Chronicling Crossroads

mericans could appear brash and The fact that the Soviet Union had at Atom bomb No. 4, nicknamed Gilda, maybe occasionally juvenile to least nominally been a US ally during the would alter the seascape of Bikini Atoll the Allies during World War II. war could not defl ect a growing postwar in a peacetime 1946 test that promised Yet the vigor with which the US concern that the Soviets wanted expansion closer scientifi c scrutiny than had been prosecuted that war to victory, of their sphere of infl uence and would use possible with the previous missions. Gilda punctuatedA by two atom bomb drops military means to achieve this. It has been also offered the opportunity for suffi cient that astonished even Americans who suggested the two atomic attacks on Japan media coverage to ensure that the world had closely followed the war, produced in August 1945 had a pointed secondary understood the portent of the weapon only a postwar atmosphere that was at once goal of impressing the Soviets, who de- the United States had—at the time. heady and sobering. clared war on Japan only in the closing Gilda would plunge toward Bikini It would be decades before pundits be- spasms of the Japanese empire. Atoll’s lagoon on Able Day, as part of gan calling the 20th century the American When Japan surrendered uncondition- Operation Crossroads. The United States Century. Nonetheless, in 1946 the United ally at the end of World War II, only three put great thought and planning into the States was the world’s sole nuclear power, atomic bombs had exploded. The original photographic coverage of Operation Cross- and unlike most combatants it had emerged test device near Alamogordo, N.M., fol- roads and recruited cinematographers and from the war with its industry and infra- lowed by two combat drops over Hiroshima still photographers with impressive and structure largely intact. and Nagasaki. colorful résumés. Crossroads proved to be 58 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 Photo from Library of Congress

Chronicling Crossroads By Frederick A. Johnsen

Photo and fi lm adventurers of the day recorded the Bikini Atoll atomic tests.

The Baker explosion, shown here, was the fi rst un- derwater nuclear detonation. The bomb was placed deep beneath the surface of the Bikini Atoll lagoon, suspended from a mechanized landing craft.

the next great adventure for many whose At Roswell, the organization that would offi cial funds. The books enjoyed greater lives had slipped back into a peacetime document Operation Crossroads coalesced or lesser degrees of offi cial sanction. routine less demanding than the recently as Air Photo Unit 1.52 (Provisional). The volumes answered a basic human concluded world war. In 1946, people could not pull a smart- desire for photos to say, “I was there.” The phone from a cargo pants pocket and photo operations offi cer for Crossroads’ TIME-HONORED TRADITION show hundreds of images of the shared air photo unit was Lt. Col. Richard J. Operation Crossroads was a joint Navy- event, even if they had been allowed to Cunningham, whose brief biography in Army effort; the Army Air Forces was photograph the scene—which most were the Army Air Forces Operation Crossroads still part of the Army in 1946. While not. A tradition, an expectation, grew. That book says tersely: “Film editor in movie other aspects of the military were winding expectation was the creation of a yearbook- industry before war.” down in the postwar months, by February style leatherette hardbound volume with By May 1, 1946, no personal cameras 1946, the trains steaming into Roswell, many photos, to commemorate a shared were allowed on Kwajalein or Eniwetok, N.M., were fi lled with men recruited for event among the participants. the islands hosting Operation Crossroads. a secret mission. Roswell was home to Air Force bomb groups, fi ghter groups, The book would have to be the memory- the 509th Composite Group, the same training schools, and all manner of orga- keeper for everyone. nuclear-equipped B-29 outfi t that had nizations produced these, typically by For books like Operation Crossroads, delivered the two A-bombs over Japan. subscription since they were not to use the offi cial photographers and their fi les AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 59 were indispensable, after they ran the gauntlet of security reviews and censors. It is said more than 300 offi cial cameras were trained on the Able Day bomb drop of July 1, 1946. “The purpose of these tests was to determine the effect of atomic bombs against naval vessels,” the book explained, “to gain true appraisals of the strategic implications of the atomic bomb.” The AAF Crossroads book had offi cial blessing. In addition to a morale memento for participants, it may have been viewed as a positive unclassifi ed document of the scope and magnitude of the Army Air Maj. James Gaylord Maj. John Craig Forces’ efforts to support the operation. Executive Offi cer Deputy Movie Director Maj. James L. Gaylord led a team of 13 offi cers, enlisted members, and civilians in compiling and publishing what they of 1940s fl amboyance and of Hollywood’s occupation? It conjures lost images of called the “Crossroads Yearbook.” golden age—individuals who were look- globe-trotting travel before the Internet The book used abridged accounts and ing for their next great adventure and and the airlines diminished the luster and cleared photos to tell the stories of the two who found it with atomic bomb tests at a panache of such endeavors. atomic blasts of Operation Crossroads. remote Pacifi c atoll. The adventure wasn’t One of the grand old men of the opera- The men chronicling Operation Cross- limited to recording atomic bomb blasts. tion was aerial movie photographer Louis roads today appear almost as time capsules As the book notes, the chroniclers were Hagemeyer, a civilian whose bragging also “battling rain, fl ooded streets, decayed rights included “aerial photographer since Below: An iconic mushroom cloud and coral-fi lled buildings.” World War I.” Hagemeyer “photographed begins to form after a nuclear General ‘Billy’ Mitchell’s bombs vs. ships explosion at Bikini Atoll in 1946. A COLORFUL CAST experiments in 1921 and 1923,” the Cross- Of the ships surrounding the atoll, The outfi t’s deputy movie director, roads book noted. How could he possibly many were sunk, and those that remained afl oat were twisted and Maj. John D. Craig, was described in stay back in Dayton, Ohio, when the most torn and contaminated by radiation. swashbuckling terms that put 21st century titanic airplane-vs.-ships test of all time Below right: Hundreds of offi cially descriptions to shame: “Former adven- demanded documentation? sancttioned cameras were trained turer, deep sea diver, and author. Veteran For Able Day, “at 0430, exactly on on the action in the Pacifi c, includ- ing movie cameras such as these of 36 combat missions in Europe.” Who schedule, the command plane, with Gen- two mounted in a modifi ed C-54. wouldn’t want to list “adventurer” as one’s erals LeMay and Power aboard … rolled DOD photo DOD Photo from the Gene Furnish collection Furnish Gene the from Photo

