National Association of Atomic Veterans

Portland Area Atomic Veterans

Operation Crossroads


Carrier Sails To Record Atom Test In Pictures

From The Tribune-Sun
San Diego, Calif.
Friday, June 21, 1946

The escort carrier Saidor, fitted as a floating photographic laboratory, sailed from North Island for Pearl Harbor yesterday afternoon on the first leg of a trip to Bilini atoll, where the baby flattop will participate in the atomic bomb test.

Navy photographers on the Saidor will record effects of the blast on a target fleet anchored in Bikini lagoon, and helicopters flying from the carrier will deliver the first prints to Vice Adm. W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Operation Crossroads, aboard his flagship, the Mt. McKinley

The Saidor will be joined later bythe carrier Shangri-La, which is based here as the flagship of Rear Adm. Cliftom A. F. Sprague, commander of the navy air group participating in Joint Task Force 1.

The Shangri-La will conduct an off-shore cruise tommorrow to demonstrate for a party of reporters, radio men and newsreel photographers the manner in which drone Hellcat fighters will be launched from the carrier and guided by radio through the column of smoke and gases above the atomic bomb blast.

Visiting newsmen arriving here yesterday to witness the demonstration included William L. Lawrence, of the New York Times, to whom a Pulitzer prize was awarded Monday for his series of 1945 articles on development of the atomic bomb. Lawrence observed the bombing of Nagasaki.


Operation Crossroads


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