View The UK TV Shows Which Uncovered UK Germ Warfare Tests

During 2004, ITV West produced two groundbreaking television programmes for their Top Secrets Revealed series. These documentaries investigated, for the first time, the numerous Cold War public area experiments which were conducted by military scientists from the UK Government's Biological Warfare facility at Porton Down, Wiltshire.

You can view or download them at the following links.

Top Secrets Revealed Episode 1
23 min 61 MB

Top Secrets Revealed Episode 2
23 min 61 MB

Programme 1 includes information concerning:

How Royal Enfield workers in an underground factory at Westwood Quarry were repeatedly exposed to an opportunistic pathogen in the early 1950s;

How members of the public travelling on a regular railway train on the Salisbury-Exeter line were sprayed with live bacteria by Porton scientists while travelling through a tunnel;

How the city of Salisbury was 'attacked' during August of 1960 with large amounts of a cadmium compound:

How Porton scientists conducted the large, and now infamous, series of experiments - known as the Lyme Bay Trials. These latter experiments exposed millions of UK residents to massive aerosols of live bacteria (E.coli and Bacillus subtilis) during the years 1963-1975.


Programme 2 includes details of:

Further Lyme Bay Trials, during which Porton scientists repeatedly sprayed massive amounts of live bacteria (E.coli MRE 162 and Bacillus subtilis) across Southern England;

The mysterious 'dual-use' Biological Warfare research aircraft (Canberra WV787, aka 'The Icing Tanker Aircraft');

The previously unknown series of releases of live bacteria across Southern England, which were conducted during demonstrations for the UK Military in 1968;

The joint UK and USA germ warfare detection experiments, conducted in South Dorset during 1971;

A previously unknown series of joint UK and USA germ warfare detection experiments, which were conducted in South Dorset during 1975 (the DICE Trials).

The programme also contains a remarkable interview with Professor Brian Spratt FRS, who in 1999 was commisioned by the UK Ministry of Defence to conduct an Independent Review of the Lyme Bay Trials (renamed in 1997 by Porton as the Dorset Defence Trials). During the interview Prof. Spratt is astonished to learn that the MOD kept the existence of both the 1968 military demonstration experiments, and the 1975 joint UK/USA germ warfare detection experiments (the DICE Trials) from his investigation.

The programme reveals that limited public area BW experiments, such as those conducted at Royal Mail Sorting Offices at Nottingham, Sheffield and London during November 2001, continue to be carried out.

Indeed, in 1999 Porton admitted that UK Government Ministers refused to rule out conducting larger scale public area experiments in the future.

As I mentioned before, these are groundbreaking documentaries that lift the lid on more than 50 years of UK Government secrecy.

Do view them.






zero lift

[edit on 4-11-2007 by zero lift]

well done zerolift,

have you got the similar docs that were aired on BBC tv`s Inside Out program ??

thanks

snoopyuk

hi there Zerolift,

i couldnt find any info on :

The mysterious 'dual-use' Biological Warfare research aircraft (Canberra WV787, aka 'The Icing Tanker Aircraft');


can you please tell me what other info you have on this ,

thankyou

snoopyuk

[edit on 4-11-2007 by snoopyuk]

Originally posted by snoopyuk
hi there Zerolift,

i couldnt find any info on :

The mysterious 'dual-use' Biological Warfare research aircraft (Canberra WV787, aka 'The Icing Tanker Aircraft');


can you please tell me what other info you have on this ,

thankyou

snoopyuk

[edit on 4-11-2007 by snoopyuk]

Oops..., sorry snoopyUK - my mistake...that's on a different show.

I'll post more information about the UK's 'dual-use' BW spray aircraft later today.






zero lift

The UK’s Icing Tanker Aircraft (Canberra WV787) was the perfect example of a dual use programme. On the surface an apparently harmless, extremely useful research aircraft, dedicated to helping scientists understand and eradicate the problem of aircraft icing, thus preventing air crashes and saving lives.

