This Former RAF Pilot Dropped Two Nuclear Bombs In His Career

Alan Pringle: ‘My feeling was, it was a weapon of war.’ Photograph: Fabio De Paola for the Guardian

The Guardian: Experience: I dropped two nuclear bombs

The sky lit up; 10,000ft above our eye level was a writhing molten mass. I was in awe.

I became aware of Operation Grapple in July 1956. There wasn’t a big Top Secret stamp on it. Everyone in the country had an idea that Britain was trying to become a nuclear power. I was a 22-year-old co-pilot in the RAF, just happy to be chosen for the mission.

My main role was to monitor the flight instruments to make sure the captain was flying correctly. We practised dummy drops for months, flying Valiant bombers from Wittering airbase on the Cambridgeshire/Northamptonshire border to a range over Orford Ness.

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WNU Editor:  Yup .... there was a time when they tested these devices by dropping them from the air.