On 22 September the weather appeared to have stabilised, but an airman had ‘gone missing’ near the forward area. A search was organised. At 11 pm he wandered, footsore and dehydrated, into Eleven Mile camp, well to the south of the forward area, having walked 32 kilometres through the desert. By the time he was found to be safe and well, it was too late to go ahead and the test was again postponed.
After that drama, and endless frustrating delays, the all clear was given on 27 September. Operation Buffalo got underway. The first in the series, detonated from a 30-metre tower at One Tree, had a yield of 15 kilotonnes and was the most witnessed. When the long-delayed plane load of journalists arrived they were allowed to watch the awesome spectacle that is a nuclear bomb. The parliamentarians missed out. They had arrived the day before but were sent back because there was nowhere to stay overnight.
Buffalo 1 was the plutonium warhead for the future Red Beard tactical nuclear weapon, a smaller weapon than Blue Danube. The winds were still not right on the day it was fired, suggesting Penney felt that he couldn’t wait any longer. Certainly the Royal Commission found that the decision was probably made out of a desire to get the thing done, rather than to adhere strictly to the agreed firing conditions. As with the earlier major trials, the mushroom cloud rose higher than predicted – well over 11 000 metres instead of 8500 metres – in a huge, classic mushroom shape. The unexpected height of the cloud played havoc with fallout predictions and appeared to contravene the conditions for safe firing that had been agreed with the Australian Government, a serious problem. An RAF Canberra aircraft flew through the cloud to gather samples. Radiation experts quickly began surveying the contamination. The radioactive cloud headed due east.
Despite some qualms about the extent of fallout from the first blast, Operation Buffalo proceeded. Buffalo 2, detonated at 4.30 pm on 4 October at Marcoo, was the only British bomb test detonated at ground level and therefore the only weapons test to create a true bomb crater. The crater was 44 metres wide and 21 metres deep. John Moroney described Buffalo 2 as a ‘nuclear landmine’. It tested the Blue Danube device that Penney had designed so many years before. It was a much smaller device than Buffalo 1 – only 1.5 kilotonnes – and had a far less spectacular cloud that rose to less than half the height of Buffalo 1. Like Buffalo 1, though, its cloud headed due east towards the northern New South Wales coast. The device was detonated despite the fact that rain had been forecast within 800 kilometres and actually fell about 160 kilometres from ground zero. Rain in the aftermath of a test brings fallout with it; any rain in the contaminated area will likewise be contaminated. Again, the agreed firing conditions were transgressed. These now looked to be optional rather than firm requirements.
Buffalo 3 was an airdrop with an expected yield of 3 kilotonnes. The winds were still difficult, and the time for detonation was brought forwards slightly. The device, also of Blue Danube design, was dropped from a Valiant bomber at 3.27 pm on 11 October and exploded 150 metres above the Maralinga plain near the Kite test site, dropping its radioactive material around the restricted area, including near to Maralinga village. As planned, the fireball did not actually reach the ground, and the cloud rose to 4500 metres. Unexpectedly, demonstrating how primitive the forecasting methods were at that time, the radioactive cloud headed to the south, drifting over Adelaide.
Buffalo 4, another Red Beard test, exploded from a tower at Breakaway, was a bigger bomb, expected to yield 16 kilotonnes, though its actual yield was 10 kilotonnes. It was fired in the dead of night, at 12.05 am on 22 October. It would have been fired earlier, except 21 October was a Sunday, and the Australian Government banned Sunday tests for religious reasons. Five minutes after midnight made everything okay, apparently. The sight of a midnight atomic fireball must have been eerie. Buffalo 4 had a high cloud, in excess of 9000 metres, but those on the ground could not see it well because of low stratus cloud. The radioactive cloud swung north and headed towards Darwin. In the tradition of previous Buffalo shots, Buffalo 4 violated the firing conditions. Even as it was being fired, the test authorities knew that it would cause fallout in inhabited areas more than 160 kilometres from the Maralinga range, a clear violation of the agreement. In fact, it sprinkled radioactive fallout on an arc between Newcastle on the New South Wales coast and Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Buffalo had many controversial elements. In particular, this test series is notorious for the Indoctrinee Force, often referred to later as the Maralinga guinea pigs. This group, largely commissioned officers, was deliberately positioned in the forward area during the Buffalo major trials so they could witness and experience the effects of nuclear weapons close-up – less than 9 kilometres from ground zero. There were 283 men in the Indoctrinee Force. Most were from the UK – 172 officers and six civilians – while Australia contributed 100 (mostly army officers but 25 from lower ranks and one civilian) and New Zealand contributed five officers. They were under the direct command of Australian captain JH Skipper but under the general direction of the British scientist Drake Seager, who reported to Penney.
The members of the Indoctrinee Force were special. They were housed separately from the other Maralinga denizens. They stayed at Eleven Mile camp, which was 18 kilometres from Watson and about 64 kilometres south of the forward area. They received endless briefings, lectures and range tours. Because the first Buffalo shot was delayed for 15 days, the Indoctrinees also assisted the scientists in preparing and laying out the various objects that were to be subjected to the nuclear blasts, such as guns, cars and dummies. The Indoctrinees witnessed the first two Buffalo tests, One Tree and Marcoo, up close. The world was facing the real prospect of nuclear war, and the Indoctrinees were ordered to report back to their military colleagues what the future had in store. Their eyewitness accounts were expected to provide preparation for the reality of atomic warfare.
Major Peter Lowe finally arrives at Maralinga, after a long British Overseas Airways Corporation flight to Sydney via the Far East. He has ‘been volunteered’ for a special three-week mission in the Australian desert. His commanding officer called him, when he was working at his post in Münster, West Germany, to tell him the glad tidings. It is all very hush-hush, he was told, but there is a big show on in Australia that needs non-technical observers, and most of them are coming from the British Army. He was to join an elite group known to the AWRE as the Indoctrinee Force, or I-Force, a sinister-sounding designation, though not one the men themselves use or even know about. Major Dan Buckley, also in the British Army, soon joins Lowe. He was stationed at Woomera for the rocket tests not long ago and had no idea he would be back in Australia so soon, for an even more dramatic assignment. Buckley is young, sporty and fit, a boxer and rugby player in his spare time. Lowe and Buckley are in different Indoctrinee teams doing different things, but both form part of a major exercise at the first Maralinga major test series.
Their camp at Eleven Mile is tented and primitive, rather different from those in Münster or the UK – or even Woomera. They are away from the main Maralinga contingent in the tree-lined village, too. It soon becomes clear that their mission will take longer than three weeks, as the winds are never right and interfere with the test schedule. Time hangs heavily on the officers. While they wait, they are treated to lectures and other preparations. Penney’s lectures are interesting and well prepared. The same cannot be said for some of the other talks, which are boringly technical and hard to follow. But everyone enjoys hearing Sir William speak, even though his subject matter is grave. He has an amiable and egalitarian manner, and knows his stuff. Penney warns the men of the dangers of gamma rays and describes the measures that will be taken to protect them. They are to wear full protective suits and film badges. Designated members of the party will carry Geiger counters.