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There were other crises, of course. At 06.00 hours on May 9th, the two courier Valiant aircraft carrying the vital explosive components for Short Granite, the first live nuclear bomb to be tested, together with their wind-finding PR 7 escort, had arrived at last from
Hickam. That evening Bill Cook again took the TFC on one side for a private chat.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but the bad news is that the explosive supercharge shell which goes round the radio-active core of this first live round arrived cracked. Also the spare supercharge. The only explanation we can think of is that the bomb-bay heating in the courier Valiants
didn't work properly and with such a long time at such low external temperatures the cold cracked the explosive
material."
"Oh, my God! We never thought of it! The bomb-bay heating, which had indeed given us some trouble earlier on but
we had thought this was cured, was only sufficient to keep warm the space round a
damn great bomb case nearly filling the bay. With a tiddley little parcel like your package of explosive, there wouldn't be nearly enough heat.. What the
hell are we going to do now? Can you get a replacement?"
"No, we can't get
a replacement in time-it would take at least six weeks. So we've stuck it
together with Bostik and we'll just hope for the best. I think it better not to broadcast this in case it affects
morale."
"Bostik! all this immaculate
planning and preparation and special assembly environment
and now your cracker is stuck together with Bostik! Still, I agree with you about
keeping it dark - let's maintain our customary air of imperturbable confidence,
Bill. Now I think we need it drink, don't you? And we'll start the ball
rolling tomorrow morning for the first live drop five days from
now."
After the initial shock and dismay at finding that all four of the hemispherical explosive supercharges
for Short Granite were cracked, Bill Cook and the assembly team led by Dr Bean and
Mr. T. R. Roberts had decided to go ahead with the live
assembly, selecting the best two of the four hemispheres. With great
delicacy these were taped round to prevent the cracks opening any wider and on mating them together round the RA
ball, the crack in the upper hemisphere was placed at right angles to the
crack in the lower. All dimensions were then checked to ensure that, although
differing from the original assembly, they were still within tolerance . The tape
was then removed and the whole sphere encased neatly in a Latex bag without any
trouble.. Dr Bean and Mr. Roberts had rehearsed this process several
times before and the whole drill worked with exemplary smoothness. And
then, in a thoroughly scientific gesture, they crossed fingers!
The nuclear device was then on May 11th despatched to the weapon assembly area, ready
for mounting in the Blue Danube bomb case which had earlier been
delivered ashore from the RFA Fort Rosalie.
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