NUCLEAR BOMB RESEARCH
In 1958 I was posted to Pukaki as a 19 year old Able Seaman radar operator. She was deployed twice to Christmas Island that year and witnessed five nuclear bomb tests. At Christmas Island, being a radar operator, I joined the Royal Navy Met team to track the weather ballons. It was an interesting job. The weather balloons were released every six hours GMT. Christmas Island time was six hours ahead of Greenwich. I had to track the ballon for at least an hour by which time it would has reached 60,000 feet. If the balloon failed to reach 60,000 feet the process had to be repeated. I soon learnt how to make a balloon that failed just short of 60,000 feet to reach those last few thousand feet. The weather reports commenced with the launch position. We were told by our officers that we were quite safe as we would be far from the bomb tests.
When the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veteran’s Association was established in Palmerston North in the 90’s, I attended their meeting to see what these rabble were up to.
After the meeting I asked the Secretary, Roy Sefton, how far were we from each nuclear bombs? He did not know, so I decided to find out.
I searched the UK National Archives and found the Royal Navy’s final report of Operation Grapple. This was fantastic because, in any operation it begins with a plan. Then there were monthly reports, and at the end there would be a final report to say ‘What a great team we were’ if all went well. If it didn’t the report would say someone else was to blame.
So, I paid a ten pound deposit and waited. A week later Archives emailed me to say that the file had been withdrawn by the Ministry of Defence and my deposit was refunded. That was the first time that I sensed a ‘coverup’.
The first of 21 nuclear bomb tests was an Atomic bomb tested at the Montibello Islands off Western Australia. They then moved ashore to Maralinga in South Australia. When Britain asked Prime Minister Menzies if they could begin testing Hydrogen bombs the answer was no.
So they turned to New Zealand with proposal to use Roaul Island as a Target.
Prime Minister Holland, having interviewed Commander Carey who had witnessed a bomb test at Maralinga, also said No.
The New Zealand Chief of Naval Staff, who was a RN officer on loan, then spoke to Sid Holland and remined him that New Zealand had withdrawn the Royalist from the invasion of Suez and said “Are you for us or against us?”
So, Sid Holland reluctantly agreed to provide two frigates to carry out wind finding.
The Chief of Naval Staff told his Chief Yeoman that they would never be within 200 miles of a bomb. Both New Zealand ships never went more than 120 miles from a bomb test and Pukaki went as close as 20 miles.
Several New Zealand veterans had asked NZDEF if they could see the frigate’s log books or Reports of Proceedings. The reply was that they did not have those items. In the 1960’s there was a need for another office. The Office Manager then emptied the room to a jumbo bin.
When I was gathering information about Operation Grapple, I saw an email to the London Met office from someone asking for Christmas Island surface wind direction and speed on nine dates.
The Met office replied that he needed the upper winds and that one of the dates was wrong. The Met officer had clearly been at Christmas Island. Having worked with a met team at Christmas Island, I knew exactly what was been asked for.
So, I asked for that information too.
Later when I was considering the information that I had gathered I looked at the fallout pattern using a search and rescue pattern of a 30 degree downwind arc. But then it occurred to me that NATO has manuals for everything. I soon found their manual for nuclear fallout was unclassified. So I bought one and wrote a report in November 2002 titled OPERATION GRAPLE, A study of RNZN ship movements in relation to nuclear fallout patterns during Operation Grapple. The report has nine annexes describing how each of the Operation Grapple bombs was detonate and including a map of the ships’ tracks and fallout pattern. Following one test Pukaki steamed in the fallout for two days. I sent one copy to NZDF and another to Veterans’ Affairs.
I then wrote a book, ‘We Were There’, the title of this display.
Finally, in April, 2022, the British Government announced that every civilian and serviceman who had been present at any of those 21 tests would be awarded a medal. I then considered the fact that sailors and their dependants had little knowledge of the whole story. So, I searched to find a book that told the whole story from A to Z. There was none, so I compiled one. There are some unpleasant stories in this book including the fact that 58% of New Zealand veterans died before they reach 65 years.