Atomic Bomb tests

D

Davepick

Well-known member
In Ollygons 'Funny Funerals' thread I mentioned about my brother Alan and his funeral.
This is Alans' story.
He was in the Royal Navy from 1948/9 to as a regular. from 1948 to about 1962/3.
he served on a variety of ships.
In the early 1950s Australia agreed to allow GB to explode an ABomb off the NW coast of Australia,
near to the Monte Bello islands about 70 Ks away from the NW coast.
My Bro Alan was on a ship, a Destroyer I think.
When the hour came the crew were all told to stand on the deck and face away from the explosion.
After a time they were told they could turn round.
The bomb was exploded, and that was history.
I have researched the after effects of this bomb.
Apparently many of the men later had children which were deformed or had serious defects of one sort or another.
A Daily Mirror reporter has been very active in following the story with a view of getting compensation for the families.
The men were advised not to have children, some apparently did, and lived to regret it.
Alan, my brother and his wife didn't have kids. I think this gradually wore him down and that is why he turned to the Booze, which eventually killed him.
Sorry it's so long, but it was to get the full facts in.
 
Davepick said:
In Ollygons 'Funny Funerals' thread I mentioned about my brother Alan and his funeral.
This is Alans' story.
He was in the Royal Navy from 1948/9 to as a regular. from 1948 to about 1962/3.
he served on a variety of ships.
In the early 1950s Australia agreed to allow GB to explode an ABomb off the NW coast of Australia,
near to the Monte Bello islands about 70 Ks away from the NW coast.
My Bro Alan was on a ship, a Destroyer I think.
When the hour came the crew were all told to stand on the deck and face away from the explosion.
After a time they were told they could turn round.
The bomb was exploded, and that was history.
I have researched the after effects of this bomb.
Apparently many of the men later had children which were deformed or had serious defects of one sort or another.
A Daily Mirror reporter has been very active in following the story with a view of getting compensation for the families.
The men were advised not to have children, some apparently did, and lived to regret it.
Alan, my brother and his wife didn't have kids. I think this gradually wore him down and that is why he turned to the Booze, which eventually killed him.
Sorry it's so long, but it was to get the full facts in.
Click to expand...
Different times when life was so much cheaper.
 
Davepick said:
In Ollygons 'Funny Funerals' thread I mentioned about my brother Alan and his funeral.
This is Alans' story.
He was in the Royal Navy from 1948/9 to as a regular. from 1948 to about 1962/3.
he served on a variety of ships.
In the early 1950s Australia agreed to allow GB to explode an ABomb off the NW coast of Australia,
near to the Monte Bello islands about 70 Ks away from the NW coast.
My Bro Alan was on a ship, a Destroyer I think.
When the hour came the crew were all told to stand on the deck and face away from the explosion.
After a time they were told they could turn round.
The bomb was exploded, and that was history.
I have researched the after effects of this bomb.
Apparently many of the men later had children which were deformed or had serious defects of one sort or another.
A Daily Mirror reporter has been very active in following the story with a view of getting compensation for the families.
The men were advised not to have children, some apparently did, and lived to regret it.
Alan, my brother and his wife didn't have kids. I think this gradually wore him down and that is why he turned to the Booze, which eventually killed him.
Sorry it's so long, but it was to get the full facts in.
Click to expand...
worldwarwings.com

Rare Footage Of An Vickers Valiant Dropping An Atomic Bomb

The U.K. Had Their Share Of Drops Too. Welcome to the 1950s. A wonderful time when countries were constantly testing nuclear weapons in the name of peace. Now that we got that out of the way, let's see what we got here. The U.S. and Russian nuclear tests range in the thousands, so the U.K. has a
worldwarwings.com worldwarwings.com

Scroll down to where it says operation grapple, the aircraft was a Valiant not a Vulcan.
 
Originaly the V bombers were built and painted silver, however we soon fell in line with the US and the Russians by having them painted in anti flash white, to reflect and thus reducing the effect of the inevitable blast.
This lasted into the sixties and another change this time to green/brown brought about by a change in tactics, very low flying to escape radar detection following the U2 spy plane brought down by a missile, supposedly flying at around 60,000 feet.
All our three class v bombers could fly at over 50,000 feet and were free from interference from missiles and MIG's untll the Garry Powers incident in 1960.
The RAF V Bombers then changed to low flying techniques.
 
Whitstabletangerine said:
The RAF V Bombers then changed to low flying techniques.
Click to expand...

But only the Vulcans could fulfil that low flying role. The airframes of the Valiant and Victor were not strong enough. So they transitioned into other roles, such as tankers and transport. My father flew around the world in a Vulcan in a “show the flag” expedition.
 
At 70 km distance the sailors would receive the intense light and a greatly reduced burst of gamma rays, a bit like a hospital X-ray exposure. I am not sure that is considered a risk to subsequent children in later years since sperm is regenerated continuously.

Those most at risk of radiation exposure were air crew ordered to fly through the zone after the bomb had gone off to collect samples of fallout from the cloud. And any ships that travelled into the zone soon after for inspection. But at the time knowledge was scant.

The vicious health risks to servicemen then were the chemical defoliants used on the jungles and crops in the Malayan Emergency of the early 50s (and later in Vietnam with Agent Orange) which being organophosphates did build up in the body and had long term effects.
 
