Operation Hurricane

When the British atomic weapons were tested in the Monte Bello Islands off North West Australia, detailed film records were kept of all stages of the operation. Stuart Legg has produced a dramatic documentary, despite a heavy veil of secrecy over much of the material. At Monte Bello, an advance party of British and Australian engineers prepared a site in the remote and barren island. Two months before zero day the main convoy arrived, together with HMS ‘Plym’, the target vessel with the bomb already in position in her hold. The rafter the work of setting up instruments proceeded rapidly. The experiment approached its climax with the arming of the firing mechanism, and reached it finally with the detonation of the bomb. The film concludes by showing the devastation caused by the explosion.