Britain's Atomic Bomb Scandal

[Randy Winkman]

Anyone see this on C4 last night? About the medial effects on those that were close to the atomic bomb tests in Australia and the Pacific Islands in the 1950s. Both UK service people and locals. And then the offspring of those people. The ongoing British government response "nobody was harmed" does seem far fetched and stands apart from other countries.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-atomi...

Even if people dont want to get mixed up in the emotive stuff, the descriptions of actually being there and experiencing it are worth hearing. Those are near the start.

[Chaffs]

Thank you for highlighting this was on. My dad was at Maralinga for Operation Antler. We still have several photos of the bombs. Thankfully he’s still going strong - well strong for 87 - but the last of everyone he kept in touch with passed a good 35 years ago.

Edited by Chaffs on Wednesday 18th September 19:39

[hondajack85]

Interesting fact if you choose to accept it.
USA and all its superhero comics, where anyone that got a hugh dose of radiation turned into a superhero, was really a clever way
to whitewash the hidious nature of thier crimes against humanity.
Well done stan lee.
Obviously UK with things like the beano and dandy being no use, just chose to totally ignore everything and hide the facts.

[Randy Winkman]

Chaffs said:

Thank you for highlighting this was on. My dad was at Maralinga for Operation Antler. We still have several photos of the bombs. Thankfully he’s still going strong - well strong for 87 - but the last of everyone he kept in touch with passed a good 35 years ago.

Edited by Chaffs on Wednesday 18th September 19:39

It's great that he is still doing well. The bits about people's experiences of the bombs actually going off was quiet eye opening. No pun intended.

[Eric Mc]

hondajack85 said:

Interesting fact if you choose to accept it.

Obviously UK with things like the beano and dandy being no use, just chose to totally ignore everything and hide the facts.

You do know that the UK had loads more comics than just the Beano and Dandy. Boy's action comics were massively popular - full of war stories, motor racing stories, football stories etc etc.

There were even a few stories which featured heroes with special powers.

[Chaffs]

Randy Winkman said:

It's great that he is still doing well. The bits about people's experiences of the bombs actually going off was quiet eye opening. No pun intended.

Cheers - the tale he always shares is that they used to send up planes to fly through the cloud to take sample. Once back, they used to have to wash the planes down by hand in their shorts and sandals. He absolutely loved his time out there but I think he now realised how lucky he is!

[Randy Winkman]

Chaffs said:

Randy Winkman said:

It's great that he is still doing well. The bits about people's experiences of the bombs actually going off was quiet eye opening. No pun intended.

Cheers - the tale he always shares is that they used to send up planes to fly through the cloud to take sample. Once back, they used to have to wash the planes down by hand in their shorts and sandals. He absolutely loved his time out there but I think he now realised how lucky he is!

Was he actually in the armed forces by choice or on national service? The programme demonstrated the unfairness of where people were posted on the latter. My late father quite enjoyed his in the UK doing stuff that was pretty risk free and getting to know a few other keen footballers he kept in touch with afterwards. One of his mates in later life told him about how he did national service based in Cyprus doing stuff where he was genuinely in danger.

[bnseven]

Bit late spotting this thread. My Dad was on Christmas island in 57 for operation grapple and ran the military hospital there. He actually enlisted as an alternative to national service as he didn't fancy peeling potatoes in Catterick for two years so joined the RAF and spent most of his service out in the pacific. He still loves to tell stories of weekends on leave in Honolulu and flying back via San Francisco and Idlewild, all very exotic for a bloke from a pit village in county Durham in the 50's.

Hes 91 next month and reckons he saw 7 hydrogen detonations, he was delighted to get his medal but as he pointed out to me, most of the servicemen would have been dead by the time it was issued as he was in his 80's by then.....