The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-07-01
UP Writer Giues Graphic Story Of Bomb Explosion
By FRANK H. BARTHOLOMEW United Press Vice-President for
 Pacific Division

By FRANK H. BARTHOLOMEW United Press President for
 Pacific Division
 Representing the Combined Press) Aboard BPS press plane off Biki- nj Atoll, July 1-(UP)-The atom bomb has exploded over Bikini la goon.
 A twisting, sinuous column of brown and white smoke is boiling directly into the sky to the left Of this airplane
 In two minutes it has cleaned into creamy white.
 We are flying at 1000 and it's al- ready many times our altitude.
 We felt no blast wave. Through shielding glasses I saw no flash. We are crcling in toward the beautiful sinuous cloud now.
 We are crossing over Bikini reef at 9:04 A. M. The base of the atomic cloud seems to cover all the ships in the target array.
 Cannot See Vessels
 We cannot yet tell what has hap pened to the vessels themselves.
 At 9:06 A. M. the cloud is separ- ating into two mushrooms super imposed upon each other
 The topmost is assuming creamy yellow color, the bottom one pure white.
 At 9:11 A. M. We wheel in close again and I can see score of ships of the target array still af1oat None seem to be aflre. I cannot see the Nevada.
 The great cloud, base and all, is moving westward across the lagoon At 9:13 A. M. second cloud was seen forming perhaps a mile away from the base of the first Wheth- CT it is from an exploding ship o1 an offshoot of the atomic blast it. self we cannot yet tell
 The atomic cloud is thinning out losing a definite outline.
 It is now 9:16 A. NJ, quarter ot an hour since the detonation.
 Column Blown Westward
 The base of the column is being blown westward across the entrance of Bikini lagoon. The top of the cloud, however, seems to hover sta- tionary either directly over the tar get fleet or perhaps moving slowly in our direction to the east.
 The vast column is now ragged and z-shaped The top mushroom is connected by thin tenuous fog like connection to the lower column At 9:l9 A. M. the base of the col umn seemed to be boiling up witt renewed vigor. We are now at tht far end of our orbit of Bikini anc I cannot tell whether the turbulence is due to exploding or burning ships.
 Natural clouds are interposing
 We turn back on our course to. ward Bikini once more at 9:21 A. M I can now see the drones hover ing above the lagoon. Whethe they are mother ships waiting theil lost children or pilotleSs plane themselves We do not know.
 Glimpse Nevada
 ask the planes captain if he car identify any of the surviving ships The answer comes up the inter com that he can see a bit of ret up forward which appears to be th' Nevada.
 The explosion seems to hay' blown up most of the ship" he says
 AS the time for the bomb drol neared, Maj, Russell Ireland, il charge of our BPS, made each o the IT men aboard inspect ant tighten his parachute A bell ran' and we put on black glasses. The. were so black we could see nothin at all through them
 Another bell rang in the airplan and we took of the glasses. small coffee-colored column wa shooting up into the sky to tn west, third of the way to ou horizon.
 We waited for the sound of tn explosion. It did not come. Tn roar of our four great engine drowned it out. There was n shockwave either; the plane ha skillfully been maneuvered int position to slipstream the blow.
 F Still Alive
 We grinned at one another. Sev enteen men in one airplane abov the blast were still alive and kick ing. We hoped silently that thos aboard the 70-odd aircraft in tn area had shared our good luck
 Reassurance came over the inter phone, No casualties reported thu far" The cloud now at $50 A. N is spun out in II zig-zag angle from the water up to an elevatio of perhaps K40,000 feet.
 The cloud is still the longest i the whole panorama of the sea an island below us but no longer dom1 mates The natural clouds now, a hour after the atomic detonatiol are of f1rmer outline and substanc
 However, the atomic clou reaches out curiously like an octe pus with vague dark tenacle everywhere against the eastern six
 Sheer From Cloud
 It is going to be an increasing
 The earth's population is abol doubling every 60 years. At tn rate, there will be 3,Soo,0OO,o 900 per