'About bloody time' - Nuke test hero finally gets medal to honour sacrifice after 70 years

The last hero of Operation ­Bagpipes has finally been honoured with a medal, thanks to the .

Squadron Leader “Pete” Peters flew in 1954. Seventy years on, with a shiny medal pinned to his jacket at last, he vowed to parade at Remembrance Sunday and said: “This is just wizard. Thank you so much for arranging it.”

flew through the radioactive detritus of the deadly weapons three times. Their combined yield of 13.8 ­megatons was equivalent to 920 of the weapons that had destroyed ­Hiroshima less than a decade earlier.

But in July, Sqn Ldr Peters, 93, was told he was not entitled to wear the Nuclear Test Medal. After the Mirror highlighted his story, the new government pushed fresh criteria through Whitehall, and the King signed them off on Wednesday morning.

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Just 24 hours later Veterans Minister Al Carns visited Sqn Leader Peters at his home in Lakenheath, Suffolk, to deliver the gong, with officers from nearby base RAF Marham. Defence ­Secretary John Healey also rang to congratulate him.

Peters said: “It’s about bloody time. I’m chuffed to blazes but annoyed it’s taken so long. I shall wear it proudly on behalf of my comrades who didn’t make it this far. Thank you so much to the Mirror, and the minister, for getting it to me in time.”

Mr Carns said: “We heard about this via the Mirror and pushed really hard across government to get the criteria widened. This government is one that will live up to its promises and it was an honour to meet Sqn Ldr Peters, hear his stories and give him his medal on behalf of the King. He’s a fantastic character, everything you think the RAF should be.”

He added: "I also want to commend the Mirror, which has long campaigned for these brave veterans."

Bagpipes was the result of a secret agreement between the US and UK that was not admitted for decades. The Americans did not have planes capable of flying high enough to sample the massive clouds, and had legislated to keep their nuclear secrets to themselves.

Only the RAF’s Canberra reconnaissance planes were up to the job, so were offered in a trade for data to help Britain’s own weapons programme. Pete’s comrades of 1323 Flight and 540 Squadron were asked to hide the RAF symbols on their planes when they arrived in the Pacific, in case anyone realised what was going on. They refused.

Two crew members - Flight Lieutenant Frank Garside and Flying Officer Gordon Naldrett - were lost at sea after hitting thunderstorms on the way. Another crash-landed on a coral atoll and had to be stripped of parts before being scuttled, so no-one knew the RAF had been there.

On their return home, William Penney who led the British bomb project said the samples collected sped up our own Cold War weapons trials, and three years later Britain had a H-bomb of her own.

Sqn Leader Peters says the rest of his unit has died from cancer, and while he survived a bowel tumour himself now has an incurable lung condition and is being cared for at home.

The medal was only introduced after a four-year campaign led by the Mirror and veterans’ group LABRATS. Although Bagpipes and similar operations were put forward for inclusion, the Tory government blocked those who served at tests of other nations.

Sqn Ldr Peters says the rest of his unit died from cancer and while he survived a bowel tumour, he has a lung condition.

The medal was introduced after a four-year campaign led by the Mirror and veterans’ group LABRATS. Now British troops who served at US tests between 1952 and 1967 can get a medal too.

Now, British troops who served at US weapons tests between 1952 and 1967 can finally get the medal too. A second review has begun into whether hundreds more veterans, who sampled French and Chinese nuclear weapons in the 1970s and 1980s, can also be added.

It is hoped their medical issues can finally be included in long-term government studies of cancer rates in nuclear veterans.

Sqn Ldr Peters said: “They have recognised my service with a medal, but have not recognised that my cancer sits alongside it. They must reconcile the two.”

Tearfully, he added: “I feared I would die without it, now I can go down below knowing what we did will be remembered. Thank you for making that happen.”

• The full story of Operation Bagpipes is told in new book EXPOSED: The Secret History of Britain’s Nuclear Experiments, which is from Pen&Sword.

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