Victor Osborne recalls witnessing the Nagasaki atomic bomb flash

Victor Osborne joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class at the age of 15 and was stationed at the new training establishment HMS St Vincent, where he began his military training. He later served on HMS Hood, a battlecruiser that took part in various naval operations, including a Franco-British non-intervention force in Spanish waters aimed at protecting maritime trade and preventing the civil war from spreading. Osborne left HMS Hood on September 26, 1937, nearly four years before its destruction during a confrontation with the German battleship Bismarck, which resulted in the loss of at least 1,415 men in one of the Royal Navy's most significant tragedies. Throughout his career, Victor Osborne served aboard a total of 11 ships and establishments in the Royal Navy, gaining extensive experience in naval operations. Notably, he was present when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki during World War II, witnessing the devastating flash of the explosion. His lifetime experiences as a sailor during pivotal moments in history underscore the sacrifices made by naval personnel during the war and the lasting impact of those events on veterans and military history as a whole.