Rockets and Atomic Weapons (continued)

It also indicates that the AWRE people regarded the testing program as a purely British exercise. This could possibly be justified on the grounds of security, which, as we will see later, was a major concern of AWRE. The AWRE requested that Professor Ernest Titterton, formerly of AWRE but then Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, be allowed to assist in the tests. It was only with great reluctance that AWRE agreed to the Australian request that Dr W. A. S. Butement, Chief Scientist of the Australian Department of Supply, and Professor L. H. Martin, Professor of Physics, the University of Melbourne, should attend as observers.

The AWRE had its own meteorological team but Harry Ashton, Henry Phillpot and three other Bureau staff participated although I am unaware who made this decision. It seems likely that Timcke was informed of the AWRE program in 1951 or 1952. I was in the US on a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship from September 1951 until August 1952 and Harry Ashton acted in my position of Supervising Meteorologist (Research) during my absence. As we knew from wartime experience only those in the Bureau 'with a need to know' would have been told about the project.

The initial test, Operation Hurricane, was carried out with the explosion of an atomic bomb located below the waterline in the RN frigate HMS Plym, anchored in the Monte Bello Islands. According to the report of the Royal Commission the atomic cloud was limited to 10 000 feet by an atmospheric temperature inversion. Radioactivity in the cloud was measured by RAAF aircraft. Measurement of radioactivity of water from roofs of dwellings in Broome, Rockhampton and Brisbane showed radioactive rainfall above background level.

After the Hurricane test L. H. Martin and Ernest Titterton were concerned that fallout had occurred from unexpected rain because of difficulty in forecasting upper winds and the height reached by the atomic cloud.

The meteorological group for Operation Totem 1 on 15 October 1953 included Commander F. L. Westwater, Royal Navy Meteorological Service, N. H. Freeman from the UK Meteorological Office, and the Bureau's Harry Ashton and Henry Phillpot supported by observers Kevin Lomas, Peter Marron and John Longton.

Bureau of Meteorology