The Navy is in for a beating when the atomic bomb tests come off on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands this summer, in the opinion of E. Gordon Combs, Jr., of 48 Stinson Drive. Combs, too, is in a position to know in as much as he helped assemble the bombs which flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“No one knows the effect the bombs will have on ships,” Combs said. “That is the reason for the tests. But I think the Navy is in for a beating even if the ships aren’t sunk.”
Combs explained that one bomb will be detonated at the optimum height, or the height at which the bomb is most effective, and the other at sea level.
Shove Ships Down
“The bomb which is detonated at its optimum height should just shove the ships down in the water as though a giant hand was pressing down,” Combs explained. “Whether the force will be enough to sink the ships, no one knows, they may bob up but the topside areas will be subjected to an awful beating. The heat generated is almost beyond understanding and the deck platings will be put to a great strain.”
Combs told of an incident in Nagasaki to illustrate why he thinks the Navy will take a beating in operation “Crossroads.” A modern fire truck, one of the few in Japan, was resting on a concrete floor in a modern fire station about three-quarters of a mile from the center of the blast. The force of the explosion forced the wheels of the truck completely through the concrete and left the axles resting on the floor.
“The bomb which is detonated at sea level may crush the ships or the wall of water created may capsize them,” combs went on. “There is going to be a big crater in the water and a lot of steam, at least.”
Present at Final Assembly
Combs was called into active duty after graduation from Georgia Tech at Atlanta. He was sent to Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey, where chemical research development was being carried on. He married Mrs. Combs, the former Miss Leona Waldenberger of Wharton, New Jersey, while on duty there. He was assigned to the atomic bomb project in December of 1944 and helped carry out the preliminary tests in New Mexico before going overseas for the final assembly on Tinian Island near Saipan. Combs, a major, served as executive officer of the First Ordnance Squadron (Special Aviation) on the project.
Combs, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Gordon Combs, Sr., of Donelson, emphasizes that the atomic bomb project is still very secret. He is bound by regulations to divulge nothing about the size, shape, weight, manner of function, means of assembly or the supply of materials.