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Double daylight

The horrors of British atomic testing
by
October 2023, no. 458

Operation Hurricane: The story of Britain’s first atomic test in Australia and the legacy that remains by Paul Grace

Hachette, $34.99 pb, 367 pp

Double daylight

The horrors of British atomic testing
by
October 2023, no. 458

In April 1952, during the long voyage from Portsmouth around the Cape to the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia, HMS Narvik and HMS Zeebrugge anchored at the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. After a slow, lurching trip, the palmy islands and their azure seas were a tonic. There, the crew of the British ships met for the first time with the legendary RAAF No. 2 Airfield Construction Squadron that had built the Woomera rocket range in South Australia and was then building a civil airport on the islands. Five British crew decided, against an explicit order from the Australian Commander, to take a swim. In the treacherous reef waters, they quickly got into trouble and RAAF servicemen went to rescue them. The Prologue to Operation Hurricane gives a harrowing account of how three men drowned: one of the Brits and two of the Australian rescuers.

This tragic augury hangs over the story and sets the scene for the horror and the folly of British atomic tests in Australia. Narvik and Zeebrugge continued their journey and would, in six months’ time, be part of the small flotilla present for Britain’s first atomic weapon test at Montebello.

Operation Hurricane: The story of Britain’s first atomic test in Australia and the legacy that remains

Operation Hurricane: The story of Britain’s first atomic test in Australia and the legacy that remains

by Paul Grace

Hachette, $34.99 pb, 367 pp

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Comment (1)

  • By a surprising coincidence, Paul Grace’s grandfather was the pilot of several RAAF C47-Dakotas operated as a detachment of 86 Wing at Onslow during the 1952 British Atomic Tests on the Montebello Island group. My father, Flight Lieutenant John “Jack” Finlay, navigated for Flight Lieutenant Ron Grace on a regular basis, and a photo in the book shows Dad and Ron, along with two other RAAF officers, on site in Onslow. Thus, it was with intense interest that I devoured Paul’s thoroughly researched book, which deals with a myriad of controversial topics concerning this hitherto confidential subject. Consisting of research into formerly classified government documents and first-person accounts from many surviving civiliian and defence personnel, the 348- page book from Hachette Australia is an absorbing, soft-cover account of the events leading up to and beyond the vaporisation of surplus Royal Navy frigate, HMS Plym, in Britain’s first atomic experiment.
    Posted by Peter Finlay
    09 February 2024

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