Porton Down, BBC4
Discussion
Very scary, can't imagine working with stuff where a pin head's worth on your skin is enough to kill you. And was it me or did at the beginning the reporter say the chief exec was the only one he could name then proceeded to give the names of everyone else he interviewed? Whatever, fascinating programme.
MrAndyW said:
They always tried to bribe us with a months pay or 28 days leave.
RAF lads to clever for that, well most of them anyway.
We always told they were trying to find a cure for the common cold, yeah ok then,
Same. It came up regularly when I was in the Army.RAF lads to clever for that, well most of them anyway.
We always told they were trying to find a cure for the common cold, yeah ok then,
Lots of stories of people never returning to units once they'd been there.
Alias218 said:
Watching the old mustard shell being cut open was quite shocking. Presumably from the WW1 era, I couldn't believe that the stuff inside still effervesced as soon as it was cut into. Horrible stuff.
A number of years ago before a major refurbishment I had to survey the museum in Exeter. Away from public display were a number of rare items, including poisoned arrows and spears brought back from Cook's expeditions to the South Pacific. The ends were covered over, I assumed because they were sharp but was told it was also because the poison still worked. His expeditions were in the mid-late 1700s.MrAndyW said:
They always tried to bribe us with a months pay or 28 days leave.
RAF lads to clever for that, well most of them anyway.
We always told they were trying to find a cure for the common cold, yeah ok then,
I lived in Andover and there were stories back in the 1970s that they would pay for you to test cures for the common coldRAF lads to clever for that, well most of them anyway.
We always told they were trying to find a cure for the common cold, yeah ok then,
Just watched it on iplayer, a really interesting and well done done programme I thought. Massive improvement on the complete hatchet job that was done with the series of programmes on DERA (dstl's predecessor) some years back (1999? Can't remember what it was called but edited to really make DERA look bad)
LambShank said:
Anyone watching?
A fascinating, yet ultimately ghoulish place.
Thanks for posting, totally agree. A fascinating, yet ultimately ghoulish place.
I wonder where that beach was where the gas shells come from?
I visited the Somme battlefields in July 1987. The iron harvest threw up piles of shells, stacked at the entrances to fields. Many were gas shells of both allies & German origin.
Smiler. said:
LambShank said:
Anyone watching?
A fascinating, yet ultimately ghoulish place.
Thanks for posting, totally agree. A fascinating, yet ultimately ghoulish place.
I wonder where that beach was where the gas shells come from?
I visited the Somme battlefields in July 1987. The iron harvest threw up piles of shells, stacked at the entrances to fields. Many were gas shells of both allies & German origin.
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