H’m,
All this talk of the Cold War in Britain both on the forum and in
the BBC Cold War Britain Season documentary but no ones mentioned those
unsung hero’s on the Home Front who, when the chips are down, the
balloon goes up and the Warsaw Pact invades Western Europe.
They will be the ones – who will be in readiness in any one of their
3 man bunkers, called ROC Post’s dotted across the length & breadth of
Britain, including many of her off shore islands.
The Royal Observer Corps composed mainly of volunteers, were
trained to forsake their families for the common good, as part of
the UK’s Civil Defence measures. To shelter in one of 1500 ( reduced
to 872 after 1968 ) 3 man nuclear monitoring bunkers.
Their duty was to measure the explosion of any nuclear bomb that’s
dropped on the UK by means of the BPI ( Bomb power indicator )
and check the height & elevation of the blast from a PIN Hole camera
mounted on top of the hatch. Then report the explosion to their
sector HQ or UKWMO who would then triangulate the blast with those
reported by other ROC Posts to find the centre of the explosion.
That way they warn the general public as well as the government of
the likely direction of any fallout in time of war.
Pretty scary stuff I know, during the days of the 4 minute warning
but bearing in mind that Civil Defence in the UK during the Cold War
was a Phoney War, it was a pretty light hearted affair.
Most ROC Post meetings were held at the local ‘Rose & Crown’ following
underground training exercises in a Cold and damp bunker with
a synopsis of lessons learned, discussed over a game of darts
and a pint of Old Speckled Hen.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsCJMYgFNuU#normal[/video]