If the UK had ever been nuked...

[paddyhasneeds]

Some of those links of the Minuteman are fascinating. I'd heard the term MIRV and knew what it stood for, but never actually looked at the physics of it - fking amazing but terrifying at the same time quite frankly.

[magpie215]

I think living in Blackpool would have been interesting had the balloon gone up

Couple of ripe targets near by that spring to mind

Heysham power station and RNAS Inskip(communications centre low freq submarine transmissions anmonst other things).

would have probably been quite warm by the seaside

[John William]

Well I must say were getting some interesting views on this thread,
has anyone mentioned that riverting Channel 4 documentary
1983, The Brink of Apocalypse. I know its been repeated a couple
of time on the History Channel but its a rivetting documentary
with some great music from the 1980's thrown in.

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 1

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 2

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 3

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 4

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 5

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 6

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 7

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 8

Of course the documentary also includes some great Spy Stories surrounding
the events of 1983.

[Gwagon111]

paddyhasneeds said:

Some of those links of the Minuteman are fascinating. I'd heard the term MIRV and knew what it stood for, but never actually looked at the physics of it - fking amazing but terrifying at the same time quite frankly.

My working life pretty much revolves (no pun intended) around rotation rate sensing. It's funny to think that if my work ever got returned to me, it would be the last thing that was .

[paddyhasneeds]

Gwagon111 said:

My working life pretty much revolves (no pun intended) around rotation rate sensing. It's funny to think that if my work ever got returned to me, it would be the last thing that was .

So is it literally as "simple" as the video makes it look? Boost into orbit, "loiter" above your intended continent and drop the warheads in the right direction so their internal systems take over?

[kiteless]

John William said:

Well I must say were getting some interesting views on this thread,
has anyone mentioned that riverting Channel 4 documentary
1983, The Brink of Apocalypse. I know its been repeated a couple
of time on the History Channel but its a rivetting documentary
with some great music from the 1980's thrown in.

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 1

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 2

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 3

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 4

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 5

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 6

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 7

Channel 4 - 1983 USSR on the verge of World War III, part 8

Of course the documentary also includes some great Spy Stories surrounding
the events of 1983.

Riveting and sobering in equal measure.

Great find

[Halb]

I was looking for an old QED episode and found this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYMS1po0L8

[nick heppinstall]

Halb said:

I was looking for an old QED episode and found this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYMS1po0L8

Very interesting.

[paddyhasneeds]

Halb said:

I was looking for an old QED episode and found this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYMS1po0L8

Cheery. Thanks

Just the one megaton too.

[Gwagon111]

paddyhasneeds said:

So is it literally as "simple" as the video makes it look? Boost into orbit, "loiter" above your intended continent and drop the warheads in the right direction so their internal systems take over?

The devil is very much in the detail. A warhead guided by NG's most accurate FOG could hit a newspaper from 100000 feet.

[Halb]

BIANCO said:

They should make new films like this and like Threads with modern special affects showing to true horror of nuclear war. Especially involving the new members and want to be members of the nuclear club. And what would happen to these countries and people if they uses them.

Its scary that many of the people living in these countries have know idea what they can do and what it means if they do uses them. I remember the celebrations in Pakistan when they got theirs. They need be shown films like this and shown its not something to celebrate over.

I agree. Watching it was most sobering, and not pleasant.

On a side note, I really enjoyed the old style factual staid English voice-over. As opposed to the type of voice-overs today whereby the presenters seem to want to make their resonance look like a roller coaster overly stressing parts of words .

[John William]

Halb said:

On a side note, I really enjoyed the old style factual staid English voice-over. As opposed to the type of voice-overs today whereby the presenters seem to want to make their resonance look like a roller coaster overly stressing parts of words .

From Culloden Moor to Cold War

Well heres a video of the old style factual staid English voice over in action.
Of course I'm referring to the Peter Watkins documentary-drama for the
BBC called Culloden, all about the last battle of the Jacobite Rebellion
made in 1964.

Of course Peter Watkins went on to make the highly accaimed and controversial,
The War Game in 1965 which was subsequently banned by the government from
being broadcast on the BBC, the ban only being overturned in 1985 - a year
after the televisation of Threads.

