Porton Down: Britain’s Secret Nerve Gas Lab 

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First thing you learn in the military ... don't volunteer for anything.

"A sufficiently terrified man can indeed outrun a chemical weapon" Glorious adrenaline, keeping humans alive since before we've been humans.

"Dude, this stuff really did a number on these 5 guys. How many more times do we need to test this?" "Eh, about 4000." WTF?!

So, the question is... If I'm a mad scientist, looking to create even -deadlier- nerve gasses, can SquareSpace assist me in achieving my goals?

My late father was one of the 1950's "Volunteers", he to was told it was a cure for the common cold!! One of the factors in ending the class action in 2008 and accepting the VERY low offer was that so many veterans were ageing and would never see victory in this battle!! My Dad died 2 years later! Thank you for sharing this story, Simon.

"Better than the USSR" isn't a good bar to set, unless you're a gymnast trying to set a limbo record.

Yeah, I'm sure they learned their lessons. Lessons on keeping secrets better

My Warrant Officer warned me never to volunteer for Porton Down explaining what they did. They also would paint chemicals onto exposed skin to study the effects. On a connected side note, I was one of the Service personnel who had the series of Anthrax injections from 1998 through to my medical discharge in 2008 in the hope we would be protected during exposure. Peace Charlie 🇬🇧

“Yes, a sufficiently terrified man can outrun the gas” I almost pissed my pants! As the guy running from the gas I’m sure

They were still asking for volunteers in the 1980s. My platoon sergeant said he would kick anyone's arse that did. Two weeks extra holiday wasn't worth your health or your life.

Really getting some Aperture Science vibes from this place. "We've been shooting you with an invisible laser that's supposed to turn blood into gasoline, so all that means is it's working."

I did the infamous Porton down battle run in 1986. There wasnt any chemical agents used on us, we just pretty much lived in a CS gas cloud for 3 or 4 days. A few years later in 1995 I went to BATUS in Canada for 4 motnhs helping out another unit. There were areas we were not allowed to even step out of the vehicle we were in, if we did or got stuck in one we were not allowed to move an would have to go through the decontamination process. Who knows what the hell they ere testing out there!

Mustard gas saved my life. A derivative of the mustard gas family, cyclophosphamide, is used in chemotherapy. This application was discovered from the after-effects in soldiers gassed during WWI--like my grandfather. It's a funny world.

Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and DON'T EVER VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING.

You know that a weapon is truly gruesome when even Hitler said no to using it.

I was of the mugs who went to Porton Down 1967, they ask for soldiers to help find a cure for the common cold. The police inquiry was by Wiltshire and M o D Police. We (4 of us ) given encompassment that lasted 3 days, we were some of the 361 service personnel to be paid compensation.

Who needs enemies when you have 'friends' like these...

I remember my training staff telling us in 1989 " DO NOT VOLUNTEER FOR THIS PLACE "

@ about 12:00 - 15 shillings was 0.75 Pounds. That comes out to roughly 21 Pounds today. That is what they paid Ronald Madison to take a near lethal dose of nerve gas.

My Grandad visited Porton Down a fair few times as he worked for the RSRE. He hated it there, he said you'd go for a drink with them after work and they'd spike you with LSD for a laugh.

In 1979 I worked with an ex RAF regiment guy, apart from the strories of serving in Northern Ireland, he once brought up a story of Porton Down - A notice was posted in the barracks, 1 weeks pay in return for volunteers for Porton, time away from the regiment (5 days) could be taken as you were helping the M.O.D. He and a mate volunteered, his mate was called first and off he went. On his return 5 days later he was covered in huge water blisters all over his exposed skin. Seeing him the guy I worked with immediately withdrew his application :)

The phrase “weaponized Ebola” sent a chill down my spine like I’ve never felt before

This video sponsored by Porton Down, we do good things now quit asking questions.

That 1 death pisses me off tho.. they said they "finally learnt their lesson".. but they had that opportunity on the previous test, when a patient almost died. It was just a competely unnecessary death

Porton's been open to commercial business for years. Dyson did their early dust extraction efficiency test there for their dual cyclone.

