Historical nuclear preparation.

[BryanTheMegalodon]

Researching for a presentation I have to give on military technological advancements and came across this piece on the role of the ROC. Absolutely amazing to think that our civil defence strategy was based almost on tin cans and string technology and that we were able to do things without computers! Very much an eye-opener. Any Arsers on here with experience as would be fascinated to hear of your experiences? I especially liked the bit where messages were passed up and down on pieces of string, especially as we whinge now that we don't get our advertised broadband speeds.

The Hole in the Ground (1962) - UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation - YouTube

You have to admire the stiff upper lips as nukes rain down all around - epsecially the bunker sprog who upon being told to go outside and give a visual sit-rep does so without quoting H&S regulations though I'm sure that he might have something to say about every man in the bunker smoking a pipe! Definately a different era!!

 

[tuffy52]

RSG at work,unfortunately the locations of all these sites was well known and monitored by the USSR,they were sure targets in a first strike.

 

[JoeCivvie]

HM's speech in the event of a nuclear WW3 has just been released:

BBC News - 'WWIII Queen's speech' script revealed

 

[wet_blobby]

I remember being taught how to dig a nuclear bomb proof trench. It had to be no wider than 18 inches with the sides as smooth as possible. We then dug a shelter one end of it, put some flimsy curved wriggly tin over it, covered it with about a foot of earth and got told "Dig it properly and a thermo nuclear bomb can explode 500 meters away and you will survive to fight"

On hearing that, the expression "Like Fcuk" came to mind.

 

[alfred_the_great]

Read 'Secret State' by Peter Hennessey for much more detail.

The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War: Peter Hennessy: 9780141008356: Amazon.com: Books

 

[tuffy52]

Even in the 80's the Government advice was poor.

When the Wind Blows (1986 film)

 

[Biscuits_Brown]

RSG at work,unfortunately the locations of all these sites was well known and monitored by the USSR,they were sure targets in a first strike.

Meh... Maybe, Maybe not.

The other maybe is "maybe that was the intent of the RSGs."

I remember being taught how to dig a nuclear bomb proof trench. It had to be no wider than 18 inches with the sides as smooth as possible. We then dug a shelter one end of it, put some flimsy curved wriggly tin over it, covered it with about a foot of earth and got told "Dig it properly and a thermo nuclear bomb can explode 500 meters away and you will survive to fight"

On hearing that, the expression "Like Fcuk" came to mind.

Muuuh. The get out clause is probably in the "can" part.

It's certainly possible. It's equally possible you'll be medium rare Pedigree Chum.

Bet you'd have had the shovel out when the balloon went up in any case.

Even in the 80's the Government advice was poor.

When the Wind Blows (1986 film)

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the government advice. If your home stood in an area only marginally affected by blast & fire then the advice released by government would have kept you alive if followed. No question.

It's just that we were (perhaps) the most heavily targetted area in the world, so there were very few people in that position.

The Home Office could not tell the bulk of the British population how to survive a nuclear attack because for the bulk of them there was no surviving.

The decision could have been taken to look at postcodes, and send out either letters stating "Repent your sins!" or "Run!" to the majority and a copy of protect & Survive to the rest. I doubt that would have gone down well though.

 

[ooooh_matron]

The general concensus of a few of my relatives who were in the ROC was that come Armageddon not one of their colleagues intended to turn-up and would instead be preparing their family homes and ensuring their trainng was put to use in protecting their wife and kids.

 

[jim30]

Secret State is an excellent book, and not just because the good author namechecks me in it for giving him some useful information which changed a key finding from the first edition

Those of you who like all things policy and nuclear should read
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cab-196-123-1.pdf
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cab-196-124-1.pdf

Which sets out the briefing that Labour would have got had they won the election in 1983 - its bloody scary to be honest.

I've said it before, but having spent a lot of time in the Corsham bunker (popularly known as BURLINGTON) it remains the single creepiest place I have ever been to.

 

[Biscuits_Brown]

The general concensus of a few of my relatives who were in the ROC was that come Armageddon not one of their colleagues intended to turn-up and would instead be preparing their family homes and ensuring their trainng was put to use in protecting their wife and kids.

Their training could do the square root of **** all for their wife & kids, or anyone else, unless they were at their post.
Having an understanding of the 7/10 rule does not allow you to alter it.

 

[Charlie_Cong]

Those of you who like all things policy and nuclear should read
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.u ... -124-1.pdf
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.u ... -123-1.pdf

Those links don't work for me, Jim.

 

[Biscuits_Brown]

Secret State is an excellent book, and not just because the good author namechecks me in it for giving him some useful information which changed a key finding from the first edition

Those of you who like all things policy and nuclear should read
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.u ... -124-1.pdf
http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.u ... -123-1.pdf

Which sets out the briefing that Labour would have got had they won the election in 1983 - its bloody scary to be honest.

I've said it before, but having spent a lot of time in the Corsham bunker (popularly known as BURLINGTON) it remains the single creepiest place I have ever been to.

Links are truncated.

Corsham is an interesting case study in how these things worked in Britain.

 

[tuffy52]

It really was all MAD,something a certain group in North Korea/Iran don't seem to understand.

 

[ooooh_matron]

Their training could do the square root of **** all for their wife & kids, or anyone else, unless they were at their post.
Having an understanding of the 7/10 rule does not allow you to alter it.

My main point is that no ****** would turn up for duty.

 

[Biscuits_Brown]

My main point is that no ****** would turn up for duty.

Having spent my (early) sunshine years at a directly related task, I can pretty much assure that a lot of ******* would.

 

[Biscuits_Brown]

It really was all MAD,something a certain group in North Korea/Iran don't seem to understand.

Neither NK nor Iran present a MAD situation. At least in the sense of the acronym.

 

[Mattb]

I remember being taught how to dig a nuclear bomb proof trench. It had to be no wider than 18 inches with the sides as smooth as possible. We then dug a shelter one end of it, put some flimsy curved wriggly tin over it, covered it with about a foot of earth and got told "Dig it properly and a thermo nuclear bomb can explode 500 meters away and you will survive to fight"

On hearing that, the expression "Like Fcuk" came to mind.

To be fair, it might well protect you fairly effectively from the blast.

Of course, a few hours/days later when all of your skin falls off you might not be particularly pleased that it did.

 

[31alpha]

My main point is that no ****** would turn up for duty.

I ended up on an ROC monitoring post, in the middle of nowhere, in the 80's-90's untill they disbanded. Even amongst ourselves we knew that most would not/could not get to place of duty in time for the "noisy bits" one of the reasons why each post had about 3 times the required war strength on the establishment. The extra few quid came in handy though for the odd shandy mind you

 

[ooooh_matron]

Having spent my (early) sunshine years at a directly related task, I can pretty much assure that a lot of ******* would.

We'll never know thank God.

 

[jim30]

Links fixed and should be working now. I blame communist spies sabotaging the war effort. Any chance of an HSF detachment with pick axes and SLRs to protect my post please?