But the Icing Tanker Aircraft had another more sinister role. It was also a Biological Warfare research aircraft that was, according to Prof Spratt’s 1999 Independent Review, capable of disseminating nearly 10 times as much live bacteria as the ETV ICEWHALE managed to do during the infamous Lyme Bay Trials, and was therefore capable of contaminating an area 10 times as much as that achieved during the Lyme Bay Trials. (MRE Porton Down are on record that the ICEWHALE could contaminate an area greater than 1,000 square miles during each Lyme Bay Trial).

This means that the Icing Tanker Aircraft was capable, during a single sortie, of contaminating an area greater than 10,000 square miles with live bacteria. A 1958 Porton document estimates that if an aircraft contaminated an area of that size with live pathogens, there could be between 17million - 28 million casualties!
[source - 41st Meeting of the Biological Research Advisory Board 18 July 1958]

The remarkable, and little known, story of the Icing Tanker Aircraft started back in the late Fifties. Porton scientists had been conducting large-scale Biological Warfare experiments in public areas of the UK, while investigating the feasibility of their Large Area Coverage (LAC) concept. This was a new and novel method of conducting a massive clandestine Biological Warfare attack on an enemy country. In short, these experiments, which involved the dissemination of a cadmium compound from an aircraft flying over populated areas of the UK, proved that a single aircraft, ship, submarine or guided missile could, in a single sortie, contaminate an area of over 10,000 square miles with an appreciable dose of viable (live) bacteria.

By the late Fifties Porton Down scientists were in a position to move away from using a cadmium compound in their experiments and instead were starting to use aerosols of live and killed bacteria (initially killed Klebsiella aerogenes, later live E.coli MRE 162 and live Bacillus subtilis - aka Bacillus globigii or BG).

After conducting a number of experiments at RAF Cardington, RAF Odiham and the Porton Range, during which a Canberra aircraft WH657 (borrowed from the National Gas Turbine Establishment) sprayed large aerosols of bacteria, Porton’s attention moved towards conducting larger field trials, but this time using a ship (ETV ICEWHALE) as the spray source. As is now known, during each experiment ETV ICEWHALE sprayed a massive cloud of two types of live bacteria - E.coli MRE162 and BG as it sailed a straight-line track off the south coast of the UK. These huge bacterial clouds were carried onshore by the wind, and were sampled by mobile teams of Porton scientists up to 50 miles inland.

What isn’t so well known is the fact that at the same time that the Lyme Bay Trials were in progress, a project was approved which might have ultimately led to the whole of the UK being sprayed with live bacteria!

In 1963, Napiers (later English Electric Co Ltd) put forward a design study for an icing tanker research aircraft based on the Canberra bomber. It was obvious that such an aircraft could also serve as a spray aircraft for research into defence against Biological Warfare. As a result, discussions took place in 1964 between the Ministry of Aviation and the Army Department and it was agreed that the project should go ahead as a joint venture between the two departments with Flight Refuelling as the principal contractor.

The Army Department specification called for an aircraft capable of spraying bacterial slurry at a rate of 40 gallons per minute while flying at a speed of 400 knots along a track 100 miles long.




Because bacterial suspensions are corrosive towards most light alloys, great care had to be taken. A large 600 gallon capacity stainless steel tank was constructed in the bomb bay. Extra spray capacity was provided by connection to the normal No. 2 fuel tank, which was disconnected from the fuel system. The bacterial suspension from the No. 2 tank was fed into the main tank by gravity.



to be continued...




zero lift

Icing Tanker Aircraft continued...




Compressed air from each of the two engines was supplied to the spray rake which was carried at the rear of the aircraft. This rake comprised of 22 double impact ‘May’ nozzles, similar to those installed at the stern of ETV ICEWHALE.

The proving trials of the Icing Tanker Aircraft (Canberra WV787 - available for viewing at Newark Air Museum) were conducted during April 1967, when it sprayed 200 gallons of live bacteria -E.coli MRE162 and Bacillus subtilis - over the North Dorset/Wiltshire area. According to Professor Brian Spratt, this release was close to the maximum amount ever released by ETV ICEWHALE during the Lyme Bay Trials. Two further releases occurred during June 1967, and two more releases were conducted during October 1967.

