Efter years o wrangling the squadies who were used as guinea pigs in the 50's who were lined up at different stages o miles when a nuclear bomb was detonated were given another chance tae claim damages.

These poor buggers suffered many disability's including skin cancer ,ill health, and fertility problems on there involvements in British nuclear tests ,THE RATIO OF THESE AILMENTS FAR OOTWAYS THE NORMAL ,they have been fobbed off for years and there number must be dwindling at a very fast rate.

To my mind every government since then have treated these hero's in an abominable manner be it Labour or tory, then some clown wrote in the paper today this is a great breakthrough there winning
of the right tae appeal agin ,my erse me I'm 72 my army draught was 69 71 on my reckoning these guys must be at least 74 intae there 80's , another appeal ,jasus how long would that take would they win it? how long till a rate o compen wis worked oot

Here a thought at 72 will I still be kicking aboot afore the last survivor is awarded thirty bob ,us squaddies we were just cannon fodder ,think aboot some o the rules oor men noo labour under in Afghanistan if you see Taliban laying land minds don't shoot just shout shoo awie you go like you do . Ach ah served an wid serve agin met many great men in the forces in my time .

Wunners whit Kipling widda wrote aboot these sad state o affairs .

Jasus got a tear in my bluddy eye

AB thanks for remembering the 'forgotten ones', of which I am one. 'Cannon fodder' is exactly correct! There were so many mistakes made over there by the authorities, they refuse to accept they were negligent in providing proper safety cover for the service personnel, hiding under the excuse - 'we didn't know then what we know now'!! These were atomic scientists advising the War Department (as it was then) - if they didn't recognise the dangers of radiation more than 10 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who would? 55 years on, they still deny responsibility. One aspect I remember was the scientific bod coming into the dining-hall and running radio-activity testers over our bodies. Those who had eaten fish from the ocean nearby were easily detected! Fish were sucked into the atomic cloud then fell out radio-active.

Its pretty much all here - http://www.legion-magazine.co.uk/features/...-silver-lining/ ( I remember wearing the 'white overalls'. Some protection eh?

This is my accommodation hut with one big H-Bomb going off! Who could sleep with that racket!
Click to view attachment
Rab. 73 (Christmas Island) Squadron Royal Engineers 1960. Still ill.

Fae wan auld sweat tae another it was a pleasure soger

PS. The Australians, New Zealanders and Americans were awarded campaign medals for the tests.
Guess what we got, despite being the major provider of personnel? Yes, - 0!

Even wee Harry got a gong for a few weeks holiday in Afghanistan.Never mind though, we know we did our bit.

Aye the Governments an am talkin aboot them aw be it labour or tory don't give a shit I came oot the wey I went in grade wan whit a joke deaf in baith ears age late 20's had tae fight tooth an nail fer a pittance o a pension ,aulder cousin came back fae Korea and dreamt aboot it fer ever mair ,hit the drink hit the skids big handsom 6 ft 2 man ended up a hopeless case he wis in the thick o it got a medal lotta good that wis tae him died age 44 he wis ma maw's sisters boy.



Prinz Hal weel he had tae get wan didnae he ,like ah said afore I saw mair action in the N.A.A.F.I QUEUE ,probably spent mair time there tae than he an his bro have put in since the fiasco o the perr o them in the Armed Forces ever put in .

Rab, I remember workin' on RAF long-range Bombers '66/'67 which on return were immediately washed down because of suspect high-altitude radiation. We wore wee blue plastic tags on our overalls and they would show pink when pickin' up too much radiation. "Aircraft are always subject to picking up certain amounts of radiation while in-flight" was the standard throw-away reply to any questions asked.
In all my 30 years clambering all over civil aircraft fuselage outer skins including wide-bodied long-range jets and all the Boeings up to the 767, I never heard a dickie bird about subject to picking certain amounts of MOD bullshit while in-flight.
What did Sir Anthony Eden say in that report? Hard lines?

Hear hear, Tomi. Its the same sort of treatment for the serviceman that has been going on forever.
Mr Kipling wrote elequently on it,, long before the butchers of WW1 sent hundreds of thousands to wasted deaths from their way behind the lines HQs whilst they dined on fine wines and grub. Likewise Dieppe, Korea, The Gulf, ie 'syndrome' - what did they expect, tossing 'depleted' uranium around?? any amount of conflicts the bloke on the bottom rung is considered disposable. The thing about the nuclear tests that has always bugged me - we were not at war, (Cold or not) yet we were treated with the same form of contempt which continues to this day, with politicians knowing that eventually, the problem will go away when we do! Oh yes, and by the way, the white overalls I was issued with for 'protection' had been used previously by some other swaddy!

Watch this and see for yourself how they 'miscalculated'!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLFRIiflSgU