Maralinga tests

[Keith Webb]

During the British atomic bomb tests in Australia in the 50s, vehicles and aircraft were used to show the damage suffered. When testing finished, they were bulldozed and buried.
I've just found this image on a website by Rick Johnstone
There was also a Centurion and a number of Supermarine Swift aircraft shipped out from Britain.




On the left is a RAAF CMP. Has anyone else seen any pictures of these vehicles?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
There was also a Centurion

In the October 2004 issue of Classic Military Vehicle magazine I read about a Centurion with census no. 169041 being subject to atomic testing. It survived the blast remarkably well, was put back in service, did a tour in Vietnam where it survived an RPG attack and is still preserved today!


Source: http://www.tac.com.au/~anva/photos.htm

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
In the October 2004 issue of Classic Military Vehicle magazine I read about a Centurion with census no. 169041 being subject to atomic testing.

Hanno and Keith,

You can see a Supermarine Swift in the picture of the Cent that Hanno posted, to the left. The truck in Keith's message is/was an early Bedford RL, as the one on the right. The article was fascinating reading, especially how the tank was driven away after the test.

Richard

[Tony Smith]

The Centurion which was subjected to the first Atomic tests on Australian soil in 1953 at Emu Claypan, at the sites called Totem 1 and Totem 2, was called "Total Recall". Indeed it was refurbished (3 times)and went to Vietnam and now resides at 1 Armd Regt barracks in Darwin. In the 1953 picture above, the Cent has something fitted to the muzzle of the barrel. I'm sure all Aussie Cents were fitted with 20pdr guns, but this looks like an original 17pdr?

Keefy also ought to know about the P-51 Mustangs that were part of Totem 1. 4 Mustangs were flown into the site and parked at ranges from 4 to 12 miles from the ground zero. After the blast, they were deemed contaminated and left at the site. Two of the Aircraft were recovered by warbird enthusiasts in the '70s. Where are they now?

An interesting piece of information for those old enough to remember aluminium toothpaste tubes. Racks of a dozen new tubes without the ends closed and crimped were set up at intervals of 400yds from the blast to a distance of 20 miles to record the pressure of blast. The soft aluminium was easy to distort and would provide a visual record of the intensity of the blast pressure wave.

Photo of 169041 from Army Magazine

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
4 Mustangs were flown into the site and parked at ranges from 4 to 12 miles from the ground zero. After the blast, they were deemed contaminated and left at the site. Two of the Aircraft were recovered by warbird enthusiasts in the '70s. Where are they now?

From TankNet AFV Forum > Centurion Vis-Mod (Unofficial)

After the Maralinga tests were finished (supposedly but that is another story), a lot of equipment was left sitting out in the desert. In the late 1960's, this included half a dozen Mustang fighters. Some bright spark realised this and purchased the rights to them for scrap. He then refurbished them to (bare) flying standard and flew them out to Adelaide and then sold them on the international market. I believe one of them is still flying in the USA. At the time, there was some concern about their levels of radioactivity and I remember as a young man the reports of this little escapade appearing in the press.

[Keith Webb]

Yes, there were 6, and the best of them was the pattern aircraft, A68-1001.
They were put up for tender in the late 60s, towed back to the Emu Claypan all weather airstrip and all of them actually had their engines run, but A68-1001 was the only one to be ferried out by air, with the undercarriage locked down. It was an unauthorised flight and DCA prosecuted, but a sympathetic judge fined the pilot $40.00.
At that time the P51s could not be legally flown in private hands in Australia, and 5 of them were exported to the USA. A68-1001 was kept here for a time in the hope the ban on flying would be revoked, but was eventually sold to the US where it is still airworthy.

Interestingly, when the Mustangs were flown into Emu Claypan they had been in storage at Tocumwal for a number of years and were only given the most basic maintenance before flight.
One executed a flapless landing and ran off the runway, and another lost aileron control and made a ropey but safe landing.