Culloden docudrama part 1

Culloden docudrama part 2

Culloden docudrama part 3


Yes the voice overs do have a certain style about them.

[dr_gn]

I thought that the narrator for Threads was the same person who narrated "Protect and Survive". A quick Google seems to prove me wrong, but I could have sworn his voice was used in a film, or some other non-official context in some kind of nuclear war "entertainment".

[MonkeyHanger]

dr_gn said:

I thought that the narrator for Threads was the same person who narrated "Protect and Survive". A quick Google seems to prove me wrong, but I could have sworn his voice was used in a film, or some other non-official context in some kind of nuclear war "entertainment".

A bit of Googling (and a scan of the end titles to Threads) suggests that it was narrated by Paul Vaughan, who also did the Beeb's "Horizon" for 20 years. Patrick Allen who did the voice-over for "Protect & Survive" is probably better known from the Barratt Homes ads of the 80's / 90's, as Vic & Bob's original voice over man or from any of several movies including The Wild Geese, Who Dares Wins etc.

[dr_gn]

MonkeyHanger said:

dr_gn said:

I thought that the narrator for Threads was the same person who narrated "Protect and Survive". A quick Google seems to prove me wrong, but I could have sworn his voice was used in a film, or some other non-official context in some kind of nuclear war "entertainment".

A bit of Googling (and a scan of the end titles to Threads) suggests that it was narrated by Paul Vaughan, who also did the Beeb's "Horizon" for 20 years. Patrick Allen who did the voice-over for "Protect & Survive" is probably better known from the Barratt Homes ads of the 80's / 90's, as Vic & Bob's original voice over man or from any of several movies including The Wild Geese, Who Dares Wins etc.

On further Googling, I must have been thinking of "Two Tribes". I knew the Protect and Survive narrator had subsequetly done something like a film - turns out it was in fact a song.

From Wikipedia:

"The track featured actor Patrick Allen, who recreated his narration from the Protect and Survive public information films for certain 12-inch mixes (the original Protect and Survive soundtracks were sampled for the 7-inch mixes)".

[Gwagon111]

The bit from threads, which used to give me nightmares, was the traffic warden with the burns.

[dvs_dave]

Not sure if they've already been mentioned, but these facilities are fascinating relics from the UK cold war nuclear attack infrastructure.

Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker government bunker which is a great, yet chilling place to visit.

And the Kingsway exchange & bunker underneath Chancery Lane tube station is interesting, although not open to the public, the entrances are clearly visible if you know where to look.

Also, bizarrely the BT Tower until fairly recently was an official secret so didn't appear on any maps! It's also built to be able to withstand a nuclear blast and still be partially operational.

[Seeker UK]

dvs_dave said:

Also, bizarrely the BT Tower until fairly recently was an official secret so didn't appear on any maps! It's also built to be able to withstand a nuclear blast and still be partially operational.

That's not true any more (the partially operational bit, anyway). It was part of the old GPO / BT microwave network which was supposedly resilient enough to provide a communications infrastructure in the aftermath of a strike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Telecom_microwave_network) but those dishes got removed last year as BT no longer rely on LOS microwave for high bandwidth communications.

You might be interested in "Backbone".

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/backbone/in...

[nelly1]

Relevant BBC article here...

[RobbyJ]

Snoggledog said:

As do I. If it ever did kick off I'd stand outside and wait for the bucket of sunshine to vapourise me.
You don't have the 2002 turbo that I see from time to time do you? If so

RAF Air Command High Wycombe in Walters Ash has a large bunker, it's been a few years since I went down there but it's 4 or 5 floors deep with each floor about the size of a football pitch (or a bit smaller).

http://g.co/maps/sjek2

The top of the bunker can clearly be seen here. In the trees on the south east corner is the old WWII Bomber Harris command bunker too.

The RAF Daws Hill bunker is much smaller and is in the woods behind the base and can be seen here, it's well hidden but you can see the roof of the generator building, the office and warehouse aren't related to the bunker directly:

http://g.co/maps/jc866

A few pics here:

http://www.rafdawshill.org.uk/

It's 3 floors deep and the DIO are currently trying to destroy it at the request of Wycombe Abbey School at present!