Gruinard Island, to give it its proper name, is just a few hundred metres from the mainland village of Mungasdale. In 1942, it became the focus of the UK's secret effort to find a weapon capable of defeating the Nazis. To test the potency of their biological arsenal, War Office scientists took a flock of 60 sheep to Gruinard and exposed them to a bomb packed with the anthrax spores.
"I understand Winston Churchill was very keen on using anthrax," says local historian Donald McIntyre. "He didn't see why the devil should have all the best weapons." [...] When the carcass of one dead Gruinard sheep washed up on the mainland after a storm, infecting other livestock, compensation payments were quick in coming. "It's not often you put in a complaint and get paid straight away [.]"
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