Operation Wigwam - Underwater Nuclear Test Film (1955)
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy
0800018 - Operation Wigwam, Commander's Report - 1955 - 35:45 - Color - The U.S. Navy, envisioning a war in which atomic depth charges would be used, wanted to learn how much of a nuclear blast a well-built submarine could take. The submarine Skate had not withstood the BAKER explosion of Operation Crossroads.
At a location listed as "N 29 degrees, W 126 degrees," about 500 miles southwest of San Diego, a deep underwater, weapons effects nuclear test, WIGWAM, rumbled through the ocean. A model submarine experiment submerged beneath a floating barge vanished after the 30-kiloton burst of power from Operation Wigwam on May 14, 1955.
A combination of high winds and rough seas prevented recovery of much of the test data. Approximately 6,500 personnel took part in this operation.
B-7 (Mk-90) Betty
I was a member of the crew on the Fort Marion, LSD-22. When the shock wave hit it knocked the fire out in one of the boilers and tripped the Ships Service Turbine Generator (SSTG). I remember seeing a fast moving white light and then had to go down to the engineering space and help put the generator back on line. I am now 87 years old and lost a kidney due to cancer.
Thanks for sharing. one question: Do you consider that the cancer is related to the Wigwam op ?
I would love to write a screenplay based on it
YES , this was the test 500 miles from San Diego .
I was a member of the crew of USS Hitchiti ATF 103 ; The Fleet Tug towing the test array .
We were probably the closest manned ship to the blast . The ship rattled like an old farm wagon on a cobblestone street as the shock reached us. We appreciated that 1/2 " & 3/4 " steel in her hull !!!
I have my certificate of participation in that mission.
i believe you,,,,only some one that was there, would be so happy sounding about this...lol. oh wait..i meant to say your full of shit. unless your like 85 years old. i dont see alot of 85 year olds commenting on youtube.
What did it sound like?
@obrbob194 right? Lol.
Well, I just googled uss Hitchiti and it appears its real, and hes telling the truth.
@@autopartsmonkey7992 Google it....check before calling someone a liar.
My Father Louis D Gutierrez was the Navy’s Medical Diver assigned to this operation and set a Navy Deep Diving record of 465 ft in a hard hat dive, he also took a picture of the explosion and I have the original photo in my family records of his military career. My dad spoke of this operation on occasion and told me about what happened the day of the detonation and how he happened to take a picture of the explosion, unauthorized of course.
Interesting!! 😮 what does it look like??
My father was aboard the USS Morgan County (LST-1048) that day in 1955 - told me he was given the option to watch the detonation. He chose to watch.
Question….do you have all fingers and toes and/or do you have webbed feet?
Was he given eye protection (gear/glasses)?? 😮😢
@@marstuv5068 I asked him the same thing, but I don't remember his answer. I do remember him saying he wore a film badge radiation dosimeter and he had to turn it in. They are used today by people who work around sources of radiation to measure their exposure. I saw one of his nurses wearing a modern dosimeter giving him a test on his heart. The test went well for him. 🙂👍
What was the purpose of this test? I’m so curious about the results and what impacts left deep in the ocean…like dolphins or whales reacted
@@marstuv5068 He was given goggles & a 1950s dosimeter. A nurse wore a dosimeter for a nuclear stress test on my father's heart in 2020. 😑
My Dad was on the Tawasa , battled cancer for 40 years .
At 28:38 "Not one dead or stunned fish or mammal was observed..." Yeah, right!
Probably cuz they were vaporized. Or more seriously, nobody bothered to look for them.
Thinking about it I shudder.
Not one dead or stunned Russian either.....what a waste!
how do you observe a shredded / compacted / disintegrated / vaporized animal?
@@hillaryclinton2415 in a particle accelerator.
Narrator also sounds underwater :D thanks for uploading. A really interesting document of history.
Useful information next time my sub is near a nuclear device.
I've watched this video since I was a kid in middle school. Never have I seen the end. The after effects.
United States Department of Energy, Albuquerque Office. Isn't that where Wile E Coyote orders his rocket rolle-skates from ?
super genius .
I do believe that is correct.....coincidence ?
Wile coyote orders his from ACME.
I believe that Albuquerque is where Bugs Bunny made a wrong turn and ended up Elmer Fudd's hunting prize.
And where Bugs was looking for his Left turn....
