Operation Grapple 1957 A coral island (over 100 miles circumference) discovered by Lt. J. Cook (Third Voyage) on Christmas Eve 1777 : Christmas Island, lat. 1 degree 55 minutes N., long. 202 degrees 40 minutes E, a low, barren, uninhabited island, with anchorage on the west side. It abounds with turtle, but has no fresh water.... Here follows a selection from numerous photos, a cache of 28 FER b&w photos taken between 1956 and 57 before the H bombs. Page 223
Two months before The Bomb. On a welcome leave at Oahu, Fort De Russey, Honolulu (via aircraft carrier H.M.S. Warrior) March 1957 with 64 Field Park Sqn Stores Troop. We could only afford one beer each in the night club; poor in contrast with wealth of some U.S. marines we met on their way out to Tokyo.... That s me second right. After 13 months on the atoll, I left on an LCM with 71 Transport & Plant Troop of 28 Field Engineer Regiment. We left Christmas Island on Sunday August 25th 1957 on the T.S.Empire Clyde arriving at Liverpool docks Sunday September 29th 1957. I was into my third year with the sappers. (Unknown to all of us squaddies, on the 8th November a 1.8 Megaton massive H bomb would be exploded just to the south of Port London in clear view from the beach of Christmas Island bigger bombs to follow.) Page 224
Typical flat landscape Village at Port London Copra spreading coconut husks Village lagoon Page 225
Gilbert & Ellice islanders Camp near Port London Village toilet facility 1957. Veteran Nobby left, myself centre at Doghouse Bar, Colon Panama (on the way home) about midnight. Page 226
71 Transport Troop POL Stores Port London Village 28 FER Sappers at work 1956 R.C. church built by sappers.on beach by Cassidy Camp Page 227
Arrival of Stores 1956. Port London sappers at work. Mates of 71 Transport Troop and civvie matelots at Doghouse Bar, Colon, midnight.1957. On the way home, off the Ts Empire Clyde. en - route for Liverpool. Port London villagers Page 228
Booby Bird cannot fly? Villager View of Port London village 64 Stores Troop on day off Page 229
Cookhouse Site Main OR s Camp Nr Cassidy Port London Road to Cassidy One of millions of hornet and land crabs... One night a scuffle under my bed revealed a Land Crab devouring a rat. Good job no snakes on the island, Page 230
Old South Pacific AirLine pier (aka SPAL) Troops island Rest Camp : (aka St Stanislas Rest Camp?) 71 Transport Troop Aussie Sunday papers. Off limits! J.O.C. (Joint Operations Control) site. Where boffins pressed THE buttons for detonation? Out of bounds to all except if on duty.... And that means YOU sapper. One of two sapper built churches Page 231
Young Port Camp villagers (and pet) waiting outside its singular shop. 1956.Fishing in lagoons and off the sea beach self and Mike of 64 Stores Troop. 1957. I also fished with Len, Derek and Nobby of 71 Troop, catching tuna and other edible fish cooked and eaten by us. But sharks & rays were also about us at times. Port London 64 Stores Troop on LCM. Arrival 1956 Page 232
Me at Cassidy Camp 1956 Partially hidden. Hush Hush! buildings. 1956-7. Off limits! New arrivals on Hastings, from U.S. Hickam airfield Oahu Hawaii Old American Pier at SPAL Point from wartime occupation Page 233
Inside one RC church R.A.S.C. (Royal Army Service Corps) POL office tent. Port London village lagoon. Vacated native community house Page 234
Posing beside a Port London native outrigger canoe house Me & a caught Sand Shark. Line Islands District. Police Immigration Customs & District Office Post Office building. located at Port London village. Our H.M.Forces postal address was B.F.P.O. 170. Lifebelt (no use for nuclear fallout!). Page 235
Port London family Port London LCM on standby. Port London. Gentleman in foreground helped me in fishing off this jetty One of 28 FER ten ton lorries! Page 236
Port London Copra Pier. Islanders waiting for a visiting trade vessel. 64 Stores Troop day out Port London Village On the beach, evening at NAAFI Cassidy Camp. Myself centre with 71. mates relaxing. with Tennant s Export beers. Page 237
A Hastings from Hickam OAHU routine delivery at Cassidy Airfield. (No pics of Jet aircraft or RAF personnel allowed viz... passed by our formal military censor. Bogged down on day out on Island with 64 Stores Troop. 1956. Visit to deserted village Helicopter (poss from HMS Warrior) arrival on island. Page 238
Inside my first home with 64 Stores Troop, Yorky, Edge, & Swede (west country we gave each other friendly regional nicknames I was cockney. Inside second home of 71 Transport, l to r ; Len (fellow Londoner), Derek (Hampshire), and Nobby a Geodie). Len & Nobby were veterans. Closeby Cassidy Main Camp.The Wreck abandoned line of old American transport c.1945-8. Tide well out. A very dangerous swimming site at high tide. I recall one moonie drowning, and myself... very close to drowning at that time, due to the very strong undercurrents. And very deep Pacific shelf but a 100 or so yards out. Three young villagers wait ouside Port Camp s local islanders shop. Page 239
Landscape view of 1956-7 transmitting site with numerous masts apparent J.O.C. generator s site. Old plantation dynamite storage shed. Nearby I found trees with brittle wooden slats nailed on dating from old US wartime occupation. Presumably for sighting enemy aircraft. Early Cassidy Airfield primitive low radar & receiving buildings. Page 240
Port Camp Sunday sailing club. We d recently finished putting the gear away after a trip to Paris. I pose with towel around my neck. Off duty sport.at port Camp, cricket hockey football... natives played with bare feet, very thick skin soles. Coral sand beaten hard for pitches. A flock of hundreds of birds in early 1957 most are frigates about SPAL point. Later. After one to-be later nuclear explosion, considerable birdlife were scooped up, killed by the blast of a megaton plus burst fallout, and ground stripped bare. The above seen greenery was prickly grass toxic to any cattle or sheep. I poisoned a pricked foot on one occasion, foolishly going barefoot through the grass no thick skin as our Gilbertese native friends, Young Frigate Bird kept as a pet by a local villager.. Page 241
71 Transport Troop party. I m back row second from right, friend Len is third from right Nobby is in front of me both of them were ten ton lorry drivers. Pic taken by street photograher at Waikiiki Honolulu, left to right... Mike Myself & Griff of 64 Stores Troop. Thursday 14th March 1957 Page 242
All available published (for military & civilan) support on nuclear material during postwar years 1950s and 1960s was essentialy based and illustrated by, so called dirty (ground burst) A bomb 1945 Hiroshima Japanese exposure and recorded fallout results. H Megaton experiments (airbursts or other) were new business. And naturally could not, at least initially, anticipate short or long-term H bomb genetic effects on human beings. Page 243
From our local produced and distributed newspaper dated 15th May 1957 an excellent anonymous first hand report of the first (of three) Grapple Bomb experiment over Malden Island 400 miles south of Christmas Island.... I later wondered if there was much contamination about Malden as a consequence of The Tests. Of course I (we) would never know. anyways? Page 244
Five censored domestic photos (mine) of 28 FER s 64 Field Park Sqn Stores Troop sappers, okayed for Central Press Photos Fleet Street, published in The Illustrated London News, May 11 1957. Four days after this publication, U.K s first Mid-Pacific experimental airburst H bomb test, aka Operation Grapple was exploded for me then, out-of-sight... but not out-of-mind. Page 245