Germ Warfare

Not many people know this . . .

The Burry Estuary, Chemical & Biological Warfare Weapons,

Germ Warfare and other Bugs

Most people are unaware that during the Second World War the Burry Estuary was one of the locations chosen to test chemical and biological weapons.

The war had started in 1939 and by 1940 it was feared that a German invasion might be attempted, following the heavy military defeat at Dunkirk. Many thought that the Germans were unstoppable and Winston Churchill, alarmed at how vulnerable Britain seemed to be, ordered plans for a network of trenches to be dug around the coastline. He also commissioned a secret report on whether mustard gas could be used at key points along the beaches. Churchill had written that he was convinced that the enemy would have no scruples in adopting such methods in their own use of gas.

From 1937 the Japanese had been using gas and biological weapons in China and the Japanese Plant at Pingfan in South Manchuria had been manufacturing 8 tons of bacteria every month. Four thousand anthrax bombs had been produced and stockpiled and it was known that each Japanese bomber was capable of carrying a payload of 12 bombs. In one trial alone, in Manchuria, 400 horses, 500 sheep and several thousand rats and mice had been killed. Intelligence reached Britain that Japan had communicated all their research to their Axis Partners, Germany and Italy.

British politicians decided that it was necessary for Britain to prepare a defence for this new type of germ warfare. A Department was set up and in October of 1940, a group of 12 scientists arrived at Porton Down on Salisbury Plain, whose purpose it was to prepare a programme for testing and experimenting with chemical and biological weapons. The team was led by Dr Paul Fildes and included David Henderson, Donald Woods, O. G. Sutton and W. R. Lane. At a later date the team was increased to about 50 scientists – all doctors who were familiar with bacterial chemistry.

While one team developed the bacteria cultures, anthrax, plague, etc., the others were preparing ways of transporting these cultures. All types of containers were tested including metal drums, similar to milk churns, and glass carboys in a metal frame packed with straw.

A site had to be found to test these weapons. One location that was considered was the island of Gruinard off the north west coast of Scotland. Gruinard, one-and-a-half miles long, a mile wide and 300 ft high, lies in its own well protected bay close to the fishing village of Aultbea.

‘There arrived on the mainland opposite Gruinard, 25 scientists in civilian attire. Huts were erected, they carried with them, and handled with great care, a set of large glass flasks.’

The experiments were about to begin and the first victims were to be sheep.

Beforehand, Porton Down’s agents had scoured the local hillsides and paid the crofters good prices for their highland sheep.

In one of the huts, Dr Henderson prepared the weapon, a 25lb chemical bomb, 18 inches high and 6 inches in diameter, which would normally have contained mustard gas. One of the glass flasks was uncorked and a thick brown ‘gruel’, which was a slurry of anthrax spores, was poured into the bomb. After the shell was filled, it was taken across the island and placed in a mound of earth. Around the mound, at measured distances, sheep were tethered in concentric circles. As the unsuspecting animals grazed, an explosive charge was fixed to the bomb, a fuse lit and the men retreated to the mainland.

The bomb exploded and billions of spores formed a cloud over the sheep. Gradually the cloud dispersed over the island and the sea. A day later the sheep began to die and the pile of carcasses grew steadily throughout the week. The tests proved that germs could be produced, loaded into bombs, exploded, without destroying the living organisms.

A Wellington bomber was used to make low level runs over the island dropping bombs, and more flocks of sheep perished. After some time when the trials finally finished, men clad in protective clothing, dragged the sheep carcasses to a nearby cliff where 1,000lb of explosive material was detonated, bringing the cliff top down, burying the victims.

Notices were erected around the island and warning signs were placed at 400 yard intervals, stating:

GRUINARD ISLAND

This Island is Government Property

Under Experiment

The Ground is Contaminated

with Anthrax and Dangerous

LANDING IS PROHIBITED

The notices have now been there for more than 50 years.

If the programme for chemical and biological warfare had become a reality, the bombs used would have been 500lb cluster bombs, each carrying 100 x 4lb bomblets filled with anthrax spores.

Following the Island of Gruinard bomb programme, attention was concentrated on other methods of delivering chemical and biological weapons. Shells of mustard gas were already in production and the effect on anthrax spores in shells fired from guns would be tested. Another site was needed because the Gruinard Island was contaminated.

The Official Order states that: ‘A trial is to take place at an isolated cove, at Penclawdd on the North Gower Coast.’

So it was that in 1942 plans were proposed to test chemical and biological warfare weapons in the Burry Estuary off the coast of North Gower and guns were heard in Llanelli. Well! One gun was heard firing every 15 minutes or so and locals would exclaim on hearing the boom ‘Ah! They’re testing the guns.’ They had been testing guns at Pendine, across the bay, for 25 years before the war but these were different – the military were testing the shells (which were non-explosive) for the trial.

