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.

We came very close in January 1995.

Something showed on Russian radar, they were literally putting the codes in, until somebody double checked as it was too random.

It was very, very close. We didn't even know it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_rocket_incident

In simple terms -

The Russians had been warned of the proposed rocket launch of a science payload but the warning never made it through the communications chain to the all those in the Russian military who needed to know.

What the Russian military detected initially wasn't random to them, it actually looked like a good fit for what might happen the opening stages of a hypothetical mass nuclear strike.

Russian senior politicians started to make preparations.

The military at a lower level continued to monitor the track and quickly realised it wasn't hostile.

Thanks for the better post explaining what I was attempting to say!

Random was a rubbish word to use! But yes, to the Russian's it looked like the real thing. They were preparing to retaliate.

Yeah, we came very close and knew nothing.

I can't even use apostrophes any longer.

You just used one in exactly the right place in 'can't', and you didn't write apostrophe's, so there's possibly hope for you.😑

@notimagain , I will have read in a newspaper about the alleged buzzing. Did it happen sometimes?
I have said that I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has only been lately, in one of Lucy Worsley's programmes about the fibs of history, that I learned that the Americans gave ground there too, by drawing back missiles that they had arrayed in Europe.

Memories of the Cold War? Gary Powers, U2(?) spy plane, shot down(?), trial in Europe(?), was he imprisoned, was he swapped? Well, I'll have to take myself along to Google and see if I remembered anything accurately.

Was convinced I was going to die before the year 2000.

Ah..Powers was U2 pilot who was in a program that involved very high level overflight of the Soviet Union (tut tut) - the idea was to take photographs of areas of interest whilst flying well above the altitude that it was thought could be reached by Soviet Fighters and missiles.

Problem was on the day in question in 1960 the Russian missiles got up to the U2 and Powers got shot down. He survived (baled out) and was taken prisoner...he got home eventually due to a prisoner exchange.

Sadly it didn't do him much good long term - he was killed whilst flying a TV company helicopter, I think in the mid 1970's.

With regard to the Russians buzzing the UK - as mentioned upthread the reality was that most Russian military flights I'm aware of stayed in international airspace, well away from the Uk coast and well outside UK sovereign airspace (which only starts 12 miles off the beach).

The RAF used to (still do AFAIK ) send fighters up to keep an eye on goings on but the Russians and the RAF and other crews involved were in airspace that anybody was allowed to fly in.

But actually no memory of it. Thankfully. I became aware when reading Z for Zachariah for GCSE.

I became a bit obsessed but truly wish I had never watched Threads.

It led me down rabbit holes and there really is such a thing as too much knowledge.

I was very worried in 1951, the Korean war. The Daily Express had a map each day showing the advance or retreat of the Americans. The next worry was 1962; I went into hospital to have my first baby when the Russian ships were crossing the Atlantic. By the time I had had him the crisis was over.

was on my phone so i wanted to come back to this. I was born in the early 60s, grew up in a military family and was later in the army myself.

Alongside all the other stuff that was happening in the 60s/70s/80s (IRA, Vietnam, the Red Army Faction, Red Brigades and Pol Pot among others)

I spent most of the 70s & 80s in Germany, not very far from the Inner German Border with frequent trips to Berlin. The cold war was a constant presence. From knowing which bridges would be blown up to hinder advancing Soviet tanks, to siren tests and the large NATO exercises every 4 years (and all other smaller ones sprinkled through the year)

Threads was set in my hometown and i had been outside the shops that were destroyed in the initial blast on the afternoon it was broadcast. Chilling. The Day After and, especially, Where The Wind Blows, served to drive the point home: whatever comes afterwards will probably be a huge struggle due to either the after effects of Radiation Poisoning, or human nature. I agreed with everyone who said "if it comes, run towards the blast"

I worried I'd be away from my family when the balloon went up, and worried for my soldier father as a kid, then i worried about being separated from my family and being stuck in my bunker as a soldier with nothing much to come out too.

And while it wasn't a constant worry all the time every day, it was bubbling somewhere in my subconsciousness, so every time something went pear-shaped (i spoke to my dad and friends about Able Archer 83 a lot, since i took part in several of the subsequent Able Archer exercises) and knowing just how close we came then to something awful, i am still astounded that we didn't all end up dead before the year 2000.

TBH climate change gives me the same vibe now.

Does anyone know if any of the nuclear defence systems are automated. ?
for example say the uk launched as much of its nuclear defence, as possible, but for one reason or another the human element in other countries were not able to launch their nukes, would any of the other countries nuclear systems be on an automatic launch basis ?

There's been mention on and off over the years in some of the media of a Russian system known as "Dead Hand" or "Perimeter".

Exactly how automated it really is and also how serviceable it is these days is sometimes the subject of discussion.

Just seen this after rewatching Threads last night!! Brilliantly done.

I was 16 in 1980, so grew threw it sort of thing. My sixth form did a production all about nuclear war called Cruising ( outed!) which was, looking back, pretty starkly terrifying! It seems (is) so long ago now..

Threads absolutely shits over any other film or documentary on nuclear war. It's the true reality with no happy ending. Because there won't be one.

I was a a young teenager in the 80s.

I was terrified. I couldn't watch anything with a nuclear story line so Threads, At Game etc all out for me.

I remember feeling real relief as Gorbachev made progress with glasnost and perestroika

I feared Reagan was nuts enough to push the button anyone.

My parents were involved in the Labour Party so went on loads of anti nuclear demonstrations as a child. Which tbh probably fed my fear.

We only presume a nuclear winter is a theory, with the correct technology and eg bunkers ect, there could be a war on the surface and still victories ect

very much appreciated thank you

A theory based on pretty accurate research. Hiroshima and Nagasaski were horrific. Compared to current capability, they look like a tea party.