Didn't expect to hear about my grandfather, Alfred Thornhill, on this so thank you as I miss him every single day

1:35 - Chapter 1 - Gassed 5:10 - Chapter 2 - A taboo family 9:05 - Chapter 3 - The experiments 12:30 - Mid roll ads 14:05 - Chapter 4 - Death comes to porton 17:45 - Chapter 5 - Bioweapons & Secret trials 21:25 - Chapter 6 - Lifting the lid

Today we learn on Geographics “A sufficiently terrified man can indeed outrun a chemical weapon”

When I enlisted in the Army in 1976, my Dad told me never, ever to volunteer for anything, while I served. He was a WW2 vet that got bombed and badly hurt in the desert. I did as he told me to, one of the very few times I listened to him. Now, after watching this video, it was a freakin' good thing I did. Also, there is no such thing as perfection. It is something we should always strive for. My point is this, at some point, at Porton Downs, and at Bluegrass Army Depot, and others around the world, there will be a release. I'm certain uncontrolled releases have already happened. As long as they exist, it will happen. It just takes time. The thought of a weaponized accidental release of smallpox terrifies me far more than that of anthrax. Smallpox spreads like a wildfire in perfect burning conditions.

So wait us British did terrible things in regards to warfare? Well I've never heard of such a thing!

In the Army, we don't "volunteer", instead we're *VolunTOLD!!*

My grandparents lived in Gomeldon about a mile away from porton down and just up the road from the NBC facility at Winterbourne Gunner. As a kid I never knew what happened there but was always intrigued by the fact that all the land around their house is classed as a military training area with red flags flying constantly. We used to go for bike rides and along one road both sides were training area with the red flags clearly visible. I always found it weird we could ride through the middle of it lol.

All Britain’s chemical weapons were stored at RAF Harpur Hill near Buxton. Including captured German weapons. The place is huge and built in the side of a hill with tunnels that have miniature train tracks. The RAF moved out in the sixties and the place is now an underground industrial estate for several businesses. Rumor is some chemical weapon shells are still down there under concrete.

Porton Down does a load more than “just” bio/chemical weapons. The stuff hidden away is way beyond anything we will hear on RU-vid.

Not really a secret is it. It's been in numerous books, films, quatermass even bloody Dr Who.

You cannot speak about Porton Down without Suffield Experimental Station. Whatever experiment they couldn't do at the first was done at the later. Keep up your excellent work!

>"a mild experiment to find a cure for the common cold" Now sounds almost as scary as the truth 😂

I've been there a couple of times., delivering plant machinery. I didn't know all this stuff then, otherwise I'd have told my boss to f...send someone else.

Yep, I've read loads of books in the 90's and read up on Porton Down in the early 2000's when fast internet became more common (512k broadband :-D ) and was interested and horrified at the same time from what I learnt!

A lot of John Constables best works were in Suffolk, where he was from. Also the germans used phosgene gas, not phosthene gas

Another suggestion along these lines - the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington State, USA. Lots of "fun" isotopes buried there to this day, the site of 40 years of Nuclear Weapons Plutonium production - as well as some bizzare "farm" experiments in the late 1940s, the "Downwinder" story, and a gigantic cleanup effort. The first full-sized nuclear reactor was built there, and is now a museum that can be toured. Enrico Fermi's office chair is there, and you can even catch the occasional choir performance in front of the reactor face.

(23:32) While we all agree that chemical weapons should be totally removed from existence, there is a very sane reason for keeping small quantities in the lab: it provides the opportunity develop detection of its presence, methods of protection, to provide medical aid to those affected, and develop methods of decontamination. We hope they're handled legally, with responsibility, and with independent oversight.

Second comment but worth it: My brother was an IT purchaser at porton and had really bad runs. Cue him having the toilet door knocked on by guys in full NBC gear and being zipped up in a clear body bag to be whisked to Salisbury hospital as the base went on full shutdown. Massively invasive testing later (bum probes, gum injections etc) turns out it was a dodgy Dominoes Pizza. I remind him of this on a regular basis 😂

Porton Down is starting to become open to non government businesses. Source: nearly got a job there

I love this channel!!! Everything Simon and the team do is amazing!! Keep it up guys!!! ❤️

5:50 Weird sound glitch there. Mic problems for that one line?

A really interesting piece! Thank you for this insight into the goings on of Porton Down! Interesting that you note the 2007 foot and mouth outbreak! I was living in the area affected by the outbreak. I remember when leaving the area, cars had to be disinfected etc. I also remember dozens of helicopters flying overhead!

3:44 i don't think I was supposed to laugh

You guys are great! Thank you for the education. I love all your channels.

I com[pleted a NBC instructors course at Porton Down in the later half of the 80's....I remember during years of my military service notices appeared asking for volunteers to go to Porton Down for 2 weeks to take part in experiments and you would paid for each experiment. i knew one lad who went for 3 weeks (his actual leave, which he got back) as he was skint and thought it would be a good idea. he did a sh*t load of experiment's leading up to his final one of a blister agent being applied to his hand near to the web of the thumb. I saw him some 3 years later and he was still as mad as when i first met him except his agent burn looked around the size of a 50p piece and he said it itched, i asked was it worth it, i wont write down his reply.........brought back memories lol

22:57 ...Aaaaaaand *Simon* reenacting *"Max Headroom"*

Threw a lot of gas at him and said "run" ! I can't stop laughing 😂💀

Imagine what we don't know..

