The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-07-23
BY s. BURTON HEATH


 Of Bikini, July 23-(NEA-Ex- perts believe the battleships Arkan- sas and Nagato, as well as the car- rier Saratoga and several lesser craft. may be sunk in Bikini lagoon July 25 because A-bomb Baker will concentrate most of it's vulnerable fury against their Achilles heels.
 There are only two ways that a super dreadnaught-even one as antieuated as the Arkansas or Ma gato-eVer has been sunk. One is when a shell or bomb drops almost accidentally through the funnel and explodes in the engine room. The other is when torpedo penetrates through and explodes in the under water portion of the hull, which is the Achilles heel of any heavily armored warship.
 The layman thinks of huge bat tleWagons as almost inVulnerable because he knows of the 12 and IA inch super-tough steel armor in which 1t is encased. It was against such armor that A-bomb Able spent much of it's force in the first test, tearing, twisting, denting, and bending some of that armor but still failing to penetrate to the ships vitals.
 BLOW TO BE DIRECT
 A-bomb Baker isn't going to fool around trying to get through any 14-inch plate. Exploded under water at a depth generally expected to be around IS or 20 feet, it is go- ing to slap-with a force greater than the layman can compute or comprehend-directly at the thin, bendable, breakable plate that few landlubbers realize is the mighty battlewagons only protection on the bottom.
 It is well-known that heavy ar- nor plate covers only the top and four sides of an "arnored box" that houses a ships machinery and magazines and all her vital organs except two-her propellers and rud- ders.
 Outside that arnored box, on both sides and bottom, are many, many water tight compartments, some containing fuel, some sea water for ballast, and some empty.
 Armor plate goes only little way below the Waterline eight and half feet on the Nevada and Pennsylvania, for instance - and below 1t is a big eXpanse some times as deep as Is feet and more than $50 feet long that is covered with plate no more than about one inch thick.
 ARKANSAS HAS 3 BOTTOMS
 The Arkansas, which is expected to be the nearest battleWagon to A-bomb Bakers blast, has two bot toms below the bottom of it's ar mored box, and all three bottoms including thec protecting" the ar- mosed box are of steel an inch or ley in thickness.
 The lower bottom in this vulner- able hull contains fuel, the upper bottom is empty Each is traversed by water-tight bulkheads to make compartments which, if one is flooded will not endanger the water-tight integrity" of others. The Arkansas has 21 such trans verse bulkheads
 The carrier Saratoga, another chosen victim of Bomb Baker, is less heavily armored topsides against shells and shallow tor pedoes. but her compartmentation is superior and she might prove sturdier against the underwater A. bomb than the apparently stronger battleships.
 When Bomb Baker explodes in the midst of the ship cluster con- taining the Arkansas, Nagato, Sara toga, Pensacola and other lesser ships, it is very suddenly going to apply mighty piledriver pressure against the thin-shelled underwater sections of these craft.
 If that pressure is great enough and applied with sufficient slap, ex- pers expect it will crumple not only the outer shell below the armor, but also the innerbulkheads and bottoms, permitting water to pour into protective compartmentation and even through the equally thin bottom of the "armored box" into the vital inner shell containing nla-