Operation Sandstone, is a color documentary about American’s Atomic Bomb testing, which was conducted in 1948 at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This film, Produced by the USAF Lookout Mountain Air Force Station who produced motion pictures from 1947-1969, was part of an attempt to document atomic bomb tests and preserve them. Operation Sandstone occurred in 1948 and the film was produced soon after. The narrator, Carey Wilson, was an American screenwriter and voice actor.
Intro (0:09-0:48). A group of men land at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands (0:49-1:41). Views of the Island (1:42-1:54). In 1944, work begins on clearing the island and leveling it, making a bomber airfield (1:55-2:45). A causeway is built to link two islands and buildings are created for living quarters and storage. Cubes made of Reinforced concrete and a tower in the lagoon (2:46-3:38). The tower, holder of fissionable material (3:47-3:57). Picture of the test island (3:58-4:02). Why use a remote island to test (4:03-4:23)? Why not Atomic Energy Commission and a small atomic explosion (4:25-4:50) or Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois; Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee; Hanford National Laboratory; Brookhaven National Laboratory (4:51-5:14). All laboratories sent their experimental materials, equipment, and scientists to Enewetak Atoll (5:15-6:33). They were to conduct a large scientific experiment with strict security (6:34-7:28). They needed: Equipment to be used for testing fission, gamma rays and blasting intensity (7:29-9:13); along with photographic equipment of all kinds; for normal and high speed, color, black and white, mobile, and highly powerful (9:14-10:10). A Communication system with many antennae to connect air, land, and sea (10:11-10:50). Weather planes to keep track of air movement (11:03-11:24). The Island is ready for nuclear test. Open-air laboratory is ready (11:25-12:28). A controlled scientific experiment to master nuclear fission (12:42 -12:56). B17’s are to go into the radioactive cloud (13:02-13:27). Seconds remain. Sequence timer activated, measuring devices set and placed on single time reference (13:28-13:43). Men watching the nuclear explosion from ships (13:48-14:01). Atomic cloud (14:03-14:14). Planes return radioactive with radioactive materials (14:17-14:24). Care is taken to unload the equipment (14:25-14:31). Robots pick up soil samples (14:32-14:43). Men in special clothing check through the blast rubble and collect the data instruments (14:44-15:13). Data collected, assembled and studied using slide rules, calculating machines, microscopes (15:17-15:40). Data collected will speed development of atomic energy (15:41-16:16). Actual blasts are shown from Trinity nuclear test in 1945, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, in Alamogordo, New Mexico (16:17-16:24), Operation Crossroads, a pair of nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, 1946 (16:25-16:31), Operation Sandstones 3 events radioactive nuclear cloud is shown (16:32-19:09). Credits to Lt. Gen. John E. Hull, Dr. Darol K. Froman, and Capt James Russell and to the 10,000 military and civilian representative (19:10-19:50).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