Hi I was part of the police investigation, operation Antler, having been gassed at Porton Down in 1964. I had been seconded (without reward) to a couple of their experiments and testing on newly introduced masks and NBC combat gear. I never got any compensation and still take daily medicine. I am now 78. I was very I’ll at the time of our experiment which was carried out, deliberately in windy conditions. Dale.

Humanity and humans in general will never learn their lesson. I remember hearing someone once say that science is only to be used to advance humanity but not at the cost of the very humanity it claims to be serving.

If you've never heard of Antharx.... oh yes Spreading the Disease, Among the Living... Great albums.

In the early 90s I had the opportunity to be tested at Porton Down... due to the Gulf War they were desperate for volunteers. After a lot of considerarion though I thought it all rather suspect and - regardless of the money - not to volunteer for 'trials'. I think it was all for the best, in retrospect.

I knew some of this, but not all. I'm pretty sure I saw magazine adverts for testing volunteers. We knew about the "Centre for the Common Cold" but not all this. Thank you for sharing this vital history.

Great videos love to listen in the morning on my hour drive to work ! Thanks for keeping my awake:)

John Constable’s best work was done not in Wiltshire, but in the area known as Constable Country; southern Suffolk around Flatford Mill and Dedham Vale.

I volunteered for a study there when I was in the RAF. The doctor went into detail of the tests and I rapidly changed my mind! Definitely wasnt worth the £50 they were offering! 🙈

Thank you for your hard work putting this together

I'm rather glad that the Nazis "never" had the occasion to use that gas, they could have easily wiped whole battlefields in minutes.

The evil that lie in the heart and mind of men has no boundaries.

Ahh PortonDown...I live 5 mins away from there...and that's walking.

Ahhhh when porton down is a 5 minute walk away from your house.

Probably worth mentioning that porton down also has an incredibly large role in the destruction of chemical weapons from abroad and in england, most of the activity there nowadays seems to be getting rid of the weapons than creating them!

Interesting about the 2007 foot an mouth outbreak, I cannot remember the press mentioning that it was a fault pipe at Porton Down that caused the outbreak.

I was in the forces in the 1980s and as many have said, never volunteer for anything. Unless you need a bit of extra cash or some extra leave. I volunteered twice, The first time we were told to dress in full NBC kit, so suit, respirator, gloves, over boots etc. We then spend two days with electrodes attached to our skin as we were told to repeatedly do the assault course time after time and then play football. All to test dehydration, sensory deprivation etc. Tiring but harmless. The second time we were told no NDC kit required and were told to defend a small copse. We thought we were the enemy force defending the copse against the test guinea pigs. A scientist approached and placed a large box a short distance away, monitoring equipment we thought. After a short while strange things started to happen, one mate started shooting blanks at dandelions, another was just led on the ground watching the clouds in the sky, I was enjoying watching the trees walk about. Eventually the boffins approached and suggested we give them our heavy riffles as they looked uncomfortable, we did. The test was to see how easily trained soldiers could be disarmed without harm or destroying property and equipment. The strange box mentioned earlier contained LSD gas. Two days resting as the effects cleared and we got extra leave.

I heard a radio 4 programme about the common cold experiments at Porton Down. The one that stuck in my head was British top brass wanted a drug to increase the com at performance of infantry, like the Nazi's did with amphetamines. A group of volunteer troops were given huge doses of LSD, about 6 times stonger than most street doses. The soldiers were then ordered to perform basic military manourves against a fortified position. You can imagine the chaos. People confused, hallucinating, unable to do anything. One sergeant was noted to be sobbing and moaning "who is in charge here". From a BBC radio 4 programme about 20 years ago.

“Yes! A sufficiently terrified man Can outrun a chemical weapon!” Why did I laugh at this?

Can we get a "Today I found out" on Operation Paperclip? I keep hearing one liners about it and moving on.

22:48 Word about Porton Down's postwar experimental work got out long before the 1990s. Alan Scott's 1971 novel Project Dracula refers to Porton Down's research into nerve agents. A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of Gas and Germ Warfare, published in April 1, 1982 by Robert Harris, Jeremy Paxman also discusses the matter.

