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Operation Crossroads July 1, 1946 The ships returned to Bikini earlier than expected. We came into the lagoon about 7 o'clock this evening. It was twilight and difficult to make out the target fleet too well. The Saratoga looked pretty good--seemed to be smoking a bit though. The Nevada had her orange paint blackened, it appeared, but didn't show much damage otherwise from a distance of half a mile. The Jap battleship Nagato (the one I "helped capture" in Yokosuka) was smoking a lot. A ship--a destroyer, I believe--behind the Nevada was capsized. I saw one or two dark spots that might have been superstructures of sunken vessells--but I couldn't see plain enough to make sure. A converted carrier and some other ship had their superstructures blown off. Several other ships, which ones I couldn't distinguish, had masts broken or had a list, or other minor damage. We'll probably be able to see better tomorrow--even though we're anchored further from the target fleet than before. The island looks OK from here--but we're sending a damage repair party over tomorrow morning so the installations must have been banged up a bit. Liberty tomorrow afternoon--but my section doesn't rate it for several days yet.
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