Atomic bomb test, Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, 1952

Press photograph from the archives of the Baltimore Sun newspaper (image 150 x 205 mm; overall dimensions 210 x 250 mm), with date stamp verso (OCT 25 1952), and accompanying description: 'This official photo, one of a series released for the first time today by British Information Services, shows one of the final stages of the first  British atom bomb detonation at Australia's Monte Bello Islands on Oct. 3rd. This view of the atomic cloud shows it spreading over a fifty-mile sea area to the north within 30 minutes of the blast.' The photographic print was made in 1952, but is a photograph of the original print with a typed caption placed beside it.

The British Government tested its first nuclear weapon in Australia at the Montebello Islands off Western Australia in 1952.