In addition to the aircraft there were vehicles and the Navy even supplied the superstructure of a ship!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Yes, there were 6, and the best of them was the pattern aircraft, A68-1001.
They were put up for tender in the late 60s, towed back to the Emu Claypan all weather airstrip and all of them actually had their engines run, but A68-1001 was the only one to be ferried out by air, with the undercarriage locked down. It was an unauthorised flight and DCA prosecuted, but a sympathetic judge fined the pilot $40.00.
At that time the P51s could not be legally flown in private hands in Australia, and 5 of them were exported to the USA. A68-1001 was kept here for a time in the hope the ban on flying would be revoked, but was eventually sold to the US where it is still airworthy.

Intriguing stuff! According to http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/, 44-15757a or A68-1001 now flies as N51WB " Jeannie Too". Pic below shows her at Tico, FL, USA in February 1983:



Speaking of intgruing stuff, I wonder how long it will take before we see this Iraqi Sea Fury rounding the pylons in the Reno Air Races?!?

source

[Keith Webb]

A correction to my earlier post - A68-1001 was actually A68-1, the CAC production prototype Mustang, a CA-17 mk.20, test flown from Fishermens Bend in May 1945.
In late March 1953 the six Mustangs were flown to Emu Claypan bu volunteer RAAF pilots. The aircraft had been in open storage.
Once towed to their test positions on sleds behind a bulldozer, they sat until the first test on October 15th 1953, which coincidentally was my wife's first birthday. There was a second test a week later.
The Emu nuclear testing operation was named "Totem", and the Maralinga test was "Buffalo". The two bomb tests at Emu were Totem I and Totem II.
The other Mustangs were A68- 7, 30, 35, 72 and 87.
It had been planned to build 690 Australian Mustangs, but as the Pacific War finished, there were surplus US Mustangs and the order was cut to just 200.
The first 80 were assembled from US P51D kits.
Following these successful tests another site was selected some 200km South, at a place called Maralinga, which has been a bone of contention with anti-nuclear protesters ever since. There were also tests at the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia, some 1600 km North of Perth.

[Keith Webb]

Just been looking for more info - this is a fascinating subject - here's a pic of the Totem II blast:



Info with the image is:
" Test:T2; Date:October 14 1953;
Operation:Totem;
Site:Emu Field, South Australia;
Detonation:Tower Shot, altitude - 100ft(31m); Yield:8kt; Type:Fission;


___Basically no info. This was the third nuclear test of UK. Max predicted yield 10Kt, min. predicted yield .02 kt, most likely eswtimate was 2-3 kt. T2 actually yielded 8 kt."

Source

And here's the first one:



Info:
"Test:T1; Date:October 14 1953;
Operation:Totem;
Site:Emu Field, South Australia;
Detonation:Tower Shot, altitude - 100ft(31m); Yield:10kt; Type:Fission"

Same source as first image.

[Keith Webb]

Source

So what is the connection for a British Frigate to this thread?

The HMS Plym was ground zero in the first British nuclear test in the Monte Bello islands in 1952.

And this is the result:




There's an interesting transcript of one of Churchill's speeches on the subject - here's an extract:
"The weapon was exploded in the morning of 3rd October. Thousands of tons of water and of mud and rock from the sea bottom were thrown many thousands of feet into the air and high tidal wave was caused. The effect of blast and radioactive contamination extended over a wide area and HMS Plym was vaporised. Some red-hot fragments were scattered over one of the Islands and started fires in the dry vegetation.


Very soon after the explosion two naval officers undertook the dangerous task of flying helicopters over the heavily contaminated lagoon where “Plym” had lain. This was in order to take samples of the water so that its radioactivity could be measured. After a longer interval, scientists and Service personnel in protective clothing entered the contaminated area to examine the effects and to recover records"

There was even a documentary made about the Plym titled "This little ship".

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Yes, there were 6, and the best of them was the pattern aircraft, A68-1.
They were put up for tender in the late 60s, towed back to the Emu Claypan all weather airstrip and all of them actually had their engines run, but A68-1001 was the only one to be ferried out by air, with the undercarriage locked down. It was an unauthorised flight and DCA prosecuted, but a sympathetic judge fined the pilot $40.00.
At that time the P51s could not be legally flown in private hands in Australia, and 5 of them were exported to the USA. A68-1 was kept here for a time in the hope the ban on flying would be revoked, but was eventually sold to the US where it is still airworthy.

