Alan Rimmer - Between Heaven and Hell

So, nearly 50 per cent of men who had made complaints had been present at Grapple Y. But there was more: cancer rates for Grapple Y men were nearly four and a half times the rest, while there were nearly nine times as many for joint cancer and fertility problems, which included miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects. Urquhart’s study also quashes any suggestion that the results were biased. In a damning summary he concludes

The continuing secrecy of the British government about the true nature of the nuclear tests ensured that the respondents were unaware of whether one particular test was more dangerous than another, thus eliminating any bias due to self-selective response from self-reporting. The great difference in response rates for men attending the Grapple Y test compared with all the other tests strongly suggests an underlying health difference consistent with significant exposure to radioactive fallout from the Grapple Y test.

This is the truth of Christmas Island: On April 28 th, 1958 a multi-megaton thermonuclear bomb was detonated off the south east coast of Christmas Island. The bomb created a radioactive thunderstorm that travelled slowly up the east coast of the island contaminating large areas. An unspecified number of men, possibly thousands, were caught in this lethal downpour, and many later paid the price in death and injury.

The authorities were aware of this, but covered it up and shamefully turned a blind eye to the suffering that inevitably ensued.

Men died slow, horrible deaths as a result. Young men, who hardly had a chance of life, died of old men’s diseases. Young wives, whose men returned home physical and psychological wrecks, suffered with them.

And when their broken babies were born they could only weep in despair at the haunted look in the midwives’ eyes, and the hopeless shake of the doctor’s head.

When Grapple Y was detonated the world was in turmoil.

Nuclear war was a real possibility and few could blame the British government for deciding to build its own nuclear deterrent.

Even the cover-up of the Grapple Y incident can be understood in the face of a world gone mad.

But there is no excuse for the continuing secrecy and cover-up that has surrounded the bomb tests. For 50 years nuclear veterans have complained, but successive governments have turned a blind eye to their suffering.

Worse they have cynically ignored compelling evidence, revealed in this book, that many were wilfully exposed to radioactive fallout.

The Ministry of Defence stands condemned for consigning those who tried to expose its wickedness to a life of sickness and penury.

But most of all it stands condemned for its callous indifference to the torment of untold numbers of children who have been sacrificed on the altar of nuclear expediency.

On 9 May, 1989, Margaret Thatcher stood up in Parliament and made the following announcement in reply to a demand by MP Jack Ashley for compensation for nuclear veterans.

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, cases were carefully looked at by a special inquiry of medical people, who did not find cause and effect. I say to the right hon. Gentleman with the greatest respect that the cause and effect that he says has been proved has not been proved, and therefore compensation is not appropriate.

Nearly a quarter of a century on this stringent criterion has at last been fulfilled. The evidence presented in this book shows clear cause and effect.

Britain’s nuclear veterans are the victims of a grave injustice. Not only have they been decimated by their participation in the bomb tests, but their offspring have been dreadfully damaged as well.

It is a cruel irony that the children and grandchildren supplied the last piece of the jigsaw that exposed the British government’s historical perfidy.

Politicians from all parties are guilty. The evidence was there for them all to see, but they chose to ignore it. They turned a blind eye to the suffering of a generation of brave men, and closed their ears to the cries of their children.

The British government owes the nuclear veterans an apology and compensation where appropriate. Every other nuclear power has compensated its Cold War warriors. It is time for Britain to do the same.

Text copyright 2012 Alan Rimmer

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