British nuclear test in Australia 1953

The Mustangs have been documented.
Found, one repaired, flown out and became a Reno-Racer. Quite a story. (The Aus CAA Head said they could fly it out to Adelaide, as long as he did the subsequent test flight. Why? He did the initial flight from the factory in the 40’s) Google is your friend (Emu Field, Mustangs)

For the uninitiated, who have not been to Maralinga or Emu Field, please leave the subject of contamination of personnel and their subsequent health issues for another Topic.

This is an Aeroplane forum.

In the book Lincoln Canberra and F-111 in Australian Service by Stewart Wilson there is quite a bit of useful information on Operation Hurricane and the aircraft used. Thankfully I have a copy at hand that might be able to answer the original question. The following is taken from the book:

“The RAAF contribution was air communications, security patrols, meteorological flights, coastal monitoring reconnaissance, post event transport and atomic cloud sampling.”

“Lincolns and Dakota transports were allocated to the operation and ncluded eight 82 Wing (6 Squadron) Lincolns deployed to Broome, five Lincolns from 10 Sqn which operated from their usual base at Townsville on the other side of the continent and two Dakotas at Onslow. Of the 6 Sqn Lincolns at Broome, five were allocated to cloud sampling by flying across the path of the cloud, one made a pre-explosion sortie, one made a flight 500 miles to the west of Broome on the morning of the blast to test wind conditions and the remaining Lincoln was a back up aircraft used to carry radioactive samples from broome to Darwin and to convey scientists from Broom to Townsville. The 10 Sqn aircraft were used for cloud tracking and sampling. For the record, the Townsville Lincolns involved were A73-5 (Wg Cdr Garrison), A73-6 (W/Off Bevan), A73-10 (Sqn Cdr Dallywater/Flt Lt Isaacs), A73-26 (Wg Cdr Hampshire/Flt Lt Isaacs) and A73-27 (Sqn Ldr Cairns DFC); Official records state that all of these plus three of 82 Wing’s aircraft entered the cloud.”

“On returning to Amberley the Lincolns went directly to No.3 Aircraft Depot (instead of back to the Wing) where the cannisters were unloaded and the aircraft then returned to the flight line within hours. It’s interesting to note that at no stage did any of the air or ground crews wear any protective clothing when flying through the cloud or handling the cannisters.”

On ADF Serials, which Peter Davies has kindly added info from and a link, the Lincolns Wilson mentions in the book all were listed for disposal in 1959, so saw further service for a number of years after Hurricane. A73-27’s cockpit section survives at the Camden Aviation Museum.

This also from Wilson:

“At the conclusion of Operation ‘Totem’ [at Emu, where the Mustangs were anchored to the ground some distance from Ground Zero] it was discovered that nine of the 12 Lincolns used had been contaminated and eight required ‘special procedures’. Four of these – A73-25, 47, 52 and 54 were classified ‘Highly Contaminated’, never flew again and were parked on a well out of the way area at Amberley with large crosses painted on them.” Worth checking out their fates on ADF serials.

And of ground crews, clad only in shorts, boots and socks trying to decontaminate the aircraft by hosing down and scrubbing them.

That is exactly the same protective gear my father had for Operation Grapple in 56. After flying the exclusion zone in a 206 Squadron Shackleton he was ground based when the bomb went off. He died aged 76 from multiple myeloma. His oncologist said the cause of the myeloma was uncertain and could be unconnected with any radiation exposure my father might have received.

These excerpts from his letter home perhaps sum up the experience for many personnel involved in these tests. How lucky was that Liberian ship?

Could you look at the link already posted by Twin Otter http://bntva.com/ it deals with the subject.

That’s not what he was getting at ! Meddle’s reference was to the possibility of obtaining SIGNIFICANT compensation in the event that the claimant has made it to relative old age and is still breathing, albeit with difficulty !

At the risk of sounding droll, and to use your uncle as a prime example, if you are still alive by this stage of the game you probably don’t have much of a claim. All the potential claimants must be in their seventies and eighties by now? :very_drunk:

A rather crass comment in my view. Exposure to radiation can leave a person with long-term health issues. And cancers can be operated on. So just because someone has made it to relatively old age, doesn’t mean that they have not had significant health problems.

Re 16

No, you didn’t but, that appeared to be your implication.

Many British test veterans are still fighting for compensation http://bntva.com/

History shows that there would instantly be hundreds of claims for radiation exposure from people who once walked past where the airframes had been stored years earlier, etc – despite the airframes not actually being “hot” by the time they left military custody.

At the risk of sounding droll, and to use your uncle as a prime example, if you are still alive by this stage of the game you probably don’t have much of a claim. All the potential claimants must be in their seventies and eighties by now? :very_drunk:

When I made my curtly worded post earlier in this thread, I was more surprised at how the topic in question was not being addressed objectively. Rather, it would appear that it is still a hotbed issue for alertken (whose credentials as a forum poster I know not), and that any further discussion might result in OAPs lining up to win the ‘I was irradiated’ bingo in the next few days. Given that Operation Hurricane was carried out 62 years ago this all seems like ancient history worthy of a frank discussion without any toes getting trodden on. :confused:

If I cannot go for a walk along Dalgety Bay because a few wee nstrument panels were smashed up in the vacinity then it seems strange to hop to the other extreme and try and gloss over the issue that, perhaps, irradiated airframes were pitched into the surf off the coast of Australia.

