UK Cold war memories....

[Flapjacker48]

One for the slightly older members - what did you think of the world situation when you were growing up in the cold war period? Were you ever worried about a nuclear attack? Was it mentioned at school?

Watched "Threads" on BBC?

Anyone had a nuclear shelter dug in the garden? Stockpiled tins?

I have recently been sorting out some old stuff of a deceased family member - they were in the Post Office/BT in the 70s/80s and actually was one of the team responsible for looking after the national air attack warning system and "war plans" for BT in a region of the UK. Obviously at the time this was all classified, but all in the public domain now. The UK's civil defence planning by the 70s/80s was very much a "continuity of government" plan rather than the impossibility of doing much for the general population.

The UK's nuclear warning system however, would have given a warning of a impending air attack (once!) - prob longer a little longer than the popular "4 minutes" often quoted.

Born in the 1970s my Dad was the air raid warden for our village at least once a year he would have a drill sleeping by the receiver listening for the code and then sound the siren. He had to check the siren every couple of months to check it was working.
For those of you who were at Greenham I live near there now and I would encourage you to revisit now it is a nature reserve, the control tower is a community coffee shop and museum to the events that happened there. One side of the common is the peace garden and the other side a memorial to those who served. It is a beautiful place of peace now.

DH's parents ran the post office in a rural area and they had a siren.

If you have anything really interesting in your relative’s stuff, Julie McDowell, the writer behind the Atomic Hobo podcast and a researcher into the Cold War preparations in the UK, might like to see them. www.juliemcdowall.com/index.php/podcast/

I highly recommend the podcast btw!

@Lonecatwithkitten Yes, the little attack warning receivers were tested by the police fairly frequently - a random town and message was used and the owner of the receiver had to send this info on a card back to the war duties police officer at police HQ - faults were then investigated the the post office (then BT later on)

Yes, I grew up in the 80s. I was a CND member. My mother had been on the first Aldermaston March so I must have been aware of it from her.
I remember when the Americans bombed Tripoli in 1986 being convinced that this would spark off WW3 and as we all filed into assembly at school, having heard the news on the car radio on the way to school, I wondered how everyone could be going on as usual when we were about to be annihilated.

Am late 50's and remember the time very well
Threads, Oops Apocalypse, Two Tribes, MAD (Gillan), 99-Red Balloons etc, it was everywhere in the entertainment industry.

OH worked for National utility and installed standby generators in fall-out shelters in the early 80's. Also saw the tinned food from the 50's & 60's being removed and being replaced with new. Also went into the regional food-store.
My father saw similar in the 50's. He said the thing that stuck with him was a warehouse full of utility flat-packed coffins.

That said it wasn't something that worried me too much as the Cold War was a very long, drawn-out affair so it was always there.

I only caught the tail end of the cold war and dont really remember much other than my mum saying we all had to run towards the bomb as it would be quicker.

I do however really remember the Aids Campaign at that was terrifying.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan Yes, aside from any Royal Observer Corps posts, rural sirens were covered by "responsible" people who had the warning receiver - sub postmasters, vicars and surprisingly pub landlords were commonly used!

Primary schools used to do nuclear attack drills in my village. Hide under the desk 🤷‍♀️

No idea why. We were all so scared of Russia then and what was the point of upsetting children like that.

I lived near a hill that overlooks a large city. I assumed that the city (its people, its industries, its factories) would be a target for attack. My plan was to race up to the top of the hill and be taken out in the first blast. It was a bit of a theoretical plan; the risk from the IRA was much more tangible.

I'm 59. I wasn't terrified as I genuinely didn't believe it would happen but I helped set up a branch of CND at my sixth form college and went on a couple of marches. I had a lovely pair of enamel and silver CND earrings that I wore for years.

My mum went to Greenham Common when they formed a human chain around the perimeter and she went on a big march when she was pregnant with me I the early 60s - presumably around the time of the Bay of Pigs episode? She said they were terrified then.

In the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war when they were attacking Chernobyl and there was talk of heightened radiation (which turned out not to be true), the normally lighthearted presenter was so shocked and was literally rendered speechless as the news was coming in overnight, I was very scared that night and cuddled very close to DH thinking it might be the end and was very glad we don't have children. Was so relieved to see the sunrise and return to my normal stoic self.

