USS Arkansas (BB-33) - Service History - Post-war

Post-war

After a month spent in port, Arkansas embarked approximately 800 troops for transport to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet to return American servicemen home as quickly as possible. Sailing on 23 September, Arkansas paused briefly at Pearl Harbor en route, and ultimately reached Seattle, Washington on 15 October. During the remainder of the year, the battleship made three more trips to Pearl Harbor to shuttle soldiers back to the United States.

During the first months of 1946, Arkansas lay at San Francisco, California. In late April, the ship got underway for Hawaii. She reached Pearl Harbor on 8 May, and stood out of Pearl Harbor on 20 May, bound for Bikini Atoll, earmarked for use as target for atomic bomb testing in Operation Crossroads. On 1 July, the Arkansas was exposed to an air burst in ABLE, but survived with extensive shock damage to her upperworks, while her hull and armored turrets were little damaged. On 25 July, the battleship was sunk by the underwater nuclear test BAKER at Bikini Atoll. Unattentuated by air, the shock was "transmitted directly to underwater hulls", and Arkansas, only 250 yards from the epicenter, appeared to have been "crushed as if by a tremendous hammer blow from below". It appears that the wave of water from the blast capsized the ship, which was then hammered down into the shallow bottom by the descent of the water column thrown up by the blast.

Decommissioned on 29 July, Arkansas was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August. The ship lies inverted in about 180 feet of water at the bottom of Bikini Lagoon and there are many pictures of the wreck on the National Park Service website.