Thank you Mike Wallace y Castle Films. Where would be without both of you?
You're kidding. What a comic!
With the kind of thinking this video portrays it's amazing we're still here.
They nuked everything back then. They seriously wanted the first probe to the moon to nuke it. Umpteen hundred shots at the Nevada test site, evict pacific islanders and nuke their islands. The Russians were as bad. They nuked the Arctic.
@@SvenTviking
Yer sir, it's hard to find constructive uses for nuclear bombs..Detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon is a bad idea and a poor way of making friends.
ABSOLUTE MADNESS
My Father was on the ship going threw this test.... Lonnie L. Carpenter... United States Navy,,,
Then my uncle Al knew him, he was there too.
@@doxiemom95 My dad was there, trying to get a copy of this video for him . He never knew it existed. Also he said he never saw any dead fish from the blast.
Can you imagine being the sealife in that area ? Considering that shock waves are 7 times more efficient in water than through air..... not to mention the radioactive pollution !
Yeah, its messed up, destroying the oceans like that
Yeah..... it's only the ocean. It's not as if we get any sustenance from there.
National defense requires being anti-environment, fuck the environment.
why would i need to imagine?
To have a little sympathy for the poor sea creatures !
Interesting watching these old nuke tests.
The sheer amount of money this all costs for one test is simply breathtaking.
My husband Russell G Thompson was a participant of this Operation Wigwam 1955. He been in service in US Navy 1952 until 1958 Reserve until 1962. He was a Radio Transmitter. I am proud of him.
Atomic Depth Charge participant Russell G Thompson, my husband , I loved his story about this he is now 87 years old.
@@victoriathompson5809God Bless you, Both ❤
the guy is talking thru a desk fan...
hhahaha thanks
kev googlestein ... yeah, 🥰🥰
Or thru a mouthful of Atomic Ballsakk Nucular Dikkslop lol
That is radiation sicKness.
He died, peacefully screaming, soon after this recording.
whoever laced the projector up screwed up lacing round the sound head too much tension from the intermittent prob too small a bottom loop
Lol i flicked off the tab at the end with the video still playing and let me tell you when the rewind on the tape kicked in i got a hell of a fright. Very nice video man, shame there wasn't any footage from inside the Squaw's, I think i seen a brief clip once but thats all. Thanks for posting
johnkollor The USS Blue and 9Other destroyers where there and stayed to clean up after the. Test .We drank and bathed in the water from the test. Lost teeth had cancer. Not fun.E.M.
@@emo8377Good Lord!! 😮😢
I would like to know what urgent "Answers" detonating a nuclear weapon a third of a mile underwater provided?
How many fish can we kill in one go.
@Pastor Paul D It kept peace on earth!!!!!! are you mental?
We live in the most peaceful time in human history, believe it or not. That is a statistical fact.
JJ Thomas Russia! How to stop Russia! That was extremely urgent during the Cold War. How old are you?
How close do you have to get to nuke a sub?
This test hopefully woke the military up to the simple fact that nuclear weapons are better used against large immoveable target like cities or fleets of ships, rather than tiny individual targets like submarines. This was the 1950s when the 'unlimited' power of nuclear fission was being considered for a huge array of applications (want to make a new harbor? Just set off a couple of underground nukes to create craters the size of the harbor you want. Radiation? Everything will be fine, don't worry about it!)
Remember when you were a little boy and you enjoyed blowing stuff with firecrackers or whatever was handy? This is the same thing.
or when you were a fat man?
Sorry don't agree with the at all fire crackers and nukes are you watching what I am,, get a grip,, must be some, u. S.. In you,,,, your wrong
Not that same thing . I have never CONTAMINATED sea water or killed if you believe just one fish . What a load of BS . THE AREA USED WAS A DEAD AREA IF YOU BELIEVE THAT . THIS TEST WAS NEVER MEANT FOR SUB TESTING ,THIS WAS THE NUMBER ONE EXCUSE. I WAS HAPPY TO SEE YOUR RESPONSE AND TRUTH . THE LACK OF TRUTH IN THIS CARTOON IS JUST WHAT THEY STILL DO TO THIS DAY .
@@tonyrosa4750 calm down lmao
Mythbusters in 1955.
My father was also there, and sadly he died from the effects of that test..
