Operation Mosaic Captain Hugh Martell would be in charge as commander Task Force 308, with the temporary rank of commodore. Charles Adams from Aldermaston, who had been the deputy technical director to Leonard Tyte for Operation Hurricane and to William Penney on Operation Totem, was appointed the scientific director for Operation Mosaic, with Ieuan Maddock as the scientific superintendent. Group Captain S. W. B. (Paddy) Menaul would command the Air Task Group. Menaul was also a nuclear test veteran, having been an observer on board Vickers Valiant WZ366 when it had made the first operational drop of a British atomic bomb during
Operation Upshot–Knothole Operation Upshot–Knothole Operation Upshot–Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. It followed "Operation Ivy" and preceded "Operation Castle". Over 21,000 soldiers took part in the ground exercise Desert Rock V in conjunction with the "Grable" shot. "Grable" was a 280mm shell fired from the "Atomic Cannon" and was viewed by a number of high-ranking military officials. The test series was notable as containing the first time an atomic artillery shell was fired (shot "Grable"), the first two shots (both fizzles) by University of California Radiation Laboratory—Livermore (now Lawrence Livermore National