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It should be noted that the British scientist that would go on to lead the British nuclear testing programme was William Penney. Penney and RAF Group Captain Leonard Cheshire were present in the observation aircraft “Big Stink” to witness the Nagasaki bomb. Following the Japanese surrender, British scientists continued to work with the Manhattan Project for Operation Crossroads 1946. The partnership was ended by the US Atomic Energy Act (aka the McMahon Act) later in the year.
Following the Act, the British Government decided to develop a bomb, with the words of Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, “We’ve got to have it and it’s got to have a bloody Union Jack on it”. The British atomic bomb project commenced at the start of 1947, codenamed High Explosive Research (HER) and was led by William Penney. Spread over a number of UK research facilities, it was decided to move the atomic programme to RAF Aldermaston in 1950.
Britain’s first atomic bomb was based on the Nagasaki “Fat Man” bomb and would be ready for testing in 1952 as part of Operation Hurricane. It was decided that a shipborne bomb would be of interest to the Americans, but a request to use the US proving grounds was turned down, so other sites were considered including seven in Canada. The decision was made to use the remote Montebello Islands off north-western Australia.
On the 3 October 1952, Britain detonated its first atomic bomb inside HMS Plym, thus becoming the third country to possess the A-bomb. This was shortly eclipsed by the American detonation of Ivy Mike,
which was the first full-scale test
of a thermonuclear device on 1 November 1952. It would be another four and a half years before Britain would test a thermonuclear device at Operation Grapple; This shows the speed at which the British were working in the race for the nuclear deterrent.
The British Empire relied on the contribution of the British nuclear participants in developing the British Empire’s nuclear deterrent during the Cold War period before the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty came into force in 1963. The government could not achieve their objective without the personnel who participated in the tests under pressure to deliver atomic and thermonuclear tests in such a short period of time.
Climate and terrain of Britain’s nuclear testing 1952-1967
Although the British nuclear test participants did not take part in combat-related service, they spent long periods of time away from home working in difficult and arduous conditions. The very nature of the nuclear testing meant that hot and inhospitable locations were used for nuclear testing, away from densely populated areas. The chosen locations were mainly uninhabited places such as off the northwest coast of mainland Australia, the desert of South Australia, and a humid coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean, which was and is inhabited by Gilbertese Islanders.
At the time of the tests, Christmas Island was also covered in land crabs with large pincers that wandered everywhere, including into the temporary accommodation tents.
Due to Christmas Island’s (Kiritimati) coral base, cuts could easily become contaminated and lead to potentially
fatal coral poisoning within a few hours if not treated properly. Sharks resided in the waters surrounding the Island. Christmas Island was also prone to heavy monsoon rainfall, which made conditions extremely difficult to work in whilst laying roads, building amenities, unloading cargo and landing craft from ships, and moving equipment to carry out building tasks, as well as laying cables. Sunstroke was also an issue, and a story is told of a serviceman who died of sunstroke after falling asleep under a coconut tree. His comrades had difficulty weighing him down to bury him at sea as the atoll was unsuitable to bury people (Imperial War Museum 1993). The BNTVA has heard of a number of deaths of servicemen during the testing and is awaiting the actual figures from Public Health England.
The British military built basic field Hospitals at Christmas Island and Maralinga for the personnel, and developed the infrastructure from scratch, such as suitable runways, accommodation and offices. They built a whole village at Maralinga before the testing commenced.
At Christmas Island, personnel
faced a risk of malaria which was controlled by spraying dichlorodi- phenyltrichloroethane (DDT), which is scientifically proven to be moderately toxic and can cause a range of negative health effects including damage to the central nervous system and genetic abnormalities (Thuy 2015; Kabasenche and Skinner 2014).
Participants lived in temporary tents or basic huts in all locations. Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships provided desalination for the water supply at Christmas, Malden and the Montebello Islands for the personnel
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CAMPAIGN WINTER 2021