Sorry to hear that 😢
How exactly? Geting a serious dose of radiation from a very deep sea shot while being onboard a ship doesn't seem likely.
can whales go deaf? I'd imagine they would be able to hear the blast worldwide, and more than few must have went belly up (or sank)
I must say it never crossed my mind poor whales,, us humans hurting our own with no regard or regards for the effects,, on us and the rest of the world,, humans should only push science and other fields in a way of helping people out not blowing them up,, ah that looks cool,,, I sometimes wonder,,,
Ask your girlfriend?
@@danielrodriguez248,,,,, you ask yours,, or are you still. Young and haven't a clue how the real world works,, some advice,, go back to planet no brain,, only some one would use there so called girlfriend as an excuse,, South America,, Haa,,,, get a grip,, and that doesn't go for everyone in South America,, just you
@@danielrodriguez248 you must be very insecure,,,
@@danielrodriguez248 I know it's hard for you to expect that Irish men,, can fuck better than you,, ill take your girl friend away,, haaaa
Did I hear him say no fish or mammal was stunned by this test. If they were vaporized they surely wouldn't be stunned.
I can't help but wonder how the marine food chain was. All that radioactive biomass from contaminated sea life would have ended up in seafood sooner or later.
I saw the original footage on projection, and I can say they cut out some stuff on this UA-cam, makes me sad
like footage from inside the closest squaw as it got crushed
Absolute blast of a video history 👍🏼
So cool love this video the blast looks super cool I'm so lucky to watch this video
Crazy stuff for sure.
1:33 "...lowered two thousand feet below the surface of the sea, in very deep water." Thank goodness for that. I'd hate to think what would happen if it was two thousand feet below the surface of the sea in shallow water!
you have to remember the audience for these vids. people from 1955 ,,most with barely any education.
They had already done that....
Because if it was only 2000feet deep the explosion would stir up the sea floor. Since it was 16000 feet deep it didnt do that.
What's flying up at 22:40? Did one of the firecrackers fail? Maybe it's just a fish.
I'm glad someone else noticed this.. I figure it was another manhole being ejected into solar orbit
I don’t know what you mean. He said no fish were harmed during this plume test in the marine desert (cuts to miles-wide water explosion happening). No fish hurt. This was likely an anomaly or fold in the filmstrip. Maybe a smudge on the lens cap.
@@towedarray7217 technically, if you die instantly you aren't hurt.
This was real I was on the good ship USS wright cvl 49
Bob Halfhill i bet you have a lot of great stories to tell
+Bob Halfhill What has been good about that ship?
Safe As You Can Bob
My dad was on the USS Wright
I think that’s the one my dad was on too, one of those out there!
22:42
What is the black object hurling straight into the sky? Is this another man hole cannon experiment? Am I the first to observe this!?
John Balusek it was the hoff rescuing spongebob an patrick star from the shockwave
A minute in and I’m thinking the narrator is underwater.
My respects, this might have been smth special to have memories
for the rest of life.
USS BAROKO was there! Remember all who are veterans of these tests
Subscribed.
Thank You Uploader.
Best way to cook radioactive fishes.
My husband Russell G Thompson was exposed on this Atomic bomb test. According to him "Sweetheart all you can see are all white in the water ocean"., I am proud if you Darling. You are a legend."
How many fishies floated to the top?
None.
Another near miss on Godzilla!
They're getting him one day
☆ This was the Mating Call and Aphrodisiac for the later Movie.
Not your fault, but this video needs audio remastering. Great video! Thank you!
Love how he threw in a "beautiful echo" to counter any negative psychological reactions to everything being blown to hell. Probably over a million dead animals and another 5 million with permanent disabilities.
And destoyed eco system
National defense requires being anti-environment, fuck the environment.
@@danielrodriguez248 yeah, like some 65ish years ago... well shed tears.
"Biological desert"..... in the ocean?
yes,,,,,try google ...its easy to use. and then you dont sound like a dumbass
Their are areas of the ocean depleted of minerals (principally iron and magnesium) to the point photosynthetic life is not possible. No photosynthesis - no predatory life.
That was not and is not a biological desert but did not get that from my Dad who was stationed in San Diego. I asked a Scripps research scientist many years later who taught one of those night classes offered to the public and he just smiled and told me that it certainly was deep but never was dead.
Too bad this presentation didn't include the onboard footage of one of the squaw's cameras showing the moment of detonation as the squaw shook and the moment the hull catastrophically ruptured.
