By Barry Fagg (This article was published in “The Haltonian” magazine the official RAF Halton Apprentices Association publication.)
Since its formation in 1983, The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA), has played a significant role in advocating for the recognition of UK nuclear test veterans. In 2022, the government announced a new award as veterans and politicians gathered to mark the 70th anniversary of the country’s first successful atomic test.
The Nuclear Test Medal was finally introduced in 2023 and is a commemorative medal awarded to UK Service and civilian personnel, plus individuals from other nations, who served at the locations where the UK atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted, including the preparatory and clear-up phases, between 1952 and 1967.
Unfortunately, this medal does not cover all of those involved in UK Nuclear Testing between 1952 and 1967, especially those Aircrew who were involved in secret nuclear missions to air sampling (known as sniffing) mushroom clouds of foreign nations. An example of this is Squadron Leader Patrick ‘Pete’ Peters, an ex-Canberra pilot, who at 93 was still seeking recognition and fighting for justice 70 years later.
He describes that in 1954 after an eight day hop from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire, two RAF Canberra’s arrived at the US base of Kwajalein in the Pacific under “Operation Bagpipes” to collect samples from US tests; on the way there two Canberra’s crashed with the loss of one crew. Pete chased the clouds of three nuclear weapons for a total of more than four hours, and then worked with the unit’s two dozen ground crew, to retrieve samples and instruments from the aircraft after tests, sending them back to Aldermaston for analysis.
He goes on to say: “There can be no more dangerous service for your country than flying through a nuclear maelstrom, in such secrecy your government would deny you were there”.
Sqn Ldr Peters says the rest of his unit has died from cancer, and while he survived a bowel tumour himself, he now has an incurable lung condition. Yet, being the last man standing from the crews of 1323 Flight and 540 Squadron who flew through the clouds of 13-megaton weapons, he was told that his service was not worth the new Nuclear Test Medal: “If I don’t get it, then the others who took part - including a crew lost in the Pacific don’t get it, the bloody medal criteria is wrong”.
However, with the assistance of the veteran’s group LABRATS and the Daily Mirror journalist Susie Boniface, who has been campaigning since 2002 for Atomic Veterans, the UK Government have relented and Sqn Ldr Peters was personally presented with his Nuclear Test Medal at his home by Alistair Carns, ‘Minister for Veterans and People’ at the Ministry for Defence on the 7th November 2024. Additionally, the MoD has announced that other British troops who served at US weapons tests between 1952 and 1967 can finally get the medal. It is hoped their medical issues can finally be included in long-term government studies of cancer rates in nuclear veterans.
Sqn Ldr Peters said: “They have recognised my service with a medal, but have not recognised that my cancer sits alongside it. They must reconcile the two.”
More interestingly for me, was the news that another MoD review has also begun into whether hundreds more veterans, who sampled French and Chinese nuclear weapons from 1966, can also be added to the Nuclear Test Medal eligibility criteria. In 1968, as a 543 Squadron Groundcrew, I spent three months in Lima, Peru, where the Victor B2SR aircraft of 543 squadron from RAF Wyton, flew through the Nuclear Clouds of the French Tests in the Pacific.
William Penney, the main scientist involved in the development of the UK’s own atomic weapons, said that samples gathered in ‘Operation Bagpipes’ were essential in helping to improve Britain’s own weapons. Penney had of course, successfully detonated the first British atomic bomb in 1952. As the head of the British delegation working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Laboratory in California, Penney initially carried out calculations to predict the damage effects generated by the blast wave of an atomic bomb, which included determining the detonation height of the device to achieve maximum effect. This work of course involved personnel being positioned in blast zones and many witnessed nuclear tests in close proximity to ground zero. These men were often exposed to high levels of radiation but issued with little, if any, protective equipment. After the tests, they were ordered to keep quiet about the horrors they had witnessed.
