Former radio operator for Monty John Uppard had something of an explosive career, as TIM STOUT discovers

As a boy, John Uppard was a regular visitor to the Science Museum in London.

Who would have thought, watching him turn handles and press knobs on the working models, that he would grow up to be a communications expert for the SAS - still less an expert witness to the most fearful weapon his country had ever invented?

Yet during World War Two John was the "suitcase man" - radio operator - for a squad of saboteurs like Gregory Peck's team in the classic film The Guns of Navarone.

Later, as a scientist, he watched the sea shudder during post-war tests of Britain's atom bomb off Australia.

We chat at John's home in Carlton Avenue, Westcliff where his lounge is festooned with birthday cards. He has just turned 80, not that you'd know it. Tall, lean and fit, John still has about him the air of a man who has plenty in his past.

A chance remark makes me wonder exactly what: "My favourite weapon was a long-barrelled Smith and Wesson." Now his time is spent sorting out old letters from his wife, who died not so long ago.

He grew up in South Kensington, where he spent hours in London's famous museums: "Most of the time it was the Science Museum. That's where I got the bug for science."

As a schoolboy he became an impressive performer with a Meccano set. "Half a crown at birthday time could get you quite a lot of stuff in those days," he recalls.

After school he went into the Post Office on the engineering side, a career move which meant that when war broke out the same year he found himself in a reserved occupation: "I did an officer's training course at Aldershot and went to the Middle East as a second lieutenant with the Royal Corps of Signals.

"I found myself in Cairo, El Alamein, Tobruk, Tripoli. I was a radio operator for Montgomery. All his messages had to go through me, in code.

"He was a man of terrific charisma. It was his bearing, I suppose; and his voice. When it all finished in Tripoli he spoke for two and a half hours about the campaign, without notes. He seemed touched when we applauded him."

After that the restless young officer found himself at a loose end in Cairo. The talk now was of the SAS: "It was a shadowy group which had been involved in the desert fighting.

"They were derided by the Infantry - glamour boys, not men for the big battles. We were told that they were to be disbanded, but I liked what I heard about them and volunteered."

It was a busy time for John. He had just fallen in love with a telephonist whom he had met at a mess dinner, and the romance continued during his early training with the SAS.

"To start with, it was mostly toughening up with assault courses and bags of PE.

"Barbara and I got married, with the approval of our respective commanding officers. We had a four-day honeymoon in Suez, and then I was whipped up to Italy."

John now becomes a little reticent about what he did as a member of the dagger-and-wreath Who Dares Wins squad: "I was the radio operator, who carried our 'suitcase' with its range of 80 miles. Our task was to eliminate German units," is pretty much all he'll say.

There's a vague phrase, and John doesn't seem eager to divulge the details. Blowing up railways was part of the job. Perhaps that was when he learned the value of a long-barrelled Smith and Wesson.

I wonder whether he and his comrades in arms waited to watch their explosives go off. "No. You'd clear out. People react in different ways. Some are good in action, but not so good if they have to wait around.

"I suppose it was a bit like The Guns of Navarone film, but they always make it look glamorous in a film."

A lot of the time he was in the Greek islands, background to the Navarone tale. He spent a year with the SAS, helping to push the Germans north through Greece, some of the time helped by communist resistance forces.

"There was a lot of concern felt about us helping communists. In the end we found ourselves having to fight groups which we had previously supported."

In Athens John caught malaria and ended up in hospital. His commanding officer had a question. Would he like to go back to Cairo, since he hadn't had much of a honeymoon? John didn't have to think twice - "Not half!"

He looks back to the war years with some satisfaction: "I had what they call a good war. I saw a bit of action, and got married. But I didn't do very much. I wasn't there long enough."

John isn't the type of man to tell me this, but I see the evidence framed on the wall. His name was published in the London Gazette as "mentioned in despatches for distinguished service."

After the war John continued in Government employ, using his scientific knowledge. He can't say too much, but the time came in 1952 when he was one of a group of scientists and military people who travelled islands off the north coast of Australia.

They were accompanied by the ancient frigate Plym, which carried a very sensitive cargo - Britain's first atom bomb.

John says: "We were studying the effects of blast. When the bomb was detonated, the Plym was vaporized.

"The sea trembled, and a mushroom cloud arose in perfect symmetry. It was almost exactly what we had expected."

Mighty moment - The results of Britain's first A-bomb explosion were as expected, says John Uppard. He should know; he was there along with other Government scientists

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