H-bomb guinea pigs

AS WELL as the Cold War pilots (Letters), another group has been ignored by successive governments: the British nuclear test veterans.

I was called up as a National Serviceman into the royal Engineers and in 1957 found myself in the middle of the Pacific ocean, doing groundwork for the H-bomb tests. The conditions were so bad that as ‘we were working and living in arduous conditions’, our reward was 200 free cigarettes a month and a tot of rum now and again.

on the day of the test, someone in a protective suit told us we had nothing to worry about. We were not given protection and were told to sit with our backs to the test, close our eyes and cover them with our hands.

We felt the heat and flash from the explosion. We were told to stand and turn to observe the fireball.

It was then that we got the bang and blast, which blew a lot of lads off their feet.

A number of veterans have since died from leukaemia, which experts say can be brought about by exposure to ionized radiation.

GraHaM LeNCH, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.