There was a railway station at Penclawdd, and suitable buildings were built where the shells could be filled with germ cultures brought in from Porton Down. The guns fired alternating between one week in the morning from 9 am to 12 noon and one week in the afternoon. They fired according to the tide times so the fall of the shot could be plotted from the high ground with the general direction being Whitford Lighthouse and Whitford Burrows. When the tide ebbed and the sands were exposed, the Royal Artillery would recover the shells, which were not meant to explode. The unexploded shells filled with germ cultures were returned to the scientists (the men with white coats) for examination.

The purpose of the trials was to answer these crucial questions:

How had they travelled?

Did the shells leak on their flight?

Did their journey through the air create heat, which destroyed the germs?

The Military thought Penclawdd was the perfect location for the trials but there was one problem that had not been anticipated – the Penclawdd Cockle Women, who were a noisy lot. The Royal Artillery had to recover all the shells before the Cockle Women were allowed onto the sands. It was imperative that every one of the shells was accounted for after the morning tide. Very often there was a delay finding the shells which meant that the cockle women did not have enough time to collect their harvest before the next tide returned. Gathering cockles was their livelihood and any delay would cause hardship for the women and their families.

If they were unable to work by daylight they would work at night if the moon was shining. The women had a long walk out to the cockle beds but their donkeys knew the safe tracks and once they were out in the estuary, the cockle gatherers would work quickly in the moonlight before the morning tide covered the cockle beds again.

When the tests were completed production started on the gas and germ warfare weaponry and by 1945 nearly 3 million shells had been filled with mustard gas and a further 1.8 million bombs filled with phosgene (COCl2) gas. 41,000 tons of mustard gas, 14,000 tons of phosgene, and a similar amount of tear gas were also produced for Military stocks, which had been increased to maximum levels.

Also following the trials at Penclawdd, a plant was established at Porton Down to enable the production of germ warfare which included making cattle cakes, filled with anthrax spores. Five million cakes were produced and each one had a small hole in the centre filled with the anthrax bacteria. An outside source provided 6 machines which were built to make holes in the centre of the cakes and at first 15 ladies were recruited from a Unilever soap factory who were able to pack 12,800 cakes a day into boxes. Later, 25 ladies were paid £2.15s 0d per head, the supervisor was paid £3 10s 0d and they were all provided with free board and lodgings. Areas of Germany were selected to drop the germ bombs where the Province of Oldenburgh was an important farming district containing 35 cattle per kilometre.

Colorado Beetles and Doodlebugs

During the war years there were many experiments on both sides and one or two scares. In 1943, large numbers of Colorado Beetles were found in Britain on a railway line from Weymouth to Swansea.

Potatoes are the favourite food of the Colorado Beetles and the areas where the beetles were found were not potato-producing districts. Although no containers were found, it seemed as if aircraft had dropped the beetles.

At one time it was feared that Doodlebugs (V1 and V2 rocket propelled weapons), which the Germans targeted on London, would be filled with gas and germs.

Thousands of people in Britain and Germany walked around with gas masks hung over on their shoulders, not realising the grim reality of germ warfare. As it turned out, it was the war that never was, because neither side used gas or biological weapons.

Not many people know just how close they were to the chemical and biological warfare and just how important the Burry Estuary helped in the war effort.

A sequel to the story about the Colorado Beetles is that during the Nuremberg Trial of the Nazi leaders, Herman Goering stood up in the Dock and accused the British and American Military of using unconventional weapons which was vehemently denied by the Allies. The basis of his complaint was that during 1944 a great plague of Colorado Beetles had decimated the potato crop in Germany and thousands starved as a result.

Professor Fritz Haber, pioneer of gas warfare, on receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in Germany said, ‘In no future war will the Military be able to ignore poison gas. IT IS A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING.’

Professor Aldous Huxley, an Englishman said, ‘The explosion of anthrax bombs, is hardly louder than the popping of a paper bag.’

And finally . . .

One of the Royal Artillery soldiers based at Penclawdd was the late Frankie Howerd, popular comedian and film star who would entertain audiences at the Grand Theatre, Swansea every year. After the war, the local Press would interview him and, knowing he served in the army would ask him about his service at Penclawdd. With a scream, a shudder, a raising of hands to the heavens and rolling his eyes, he would say he had been at Penclawdd during the war, and what he did he would not wish on anyone. Frankie was a comedian and the reporters, laughed, thinking that he was referring to the Penclawdd Cockle Women, but he was deadly serious, and was actually referring to the trials which were classified as secret at the time.

Note Gerald Grant came across this story in the book A Higher Form of Killing, first published in 1982 by Chatto & Windus Ltd.

On page 73 there is a reference to Penclawdd which is quoted here.

“The wartime testing of anthrax did not end with the burning of Gruinard. The final experiment on the island – in which the bomber dropped the anthrax bomb – was a failure; the bomb fell into what proved to be marshy ground, making it impossible to measure the spread of the spores. This experiment was subsequently repeated on a beach in Wales. In March 1982 this new test site was named as Penclawdd, Gower. (Author’s interview with Dr Rex Watson, 21 July 1981)”

© Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman 1982, 1983, and have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of the work which has been reprinted by Arrow Books.