Nancekuke History

Some of the important decisions and dates in CDRE Nancekuke's early history

Cabinet Defence Committee meeting, 20^th June 1946

The committee, including Prime Minister Clement Attlee, accepted the recommendations of the Chiefs of Staff on chemical warfare policy.  The recommendations are included in a paper submitted to the meeting and can be summarised as:

This was the key decision which led to Nancekuke being chosen as the site of a facility to research the production process for nerve gases.  The detailed plans for Nancekuke were agreed during the following years by the Defence Research Policy Committee, chaired by Sir Henry Tizard.

Cabinet Defence Committee meeting, 27th September 1950

These minutes show that the government believed Russia would have large scale production capability for nerve gases by 1951, whereas for Britain the target date was 1957/8 (slipped from the 5-10 year target set in 1946). 

By now, Nancekuke had been identified as the most suitable site available for nerve gas production and the Ministry of Supply was starting work on construction of the pilot production plant.

1953

The Chiefs of Staff had calculated that 2,500 tons of nerve gas would be required as a reserve ready for chemical retaliation in the event of war.  The pilot plant at Nancekuke started operating this year, but there had been no progress towards larger scale production.  The pilot plant was capable of producing 1 ton of nerve gas per week.  This was intended to be followed by construction of a plant capable of producing 50 tons per week, but financial constraints had caused repeated delays in the project.  The Chiefs of Staff suggested that all Britain's required nerve gas could be manufactured and charged into weapons at Nancekuke if this large scale factory was built. 

As the Cabinet were still seeking cutbacks in spending, including defence projects, the suggestion was made that America could be approached to supply the required quantity of nerve gas to save the cost of building a new plant.  It appears that this suggestion came from the Prime Minster, Winston Churchill.   Investigations proved that even if the nerve gas was provided 'free', the costs of transport from America and paying for weapons filling outweighed the cost of production the same quantity at home (even if the cost of building the 50 ton per week factory was included).  Therefore this proposal was dropped in February 1954 and the Defence Committee gave approval for production in the United Kingdom to go ahead, provided the costs could be met from the existing defence budget.  However, this diversion had further stalled the project at Nancekuke and financial constraints remained.

Cabinet Defence Committee meeting, 10th July 1956

This meeting took the decision to abandon plan for large scale nerve gas production as a financial cutback in defence spending.  This was not a decision to abandon research, and the committee took note that recent development of the 'V gases' possibly offered a more effective weapon than the earlier nerve gases.  The paper submitted by the Minister of Defence in support of this proposal made it clear that abandoning nerve gas production would not compromise the future possibility of pursuing the production of V gases.