A KINGSWINFORD Navy veteran is among 1,000 British servicemen fighting for compensation 50 years after they were exposed to nuclear blasts during the cold war.

Retired police chief inspector Jim Pratt is among the men, known as the atomic veterans', who are suing the Ministry of Defence for millions for the ill health they have suffered since the tests in the south Pacific and Australia in the 1950s.

London law firm Rosenblatt solicitors are representing the veterans - many of whom have suffered from cancer, skin defects, fertility problems and reduced life expectancy.

Grandfather-of-two Mr Pratt, of Ploverdale Crescent, is one of 60 remaining survivors from the crew of British warship HMS Diana which sailed through a radiation cloud after blasts on the Monte Bello islands - 40 miles off western Australia in May and June 1956.

Mr Pratt and the 300-plus crew were given just sunglasses and overshoes for protection from the blasts, carried out when Britain was trying to match Soviet and US nuclear technology.

More than 240 have since died - around 100 suffered cancer.

An 18-year-old Able Seaman on national service at the time, Mr Pratt witnessed two explosions - the second of which was seven times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Now aged 71, he told the News: "It was beautiful and quite awesome, but I'd prefer to have seen it on TV.

"Had we been fully briefed I don't think anyone would have gone. I think we were all pressed men, we didn't have any option."

The MoD has not accepted responsibility and is arguing a limitation defence' - arguing that because the claim is being brought more than three years after the injuries it is too late for the men to sue.

Rosenblatt solicitors, however, is hopeful the attempt to strike out the claim will fail.

But with around 50 veterans dying every year, time is fast running out.

Having suffered from the debilitating skin condition psoriosis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome ever since, Mr Pratt and felllow servicemen hope to win unlimited damages in one of the country's biggest ever test cases for compensation.

He said: "I'm hoping there will be enough pressure put on the MoD and the Defence Secretary to settle this because people are dying quite rapidly and of terrible diseases without any hope of being recompensed in their lifetime."

But he says - it's not about the money.

He added: "This isn't about me - I'm just one part of it.

"It's about the appalling off-hand way the MoD deals with us and other servicemen who have carried out actions at their behest. They need to be brought to account, not just for us but for future generations."