Unbeknown to many, RAF sampling of Nuclear Tests of foreign nations continued; first with 543 Sqn Victors, from 1966 to 1974, and then with 27 Sqn Vulcans at RAF Scampton from 1974 to 1982 and finally, with 101 Sqn VC10 Tankers at Brize Norton until May 2009, when a K3 was sent to Kadena Air Base, Japan, to collect information on a North Korean nuclear test.
My first posting out of Halton in August 1964 was to RAF Wyton on 543 Squadron, who were then operating Valiant’s in a Photo reconnaissance role. My experience on Valiant’s was short lived as six weeks later the 543 Valiant’s were grounded, due to cracks in the main wing spars and they were never to fly again. In May 1965 the first of nine modified Victor B2(SR) aircraft arrived, with the last aircraft being delivered in April 1966. As well as their photographic duties, the squadron's Victors increasingly concentrated on Maritime Radar Reconnaissance and an additional role of ‘upper atmospheric air sampling’.
In July 1968 I was approached by my Chief who said 543 squadron were sending two Victors on detachment with groundcrew support and he needed an Instrument NCO to volunteer to go. Where to and what duration the detachment would be he said he couldn’t say, and the next day I found myself on board a Brittania aircraft along with many others, to a destination unknown. Once over the pond and on our way to Goose Bay, we were all informed that we were going to Lima, Peru, to collect air samples of the French Nuclear Tests in the Pacific.
Detailed accounts of 543’s participation in Nuclear Cloud air sampling missions between 1971 and 1974 can be found online as follows: An aircrew’s account by Air Electronics Officer, Flight Lieutenant Mike Beer of 543 Squadron, of carrying out a Nuclear Cloud air sampling mission; (https://www.victorxm715.co.uk/operation-attune/): “We were marshalled into an area set aside for successful collection sorties and ‘hot’ aircraft. Only the Aircraft Servicing Chief was allowed to approach the aircraft. He swabbed the external intercom socket, ground power connection and door handle. We bagged our nav bags in poly bags and handed them to the Chief before climbing down the ladder. Gathering up all our equipment we waddled back to safety equipment. Everything was placed in a heap; we undressed and bagged our flying kit. All this was to be measured and monitored before we could use it again - in some cases destroyed”.
Another article by Tony Buttler, sheds light on collecting air samples after a nuclear test which was an important, but hazardous task for the crew, not least because of potential exposure to radiation and its possible effects in later years; (The Victor's little-known nuclear sampling role (key.aero): “Some radioactivity was detected on aircrew clothing, in particular on the arms and gloves, and aircrew were told not to wipe the aircraft’s skin. The Victors were flown through rain showers as often as possible to try and clean off the radioactive deposits. In the cockpit a selectable vacuum pump had been fitted to the air conditioning system. Once the atomic cloud was detected, it was switched on to provide further filtering of the air used for cabin pressurisation and conditioning. Mike Beer confirmed that: “It was not safe to fly for long periods”.
In a 2017 article; (V-Force Reconnaissance (key.aero)), Flt Lt Chris Long, another Victor 543 Squadron pilot recalls: “taxiing back to the hard standing at Lima with the groundcrew advancing towards us to begin work as usual, I suddenly saw them retreating as their detection equipment displayed high levels of radiation, sufficient to require a full aircraft decontamination wash first”.
My experience as groundcrew in Lima was three years earlier in 1968. As I waited alongside the marshaller for the return of the first Victor which had successfully flown through a French Nuclear Test Cloud, we were joined by a representative from the Aldermaston contingent with radiation monitor in hand.
I witnessed, as he carried out a ‘Press to Test’ to confirm serviceability of the monitor: “The aircraft approached and stopped, chocks were in, and the crew chief opened the cockpit door and began to carry out his acceptance tasks. The Aldermaston representative switched his monitor on and I saw the concerned look on his face as the pointer went full scale. We then began to walk backwards until the monitor pointer backed off the full scale stop and began to give a reading. Noting the distance we had walked; I immediately came to a conclusion that this was not a good situation and began to walk back to our temporary office, giving the aircraft a wide berth. I cringed as I saw my SAC Instrument Mechanic disappearing up into the bomb bay through a hatch he had removed, to get the Fatigue Meter readings. I also witnessed the Engine technician with his head in the intakes carrying out an inspection of the engine.”
