Christmas Island Operation Grapple

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Christmas island operation grapple. He told me how they lived in tents in intense heat and were eaten alive by. April 3 2017 at 9 26 pm hi dennis it was good to see your message look forward to going over the times we had before and after h bomb test garrison photographer was a position i did enjoy. The whole of 36 corps engineer regiment corps was part of the regiment s title since it was under the direct command of the 1 br corps commander and thus corps troops was on christmas island pacific ocean during the period 1957 9 literally at the end of the operation grapple x y z series atomic bomb tests having left a. Amateur film without titles shot by sergeant jardine of the activities of the royal army ordnance corps raoc special unit during the period of operation grapple 1956 1957.

The blast caused some structural damage to the base on the north of the island 24 miles away. Grapple x was an uk hydrogen bomb grapple x was dropped and detonated over the southern end of christmas island on 8 november 1957 his yield was approximaively 1 8 megatons. Operation grapple was a set of four british nuclear weapons test series of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at malden island and kiritimati christmas island in the gilbert and ellice islands in the pacific ocean modern kiribati as part of the british hydrogen bomb programme nine nuclear explosions were initiated culminating in the united kingdom becoming. Dennis hammant raf fire section operation grapple christmas island.

Operation grapple on christmas island allocated title description object description. Britain s determination to retain its status as a great power in a cold war context demanded the. When derek last visited christmas island it was as a 20 year old raf serviceman he had no idea he was about to take part in a huge operation involving a bomb 1 000 times more. As all grapple bombs were detonated in the air dropped either from an aircraft or suspended from a set of barrage balloons they produced high amounts of radioactive fallout.

Christmas island served as the main base with several thousand servicemen stationed there during the operation including over 500 naval personnel from new zealand. 8 november 1957 valiant xd824 dropped a device offshore of christmas island the yield was much bigger than expected at 1 8 megatons.