A fire station at the end of our road used to have a siren on a tower which was used in the days before pagers and mobile phones to alert the local volunteer firefighters that a shout was on. For many years after the crew were issued with pagers the siren was retained for some reason, probably as part of an attack warning system. Then came the day it was set off... for what reason I don't know, probably a test. I nearly sh*t myself, grabbing a portable radio to find out if a nuclear attack had been launched and heading for the stair cupboard...
The fire station has long closed and the tower demolished for many a year. They were indeed different times.
Many of Prague's metro stations are very deep - they were built to be part of the civil defence network. You can still see evidence of blast doors at some locations.
bencooper - MemberAnd we've already set off loads of nukes..
Not really representative tbh- you get isolated blasts, sometimes in contained circumstances too. Less dust/ash displacement. Set a dozen cities on fire at the same time and see what happens...
The theory's certainly sound- much the same effect as the year without summer, and we know volcanoes and even large forest fires can lift dust into the stratosphere in just the way required to cause it.
not facts and posters here probably already seen/read but Fail Safe is a great movie about the cold war, made in the middle of it
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/ and captures the paranoia of the time.
And Nevile Shute's On the Beach about a population waiting for the nuclear cloud to reach them (spoiler alert 🙂 ). His earlier novel No Highway was possibly the only story to have a metallurgist as the hero...
I think current thinking is that the idea of a nuclear winter is wrong - the planet is more resilient than that. And we've already set off loads of nukes...
Nope
Merak - MemberNot entirely or even a wee bit sure about the factual integrity of this but, the base at Macrihanish may have been used as a base for long range spy planes at the height of the cold war. It boasted one of the longest runways in Europe I think.
Even more intriguing, well for me anyway is that the mythical Aurora had been spotted in the area around that time.
True the run way at Macrihanish was/is one of the longest in Europe, yet no active squadron was stationed there. Distinct lack of hangers and as a young cadet I was there when a Galaxy starlifter came in for refuelling - it was mahoosive!. It was so long that a civilian airfield was operated at one end of it apparently it was an emergency get out for the Sapce Shuttle! They did have Nukes there though The base was eerie very remote empty and desolate then in one bit of it the security was ramped up to another level but there was nothing to see just wee huts and lumps in the ground and the vehicles inside were all 'mercan.
Two stretches of motorway on Cyprus, between Nicosia and Limassol and Larnaca-Limassol, are designated for use as military landing strips for use in the event that it went really big and Akrotiri was put out of action for use by us, or for use by the Greek Cyrpiot Air Force in the event they started argy-bargy with the TUrks across the border again. Was based in Dhekelia, a couple of miles from our golf balls ar Ay Nik, for 2 years and our accommodation was right on the sea, not uncommon to see a random trawler with somewhat more (funny shaped) antennae than strictly necessary "fishing" a few hundred metres off shore - the ubiquitous Russian spy trawlers still common, and listening in, even in the mid '00s...
Those stories of of Harriers operating in small groups from hidden woodland, or motorway, dispersals are entirely true and not the work of a writer's, of stories for a boys' war mag, overactive mind. We, and the other allies, also had, large forward dumps hidden away in the woods of Germany, where ammo and rations were ground dumped - if the balloon went up everybody would be crashed out of barracks, fully kitted up, to pre-designated defensive positions, pick up extra ammo and rats and await the 3rd Shock Army rumbling over the border.
Good Tom Clancy on the possibility of Russia/China kicking off is 'The Bear and the Dragon'. Obviously 'supported fiction' but his attention to detail makes for a gripping read.
My old man was in Germany during the 60's and he was told if the Russians decided to attack they only had 8 minutes to live 🙁
http://www.britisharmedforces.org/scli_%20pages/pages/berlin.htm
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Following on from WW1 cyclist ad. I just got hold of a Cyclist Battalion Cap Badge. Planning to do some research on them.
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Gimme that bike....!
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ononeorange - Member
We don't live that far from Dagnall and there's a heck of a lot of mini golfballs around us
The RAF base at Dagnall was a transmitter station apparently. I've been digging. It was used for amongst other things home fleet communication which would, I guess, explain why it would have been a target for a nuke.
Sounds like we're nearly neighbors. I;m in Water End. I spend a fair bit of time ragging around Ashridge Forrest on the bike. If you fancy a spin one evening/weekend I wouldn't mind getting a look at those golfballs.
Nowt to do with cold war but Part of the M8 roughly follows the runway of Renfrew Airport here.
The secret motorway junctions website also shows links to cold war infrastructure.
the weren't bothered about your camera or they would have seized it- they were ogling your wifeWithin a very few seconds, two landrovers rushed out, the occupants jumped out and trained binos on us.
Gweilo - not far away, I'm more towards London (Amersham way). The golf balls I was referring to are on the Chess Valley ridge (nearest ones are just above Chenies). Happy to show you round my way but my time on a bike tends to be a little erratic!
I'd recommend Harold Coyle's books over Tom Clancy for modern warfare stuff, especially tank battles (Team Yankee being the classic Germany invaded by the USSR scenario that also had a computer game loosely based on it).
This is a very interesting book about the both sides of the iron curtain franticly trying to take pictures of each others kit:
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0006386733 [/url]
This really is a top thread! Much better than other threads debating things that no-one really knows about. Keep 'em coming!
Not sure what happened with that link.
I mean this book:
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That BRIXMIS book is a good read. I remember seeing one of their cars (like this one) at the national army museum a while back:
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Converted to four wheel drive.
Andy
Noted for future reading!
On Burlington and Corsham that's where we grew up and played as kids.
Throwing stuff into the massive ventilation fans and finding NBC suits and other stuff left lying around on the base above ground.
Looking at the vehicles and generally messing around ( on bikes)
The MOD blocked all that off about 20 years ago but did put in a nice byway cutting across part of the area.
The road up to one of the entrances is very wide and rumoured to be a landing site for light aircraft.
When I go up there I always still ride around bits of it.
Also on the Swedish half lane thing that's quite normal. I think it's the 45 to Karlstad that has a proper Runway in the forest type road wich just opens up and goes dead straight for miles.
ratherbeintobago - Member
That BRIXMIS book is a good read. I remember seeing one of their cars (like this one) at the national army museum a while back:Converted to four wheel drive.
Andy
need to get hold of that book, remember reading about those cars somewhere. converted at great cost (6figs iirc) to 4 wheel drive so they could get about the cobbled streets at high speed.
I remember seeing one of their cars (like this one) at the national army museum a while back:
I think there's one at RAF Cosford in the cold war exhibition
Does anyone know what the film was called that went like this.
A terrorist attack on Russia is thought to be an attack by the US. Russians scramble to bomb US.US lands a nuke on Russia. Russians realise that its all a mistake but the only way war can be avoided is if US nukes Washington.
Turned on half way through it 20 years ago. It was fab.
Failsafe? With Larry Hagman?
EDIT: Or maybe not