Aware of the high radiation readings, concerns were immediately raised by groundcrew with regards to safety, only to be told by the lead Aldermaston representative that: “don’t worry, this stuff just washes off”.
There had been no safety briefings on how to service aircraft that had flown through nuclear clouds. I was at the time along with many others, simply a layperson with regards to radiation levels of Alpha, Beta and Gamma rays, notwithstanding the possible implications on health.
Six weeks into the detachment and whilst in our makeshift cargo shed crew room, the Aldermaston representative reappeared, complete with his radiation monitor, and he began scanning the area. Suddenly he got a high reading from the electric kettle! Further investigation revealed it was not the kettle but the metal barrel it was on that was “hot”. Removing the lid revealed the barrel was full of soiled denims. How long had the contaminated clothing been in the ‘unmarked’ barrel, nobody knew. The safety standards were slack if not non-existent.
Furthermore, halfway through the detachment it was decided to introduce guard duties on the contaminated aircraft, to prevent the local Peruvian airport workforce getting near to or touching the aircraft. This involved sitting in a Land Rover, parked between the two contaminated Victors, for a 12-hour night shift. Why we suddenly began guarding the aircraft was a mystery to me at the time, but in hindsight and by reference to 1966–70 French nuclear tests - Wikipedia, there were five tests carried out in 1968, with the first three yield’s being in kt’s and the last two being 2.6Mt and 1.3Mt, which explained all.
I was glad to see the end of the detachment and to return to RAF Wyton after three months in Peru. Following a spell of leave I returned to work and it was though nothing had changed; everyone was going about their business as normal. Had the aircraft been washed and decontaminated, and if so by who? The only visual evidence of the Peru detachment, was that the aircraft Sextants and Periscopes had radiation readings written on them in yellow opaque lacquer.
In 1969, I was posted to RAF Changi and my RAF Wyton experience became a distant memory. However, many years later, while on a nostalgia trip and searching the internet, I came across a web site called PPRuNe, and was alarmed by a forum thread called; ‘Ex-543 Sqn Concerns’, which started with the following statement: “I have just received a very disturbing email from an old colleague who served on 543 Squadron. Not to put too fine a point on it and to get straight the point, it seems that there is an unbelievably high incidence of various forms of cancer rearing its ugly head among ex Squadron members, both ground and air crews, particularly among those of us who were unlucky enough to have to work on, fly in, or clean aircraft which had been detached to Peru air sampling after the various atomic tests which took place in the South Pacific late 60s, early 70s.”
I took note of this and my first thought was for my former 543 Sqn roommate Roy (ex-Boy Entrant) who had recently been operated on and treated for bladder cancer. I had eliminated any link to the cause of his cancer with 543 sqn, as he had left RAF Wyton before I went on the first Peru Nuclear sampling detachment in 1968. Years later, and with the issue of Nuclear Test Medal, my interest was rekindled in that I became aware of an archived article in the Guardian dated 2010 in which it stated: “Airmen and ground crew from RAF 543 Squadron were also contaminated after flights through French and Chinese nuclear explosions between 1966 and 1974. According to veterans, only ten of them, or their widows, have been awarded pensions by the MoD for cancers they contracted.”
My first response was that I noted the dates between 1966 and 1974, as I had thought that 543 sqn nuclear cloud sampling began in 1968 with the Peru detachment.
