The island was small - just over a mile in length and
half a mile wide.
It was also unpopulated for many years, which is why it was selected by
British military scientists.
 |
| Holiday on Gruinard Island: don't forget the suit |
In 1942, Gruinard Island, off the west coast of Scotland, was infected
with high doses of anthrax. Scientists wanted to test whether or not anthrax
would be efficacious in a massive biological attack on Nazi Germany.
The plan - codenamed Operation Vegetarian - was to drop linseed cakes
infected with anthrax onto the German countryside. The effect would have been
catastrophic: Germany’s cattle population would have been wiped out, leading to
the death of millions through starvation.
 |
| 'We shall fight them in the meadows' |
The discussions about biological warfare were conducted at the highest
level. Winston Churchill himself debated it with his Chiefs of Staff. And the
outcome of their discussions was to lead to a top secret order from North
America of half a million anthrax bombs.
The 1942 tests on Gruinard Island had to
be carried out in total
secrecy. The island was bought by the government under a compulsory purchase
order. Soon after, 80 sheep were shipped to the island and spores of the
anthrax bacterium were exploded close to the animals.
 |
| Anthrax: government health warning |
The anthrax strain was Vollum 14578, a lethal and highly virulent type
that took its effect within days. The sheep rapidly began to die.
The scientists were stunned by its efficacy: they realised that a mass
detonation of anthrax over Germany would pollute the land for decades, making
it totally unsuitable for human habitation.
More alarming was their inability to decontaminate Gruinard Island. Once
the anthrax spores were there, they were impossible to remove.
 |
| Dead sheep: it worked - a rare anthrax photo |
Churchill changed tack and considered the use of poison gas instead. ‘I
want you to think very seriously over this question…’ he wrote to his Chiefs of
Staff. ‘I want a cold-blooded calculation made as to how it would pay us to use
poison gas.’
But by the spring of 1944, anthrax was back on the agenda and this time
Churchill approved an order for an initial stockpile of 500,000 anthrax bombs.
 |
| Gruinard: island of death |
He said he had engaged in ‘most secret consultations with my Military
Advisers. They consider, and I entirely agree, that if our enemies should
indulge in this form of warfare, the only deterrent would be our power to
retaliate.’ An important - and oft forgotten clause - is the fact that he would
only drop anthrax on Germany in retaliation for a Nazi biological attack on
England.
The Inter-Service Sub-Committee on Biological Warfare said that the
initial anthrax order ‘was based on an appreciation that the number would be
sufficient for retaliatory attack on six large enemy cities. It has now been
concluded, however, that it may be necessary to arrange provision of 8 times
this number of bombs in order to achieve results on the scale originally
envisaged...’
 |
| A puff of smoke on Gruinard. But it'll kill you. |
The production of the initial order took time - far longer than the
experts had expected. ‘The plant for manufacturing the filling of the bombs
[with anthrax] should be in operation by the end of the year (1944) … We could
not, therefore, engage in this form of warfare on any effective scale before
the spring of 1945.’
By 1945, a top secret report to a Cabinet Defence Committee revealed
that even deadlier anthrax weapons were now on trial.
‘Judging by its effect on monkeys,’ read the report, ‘[it] might kill
half the population of a City of the size of Stuttgart in one heavy bomber raid
and render the site of the City uninhabitable for many years to come... It is
clear, therefore, that biological warfare is potentially a most deadly weapon
and, if it is ever used in warfare, may have revolutionary effects.’
 |
| One Gruinard house for sale: strangely, no buyers. |
But the end of the war was by now just around the corner. A new deadly
weapon - the atomic bomb - had been developed and anthrax was no longer needed.
The biological weapons project was quietly dropped.
But on remote Gruinard Island, the effects of a deadly anthrax attack
remained a reality for decades to come.
The island was contaminated and strictly off-limits until 1990, when the
removal of top soil and spraying of the island with formaldehyde solution
finally rendered it safe.
There is still no one living on the island. The only inhabitants are a
flock of sheep who munch on the grass, blissfully unaware of the deadly spores
that until recently infected their island home.
NOW PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK
Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War
Available here for just £5.30
'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail
'Engaging, page-turning and thought-provoking... a fascinating subject' Victoria Hislop
No comments:
Post a Comment