I've seen some of that video. I was impressed with the effect of the interior paint instantly flying off the steel bulkheads into a fog of dust.
Yea, from where I saw it, the film wasn't edited by the Atomic commision or whatever the DOE equivalent is.
I do suspect that the volume of water affected contained large numbers of complex (i.e.: macroscopic) living creatures, all of whom were destroyed. The overall effects on ships and crew were well modeled in advance using data from previous tests. Environmental impact studies, on the other hand, were not even considered in those days. Long term affects on the biosphere were-and still are-not well understood.
@David You might not've noticed, but it's easy to ignore truths with eyes closed. However, huge effects from our nuclear test programs have been recognized in increase of cancers of all types. Some test areas are still off limits due to radiation hazard and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Further, nuclear testing was a terrible idea, then and now. In fact, the concept of Nuclear Deterrent threatens the very people it is supposed to protect with potential disaster, not all of it realated to weapons exchange. As an example, any missile that fails for any reason spews deadly poison (yes-Uranides are all intensely toxic in small concentrations) all over the very people it's supposed to protect. And, as always, no sanely planned project should result in "no go" zones where the waste from time expired materials has to be isolated for 50,000 years. And thank you very much for your comment. You validate me with your attention. As I do for you.
@@WildBillCox13 Nuclear deterrence works by threatening the very people who would use nuclear weapons. Conventional weapons do not - hence we have conventional wars that kill thousands every year.
@@allangibson8494(Unfortunately) True😢
Curious about radiation results
I've seen some of this video with more info. Confidential I believe. The ultimate result of these tests was the SUBROC. I don't recall the yield, but it was a rocket propelled depth charge. Supposedly the attacking boat had a 50/50 chance of survival if used. But that of course may have just been sea stories.Don't know too many hard facts. What I do know for sure I can't say here naturally. Anyway, these were taken off all boats in the 80's thanks to Reagan and Gorbechov. SALT treaties.
The SUBROC is reported to have a yield of 5 kilotons.
Someone needs to rebalance the sound wheel.
Joe Williston or replace the bearings on the impedance drum in the soundhead!
i think this was the test conducted 500 miles off the coast of san diego
It provided us with answers
Ya answers on how to kill our planet!
The Big Kaboom is at 21:37 but the whole vid is cool.
I am aware that the environmental issues like bikini atoll where unknown at the time still my humble opinion goes along the lines of Einstien's comment that he had unknowingly become a destroyer of worlds
@Literally Shaking I stand corrected thank you
@Don Casio my mistake
Correction…that was Oppenheimer that supposedly said that…but if you watch the video dedicated to him he did not actually say this at all
At the end: Good ol' Betacam! ;-)
All fish in the area were asked to leave before big boom.
Looking for a copy of this video for my father who was part of this operation. Anyone have any information?? Would be nice for father's day. Thanks
Wonder what happened to all the sea species in the diameter of influence.
I can probably guess
1200 + nuclear tests have been performed by the USA since Hiroshima. Sure hope it’s enough.
All within the 50s-60s before ending before the 80s
Mostly us...but the world...has tested 1250 nuclear weapons.........
I didn't actually think I needed to note that I was being sarcastic.....
Obsidian1985 ☆ You can never underestimate the Power of the Dork Side!
2 Whales near Crete
"Ralph, did you hear that?"
"Bob, I may not hear again. Damn humons"
Franklin E. Halász az meg ki volt ?
You got to love 1950's politically incorrect language ( Squaws ) name used for the unmanned submarines!
People (yes , white folks also) had thicker hides up until recently.
Sensitive much?
Wasn’t squaw, the shortened form of Squalus? A shark embryo that is contained within a shell like structure.
Probably not though with a name like wigwam!
Yea back when people weren't pussies
I missed basic info... how many KT it was ??? 15KT as Hiroshima? more, less???
30 kt.
They could have just googled it...
Lol
lmgtfy.com/
*I wonder how many fish were instantly killed and what it did to the sea life from the radiation* ?
love the secret message in the ending
They let it hit the rewind trigger :)
Wiggy!
And the model targets only cost as much as fielding a Fleet Submarine did.
I wonder what the builders were told that the submarine targets were built for
"not one fish was found dead or stunned..." That's because they were evaporated, or sunken to the bottom. Then there's also the possibility that you just didn't want to find them, because it'd screw up your narrative.
