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SAMPLE TEXT FROM VOLUME III OF THE SWORDS OF ARMAGEDDON
Operation GREENHOUSE
Operation GREENHOUSE was the first Pacific Proving Ground weapons test series to feature thermonuclear experiments. (1) GREENHOUSE was the fourth series of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. following World War II.
Operation CROSSROADS, in 1946, was the first test series, consisting of an air and underwater detonation at Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands using an array of target ships. CROSSROADS was the first large-scale weapons effects test, and did not include explosions of new weapons types; the two CROSSROADS bombs were drawn from the U.S. nuclear stockpile, which in 1946 consisted of only nine implosion-type cores. (2)
Operation SANDSTONE in 1948 included three tower-mounted devices detonated at
Eniwetok atoll; these shots tested levitated composite cores for the new MK 4
weapon. The third atmospheric test series, Operation RANGER, featured five
airdropped device detonations in January and February 1951 at the
newly-established Las Vegas Proving Ground (later the Nevada Proving Ground and
still later the Nevada Test Site) north of Las Vegas, Nevada. (3)
The two initial U.S. nuclear test sites were chosen mainly for their isolation and remoteness from inhabited areas. The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is in the middle of what was then the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, an Air Force training and practice site. The terrain of the NTS is typical of south-central Nevada, featuring ranges of hills and mountain peaks, and high desert valleys that drain into dry lake beds. The altitude of the NTS varies from 3,075 to 4,050 feet above sea level. (4)
The Nevada site, an empty desert, was already owned by the U.S. government
and was adjacent to an existing Air Force training field, Indian Springs Air
Force Base, which could be expanded to fulfill AEC requirements. The base
included an airstrip long enough for takeoffs and landings of medium-sized
aircraft
Weather was also mild year-round, and the only limitation on atmospheric tests was local weather, shot yield, and wind direction. The predominat wind direction was from the southwest, which usually carried low-level fallout to the uninhabited desert northeast of the test site.
There was also adequate water available, and the site was conveniently located for both the Los Alamos and Livermore labs. The site was also bounded naturally by mountains with no roads or trails allowing easy access. The only nearby major road was Highway 95, seven miles south of the site. (5) The Nevada site also offered extensive land area for test effects measurement, an advantage sorely lacking in the Pacific.
Far to the west, the Pacific Proving Ground (6) comprised the enclosed lagoon and land areas of Eniwetok and Bikini atolls, and the open ocean within three miles of the two atolls. Bikini and Eniwetok atolls in the Marshall Islands were selected as test sites primarily for their proximity to a major military airbase on Kwajalein atoll, and for their remoteness from shipping lanes, airways, and fishing grounds, although itinerant Japanese fishing vessels venturing close to or downwind from the atolls would be the bane of the AEC for many years to come.
The two atolls were an excellent location that would be available for an indefinite period, in a secure area. The atolls were within 300 miles of Kwajalein, site of a major U.S. military airbase and ship anchorage, and within 2,500 miles of both Guam in the Mariana Islands and Oahu in the Hawaiian chain. Eniwetok atoll encircled a fine deepwater lagoon suitable for anchoring large vessels.
Eniwetok was also eminently appropriate for its relatively isolated location
with an empty ocean area downwind, its small native population that would have
to be relocated, the low likelihood of contaminating neighboring atolls, ease of
logistic support, and favorable year-round climatic conditions. (7)
Temperatures at Eniwetok generally range between 67o and 97o
Fahrenheit.
Figure III-1 shows the major islands of Eniwetok atoll, with the code names assigned to them by the AEC. For the most part, the islands on the northern half of the atoll were given women's names, while those on the southern part of the atoll were named after men.
The names of the northern "feminine" islands were sequenced alphabetically in a clockwise order from the northwest corner of the atoll to the middle of the eastern side. The southern "masculine" islands names were sequenced alphabetically clockwise from the middle eastern side of the atoll to the southwestern corner.
The atolls were out of the way of most western Pacific typhoons, and the prevailing northeastern winds would not subject nearby inhabited islands to deposition of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. (8)
The atolls are about 5,000 statute miles from the U.S. west coast, and 2,700 statute miles southwesterly from the Hawaiian islands. (9)
The Marshall Islands archipelago comprise 34 low-lying atolls and single islands scattered over 500,000 square miles in the southwestern central Pacific. The atolls are arranged roughly in two parallel rows running from the northwest to the southeast.