Last edited:
I’ve an uncle who witnessed the Hiroshima bomb, was in the navy at the time and actually saw the mushroom cloud…he is still alive in his 90s and still lives local…
 
Archibald Knox said:
But only the Vulcans could fulfil that low flying role. The airframes of the Valiant and Victor were not strong enough. So they transitioned into other roles, such as tankers and transport. My father flew around the world in a Vulcan in a “show the flag” expedition.
Click to expand...
Yes they were originally built to fly high in thinner air, flying at low level in heavier air as you said caused problems with their wing sparrs although we did for a couple of years tackle low flying runs until the Ministry believed the cost of upgrading was far too costly, I then transferred from Valiants to Victors in '64.
 
Archibald Knox said:
At 70 km distance the sailors would receive the intense light and a greatly reduced burst of gamma rays, a bit like a hospital X-ray exposure. I am not sure that is considered a risk to subsequent children in later years since sperm is regenerated continuously
Click to expand...
The mutation damage is to the cells which produce sperm. As Dave said above, they were advised, even back then, not to have children.
 
Archibald Knox said:
At 70 km distance the sailors would receive the intense light and a greatly reduced burst of gamma rays, a bit like a hospital X-ray exposure. I am not sure that is considered a risk to subsequent children in later years since sperm is regenerated continuously.

Those most at risk of radiation exposure were air crew ordered to fly through the zone after the bomb had gone off to collect samples of fallout from the cloud. And any ships that travelled into the zone soon after for inspection. But at the time knowledge was scant.

The vicious health risks to servicemen then were the chemical defoliants used on the jungles and crops in the Malayan Emergency of the early 50s (and later in Vietnam with Agent Orange) which being organophosphates did build up in the body and had long term effects.
Click to expand...

In an update to the radiation comparison...

The radiation exposure from a chest X-Ray in hospital is reckoned to be about 2milli-Rem . Due to the higher energy of gamma rays from atomic bomb tests, some servicemen closer to the blast might have been estimated to have received a dose of up to 3 Rem, i.e. 3000 milli-Rem although most experienced a tiny percentage of that. For scale, a dose of >100 Rem will cause radiation sickness as a threat to life.

Obviously 3000 mRem is much higher than a chest X-Ray and with a large number of people, long term heath effects might be expected for some, on a statistical basis. However, detailed US studies of the long-term health (30+ years) of servicemen at atomic bomb tests show that excess cancers/deaths were not significant, except for the most radiation-sensitive cases of leukaemia where there was a small excess over that expected. However, the effects of low-level radiation exposure are still not fully understood.

Radiation Risk Studies in Military Populations - Epidemiology in Military and Veteran Populations - NCBI Bookshelf

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Last edited:
Archibald Knox said:
But even those cells are regenerated. It is reckoned that every cell in the human body is regenerated/replaced about every 7 years.
Click to expand...
You are correct, the cells regenerate. However, the damaged DNA copies itself into the new cells, so radiation damage can continue indefinitely.

Your figures for chest X-rays are with current equipment. Mass Xray machines from my early days gave you a much larger dose. When I first joined the Dairy industry some 40 odd years ago, we were screened every 2 years for TB. I shudder to think how much radiation we were exposed to over the years. Radiation induced health problems were highly significant in the 50s and 60s with machine operators, at least our mass X-rays were next generation.
 
Archibald Knox said:
At 70 km distance the sailors would receive the intense light and a greatly reduced burst of gamma rays, a bit like a hospital X-ray exposure. I am not sure that is considered a risk to subsequent children in later years since sperm is regenerated continuously.

Those most at risk of radiation exposure were air crew ordered to fly through the zone after the bomb had gone off to collect samples of fallout from the cloud. And any ships that travelled into the zone soon after for inspection. But at the time knowledge was scant.

The vicious health risks to servicemen then were the chemical defoliants used on the jungles and crops in the Malayan Emergency of the early 50s (and later in Vietnam with Agent Orange) which being organophosphates did build up in the body and had long term effects.
Click to expand...
You are wrong.
The fall-out has directly affected many of men at those tests.
Susie Boniface'of The Mirror' has been campaigning for years to get some recompense for the affected men.
It's only very recently that the Government has agreed to look into the whole after effect arEa.
Sadly, most of those affected, like my brother, are dead.
 
Whitstable. thanks for that.
That article, and many others, tells the truth of the aftermath of the A Bomb story.
It more or less tells a story of the suffering aftermath of the Nuclear explosions.
My Brother rarely mentioned at the time, but as years went on he became more and more reliant on booze.
Strangely I don't think he ever missed a day at work.
Eventually, one weekend, he took 2 bottles of spirits probably Rum, to bed and drank himself to death.
That was in the early 90s. He was 61 years old.
 
Davepick said:
Whitstable. thanks for that.
That article, and many others, tells the truth of the aftermath of the A Bomb story.
It more or less tells a story of the suffering aftermath of the Nuclear explosions.
My Brother rarely mentioned at the time, but as years went on he became more and more reliant on booze.
Strangely I don't think he ever missed a day at work.
Eventually, one weekend, he took 2 bottles of spirits probably Rum, to bed and drank himself to death.
That was in the early 90s. He was 61 years old.
Click to expand...
Without trivialising it, I think an episode of Call the Midwife dealt with an ex-serviceman and his wife having a disabled child as a result of the A bomb tests referred to.
 
CCFskiver said:
I believe the test veterans association is convening at the norbreck castle in September.
Click to expand...
There won't be many still alive.
I wonder if there are descendants of those who suffered.
My Bro was probably 31 at the time, so I would assume that there were many younger who were involved.
 
Anyone seen the film 'Threads'? I watched it the other night it is a horrific portrayal of what would happen should an nuclear attack happen here...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top