# OPERATION UPSHOT KNOTHOLE ATOMIC BOMB TESTS & ATOMIC CANNON 23521

Released by the Department of Energy (and appropriate sanitized to remove classified material) this Armed Forces Special Weapons Project film shows the Upshot-Knothole atomic tests including the use of the so-called Atomic Cannon in 1953. Operation Upshot–Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. It followed Operation Ivy and preceded Operation Castle. Over 21,000 soldiers took part in the ground exercise Desert Rock V in conjunction with the Grable shot. Grable was a 280mm shell fired from the “Atomic Cannon” and was viewed by a number of high-ranking military officials. The test series was notable as containing the first time an atomic artillery shell was fired (shot Grable), the first two shots (both fizzles) by University of California Radiation Laboratory—Livermore (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and for testing out some of the thermonuclear components that would be used for the massive thermonuclear series of Operation Castle. The M65 atomic cannon, often called "Atomic Annie", was a towed artillery piece built by the United States and capable of firing a nuclear device. It was developed in the early 1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War, and fielded, by 1953, in Europe and South Korea. The cannon was transported by two specially designed tractors, both capable of independent steering in the manner of some extra-long fire trucks. Each of the tractors was rated at 375 hp, and the somewhat awkward…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/23521OperationUpshot)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/23521OperationUpshot?play=1)