H-Bombs and Hula Girls

Published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Britain's first successful nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific, H-Bombs and Hula Girls tells the extraordinary tale of ten bright and cheerful young men, brought together through National Service, sailing in the aircraft carrier HMS Warrior through an Atlantic hurricane, squeezing through the Panama Canal, and taking part in the top secret thermonuclear weapon tests at Christmas Island. After witnessing at extremely close quarters what the world is told were three megaton H-bomb explosions,they tour Hawaii and the South Pacific before showing the flag round all of South America. Theirs is the only British warship ever to sail directly from Port Stanley to Puerto Belgrano, mooring next to the Argentine flagship General Belgrano. The book evokes the Cold War atmosphere of Britain in the 1950s and the race to secure the nation's place among the thermonuclear powers. But it also paints the picture of a heterogeneous group of young men enjoying together the life-shaping experiences of learning to be sailors, exploring South Sea paradises, participating in and witnessing three vast explosions, being their nation's goodwill ambassadors as they encounter completely different cultures, and here and there experiencing life-threatening moments intertwined with having their hearts broken. This fascinating memoir of the last Royal Navy Gunroom at sea, crafted from journals, letters, and contemporary records, plus the wonders of hindsight, culminates in the surprising realisation that Operation Grapple may not have been quite what it seemed.