Canberra WH949 – Maralinga Atomic Test Connection??

Hi RedHill Wings,
During my mob early years late 1962 to early 65 was spent on 4 JSTU at Edinburgh Field ,Adelaide as a fitter on Victor XL 161 carrying out Blue Steel test Drops over same Ranges. Although this was a later time than your uncle was involved,we did get spin offs from other personnel there about those trials times. One corner of our main hanger at Edinburgh Field was a white area with strange toilets and showers and rooms and this was where the Aircraft crews got de-contaminated. To my knowledge this was Canberra’s and Valiant Aircraft, but I have no other facts or figures, you have to remember we all were under UK Official Secrets Act and anyone found with notes or pics. or talking to media. really was in for a lengthy term of imprisonment once back in UK. I cannot remember where the Aircraft were de-contaminated, but the most likely place would have been down at South end of Airfield where there was a peri track connection to what was known as the “Submarine Blast Pens”. ( To us anyway ) that was surrounded by a hefty hawser netting fence. This was used for loading our Aircraft with “Blue Steels” but I’m sure it was erected long before we arrived there. It had a wash down facility, which was needed for us too in case of missile Fuel leakage. (Which it did ). I think this facility was removed/bulldozed after we left Aussie, as cannot see anything of it on Google maps.

Hope this is of some relevance for you.

Bill T.

Agreed, it does look a little “montaged” period done I guess, there seems to be very little photo evidence of the Canberras used in the trails at least on the web.

Very real photo of Canberra, and another of the mushroom cloud, but look at the shadows on the fuselage and tail and try and convince me otherwise that it is actually one genuine image.

Very real photo of Canberra, and another of the mushroom cloud, but look at the shadows on the fuselage and tail and try and convince me otherwise that it is actually one genuine image.

I found this image on the net with a credit from the RAF Museum, not sure if it is real or not?

WH949 was used by 542 Sqn in Australia on a nuclear intelligence sampling programme. It was briefly assigned to 76 Sqn when the programme terminated, but never saw service at Maralinga. The full story of 542 Sqn operations in Australia is described in “Sniffing and Bottling: 1323 Flight and its successors”, available from lulu.com.

Thanks to everyone for their help, I feel things are beginning to check out.

My uncle “Tom” never talked about the details of the atomic tests in Australia infact he actually went missing during this time (as far as the family were concerned anyway) but it turned out he was taking part in the atomic tests. The only connection with Maralinga is purely based on my own research, as far as I can tell it was only Maralinga where the bombs were released from aircraft but I am not sure where these aircraft were based, the other tests carried out at Emu were I believe dropped from pylons. I am in the process of getting my uncles service record from the MoD but I doubt it will detail much to do with the atomic tests. I can only assume that he was one of the ones that watched the proceedings, he is no longer with us to ask unfortunately.

Are there any photos of the British Atomic Test aircraft from Austrailia? especially the canberras.

I found the following extract on the web…

WH949 was used by 542 Sqn in Australia on a nuclear intelligence sampling programme. It was briefly assigned to 76 Sqn when the programme terminated, but never saw service at Maralinga. The full story of 542 Sqn operations in Australia is described in “Sniffing and Bottling: 1323 Flight and its successors”, available from lulu.com.

…Indeed some of the RAAF Lincolns (on the same sort of job) were so hot that they were simply ‘sunk at sea’!!!!…

(Four exclamation marks – surely a sign of madness?;o)

They would have been not the only ones. Grumman Avengers on board HMS Warrior (the operations control ship) were involved in the Grapple 1-3 tests as part of the collecting samples and ferrying them back for testing; they were ditched overboard after the carrier sailed for home.
[There were initially three Avengers allocated to Warriors ships flight – XB320 998/J, XB386 997/J, and XB439 996/J – but XB320 lost power on take off2/5/1957, ditching in the Pacific close to the carrier. XB386 suffered a heavy landing after failing to flare out and bouncing before taking the wire, 3/3/1957, and being judged beyond repair. Both XB386 and XB439 were disposed of by catapulting overboard 27/7/1957, as both were apparently contaminated (even though XB386 was not airworthy by the time the artificial sunshine lit up) and it wasn’t worth transporting them home only to decontaminate them before scrapping both. XB386 was marked Aloha and XB439 was marked SNLR – Subject No Longer Required.
Don’t know anything about the Dragonflies and Whirlwinds also used.
Interesting thought: the ‘fin code’ J had been allocated to HMS Warrior but was reallocated to HMS Eagle, yet in 1956-57 was, at the same time, in use again on Warrior.]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]249725[/ATTACH]
One of the contaminated Avengers being ditched at sea

[ATTACH=CONFIG]249726[/ATTACH]
Avenger XB386, marked Aloha on the side, after being ditched

I am advised, on good authority (recently retired Senior Officer and one-time member of MRF) of the following:-

The RAF Historical Society held a seminar on all RAF ‘things nuclear’ about a year ago at the RAF Museum. I was unable to attend but the Journal included some very interesting articles on the tests ‘down under’ mostly written by the planners and the crews that took part.

I am not aware of any MRF involvement but the ‘full-time’ MRF Canberra at the time would have been*WJ582.

Best I can do

Resmoroh

redhillwings, hi,
Much of the post explosion air sampling in/around Australia was carried out by UK based Shackletons (I have some patchy notes somewhere as to which a/c and/or crews were involved) – with hastily added ‘Met’ kit plumbed in and using 202 Sqn Air Met Observers. They must have got quite ‘hot’? Indeed some of the RAAF Lincolns (on the same sort of job) were so hot that they were simply ‘sunk at sea’!!!! These latter were initially washed-down by RAAF personnel wearing nothing more protective than boots, socks, and shorts!!!!!! So much for Elf & Safety!
Some Canberras (or a Canberra?) may have been used for much higher level sampling? They certainly were for later atomic tests (both ‘Ours’, and ‘Theirs’!). The various OPs AROMA will cover this aspect!
“Red Beard” was, I think, the UK’s first tactical nuclear weapon. It was designed to go in (inter alia) a Canberra.
HTH
Resmoroh
PS There was also a Varsity involved (possibly WF425 of the Met Research Flight). And if MRF were involved then their Canberra may have been?

Oddly enough the use of Canberras to gather fallout was mentioned in a discussion at work yesterday as to why some ex RAF sites are being sold off and not others. One of my colleagues explained that one particular site is never likely to be sold with the phrase “Because my father buried the Canberra’s used in the nuke tests there”. I shall add this to list of buried aircraft stories.:D