Interesting about the Civil Aviation ban, which I have heard about from other sources (and also from the owner of the Mosquito in a Barn), yet the MustangsMustangs.net site gives the following info regarding A68-1:

1945: RAAF used in atomic tests then left in desert in 1953.
The plane was placed less than 1 KM from the blast.
1967: A68-1 was rescued from the desert by Tony Schwert who fixed and flew it out. He restored the P-51 and named it "Desert Rat" registered VH-EMQ
1969: A68-1 was shipped to USA (deck cargo) for Ed Jurist of Nyack, NY
1970: N7773 was reg. to Stan Air Inc of CA, then Ed Jurist of NY
1970: sold by Jurist (as shipped) to partners
Randy Sohn and Roger Baker
Later sold to John Sandberg, then Levitz, then Whittington.
1979: Whittington Bros. sent the parts to CO for restoration pictured as above. N51WB
? 1981: (Gary Levitz) named the P-51 "Kangaroo", race #38
1982: (Wiley Sanders)
1983: "Jeannie Too" forced landing from runaway prop, repaired
Ron Hevle was pilot until 1989.

VH-EMQ is a civil registration!! It would be great to see A68-1 and Centurion 169041 together again, or would this create a "critcal mass" reaction?

[Keith Webb]

Indeed! but fortunately they're on different continents.

The civil registration VH-EMQ was reserved for the Mustang, but due to the DCA policy at the time was not taken up.

The irony is, that due to the pressure from Tony and others in the warbird movement, the ban on flying "Mustang type" aircraft was lifted just a month after A68-1 was exported.

In the US at the time, Australian Mustangs were in a different category to US ones and it was some time before it flew. This is also the reason the other 5 Mustangs were sold to Cavalier Aircraft for parts.

How Tony felt has not been recorded, but must have been something like this:

[Tony Smith]

And this history from mustangsmustangs.net for A68-39:

1945: RAAF
1953: VH-BOY (Fawcett Aviation)
1959: Bankstown NSW, "Miss Yankee"
1976: rebuilt after take-off crash
1978: (Warbids of GB)
1979: (Gordon Plaskett)
1981: (Flying Tigers Farms)
1983: N551D (Bill Destefani)
adopted 45-11489, later 44-14826 (on FAA reg)

Civil register in 1953!?!
:

[Keith Webb]

Hi Tony

Whilst it is on the civil register it wasn't licenced for private flying, in fact, a number of these Mustangs were used during that period for photographic and target towing contracts.

[Col Tigwell]

Good morning Keith !

The guys at ADF serials site, are trying to track down the serials and any pictures of the Swifts at the Automic tests.

Any chance you could post them.

Thanks

Col Tigwell

[Col Tigwell]

in the late 60's, when I was at 37 Sqdn, two of our pilots found two Mustangs in southern NSW.

The used to borrow Doctor Fisher's Lockheed 12, take a bunch of mechanics with them, and got one flying.

They were showing a movie in the crew room, of their activities, when they were sprung by the CO.

When getting a dressing down, he produced his log book, where one was listed that he flew to Tocumal.

His comments that was the last time it was serviced, where a hint to give the program away.

These two aircraft were sold in the USA as well.

Regards

Col Tigwell

[Richard Farrant]

By pure coincidence, I have just been listening to a recording of a very amusing talk by the late Len Beadell, the surveyor who mapped out the rocket range at Woomera and the bomb test sites at Emu and Maralinga. His account of making the airstrip at Emu and the first landings is amusing. He observed the Emu bomb going off alongside the British scientist in charge.

Richard

[Lynn Eades]

I can,t open the picture. Is it like the Plym? Vapourised?

[Lang]

Tony Schwerdt's Mustang recovery was all filmed. It is a great record of what Americans call shade-tree mechanics.

Tony lives in Adelaide, maybe some of the Adelaide people could get him to put it on DVD?

Lang

[Keith Webb]

Hi Lang

Do you have Tony's contact details? If so please email me.

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
In the October 2004 issue of Classic Military Vehicle magazine I read about a Centurion with census no. 169041 being subject to atomic testing.

Hanno, fuller story by Mike Cecil on that RAEME.NET site you found.