60 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 Lt. Col. Richard Cunningham Maj. Daniel Forbes Jr. Capt. Norman Dick Photo Operations Offi cer Deputy Operations Offi cer Reports Offi cer

down the fi eld and took off into the dawn, Maj. Henry G. Ross of Santa Monica, above the notation: “Plans to open hunting followed, one by one, by the eight F-13 Calif., worked for MGM in a former life. and fi shing lodge after discharge.” photoplanes (modifi ed B-29s), responsible Capt. H. Clark Ramsey’s rakishly The Crossroads book is part Bing for recording on fi lm the appalling effects trimmed mustache belongs on a man who Crosby’s “White Christmas” movie, part of the atom bomb when dropped on the “entered the Army July 1942, right out of “South Pacifi c” musical camaraderie, and target fl eet,” the book noted with charac- the motion picture industry.” Ramsey’s thoroughly reassuring about the grit of teristic fl air. At 5:54 a.m., the B-29 Dave’s biography in the Crossroads book says he those who came before. Dream “took off on its awesome mission “makes his home in Hollywood and plans into the morning sun, with ‘Gilda,’ its a return to motion pictures.” ABLE, BAKER, SORRY CHARLIE frightening cargo, secured in its bomb bay.” The even-toothed smile of 1st Lt. Ed- The fi rst underwater nuclear detona- The book described the events as vividly ward J. Guill, the group’s assistant lab tion took place July 25, designated Baker as words ever could: commander, captures all the hope and Day. “Several fathoms below the surface “A blinding fl ash which virtually blotted pride of postwar Americans. His bio tells of the lagoon, suspended from an LCM out the morning sun marked the detonation us: “Prior to entering the Army, he was [mechanized landing craft] anchored in the of the world’s fourth atomic bomb. ... A employed by Technicolor in Hollywood midst of the Guinea Pig Fleet, the atomic brilliant fi reball emerged, supported by a and plans to return.” bomb awaited radio-controlled detonation. fl aming stem which reached down into the Not everyone was a confessed Hol- At 0835 a.m., the vast area of Bikini La- water. As the fl aming fi reball subsided, the lywood insider or an adventurer, but goon arose with terrifi c speed and boiling mushroom cloud development began, ... the ranks were fi lled with manly men of violence. The fi rst sign of detonation to completely dwarfi ng the entire lagoon and the day. Capt. Norman W. Dick’s photo aerial observers was the emergence of a target fl eet. ... Clearly seen was the smoke countenance gazes calmly into the distance fi reball from the surface of the water,” the issuing forth from every ship in the array. AAF book recounted. Drones, guided by their mother planes, fl ew The fi reball “was almost immediately Offi cial Crossroads photogra- directly into the center of the radioactive phers horsing around on the hidden by the spherical dome of the water cloud which, after 10 minutes, had risen island. column as it opened up, forming a crown. to a height of over 12 miles. ... Camera- men, cameras grinding, photographed the towering cloud and array from all angles.” Movie fi lm and color fi lm were fl own back for processing. Thousands of black- and-white still images were developed and catalogued in a special photo lab created on Kwajalein in the face of harsh temperatures

and little fresh water. Crossroads had all collection Furnish Gene the from Photo the trappings of a huge bonding buddy fl ick as these men of action united. Their temporary service must have thinned Tinseltown. Maj. Gilbert Warrenton left Hollywood to join Crossroads. His bio reads: “Former- ly a cameraman for Paramount-Universal in Hollywood. Recalled to Active Duty to

