When people ask when was Operation Redwing, they’re usually looking for a specific date on a calendar, but the answer is actually a massive seventeen-test window that spanned the late spring and summer of 1956. It wasn't just a single "boom." It was a series of detonations—Cherokee, Zuni, Flathead, Dakota, and more—that occurred between May and July of that year at the Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls in the Pacific Proving Grounds.
Honestly, 1956 was a pivot point. The Cold War was no longer just about who had the biggest bomb; it was about who could actually deliver them.
You’ve got to understand the vibe of the mid-fifties. The U.S. was coming off Operation Castle, which had been a bit of a disaster in terms of radioactive fallout (the infamous Castle Bravo incident). By the time Operation Redwing rolled around, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Department of Defense were under immense pressure. They needed to prove they could design high-yield thermonuclear weapons that were small enough to be carried by aircraft, rather than just massive "experimental devices" that were the size of a small house.
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The Timeline of 1956
The series kicked off on May 4, 1956 (local time), with the Lacrosse shot. It was a relatively small ground burst on Runit Island. But the real headline-grabber happened a few weeks later. On May 21, the United States performed its first-ever air-drop of a thermonuclear bomb. This was the "Cherokee" shot.
A B-52 bomber dropped a multi-megaton device over Namu Island.
It missed.
By quite a bit.
The bomb exploded nearly four miles away from its intended target because of a simple human error in the cockpit—someone forgot to flip a specific switch at the right time. It’s kinda terrifying when you think about it. The military had invited the press to witness this specific show of strength, and then they missed the target. It was an embarrassing moment in an otherwise technically successful series.
Why Operation Redwing Still Matters Today
It's easy to dismiss these tests as ancient history, but Operation Redwing is the reason our modern nuclear arsenal looks the way it does. Before 1956, hydrogen bombs were basically "wet" designs using cryogenic liquid deuterium. They were heavy, unstable, and impossible to put on a missile.
Redwing changed that.
The 1956 tests focused on "dry" fuel—lithium deuteride. By testing different secondary stages and high-yield designs, scientists at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore (then called the University of California Radiation Laboratory) finally cracked the code on weaponization.
- Shot Zuni: This was the first test of a three-stage thermonuclear design (Bassoon). It hit a yield of 3.5 megatons.
- Shot Tewa: This was the "dirty" one. It had a massive yield of 5 megatons, and because it was a surface burst, it created a significant amount of local fallout.
- Shot Erie: A smaller test, but crucial for tactical weapon development.
The sheer variety of tests—17 in total—shows how frantic the pace of development was. They were testing everything from tiny tactical charges to city-levelers.
The Human Element and the Fallout
We can't talk about when was Operation Redwing without mentioning the people there. Thousands of sailors, soldiers, and scientists were stationed in the Marshall Islands. Most of them watched these blasts with nothing but a pair of "high-density" goggles. They described seeing their own bones through their closed eyelids when the flash hit—an X-ray effect caused by the sheer intensity of the light.
The environmental impact was, predictably, a mess. While the AEC tried to be "cleaner" than they were during the Castle series, "clean" is a relative term when you're detonating 20 megatons of total yield over a few months. The local populations on islands like Rongelap and Utirik were already dealing with the aftermath of 1954, and Redwing didn't help.
The Zuni shot, specifically, was a massive success for the scientists but a nightmare for the atmosphere. It was the first time they tested a "clean" high-yield device (meaning most of its energy came from fusion, not fission), yet it still produced enough radiation to be a concern for decades.
Decoding the Naming Convention
Ever wonder why they called it "Redwing"? The AEC had a habit of naming test series after birds, trees, or mountains. For 1956, they went with North American Indian tribes. Lacrosse, Cherokee, Zuni, Flathead, Dakota, Navajo, Tewa... the names sound strangely poetic for things designed to end civilizations.
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It’s important to realize that the geopolitical context of 1956 wasn't just about Russia. The Suez Crisis was simmering. The Hungarian Revolution was about to kick off. The U.S. felt it had to demonstrate that its "New Look" policy—relying on nuclear weapons rather than a massive standing army—was viable. Operation Redwing was the physical manifestation of that policy.
