The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 5
WORLD WAR II AND THE BOMB The United States and its allies including the employed a huge workforce and found the United Kingdom France the Soviet Union greatest scientific geniuses to create the and China were at war against the Axis atomic bomb first powers of Germany and Japan The Axis On April 30 1945 German dictator Adolf powers had dreams of world domination Hitler committed suicide as Allied troops Something had to be done to stop them and War IIl on closed in His suicide ended World end the worldwide war which began in 1939 the European front The Japanese continued The Germans were close to mastering battling though The United States decided nuclear fission in atomic bombs In response to use the atomic bomb on Japan in hopes of the United States spent billions of dollars shocking the country into surrender Bainbridge's job was to prepare the site for the test Starting in February 1945 he and his staff of 25 laborers worked toward their July 4 target test date The US Army transformed a house on the site into a field laboratory The staff grew to more than 250 workers many of whom were soldiers The US Army Corps of Engineers built three dirt covered bunkers with concrete slab roofs They were 10 000 yards 9 100 m from Ground Zero where the bomb would explode Each bunker was named after its direction and distance in yards from Ground Zero Bunker N 10 000 to the north housed recording instruments and searchlights Bunker W 10 000 to the west housed banks of high speed cameras and searchlights And bunker S 10 000 to the south served as the command center Another 5 miles 8 km to the south was the base camp It had the workers tents and barracks The laborers built a steel tower at Ground Zero They poured four concrete footings into the sand They built the legs from prefabricated steel that had 10