I worked there throughout spring/summer ‘98... We amazingly had access to a lot of the camp, indoors and out... probably all I should tell you. Some mad shit goes on there.

Fabulous watch, as usual. But it does make you very nervous about those who 'guard us'. Who shall guard the guards themselves....

How dare they harm bunnies!

We even did nerve gas trials in Suffield Range, Alberta, Canada. It took 30 years to get the information declassified under the then new access to information act of 1985. The tests were done in the 1950s in looking for a cure for nerve gas attacks. Suffield is considered Canada's Area 51 site.

Shrouded in secrecy, watching the facts about it on RU-vid with Simon!! LOL! I love this channel!! :)

Salisbury I here the GRU holiday there ,apparently they love the steeple .

"as taboo as possible" 🤣, that was good 😅

Before we describe this man's horrific death at the hands of a deadly nerve agent let me tell you about Squarespace

There's no question that a site like Porton Down is absolutely essential for the security of a nation. It's one of those things that you hope never to need, but if you DO need it you don't have time to wait for it to be built. But there is a HUGE difference between "We need a place like Porton Down" and "We need a place like Porton Down to operate without ethics, oversight, or accountability". Indeed, sites like PD need the _strictest_ oversight and accountability, even if it's top secret, because the consequences when they fuck up are so potentially massive.

We do a lot more than just nerve agents at Porton Down. We do crucial public health and sci-tech work.

2:39 You misspelled 'Salisbury'.

Symptoms of poisoning by organophosphate (a class of nerve agent to which sarin belongs): MUDDLES Miosis (pinpoint pupil) Urination Diarrhea Diaphoresis (excessive sweating) Lacrimation (tear production) Excitation (or Emesis [vomiting]) Salivation (drooling)

I used to live in Wiltshire. We cycled out to the area to camp out. Beautiful countryside lovely people

Anyone else watching this while in quarantine?

Went there a few times when based nearby, creepy place.

I grew up on the camp. My dad was an MOD policeman there from the 80s until 2010. My friends and I used to sneak onto the ranges and collect empty Brass cases from 5.56 and 7.62 bullets. We were only about 10/11 years old 😳

I encountered some strange men in a military bar the same day the American's attacked the bio facility in Syria. These men said a government openly attacking a facility of that calibre is a bad move, one turned to the other and said they should of left it to the mercs. I was actually curious about what they said, I put it behind me. Until my travels in England, I ran into an SAS member, he confirmed that bioweapons are still used heavily, however government militaries do not get involved because it's easier to hire mercenaries for clean up ops, than explain why a soldier has died under mysterious circumstances. I doubt I have the full truth, I only have those two strange encounters. Take it with a grain of salt. It is scary prospect if these men were all telling the truth. At the same time they could of been screwing with people.

'Stop the madness, stop playing God'. i love the British lol

Great video I live near portion and thought this was an amazingly detailed video. However altho I understand and agree with sponsors in videos Ronald maddison died, I didn't like that the subject of his death was used as suspense to promote a sponsor. Felt a bit wrong.

Survived mustard gas, shrapnel, stormed two machine gun nests, a British soldier didn't shoot him because pitty/WWI ended and numerous assassination attempts. I wonder, did he ever buy a lottery ticket? Go to Las Vegas, make his way to the roulette tables, "all on bleck, unt you, server froline, bring me a schnapps! Ja, I vont it all on bleck, unt let it rrrride!" Oh, and have I ever heard of Anthrax? Hell yes I have. They were kinda big in the late 80's. My favorite album of theirs is State of Europhia. Favorite song on that album is Finally.

My father was stationed there in the early 50's, My mother said dad had to go in a gas chamber to get a weekend pass to see her! When my father applied to marry my mother, she didn't pass for approval as a great great-ish grandfather on her mother side served on Napoleons ship! Dad was a batman and officer he served managed to overturn the CO's decision. The the day he died five years ago, if you mentioned Porton down, his answer was "Queen and country" Refused to even acknowledge it exists.

You guys just love those terrifying apocalypse research labs, don't you?

*Britain reveals the extent of their chemical tests.* US - "You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!

Funny, I was just watching “Woyzeck” ( This Werner Herzog 1979 film is a story which consist of “Military experimentation”.) on the criterion app.

One of the interesting things I learned is that the major powers are side stepping the international laws of stockpiles and production of chemical weapons. Why? How? They have developed binary formulations so that there are no weapons being produced or stored, only this unusual artillery round or a different kind of airal bomb to to deliver these formulations. Those binary mixtures don't become weapons until mixed by the unusual delivery devices.

Wow, that squarespace ad was really inappropriate.