The westernmost chain is called the Ralik (Sunset) Chain, and Eniwetok is the most northerly of the Ralik Chain atolls. Bikini, in turn, is the northernmost atoll in the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain, the eastern atoll group. There are nearly 1,225 individual islands and islets in the Marshalls, comprising a total of only 70 square miles. Twenty-five of the 34 atolls are inhabited.
Eniwetok is located at latitude 11o21' N and longitude 162o20' E; Bikini lies
165 miles almost directly to the east, at latitude 11o35'N and longitude
165o20'E. About 47 small islands comprise Eniwetok atoll, which is about 20
miles wide and 30 miles long. The chain of coral islands ringing the 388 square
mile lagoon are broken in two locations by deepwater passages from the
surrounding ocean into the lagoon. The total land area of all the Eniwetok
islets was originally only about two and a half square miles. The average depth
of the enclosed lagoon is about 160 feet, and the highest point of land is only
13 feet above sea level.
The largest island at Eniwetok is only 2 1/2 miles long and 1,500 feet wide.
Eniwetok island, at the southeastern edge of the lagoon, had been the location
of a World War II U.S. bomber base. About 22 miles to the north, at the northern
edge of Eniwetok lagoon, lies Engebi island, about 4,500 feet long; Engebi
featured a 2,475-foot airstrip first occupied by Japanese and later by U.S.
forces. Directly northeast of Eniwetok island is Parry island; during World War
II, Parry island had been the site of U.S. naval seaplane and supply bases. (10)
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Much of the following GREENHOUSE history,
except where noted, is drawn from OPERATION GREENHOUSE 1951, DNA 6034F, prepared
by the Defense Nuclear Agency, Washington, D. C., June 1983.
(2) "U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, 1945 to 1950," David Alan Rosenberg, BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTIST, Vol. 38 No. 5, May 1982, pp. 25-30. Two very good accounts of Operation CROSSROADS are OPERATION CROSSROADS: THE ATOMIC TESTS AT BIKINI, Jonathan M. Weisgall, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 199, and NO PLACE TO HIDE, David Bradley, originally published in 1948 by Little Brown & Company, New York, and reissued in 1983 as NO PLACE TO HIDE, 1946/84 by the University Press of New England, Hanover, Connecticut. The latter edition includes photoillustrations and a new foreword.
(3) The name "Nevada Proving Ground" had
been changed to "Nevada Test Site" by November 1956 (memorandum dated
November 23, 1956 to Brig. General Alfred Starbird, USA, Director of Military
Application, USAEC, from K. F. Hertford, Manager, Albuquerque Operations, USAEC,
subject: Standard Operating Procedures for Exercise Desert Rock VII). Both
Nevada site names are used interchangeably.
(4) "Background Information On Nevada
Nuclear Tests," Office of Test Information, Nevada Test Organization, Las
Vegas, Nevada, May 1, 1957, p. 28.
(5) LASL J Division memorandum LAS-J-1609 dated November 22, 1950 entitled :Desirability of an Area in the Las Vegas Bombing Range to be Used as a Continental Proving Ground for Atomic Weapons."
(6) The Pacific Proving Ground, or PPG, was also known collouquially as the "picnic grounds." (Anders, FORGING THE ATOMIC SHIELD, P. 257.)
(7) Memorandum for the Record dated November 24, 1947 by Capt. J.S. Russell, USN, subject: Conference with Secretary of State, 1000, November 20, 1947.
(8) Analysis of Sites," Enclosure "D" to JCS SM 1908 - Report by JPTC, October 18, 1947.
(9) Report of the Field Manager, Eniwetok Field Office, to the Manager, Sante Fe Operations, SEC, July 1, 1950 to July 1, 1953., p. 2.
(10) OPERATION SANDSTONE, NUCLEAR EXPOSIONS 1948, Atomic Weapons Tests, Operation SANDSTONE, 1948, Annex I Part II, Volume I, Report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Section VIe, P. 2; "Anatomy of Eniwetok," Capt. Gilbert M. Billings, USAF, Historian, Task Group 7.1, JTF 7, April 1958.
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