The Technical Breakthroughs of the 1956 Series
If you're a tech nerd, Redwing is fascinating. This was the era where computers started to play a bigger role in weapon design. We're talking about the earliest IBM mainframes trying to calculate the fluid dynamics of a star being born on a Pacific island.
- Miniaturization: This was the primary goal. How do we get a 5-megaton yield into a package that fits on an ICBM?
- Fusion-Fission Ratio: Scientists were obsessed with making "clean" bombs. Not because they were environmentalists, but because fission products (fallout) were actually a waste of energy. A "purer" fusion bomb was seen as more efficient.
- The B-52 Factor: This was the debut of the B-52 Stratofortress as a nuclear delivery platform. Before this, we were relying on B-36 Peacemakers, which were slow and clunky.
The Navajo shot, detonated on July 11, 1956, was perhaps the most "successful" in terms of clean technology. It yielded 4.5 megatons, with an incredible 95% of that energy coming from fusion. It remains one of the cleanest high-yield tests ever conducted by the United States.
The Logistic Nightmare of the Pacific Proving Grounds
Imagine trying to coordinate seventeen nuclear explosions in a remote part of the ocean in the 1950s. No internet. No GPS. No satellite communication. Everything was done via radio and physical mail. The logistics of Operation Redwing involved over 13,000 personnel. They had to build entire towns on these atolls, only to abandon them or watch them get shaken to pieces by the shockwaves.
The sheer scale of the operation is hard to wrap your head around. You had the Navy providing a massive fleet of ships to monitor weather and radioactivity. You had the Air Force flying samples through mushroom clouds—literally flying modified planes through the debris to collect isotopes. These "cloud samplers" took on massive doses of radiation.
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They were basically the guinea pigs of the atomic age.
What Most People Get Wrong About Redwing
A common misconception is that Redwing was just a repeat of the Castle series. It wasn't. While Castle was about proving that the "Dry" H-bomb worked, Redwing was about proving it was useful.
Another myth? That these tests were secret. While the technical details were classified, the fact that the U.S. was blowing things up in the Pacific was front-page news. As I mentioned earlier, the "Cherokee" shot was actually a media event. The government wanted the world to see. They wanted the USSR to know that we could drop a hydrogen bomb from a plane and hit a target (even if we actually missed).
The Aftermath and Legacy
By the time the final shot, Tewa, went off on July 21, the world was a different place. The data gathered during these three months fueled the nuclear arms race for the next decade. It led directly to the development of the warheads used in the Titan and Minuteman missiles.
But it also led to the growing anti-nuclear movement. The radioactive "ash" that fell on Pacific islanders and the high levels of Strontium-90 appearing in milk across the U.S. started to wake people up. Operation Redwing was one of the last "unrestricted" atmospheric test series before the world started moving toward the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
Actionable Insights and Further Research
If you’re researching the history of the Cold War or the technical evolution of the U.S. military, understanding when was Operation Redwing is just the entry point. To get a full picture, you should look into the specific technical reports and declassified documents that have surfaced in the last twenty years.
- Check out the "Radiological Safety" reports: These are now mostly public and provide a chilling look at how radiation was tracked (and often underestimated) during the 1956 series.
- Study the B-52 "Cherokee" miss: It’s a classic case study in human factors and military history. Looking into why the 15th Air Force missed its mark provides great insight into the early days of strategic bombing.
- Visit the Nuclear Secrecy Blog (Restricted Data): Run by historian Alex Wellerstein, this is hands-down the best resource for understanding the nuance of these tests. He breaks down the "Bassoon" and "Bassoon Prime" designs used in Redwing better than anyone else.
- Examine the Marshall Islands' perspective: Look into the Nuclear Claims Tribunal records. It’s vital to see the cost of these tests from the viewpoint of the people whose home was used as a laboratory.
The 1956 tests weren't just explosions; they were the foundation of the modern world’s terrifying "peace" through MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). Knowing the timeline helps contextualize why the mid-fifties felt so permanent and so precarious at the same time.