Annie, Operation Upshot-Knothole

This surreal sequence of photographs shows the effects of a nuclear blast on a typical wood-frame house 3,500 feet from the blast center. It was one element of a civil-defense study, “Operation Doorstep,” in which two houses, fifty automobiles, and eight residential bomb shelters were photo-graphed and filmed during the “Annie” nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site on March 17, 1953, in order to study their vulnerability.