When did the United Kingdom get the atomic bomb?

Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced Feb. 26, 1952 that the United Kingdom has an atomic bomb. The country would detonate one in Australia on Oct. 3, 1952.

The United Kingdom conducted 12 major nuclear weapons tests in Australia between 1952 and 1957. These explosions occurred at the Montebello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga.

Sydney, October 3, 1952

"Detailed descriptions of the explosion as seen from the mainland have led to speculation whether Britain had developed a new kind of bomb. Observers on the mainland said there were two main explosions, the second the louder of the two when the weapon went off. It is the first time that an atomic explosion has sounded in this way."

Another difference was that the cloud caused by the explosion, instead of taking the shape of a mushroom rose in a squat shape, but not to anything like the height that had been noted in the American explosions.