I think we agree. I'm just off by a few years. Anyway, I never had to deal with them.
What an power. And this wasnt even Hydrogen.
How much our thinking has changed for the better. An undersea desert ...
What do you think people mony well spent
poor spongebob!
Bottom line: unless you know there is a concentration of submarines in an area, nuclear weapons are a really wasteful way to fight them.
@Don Casio the Russians intended to use nuclear torpedoes with a 10km range to go after aircraft carrier groups not submarines. A detonation at 10ft below the surface of a megaton class torpedo would take out a carrier easily - or a city. One was almost used during the Cuban missile crisis off Miami.
@@allangibson8494😮😢
Agreed. It was not as bad as a surface blast like Bravo.
20 lbs of left over from a plutonium core is still a lot of material ...cesium and strontium byproducts last a lot longer than a month, and any unfissioned plutonium from the core is even worse. You must realize...that just in one detonation like this, more plutonium was released into into the ocean than has been around for the last billion years. Life on evolved in the absence of such unstable primal elements and their isotopes.
One microgram of Plutonium dust lodged in a lung will cause cancer, and kill the person or animal. In theory, 20 lb (9.08 kg) of Plutonium dust could kill 9 billion people and animals. When they've died, and maybe cremated, the Plutonium will still be around, ready to kill again. Plutonium 239 has a half life of 24,000 years, meaning that 10 pounds of it will still be here in 24,000 years' time. Now, how many other bombs released Plutonium into the sea and air? How much of it is now in our food chain? Sea water circulates right around the planet, so that sea water is no longer at the site; it is spread over many thousands of miles.
@@RWBHereDamn!!! 😮😢
FIlmed in Scrubbing Bubble sound.
This is so upsetting to watch. To think we actually did this to the Earth's Oceans and thought it was Ok. Human's are insane and warped!
National defense requires being anti-environment, fuck the environment.
Narrator at the bottom of a glass of water with sponge bob
I WAS ON THE MC MCKINLEY AND WE HAD SOME DAMAGE AND I WAS REALLY SCARED.
Thank you for your service :-)
"The two LSDs that served as a haven in heavy weather"
+David Vermillion It ought that's what he said. Should have been LST's I think. :)
Howard Price I know right? XD
+Howard Price You are right. But where can we find the LSD.lol
Landing Ship Dock - designed to transport landing craft. These days they generally have a helicopter carrier deck.
@@michaelwaddell8247 I was on the LSD-22 during the blast.
Must have been a trip on the 2 ships LSD !!!
I was on the LSD-22 Fort Marion during the test. It was an experience I will never forget.
Rather boring; in hindsight, it's easy to see why Operation Wigwam was conducted, but the supposed imperative of learning the kill radius for using nuclear weapons against submarines wasn't.
Audio so crappy it sounds like the narrator is talking under water.
sounds like the guy is underwater...
It sounds like he talking through a fan.....
Navy intercepted UFOs in that area in 2004, UFOs that are interested in everything nuclear. See Nimitz ufo video it's here on UA-cam.
Why nuclear? This should be way below their technology... Think.
@@funkworthrollin4959 Maybe a nuke could overcome the shielding inherent with their propulsion system. Maybe lots of nukes could make the planet not worth having. These are just speculations of course.
@ . Yea. Cause ALIENS can fly threw space.Their interested in our tech. Sorry. Bro.
"Interested in everything nuclear." Peace.
@@funkworthrollin4959 yes, but there's no way they are interested in "everything nuclear" as if they don't have that tech. I'm not saying that. Of course they do,, my point is they view it as some degree of threat to them,, and/or to us. They don't need the tech, but blowing one off in the vicinity of their craft might just trash it. A nuke war would make the planet much less of a prize for them,, and us.
VOLUME
a navy test named "wigwam"?
i wouldnt want to be on the destroyer rolling these off her fantail.
several Bowheads still have a headache from this one...
ONLY 1 FISH WAS HARMED. Wow thats pretty dam good.
2 of the 3 characteristics of a psychopath in the making is setting things on fire and killing animals. The 3rd one is bed-wetting. just saying
nuke go's off and 1 fish died ummmmmm
Sounds like something Elizebeth Warren would to be involved with.
After the tests Navy cooks served pow -wow chow.
The subs never sunk, and the sea was covered in dead sea life lmao