According to Professor Spratt’s 1999 Independent Review of Porton’s public area experiments (such as the Lyme Bay Trials, the 1963/64 London Underground BW experiments, etc), the Icing Tanker Aircraft only ever sprayed bacteria during 1967.

Unfortunately, documents obtained via UK Freedom of Information requests have proved that the Ministry of Defence didn’t give Professor Spratt all the information that they should have!

A declassified Porton document, Programme 1/68, proves that the Icing Tanker Aircraft conducted spraying trials in Lyme Bay during the early months of 1968.

According Programme 1/68, if the weather conditions in Lyme Bay were suitable, a Milk Porter would leave Porton Down and proceed to Boscombe Down. There it would transfer 300 gallons of bacterial slurry to the bomb bay tank of Canberra WV787. As soon as possible, the aircraft would leave Boscombe Down and fly to the trials area. Once given the go-ahead by the trials control HQ - the GOLDEN ARROW - WV787 would commence its spraying runs across Lyme Bay. After many trials spray ‘runs’ the aircraft would return to Boscombe Down to be refilled with bacterial suspension for the afternoon’s experiments.




Above is a rare photograph of WV787 in 'action'. You will notice that its making smoke by injecting oil into the engines.

The UK Ministry of Defence have not disclosed information of any further experiments which were conducted by the Icing Tanker Aircraft, after 1968. For all intents and purposes, the MOD are keen to encourage the idea that, for the rest of its operational life, Canberra WV787 was involved only with icing research.

Future FOIA release may prove otherwise!





zero lift

thanks as usual you are on top form sir !

waiting with anticipation


thanks
snoopyuk

Thanks, good info shedding light on the dirty deeds of our military and, very likely, political leaders against the innocent population of this country.
I suspect however that there is much more buried deep that will never see the light of day except in disclosures from those involved.

It brings to mind the ongoing controversy regarding the cadmium compound spraying that took in a lot of East Anglia and the fact that Norwich now has the UK's highest rates of asophogal cancer (3-4 times the norm if I remember correctly).

Both scary and maddening to know that we are subjected to this "testing" by our own government

Just happened to see this thread and it brought back memories of when i was in the forces.
Sometime in the seventies i was at porton down with many others from the forces. We were used as test subjects for chemical warfare trials. they used small doses of mustard gass and other irritants to see the reaction on the skin. I must say that doses were very weak and the biggest reaction you would get was a small rash where they placed the liquid. The worst test was doing a few laps in a gas chamber while being subjected to a low dose of nerve gas.
It seems bazar now, all these years later. it was a voluntry program but at the time it didn't seem a big deal.
I'm 56 yrs old now and i have had two mini strokes and i have cancer,

reply to post by Britguy




Glad you found the shows of interest Britguy.

The Norfolk story is still ongoing. At the moment the MOD spokespersons are still sticking to their old Lines-To-Take; that as far as they are aware Norfolk (and the target city- Norwich) were only contaminated with a cadmium compound (Zinc Cadmium sulphide) on one occasion in 1963.

When its pointed out to them that Porton released newly declassified documents, via FOIA requests, that proves tests were to be conducted over Norfolk in the early months of 1964, they go quiet and refuse to comment further!

As for the possibility that similar clandestine experiments are still conducted to this day, I can only repeat the reply given to me by Porton in 1999.

"In the event of a military question arising which could only be answered by conducting open air trials in areas which may involve the general public, Ministers have made it clear that they cannot rule out the need to conduct larger scale trials in the future..."

Larger?

And Jon1, I realise that you might already be aware of the following, but in case you're not you might find Rob Evans' book, entitled - Gassed - of interest. It is regarded as the definitive book of Porton Down's human experimentation programme. In fact he acted as an adviser to the Wiltshire Police investigation of Porton's past 'activities - Operation ANTLER.

I'd better declare an interest though, as it also contains a chapter (Clouds Of Deceit Over Britain) which used some of my research, concerning Porton's Cold War public area BW experiments.


And snoopyuk, be a bit patient for while longer.



zero lift

i am more than happy to wait my friend.


keep up the very good work.

snoopyuk