On October 3, 1952 the United Kingdom became yet another member of an exclusive club - a nuclear power - after it detonated its first atomic bomb.
Operation Hurricane saw the Royal Navy's HMS Plym, named after the River Plym, used as the detonation platform for the the nation's very first nuclear weapon.
A 25-kiloton atom bomb - slightly bigger than the one which destroyed the city of Nagazaki - was detonated a few seconds before 9.30am around 400 metres from the island of Trimouille in the Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia.
According to the history books, although data acquisition would have been simplified by detonating the bomb from a tower above the ground or sea surface, it was conducted aboard HMS Plym in order to simulate the effects of a nuclear weapon being smuggled into a British port aboard a ship.
The warhead used British and Canadian plutonium which was later developed into the 'Blue Danube' weapon carried on the active British nuclear force of RAF 'V-bombers'.
The explosion came following a decision by the US - fearful of intelligence leaks - ended nuclear co-operation with the British scientists who had been involved in the Manhatten Project to develop American's nuclear weapon capability.
As a result the then Labour government - recognising that the US and the USSR had effectively become the new superpowers following World War Two - approved the development of a British bomb using the scientists which had been involved in the wartime research.
HMS Plym, which was built in South Bank-on-Tees and launch on February 4, 1943, had seen extensive service on Atlantic convoy escort missions and along with HMS Bann, HMS Teviot and HMS Trent, had provided anti-submarine escorts to the convoy which arrived in South Africa from the UK on October 9, 1943 with critical reinforcements for service in Burma.
For more information on Operation Hurricane and its long lasting effects visit this site.