On this day, 15 July 1942, British military scientists exploded an anthrax bomb on Gruinard island in Scotland near a group of 15 sheep. 13 of the sheep eventually died. It was one of a series of biological warfare experiments carried out on the uninhabited island which had been requisitioned by the government during World War II.
The experiment fed into Operation Vegetarian, a plan to drop linseed cakes laced with anthrax in fields in Germany to infect and kill cattle. Five million of the cakes were produced, but as they were only to be used in response to a German biological attack which never materialised, they went unused and were destroyed after the war. Prime minister Winston Churchill also ordered half a million anthrax bombs from the US.
Gruinard island remained contaminated and uninhabitable until the 1980s, when a group calling themselves “Operation Dark Harvest” began demanding the government decontaminate it, and left contaminated soil outside the Porton Down military research facility, as well as another package of uncontaminated soil outside the Conservative party conference.
Later in the decade decontamination efforts began and in 1990 the island was declared safe, although some scientists caution that it may still be dangerous as anthrax spores can live for hundreds of years. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1761878157330660/?type=3