Following a conversation with Roy who lives in Arizona, and is now suffering from skin cancer identified as related to radiation exposure, he said that he was surprised to learn that I had no idea that 543 sqn were already monitoring Chinese Tests from 1966: “Remember the aircraft washes we carried out; they were in fact decontaminating procedures!” Following a further conversation with another 543 sqn colleague, an engine fitter, he too was unaware of this fact. In hindsight, 543 sqn groundcrew were working on ‘Hot’ aircraft and we didn’t know. Was it ignorance, naivety or was it because no one ever discussed what the missions were? – Obviously the Official Secrets Act had an influence, especially at RAF Wyton.
One of the 543 sqn nuclear veterans who were awarded pensions was Colin Duncan, (ex-Boy Entrant) who is on a personal mission to get 543 sqn members a medal: “I have a vested interest in this, I was detached to Peru operating from the civilian airport and I was part of the ground crew. We had no protective clothing at all. The aircraft were highly radioactive once flown through the 'H' bomb cloud. Some 40 years later, I found I had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma on the spleen and one Thyroid not as it should be”.
As stated previously 543 sqn was not alone in ‘sniffing’ operations and by reference to the PPRuNe web-site threads, other relevant comments can be found such as: “I remember in the mid '70s as an 18-year-old engine mechanic, removing engines from ‘hot’ 27 Sqn Vulcans at Scampton in the hangar, after they'd been washed. Our hands and denims were checked with giga-counters which went off the scale, (the dirt and grime which accumulated around the engines attracted a great deal of contamination). We were sent back to the barracks to shower and change denims, when we came back, we were checked again. If the readings were too high, we were simply sent away to shower again and told to take the rest of the day off, as they didn't know what else to do with us”.
Penney knew more than anyone else about the production of nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 50s, with a recognised expertise to accurately model the outgoing shock waves from the atomic explosion itself, to maximise the destruction from the blast. According to an article in the New Scientist 2017, his fellow scientists on the Manhattan Project called him the ‘smiling killer’ because he maintained his amiable grin even as he lectured on how to maximise the death toll from nuclear blasts.
In a newspaper article in 2012, Ralph Gray, Penney's own batman said he and the top military brass left the area before the biggest bomb exploded in the South Pacific because scientists admitted: “they didn't have a clue what would happen. Penney scarpered somewhere safe and only came back in the evening, hours after the bomb. At the same time several thousand servicemen, not told of the dangers, were ordered to stand and watch the detonation from only a few miles away”.
He left large areas in Australia contaminated and the long-term consequences for both the Aboriginal people and service personnel have been disastrous. His preference of using RAF aircraft to sniff nuclear test clouds never diminished and it is obvious he knew the risks and consequences for those service personnel involved. He never produced memoirs, and burned all his papers shortly before his death in 1991. There is no biography, few direct quotes on the public record, and much of his work remains an official secret to this day.
Looking back throughout my life, I have been connected to Penney in some form or other a few times. First of all, I attended Sheerness Technical School whose most famous student was Penney. There is of course my experience with Nuclear Test Sampling and on leaving the RAF, I found employment with a company who had won the contract to produce documentation for the A90 building at AWRE Aldermaston. This buildings’ external structure was basically a copy of the Los Alamos building where Penney had worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer. One of my many tasks was to document the glovebox which contained the Polish and Abrade appliance, which machined the fissile material to a high standard finish to achieve a perfect ‘Golden Bucket of Sunshine’. Now, I find myself writing this article about Penney and his appalling legacy on RAF personnel, including many Trenchard Brats, who as aircrew flew in, or as groundcrew worked on aircraft involved in sniffing of Nuclear Tests clouds.
A Penney for your thoughts!!
Additional Information
Work is underway to include the French and Chinese Nuclear Tests within the criteria for an NTV Medal. The American sampling missions have now been included and Sqrn Ldr Peters received his medal personally from the Veterans Minister Alistair Carns before Remembrance Day in November 2024. (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/about-bloody-time-nuke-test-34063515)
LABRATS continue to advocate for this extension to the NTV Medal criteria and are hopeful that it will be extended under this Labour government as the previous Conservative government refused to undertake the review.
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