British servicemen who took part in nuclear bomb tests were ordered to march through a smoking crater left by a blast, a veteran has said. Brian Tomlinson said he and his comrades were told to check how radioactive the area was while standing in the shadow of a mushroom cloud.
Brian said he was left with bleeding ulcers on his palms for 20 years. He recalled having to dig out scientific instruments buried in the contaminated soil.
The 85-year-old was a sapper sent to Maralinga, South Australia, in 1957 to take part in Operation Antler, a series of three atomic bomb tests designed to help build the H-bomb, The Mirror reports. His troop of Royal Engineers were blended with Australian soldiers, and 40 of them lived for a year inside the blast zone in canvas tents.
