Bikini's Final Scene—Crossroads Able nuclear test target fleet newsmap—June 1946
£115
SKU: P-7-028486
'Bikini's Final Scene: Experts Primed to Unmask Force of Atom Fury—This diagram of the Navy's fleet at Bikini Atoll…— The Christian Science Monitor, June 28, 1946'
Three days before the first post-war atomic test, the Christian Science Monitor published this dramatic pictorial map of the target fleet in Bikini lagoon, drawn by its chief cartographer, Russell H. Lenz. Ship silhouettes surround USS Nevada with Nagato, Prinz Eugen, Saratoga and other warships assembled for Operation Crossroads. The accompanying articles describe the scientific preparations, observers and cameras assembled to record the dawn of atomic naval warfare. Painted bright orange as the intended bull’s-eye, Nevada was already a remarkable survivor: a First World War veteran, she had been bombed and torpedoed at Pearl Harbour, salvaged and rebuilt, then bombarded German positions during the D-Day landings in Normandy. She subsequently fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. On 1 July 1946 the atomic bomb missed its aiming point, but Nevada endured the blast and survived the underwater Baker test later that month, damaged and radioactive but still afloat. Even subsequent target practice with 16-inch battleship guns failed to sink her; torpedoes finally sent her to the bottom off Hawaii on 31 July 1948.
Size 56 x 41 cm | 22.0 x 16.0 inches
Date Published: 28th June 1946
Type: Vintage newspaper broadsheet single page; rotary letterpress probable
Author: Lenz, Russell H.
Publication: Christian Science Monitor
Condition: Good |
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