The crossroads operation of 1946 was carried out by the US government to test the effect of nuclear weapons on an open sea fleet. The plan was to carry out three tests (Able, Baker and Charlie) but the disastrous result of the first two pushed the military leaders to close the operations before expected, simultaneously marking the end of the Manhattan project. But what exactly went wrong? And what does all this have to do with spongebob?
The birth of the CrossRoads operation
Second World War. During the conflict, we all know, two nuclear bombs were detached from the United States, that is Little Boy on Hiroshima And Fat man on Nagasaki. The results were devastating … but nevertheless the United States were not yet satisfied: despite the devastation, they wanted to know more about the effects of these weapons. Their goal was to see what effects would have had a nuclear bomb on real military ships and, in particular, if a weapon of this type would have been able to break down in one shot An entire fleet Or not.
Thus took the CrossRoads operation, which would take place during the summer of 1946. As a location for these tests thebikini atalin the islands Marshall, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was an excellent area for the army, given that there was a lot of space to accommodate both military and civil personnel. Obviously this location also brought various problems with it: being in the middle of the Pacific, it was a huge logistics company to bring ships, staff and journalists there. Consider that it was necessary to get to bikini well 242 ships and overall they were involved 42 thousand people.
But it’s not over: there was also another problem. In fact, there, on those islands, people lived. Let’s talk about 162 people who were forcibly evacuated and transferred to the atoll of Rongenerik, About 250 km away, on which provisional homes were built. What nobody knew yet – but that everyone would have to wait – is that none of them would ever return to the bikini atoll again.
What the three tests provided
The army was scheduled to have three nuclear tests, each of which provided for the detonation of a bomb from 23 Konthat is, little more powerful than that of Nagasaki.
The first test, nicknamed Able, He would have replied an explosion in the air, like the one in Japan. To evaluate the effects of the bomb they would have been arranged at sea at sea 67 boatsboth in the area close to the epicenter and in more distant areas. These vehicles included both ships and submarines, and in some cases they were cruisers taken from the Nazis and Japanese at the end of the war, such as the Prinz Eugen or the Sakawa.
Various sensors would have been installed on each boat to evaluate the damage and the amount of radioactive material, as well as different types of mannequins, designed to simulate the damage on the human body. But it’s not over. Unfortunately, thousands of animals were also loaded on board, with the aim of understanding the effect of radiation also on other forms of life.
The second test, nicknamed Baker, it did not foresee an explosion in the air but underwater, just 27 meters deep. As for the previous case, boats with sensors, mannequins and animals were always ahead 95 vehicles.
The third and last test, Charlie, instead provided for a deep explosion, ad At least 300-600 meters deepreplicating the structure of the previous test.
Unfortunately, the US government would soon realize that the tests would not have gone as scheduled and the consequences would have been much worse than expected.
Able, the first test
The day of the first test arrives, Able. Is the July 1, 1946. The ships and submarines have been positioned as scheduled. On the coast, press, journalists and political personalities from every corner of the world are ready to attend the test. On the other hand, this was the first nuclear test of the story publicly announced. At a certain point, at 9:00 am, a noise: the B-29 approaches quickly to the expected point and releases the bomb from 23 kilotonsabout 160 meters above sea level. At that point, the explosion.
The roar was very powerful, but despite what we might think, the public was not particularly impressed. Perhaps because they were over 20 km away, or perhaps because the program had been advertised so much that they had raised expectations to the reverse, and therefore the reaction of the press was very lukewarm. At the time even some journalists minimized what has just been seen by writing that “The atomic bomb was, after all, only another weapon“And after this first test, about a third of the journalists present abandoned the atoll.
Among other things, later it was discovered that the bomb had been detonated in the wrong point: he had missed the goal of a few kilometers. Precisely for this reason he had only five ships sank. The first test therefore was in fact a failure, both from a military and media point of view.
But the American government had a lot of more for the press.
The Baker Test
The 25 July 1946 is chosen as the day for the second test, Baker. As anticipated, this would have foreseen a submarine explosion to approx 27 meterstherefore very superficial. At 8:35 The weapon is made to detonate, and this time the explosion was memorable. He was so violent to raise a mammoth column of water and high smoke beyond 2500 metersfollowed by a circular wave almost 30 meters high. The show was incredibly powerful, so as to overturn in a second the opinion of the press regarding the actual power of these weapons.
But what nobody knew yet, were the side effects of this test.
The side effects of the Baker Test
The explosion, as we said, he raised a quantity of disproportionate water. What is the point? That this water was highly radioactive And he poured on all the ships in the area. Also with the Able test, radioactive material was deposited, mind you, but being an aerial explosion this was in lesser quantity, since it mostly managed to disperse in the atmosphere. In this case, however, the radiation levels were such as to prevent technical staff from approaching ships for entire days. Even even after weeks, when he exercised it he began to take shifts to clean up ships and recover sensors data, it was realized that the radiation was still high.
So not only did the support ships contaminate each other, but it seems that even the soldiers themselves began to get sick and have long -term problems precisely because of the radiation. Although on this aspect it must be said that there are not many sources on the matter. However, to all this, which already caused huge delays In the program and made the interest of public opinion descend, another thing was also added, that is, that this test also did not gave the desired results: of all the ships present they sinked only 9.
Even the Baker test, therefore, was a failure. Indeed, it was the drop that made the vase overflow: the military leaders were in fact pushed to close the crossroads operation once and for all and never play Charlie, the third test of the series. In another context, this news would not have made so much sensation, but the choice to invite the press gave a media echo quite relevant to the event, which even after its closure was at the center of numerous criticisms, both for its costs and for ethical issues. There forced dislocation Of the inhabitants, for example, it was a topic of debate in the years to come, above all because that site was used in the decades after other tests, preventing all these people from returning to their land.
Another hot topic was that of animals. Because as I said on board there were animals such as dogs, sheep, cats, pigs, mice and many others. A total of 3352. 10% of these died just after the initial blast of the two tests. Another 25% instead died in the following weeks due to radiation poisoning or after the suppression by the veterinary staff. Out of 3352 animals, therefore, well 1173 they lost their lives.
The link between the tests and Spongebob
Spongebob It is set in a fictitious city called BECCOM Bikini, And according to someone this would not only be a reference tobikini atalbut it would have been the radiation of the nuclear tests that made the animals protagonist of the series change, giving him the ability to speak. In reality, the authors for decades have denied this connection, but a December 2024 In an interview they confirmed that yes, the inspiration for the series is linked to both the nuclear tests of the Crossorads operation and to all those that the American government has done here in the following years.
