British Nuclear Test Veterans Association
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A Day to Remember.
Leading Seaman Peter C. H. Evans 1957
It’s here at last! Oh God let everything go off all right. The fool who started the rumour ought to be shot
These were the thoughts of Leading Seaman Peter C. H. Evans on the morning of Thursday 13th November 1957. For the past two months he had been part of a huge team preparing to drop an H-bomb over Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.
L/S Evans wasn’t very happy. This was one draft he hadn’t wanted, especially as his wife was expecting their first baby in a few days time. To make things worse he had heard the rumour in the NAAFI. It was spreading like wildfire and becoming more exaggerated every time it was told. A genuine H G Wells prediction that on an Island in the Pacific there would be a terrific explosion and out of 5000 souls only 100 would survive. Funny that there should be 5000 people on Christmas Island and those approximately 100 Gilbertese natives would be moved off before the explosion!
Evans had thought about these things all night, arguing with himself that they would never explode a Bomb unless they knew that everything would be safe, never the less H G Wells had predicted quite a few things and they had come true. Evans had even thought of writing a letter to his wife and leaving it on his locker top, that some one would be sure to visit the Island afterwards if anything did go wrong. He dismissed the letter idea as being too dramatic but said quite a few prayers.
At 6am Evans started preparing for the day ahead. Tents had to be left
wide open otherwise the shock wave would flatten them. Pets had to be
collected and put into sealed boxes to prevent them being blinded by the
flash. So many things to do but not enough to keep Evan’s mind off
H G Wells. By 7am everything in the Port Camp was ready and everyone moved
down to the port area and took up their position on the beach. Music was
being played over the tannoy system, which would soon be telling us when
the Bomb was being dropped. Some Disc Jockey in Honolulu was playing “Short
Shorts”! For the first time in months everyone was in long trousers!
They were all in position now with their backs to the area where the Bomb
was being dropped. Smoking, talking together and waiting. Evans was thinking
how long it would be before his wife would have the baby and if he would
ever see it.
Suddenly at exactly 7.30am the Tannoy went silent and the announcement. “Valiant aircraft is airborne and clear of the airfield”. Now came the wait while the aircraft completed a few navigational runs over the dropping area, then they would be told whether it was a live or dummy run. Evans thought of all the Ships patrolling just outside the dropping area. How he wished he were on one now instead of being crouched down on a coral beach.
“The Valiant on a Navigational run between Alpha and Bravo”. Time for anti flash gear to go on, a lot of good it would do if anything did go wrong, still it was something.
“Valiant between Bravo and Charlie on a navigational run”. Time seemed to drag for Evans now, he was trying to think what his wife would be doing back home in Wales— she may even be having the baby!
“Valiant between Charlie and dropping point. Type of run unknown. Type of run unknown”. This is it, thought Evans, this is it. Orders were given for everyone to turn away from the dropping area and to cover their eyes with their hands.
“ The Valiant on initial live run. The Valiant on initial live run”.
“Please God let everything be all right”. Evans seemed to think that he was the only one praying but he wasn’t.
“Valiant approaching dropping point. Valiant approaching dropping point”. Now the countdown before the release-10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, -Weapon away!
Now the countdown before the explosion. Who will ever forget those last ten seconds? Knowing that the Bomb was falling through the air. A quickening of the heartbeat, a tightening of the chest, were these the last few seconds of life?
ZERO. Now.
This is it. God the heat! The flash! A groan went up from the men on the beach as they felt the heat and saw the flash through their hands. The voice from the Tannoy broke the silence.
“Stand up and face the Bomb. Stand up and face the Bomb”. The voice seemed quite excited.
Evans along with a few thousand others stood up and turned to face the thing that had caused him so much worry. It made him gasp. A never to be forgotten sight of the huge fireball, the coloured, boiling, seething mass of gases was frightening yet beautiful and powerful. Evans thought he might have been in a cinema watching a science fiction film. Clouds seem to be racing away as the sonic bang spread out from the great fireball, which seemed to be changing into a mushroom of cloud and colour. Now for the bang. It reached the men on the beach like a crack of thunder and rolled across the sky like an echo.
“Thank God for that,” said Evans, “Thank God for that”.
Four hours later Evans received a telegram informing him that he was a Father of a 9lb Boy.
Without a doubt a day to remember.