We took over a village post office for a few years and a previous owner who still lived in the village had taken the siren when it was decommissioned and set it up in their garden! 🤷‍♀️

I’m late 40s and just about remember some stuff from the early 80s where yes people were worried. I’ll find some photos I have of the leaflet which our local city council distributed to every household which gave great details of what would happen in the event of a nuclear attack. Can laugh about it now because it seems bonkers. Will post them later on.

I'm 52 and at school we were convinced we were all going to be wiped out in a nuclear attack.

I remember one day while we were at school a siren sounded - I think it must have been a practise drill at the oil refinery a few miles away but it sounded exactly like a WW2 air raid warning and we were so scared.

There is a "secret" nuclear bunker in Kelevden in Essex that is fascinating to visit as it has screens dotted around showing government public information films from that time.

I still have my CND earrings. I used to have a t shirt that said ‘in the event of a nuclear attack this t shirt will afford protection for 3 seconds’ but it was a pain to wear as people were always asking if it was true.

The stuff about crouching under desks wasn't as pointless as people make out - it might have been useless if you were near the centre of the blast where everything got vaporised, but there would have been a much bigger area where the immediate effects would have been more like those of a conventional explosion (albeit a really big one), so taking cover actually could have helped to protect you from flying debris etc. Although if things had got to the point where the Soviets had launched a nuclear attack on the UK then I suppose the chances were that not many people would survive the effects of the wider war anyway, even if they escaped the initial blast.

I was aware of the Cold War for as long as I can remember, as my father had to remain in the U.K. after WWII - or return home to certain death, due to Yalta.

all his family were killed.

It was a source of never-ending sorrow, of having your heritage ripped away. Letters arriving from the government in exile, petitions to the U.K. Gov to recognise the Katyn massacre of over 22,000 people by the USSR (it took the U.K. nearly 50 years to acknowledge this)

Anyone remember SCRAM?
Scottish Campaign To Resist the Atomic Menace?

the badge showed a sun, with the words - Nuclear Power - No Thanks

While I was aware, don’t remember being personally worried about it in the 60s or 70s, but mentions of e.g. the KGB or a particular prison (the Lubyanka) sp? where dissidents were taken to be tortured/killed, was enough to give you the chills.

There was a 70s film called The Tamarind Seed, made at pretty much peak Cold War, with a young Julie Andrews in her first ‘non sweet’ role, and Omar Sharif, playing a Russian who’s trying to recruit her as a spy - or is he?

A certain sequence in that film - you will know if you ever watch it! - evokes the sheer chilling dread of the KGB etc. - I have it on DVD and still watch it now and then. Some excellent twists to it, too, and partly set in Barbados, which is a plus.
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Protect and survive advice really would have had two purposes:

1.) To give people something to "do" in the transition to war.

2.) It would have given SOME protection if followed and if far enough away from a nuclear impact (albeit unlikely, seeing as the number of targets there were in the UK!). Fallout may have been less of a problem than thought, if airburst weapons were used.

I'm 54 and feel exactly the same.

AIDS was much more terrifying.

Late 40's, got shown Threads in 1st year at High School. Went to CND meetings l. Lay awake at night hoping for a direct hit in the event of it all going off.

Yes it was

DSis and I joined CND - we swapped badges with my German penfriend, I think I still have it kicking about somewhere - 'atomkraft, nein danke. DDad was in civil defence - he talked about it years later, there was a bunker locally where things were supposed to be run from. As pp, DDad said he would have been surprised if everyone who was supposed to turn up at the bunker actually did.

Our English teacher got into a terrible row after wandering into the classroom one morning and telling us the 4 minute warning had just been announced, turning on her heel and walking out leaving a terrified class, several hysterical kids and some of us about to make a run for home. She then stuck her head round the door a few minutes later and told us to write an essay on how her announcement had made us feel. She got her arse well and truly handed to her by the head and had to apologise. I can still remember the feeling of abject terror and helplessness over 40 years later.