Photo from the Gene Furnish collection Furnish Gene the from Photo serve with Crossroads.” Dapper Capt. Rene Dussaq’s dossier in- cluded prewar time as a Hollywood motion picture technical advisor. Liaison offi cer AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 61 e ene u n e n

Dwarfed by the towering pillar of water, Above left: An unidentified public which reached a mile into the air ... were information officer strikes a classic the target ships, standing out in bold re- skyward-looking pose in front of a B-17 used in Operation Crossroads. lief against the eerie background of the Note the airplane’s emblem. Above: turbulent waters. The LCM disappeared B-17s, drones, and mother ships at immediately.” Of the Baker Day ships that Eniwetok, one of two islands that managed to remain afloat, “many had been hosted Crossroads operations. Right: The cover of the operation’s twisted and torn by the devastating force book. It would serve as a souve- unleashed by the bomb.” nir for those who worked on the The anticipated third test, Charlie classified mission since personal Day, was then scrubbed, but the hefty cameras were forbidden. yearbook preserved the memories and gave the deployed AAF air photo unit at Crossroads an opportunity to tout its Flying Wing, strewn across the Mojave accomplishments. Desert in California. The volume’s dark blue embossed cover Unique among the photographed men shows a hypothetical white crossroads of Crossroads, sound technician 2nd Lt. intersection on the water’s surface, with Walter L. McDougal Jr. is framed by the a mushroom cloud rising from it. Bakelite headset he wears. “As a civil- In what might be either wry humor ian, he was a cameraman for Universal or merely idiosyncratic coincidence, the Picture Corp. of Los Angeles,” the book mushroom cloud does not rise from the tells us. There’s another of those dapper exact intersection of the crossroads. It is ’40s mustaches on Navy liaison officer Lt. visibly off center. The Able Day airburst Fred Terzo, who told the book’s publishers was more than 2,000 feet laterally from he was a former cameraman for Warner Southern California mountain resort its intended detonation point. Brothers studio, where he intended to playground of Big Bear Lake, Bartlett is The panache of this yearbook echoes return after Crossroads. said to have opined that after Crossroads, the confidence of those who had just The grinning mug of civilian movie “I’ll never leave California again.” survived and won a world war and who cameraman Albert Alwood basks beneath If you called Central Casting for a studi- now stood on the brink of a world that the upturned brim of a GI cap marked ous camera repairman, you’d want to get would antiquate that war rapidly. The “Mickey.” Before the war, he logged 14 someone like civilian Ove S. Bryhn from photo organization’s deputy operations years with Paramount in Hollywood. Beverly Hills, whose intense visage sup- officer was a smiling young flier from Robert Bartlett, looking almost Gregory ports wire-rimmed glasses. “Before joining the Midwest, Maj. Daniel H. Forbes Jr. Peck-like in his photo, lists his Cross- Crossroads, he was camera repairman for He could not have foreseen at that time roads occupation as “movie writer,” 20th Century Fox in Hollywood and previ- that his life would end two years later in although he evidently had a day job in ous to that had worked for Paramount 13 the wreckage of the experimental YB-49 real estate back home. A resident of the years. Will return to studios.” 62 / June 2015 For Crossroads, he was a director cam- entrepreneurial professionals. The bio eraman primarily assigned to the B-17 on Rossman backs him up: “Writer and drone operation on Eniwetok. Almost world adventurer, who has taken his as an aside, his book bio mentions: “He camera to the Arctic with the Wilkins formerly was chief photographer for expedition, to the ocean bottom off Nas- Scripps Howard newspapers.” sau, into the jungles of South America The world was a larger place when and Africa, and was first to fly over Mt. movie camera maintenance man I. Robert McKinley. Author of Black Sunlight. e ene u n e n Holland brought his pencil-thin mustache Cameraman at Wright Field, Ohio, last to Crossroads. His credits included four years. Married.” “several years in Africa as a cameraman Thomas W. Scott of Los Angeles, a ci- and sound technician shooting native vilian movie cameraman at Crossroads, and animal life.” was a Paramount film editor. Vladimir Stanley E. Johnson slipped away from Svancara brought 20 years’ experience his Hollywood home and Paramount as a “sound man on radio and motion Studios to be a Crossroads film editor. pictures.” He was working at Wright The grand old man of