Themes

Commander Iain Henderson on the worry of biological weapons in the Gulf War, 1991. (RNM)

Transcript: “I mean we had very good protection against chemicals and good – very good – detection systems. And we knew that we were very proficient in finding our way through it. So quite frankly, if they’d have had a go at us with chemicals we should have been absolutely fine. It was the biological that worried me because there was no sort of like detection equipment and, you know, sort of, an Iraqi nutcase with a sort of bottle of anthrax could have just waved his bottle and someway up threat – and with a prevailing wind which is straight down the Gulf - you know one would not have known that one would have been attacked. And that did worry me. You know, I had sailors on the upper deck and I had – people like the chap in the Isis ship who was doing the mine watch – the guns’ crews on the upper deck and, you know, it was a case of potentially exposing them to a lethal substance. And I certainly felt uncomfortable about that.”

Return to article