Truman to announce, on 10 December 1945, that the U.S. would further explore the capabilities of atomic energy in the form of scientific atomic bomb tests under JCS jurisdiction (3: 18). CROSSROADS was designed to produce information not available from the TRINITY test or the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The primary purpose was to determine the effects of atomic bombs on naval vessels. The secondary purposes were to provide training for aircrews in attack techniques using atomic bombs against ships and to determine atomic bomb effects upon other military equipment and installations (3: 18). 4.2.2 CROSSROADS Test Operations. A fleet of more than 90 target vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon for CROSSROADS. The target fleet consisted of older U.S. ships, such as the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga and the USS Independence, the battleships USS Nevada, USS Arkansas, USS Pennsylvania, and USS New York, surplus U.S. cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and a large number of auxiliary and amphibious vessels. The German cruiser Prinz Eugen and two major captured Japanese ships, the battleship Nagato and the cruiser Sakawa, also were targets. The support fleet comprised more than 150 ships that provided quarters, experimental stations, and workshops for most of the approximately 42,000 participants, more than 37,000 of whom were Navy personnel (3: 1,84). ABLE operations went smoothly. had only a transient effect. The radioactivity created by the airburst Within a day, radiation intensities in the lagoon had decayed to less than 0.1 R/24 hours, and nearly all the surviving target ships had been safely reboarded. The ship inspections, instrument recoveries, and remooring necessary for the BAKER test proceeded on schedule (3: 1,217). BAKER, on the other hand, presented difficulties. The underwater detonation caused most of the target fleet to be bathed in radioactive water spray and radioactive debris. With the exception of 12 target vessels in the lagoon and the landing craft beached on Bikini Island, the surviving target fleet was too radiologically contaminated for many days for more than brief on-board activities. During the first week of August, attempts were made to 76