Crossroads Field when picked for Crossroads duty. motion picture work had to be civilian Film editor John R. Truppe had Reginald E. Lyons, employed by the worked for Warner Brothers in Brook- Army Air Forces at Wright Field in lyn, declining to follow the studio to Ohio. If Crossroads seems only a faint Hollywood. and distant glimmer on a Pacific wave Thomas E. Tutweiler was first cam- to readers today, imagine that in 1946, eraman for Warner Brothers in Hol- Lyons’ résumé stretched back to 1908 lywood when he agreed to be part of when he worked for pioneer motion Crossroads. picture company Vitagraph in Brooklyn, Before his Army service, Elmer L. moving west to Hollywood in 1916 to Whiles of Hollywood was a writer A O E ERA work for Keystone, Christia, MGM, for Warner-First National, where he Carl Burmahln was another civilian Fox, and Warner Brothers. By the way, planned to return after Crossroads duty. Ohio transplant whose credits included he became the officer in charge of the Some of the men traveled to Cross- “13 years in special effects department camera crew for a squadron in World War roads in Navy ships. Others flew there of Warner Bros. studios in Hollywood.” I. Photographed against a backdrop of in “Green Hornet” C-54 transports. For Operation Crossroads, Burmahln some of the few palm fronds still waving Gene Furnish was one of the photog- was a movie cameraman aboard an on Kwajalein in the immediate postwar raphers who answered the call. Turned orbiting C-54. era, Lyons’ visage shows the experience down for wartime military service due Adrian Geoffroy left Los Angeles for gained in 38 years of film work. He to a prior respiratory condition, Furnish the rigors of Kwajalein as an air and looks like the person others would turn was hired on at Wright Field as a civilian ground photographer. The brief write-up to when things went sideways. photographer. Never shy of adventure for Geoffroy says: “On ‘loan’ to Cross- Harry F. Perry brought aerial movie and risk, Furnish made parachute jumps roads from Paramount, Hollywood, where photographer skills to Operation Cross- as a photographer to test German ribbon he is sound engineer.” roads. A cinematographer in Hollywood chute technology before he made the Civilian Alpha Hart was photographed going back to 1918, his credits included journey to the Pacific. wearing a necktie and sporting a trimmed “The Virginian,” “Wings,” “Hell’s An- Fortunately, photographers are noto- goatee not long enough to be a Vandyke. gels,” and European pieces including rious pack rats and Furnish kept images A civilian Army Air Forces script writer, “Rebecca,” “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” from throughout his career, offering a Hart is characterized as a “fiction writer, and “Dodsworth.” For the three years brilliant window into Operation Cross- photographer, poet, and former newsman” running up to Crossroads, Perry worked roads through news-like black-and- in an era when apparently versatility in the camera department at Paramount. whites and the occasional gorgeously may have been more appreciated than it Fellow Crossroads aerial movie cam- rich Kodachrome color transparency. would later be in the compartmentalized eraman Paul P. Perry directed photogra- Crossroads was the Big Show. Furnish’s warrens of some government agencies. phy on about 40 movies filmed on the candid images serve as a posthumous Hart’s contemplative gaze contrasts Paramount lot. From 1931 to 1943, Perry nod to his skill, enthusiasm, and engage- with another writer’s mug shot, the openly “made a series of world travel pictures ment with life. grinning Don Christiansen, director of released under the title of Perry Color The old Crossroads book published documentary stills, from a suburb of Salt Pictures.” His ringside seat for Cross- for the participants occasionally surfaces Lake City. Christiansen was a veteran roads was operating a movie camera in the collections of the men or their combat photographer in the Mediter- aboard an F-13 on Able Day. descendants, and it compels viewing. ranean who, according to the epic photo Ground movie photographer Earl Seasoned veterans and happy-go-lucky book about Crossroads, came to this task Rossman listed his address as the kids look back from its pages, frozen “as ‘vacation’ from job as storyteller, Beckel Hotel in Dayton, Ohio, in an in time in images from 1946, truly a confidence man, and newsman in Salt era when that was not uncommon for bygone era. J Lake City.” Another print-media recruit was Frederick A. Johnsen is a frequent contributor to e ne His most Charles E. Nerpel from Los Angeles. recent article was “Ice Boxes” in the December 2014 issue. AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015