|
Conceived during the Cold War, the seven tonne device was the size of small truck and was designed to be buried or submerged by a British Army retreating from Soviet forces. |Read More|
|
The landmine would have been detonated remotely, causing mass destruction and contamination over a wide area to prevent subsequent enemy occupation.
The mines were to be left buried or submerged by the British Army of the Rhine. They would then have been detonated by wire from up to five kilometres away or by an eight-day clockwork timer. If disturbed or damaged, they were also primed to explode within 10 seconds. The devices had a nominal yield of 10 kT, producing a crater 375 feet in diameter for a surface shot, and 640 feet if buried 35 feet underground.
Development work on the mine, codenamed Blue Peacock, began at the Armament Research and Development Establishment at Fort Halstead in Kent in 1954. The weapon was designed, its components tested (short of fission) and two prototypes constructed, as part of a secret army "atomic demolition munitions" programme.
Scientists working on the project realised that the bomb could fail in winter if vital components become too cold, so they explored ways of keeping the inner workings warm. One proposed solution was wrapping them in fibreglass pillows. Another proposal put forward consisted of filling the casing of the nuke with live chickens, who would give off sufficient heat, prior to suffocating or starving to death, to keep the delicate explosive mechanism from freezing.
Despite the potential importance of chickens to the project, the mine was codenamed 'Blue Peacock'.
In the end, the risk from radioactive fallout would have been "unacceptable", and hiding nuclear weapons in an allied country was deemed "politically flawed". As a result, the Ministry of Defence cancelled Blue Peacock in February 1958.
David Hawkings in front of the Blue Peacock exhibit
in AWE historical Collection.