Re Post #13

In an interview with Mr Don Handcock (one of the Australian Met Officers on the tests in the 1950’s) he said to the Australian Met Bureau interviewer:-

The RAF had a long history of meteorological reconnaissance for conventional weather reporting and also research. The RAAF had no such history. Long after the event, when concerns about the health of participants started to appear there were accounts in the press of RAAF Lincolns carrying sampling equipment being flown through the bomb clouds by crews wearing summer uniforms with oxygen masks their only protection. And of ground crews, clad only in shorts, boots and socks trying to decontaminate the aircraft by hosing down and scrubbing them. And of the Lincolns remaining so radioactive that they were taken by ship to deep water and there dumped.

He mentions Shackletons and Canberras as some of the UK aircraft. 202 (Met) Sqn Hastings’ may also have been involved.

See also
http://www.adf-serials.com/2a73.htm
A73-5
A73-6
A73-10
A73-21
A73-25
A73-26
A73-27
A73-37
A73-40
A73-41
A73-47
A73-52
A73-53
A73-54
A73-56

HTH

Peter Davies

I did not say that it did!

Re 7

All of that while no doubt correct, does not put the contributor or, anyone else for that matter, beyond sensible criticism.

Regarding the RAAF aircraft during Hurricane. It’s well documented that the RAAF did not initially appreciate the dangers of contamination (little info from UK scientists), and some “hot” aircraft (Lincolns) remained in service for days (possibly weeks?) afterwards. I believe the aircraft were all disposed of once the issue was understood. Asking what happened to the aircraft seems like a perfectly reasonable question. The Australians had a big public inquiry into UK nuclear trials back in the 1980s (Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia) which looked at the issue in some detail. I’d assume the fate of aircraft might have been recorded there. (The inquiry proceeding are contained in DEFE 16 in the National Archives – unfortunately un-indexed, so not that easy to work through)

If you search on the web for “Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia” you will find the report of the commission in PDF form. Includes details of RAAF operations during UK tests. No serials that I could see though.

One of my father’s brothers was in the US Army in the late 1940s – he was one of those ordered to sit in a trench in the Nevada desert with goggles on and his back to one specific side. Pretty soon there was a very loud sound, followed by a wave of hot air and dust blowing over them – then came the shadow… a mushroom-shaped cloud shadow.

And yes, he developed cancer in the 1970s, dying in the early 1980s.

As for alertken’s comment

There is no mileage in pursuing where this kit was later operated, then scrapped. You could track ships and aircraft identities, then follow through enthusiasts’ sites to their end…but why? All you would do is upset people and trigger vexatious claims.

History shows that there would instantly be hundreds of claims for radiation exposure from people who once walked past where the airframes had been stored years earlier, etc – despite the airframes not actually being “hot” by the time they left military custody.

As shown in other UK tests in Australia, any equipment that was still “hot” by the time the testing was over was dropped in a pit on the test range and buried… including several airframes. In this case, they would have likely dumped them into the ocean.

Yes….. well.. My Uncle ( Norman Willis) , as a young National Serviceman, was one of those pictured ( unprotected) in the foreground of one of the publicly released shots of that explosion.
Died of cancer many years ago.
No proven connection of course.
As of course, there isn’t with that of later premature deaths ( including my first wife of cancer at 38 ) of some the early Concorde cabin crew, who spent years in the largely radiologically unshielded main fuselage,going back and forth across the Atlantic at high altitude for several years. Just an uneasy feeling.

I wasn’t suggesting that you should know ahead of schedule; but WADR a simple statement of “Pathetic.” isn’t the most constructive of responses.

You could always check via his ‘Profile’ or the ‘Forum Posts’ option!

Could I respectfully suggest that you acquaint yourself with alertken’s knowledgeable, succinct and insightful style of posting – he’s an asset to the forum.

How am I meant to know this ahead of schedule? This forum appears to run as a closed shop.

More for you Daniel and a hunt for you ?

http://www.pprune.org/pacific-general-aviation-questions/299761-mustangs-maralinga.html

Murray Cod

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: australia
Posts: 55
free mustang
I was there about a year ago and the caretaker seems to think that one was bulldozed and buried out ther somewhere.

Daniel, wasn’t one of the Mustangs flying in Australia one of the radioactive ones?

Btw were these involved? See

http://www.adelaidehillsmagazine.com.au/newsletter.php?key=IBFLx1OvgZmQ

Could I respectfully suggest that you acquaint yourself with alertken’s knowledgeable, succinct and insightful style of posting – he’s an asset to the forum.