Return to nuke test hell
‘Guinea pigs’ set to mark 60yrs since Christmas Island blasts
FOUR men who survived Britain’s Cold War nuclear bomb tests are returning to the South Pacific atoll that changed their lives for ever.
Army veterans Ron Watson, Leslie Hawkins, Robert McCann and Ray Carbery will mark 60 years since they say the Government exposed them to radioactive fallout at Christmas Island.
They recalled having to put their hands over their eyes as a nuke 100 times more powerful than the one which flattened Hiroshima was set off.
Former Royal Engineer Mr Watson, 79, organised the trip. He said the tests “changed my life totally”.
He added: “I lost all my teeth within two years, had a thyroid tumour and my wife had two stillbirths.”
The veterans are taking gifts for the poverty-stricken people who still live on the South Pacific island. They also plan a memorial service for the 22,000 National Servicemen ordered into danger by their governments – and the locals who had no choice.
Ex-aircraft mechanic Mr Hawkins, 81, added: “Britain tries to forget about it when we owe those islanders a debt.
“Us men were able to come home, and we’ve got problems. They had no choice, and they’ve had to live with it.”
The vets will stay on the island to mark the April 28 anniversary of Britain’s biggest nuclear explosion in 1958.
It was part of Operation Grapple, which established the UK as a fully fledged nuclear power after the war.
Mr McCann, 79, said the Grapple Y explosion went off too low and sucked up thousands of gallons of seawater into the giant mushroom cloud.
He added: “It rained afterwards on the island. Not real rain, more a river from the sky.” Many men suffered leukaemia in later life, it is claimed.
Mr Carbery, 80, said: “Out of the 12 in my unit, half died of blood cancer.”