corporation

This is by far the strangest film in this set because of the complete nihilism of its message and the near uselessness of any of its references to civil defense measures. It’s like watching a morality play put on by people who have no moral code. That may be pushing things too far. It’s more that this film is colored by extreme pessimism.
It’s like watching 12 Angry Men if the ending consisted of the jurors stabbing each other or Lifeboat if the ending consisted of the lifeboat being eaten in its entirety by a megalodon.

Our story begins with Deputy Sheriff Dan Colter of Del Oro County, California (Seamon Glass) getting the word to set up a roadblock to keep people from going back into town during the air-raid (or air-raid drill). An old man (Thayer Roberts) and his Jane Fonda-esque nubile granddaughter Juney (Aubrey Martin) are the first to be pulled over to the side of the road by the surly cop.
Next comes the high-living drunk couple Joe and Cheryl (Mike Green and Mary Morlas) who have been having way too much fun drinking, driving, gambling and possibly even fornicating in their convertible.
Then there’s Al Weston (Alan Austin) a truck driver for Discount World who has picked up a hitchhiker in Reno (Ron Starr) with crazy eyes. (Is this a nuclear disaster movie or a murderous hitchhiker flick?)
As the cars continue to pull up to the roadblock it begins to feel like the opening of an episode of Love Boat only without the love or the boat. We are joined by Sam and Karen Barnes (Norman Winston and Carol Kent) and their little dog, Timmy. Finally we have a motorcyclist named Peter (Don Spruance) to round out the crew.
What follows is the most inept preparation for shelter against an atomic explosion you could ever imagine.
Colter is the most incompetent local official ever. In a way, he points to the potential failure of local bureaucracies to meet the pressures that would be placed on them by a real nuclear attack. Up till now every film here showed what would happen with pretty competent and relatively intelligent civil defense officials doing the best they can. Here we have the nightmare scenario of a thickheaded man with a badge following orders and not knowing enough to come up with a reasonable plan for survival.
The first sign of Colter’s incompetence is when he figures out the hitchhiker must be Clint Delany who apparently stabbed his father and is now coming back to the scene of the crime. Clint makes a break for it and escapes into the hills.
So, Colter wastes everyone’s time sending people out to look for him, which gives us a long nonsensical scene where Clint talks to Juney and also gives Karen Barnes a chance to cheat on her husband with Al the truck driver because really what else is she going to do with her time during this roadblock.
As it becomes increasingly clear that there will be a real nuclear attack the characters make more and more bizarre choices. Colter handcuffs Joe to his car for some infraction and Cheryl gets more and more drunk and invites everyone else to do the same. Al opens up the back of his truck to reveal that Discount World sells discount fur coats, caviar and champagne. A small party ensues. Then they decide that their best bet is to move the truck to the side of a mountain and take shelter in it. Have none of these people seen any of these other bomb shelter movies? Seriously? They’re worried about whether they have any chance outrunning a hydrogen bomb but they think that a container rig will save them? They’d be better off digging themselves into shallow graves and hoping to make through the blast and fallout under a foot of dirt than in the back of a truck.
Colter’s leadership is questioned and finally completely flouted by the rest of the group. Al and Karen hook up definitively. The sheriff orders the killing of Timmy the dog because it will take up too much of their oxygen with its panting. Sam, who had seen Al and Karen making out, is so depressed that he stays outside of the truck and shoots himself.
Meanwhile, Juney, he grandfather and Peter decide to head toward an abandoned mine shaft nearby where they might be able to survive. (Wouldn’t that have been the most obvious choice for everyone in the first place?) The old man decides he can’t make it all the way to the shaft so he climbs up a mountainside to at least get a good view of the impending destruction. Peter and Juney head toward the mine where it seems clear they will get a good start on trying to repopulate this part of California.
Back at the truck/shelter a group of looters arrive from town. Apparently lawlessness has already taken root in the city in the last minutes of organized civilization and they have set the town on fire. “There ain’t no law. It’s everybody for himself.”
This group of looters has decided to make a break for it, but they need gas. Colter, who is the world’s most incompetent cop, attempts to establish order, but the looters knock him out and steal his car. They also steal Karen Barnes, much to Al the truck driver’s dismay.
Of course, they don’t make it far before the missiles come in and proceed to make a mockery of everyone’s plans.
The looters (and poor Karen) will presumably die a little further up the road, Joe, Cheryl and Al will die in the truck, the Sheriff right outside the truck, and we see Clint the stabbing hitchhiker out in the weeds beyond.
You might even call this short film thought-provoking, though those thoughts will most likely center on various forms of bewilderment. What the hell was all that about?
The thing is, this is one of the more interesting films in this collection, but it’s also the most mind-boggling.
Is there a point to all this? In a time when so much else was filled with clear black and white instructional morality was this film really as morally grey as it seems to be?
I guess as ridiculous as this film is in so many ways it’s also a great starting point for discussions. Maybe more so than films with clear lines and no ambiguity.


9. Operation Cue – Revisited (1964)
The disclaimer at the top of this film tells us the original Cue featured a 30-kiloton explosion and that some modern weapons are likely to produce a 20-megaton blast.
Comparable damage at least 8 ½ to 9 miles out will do the same damage done in the 1 mile area of Cue.

The lady reporter’s voiceover is the same as before and it’s the same film as before for the most part.
There are some new voice overs that cover the multi-megaton differences from the 1955 version.
It’s interesting, though, to think that even the original Cue was already a year after Operation Castle, so what was the point of testing damage from a tiny bomb when they already knew that the dangers would be much bigger and badder?

10. Developing and Producing the B-61 Bomb
The Information Division, Albuquerque Operations, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Written and directed by George Dennis

“It is the story of a long and difficult path from a stated military need to a completed weapons system…”

This is mostly a slide show with voiceovers with few moving pictures. It’s like an infomercial you might expect to see at a convention explaining a product like a shower nozzle and you might think to skip this and move on to the next film but here are two facts that might get your interest about the B-61 Bomb:

1. The B-61 is a lightweight two-stage thermonuclear weapon with 4 delivery options.

2. The B-61 is still part of the active nuclear arms stockpile of the US.

Got that second part? The weapon we’re shown being developed and put into active duty here is still part of our nuclear armament. So, maybe you might want to buckle down and see what Uncle Sam is keeping in his holster and how he got it.
This may be the most informative film in this set.
It provides fascinating insights into the process of weapons development and procurement.

First we are introduced to the B-61’s illustrious predecessors.
The 1952 Mark 5 bomb was the first missile warhead and weighed in at 3000lbs or so.
The Mk17, retired in 1957, was the first thermonuclear weapon to be mass-produced and stockpiled and weighed in at 42,000 lbs.

We are introduced to the 7 Phases of Weapons Development

I. Concept
II. Feasability Study
III. Development Engineering
IV. Production Engineering
V. First Production
VI. Quantity Production and Stockpile
VII. Retirement

(Not mentioned here are VIa—Resistance to Change and VIII—Grief.)

The primary development was by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and the Sandia Base.
The weapons development was scattered around the country (both for safety and for political support), though the concentration in this film is on the former. We see activity at Savannah River and at Bendix in Kansas City

And finally they move the bomb by train. No, that’s not scary at all.

So, there you have it: The B-61, The Arsenal of Democracy’s Little Friend.

Bonus Features:
1. Counterspy “Statue of Death” Part 2
Just finish the story. Jeez. Two episodes of this show and I want to find the spy and the counterspy and shoot them both.