Kiribati - Christmas Island
The Pacific Christmas Island was the location of several nuclear tests during the late 1950s and was occupied by some thousands of British Servicemen including conscripts like yours truly. I flew out through the USA. Before the jet era it was a three leg journey (12-14 hours each!). London-New York, N.Y. - San Francisco and S.F. - Hawaii. Then a stopover in Hickham USAF Airbase until the RAF Viking arrived for the last 4 hour flight down to the island near the equator.
We lived in (aging) tents and these were infested with land crabs, rats and cockroaches. Packing cases were cannibalised to create raised floors on which beds stood - eliminating the crabs at least. Some tents succombed to fire and others to rain damage. Showers had to be taken before the sun got too high as the water pipes ran over the sand and heated up dangerously. Also the chemical toilets had their own `hazards`. NEVER sit on the sunny side! Always fan vigorously when lifting the lid to prevent swarms of flies flying up and hitting your backside.
There were leisure pursuits. The rover scouts had regular meetings and a couple of the guys `borrowed` an amphibious DUKW to travel to the main camp from the port area regularly. Also swimming - part of the lagoon allegedly had shark nets to protect swimmers BUT huge manta rays were observed swimming in that area so they were not very effective. It was fun splashing the puffer fish in the shallows - making them blow up full of water (defence mechanism). We captured bright blue tropic reef fish and kept them in an inverted bell jar in our tent.
I was a meteorologist and did upper air soundings the night before our bomb was tested to make sure the winds were in the right direction. We `acquired` some US balloons as they went a lot higher than the UK ones - up to 110,000 feet. After my shift I was required to stay up and watch the test before retiring to my bed. We were 22 miles away from Ground Zero and were all dressed in anti-flash suits sitting with backs to the explosion. After waiting for quite some time we felt heat on our backs and shortly later could turn round with risk to eyes. Some guys stood up and then the shockwave arrived and dumped them on their backs.
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