Post by lordroel on Mar 19, 2018 16:11:32 GMT
This thread is dedicated of everything related to the Cold War going hot from invasions, to nuclear targets to books, series and movies about World War III from the Cold War period.
Map: Soviet strike, nuclear targets across the United Kingdom
During the Cold War the possibility of a nuclear attack on Britain was very real as such the British between the 1950s to late 1980s held defense exercises, one of them was held in 1980 by the British Government called Square Leg. It was based on their best guess as to what would happen in a nuclear war and it assumed that in a Soviet attack 150 nuclear weapons, totaling 280 megatons, would fall on Britain. It was estimated that this would kill 29 million people and seriously injure 7 million.
In 1981 the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament published a map based on the Square Leg scenario.
This map identifies military bases [many of them American], secret bunkers and probable targets. The pink shading show areas likely to be contaminated by radiation.
On this map you can clearly see the secret government bunkers at Portland, Kidderminster, Cambridge and the really big one at Corsham Quarry.
Scotland had its share of prime nuclear targets. The map below shows mushroom clouds over the nuclear weapons store at Glen Douglas and the nuclear submarine base at Faslane. At the time the US Navy used to base Polaris missile submarines at Holy Loch so that would also have been a target. After they had been attacked and bombs dropped in the Clyde to catch fleeing missile boats there would not have been many people left alive in Glasgow.
There were secret government bunkers at Barnton Quarry [regional seat of government for Scotland, Kirknewton and Anstruther [now open to the public and worth a visit]. The people who drew the map didn't know about all the government hidey holes.
1970s Target list
A "top secret" list made in the 1970s by the UK government consisting of 106 cities, towns and military bases across the country as "probable nuclear targets" in the early 1970s, consisted out of the following targets across the United Kingdom:
24 towns and cities: Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton, Leeds, Newcastle/Gateshead, Bristol, Sheffield, Swansea, Hull, Teeside, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Stoke-on-Tent, Belfast, Huddersfield, Sunderland, Gillingham, Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone.
14 centres of government: Central London, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Catterick, York, Preston, Cambridge, Dover, Reading, Salcombe, Brecon, Kidderminster, Armagh.
23 RAF bases: Scampton, Waddington, Honington, Wittering, Marham, Coningsby, Lossimouth, Finningley, Bedford, Kinloss, Manston, Wattisham, Cottesmore, Wyton, St Mawgan, Machrihanish, Leeming, Valley, Brawdy, Coltishall, Yeovilton, Leuchars, Binbrook.
14 USAF bases: Alconbury, Bentwaters, Woodbridge, Wethersfield, Lakenheath, Upper Heyford, Fairford, Boscombe Down, Pershore, Greenham Common, MIldenhall, Sculthorpe, Cranwell, Lyneham.
10 radar stations: Flylingdales, Boulmer, Patrington, Bawdsey, Neatished, Buchan, Saxa Vord, Staxton Wold, Feltwell, Orford Ness.
8 military control centres: Northwood, Plymouth, Pitreavie, Fort Southwick, High Wycombe, Ruislip, Bawtry, West Drayton.
7 naval communications centres: Rugby, Criggion, Anthorn, Inskip, New Waltham, Londonderry, Thurso.
6 naval bases: Faslane, Coulport, Holy Loch, Rosyth, Portsmouth, Devonport.
An annex to his memo quoted an estimate from the joint intelligence committee that the Soviet Union could launch an initial nuclear strike against the UK with 150 land-based missiles, plus an unknown number of submarine-launched missiles. "They are unlikely to be inhibited by the question of overkill," it warned.
Estimates of Soviet nuclear strikes used "similar planning assumptions to those which we ourselves might use," the annex stated. "Thus, it is likely that the enemy would aim to achieve a minimum of 50% damage expectancy with a 90% or more assurance factor."
London was expected to be devastated by two to four bombs of up to five megatons each exploding over the city. Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester were each said to be in line for one or two "airbursts" of up to five megatons. That's 333 times more powerful than the 15-kiloton US nuclear bomb that flattened the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945, killing 140,000 people.
There were disputes about some of the estimates, with one memo pointing out that Home Office scientific advisers "find it difficult to see why an enemy would wish to deliver a three-megaton attack on Swansea and on Leicester when, in their view, one megaton on each target would be sufficient to cause almost complete destruction of those cities."
According to military planners, some of Britain's remoter regions could also be blasted. A radar station at Saxa Vord, now a holiday resort on the UK's most northerly populated island of Unst in Shetland, was down to be hit by a three-megaton bomb.
Another target was Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast, which was involved in an experimental US radar system known as Cobra Mist and is now a nature reserve. Two radar stations in Yorkshire were also apparently doomed: Fylingdales in the North York Moors and Staxton Wold near Scarborough.
Other targets included a Nato radio station at Anthorn in Cumbria and US naval communications installations at Thurso in Caithness and Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Nuclear submarine bases on the Clyde near Glasgow were on the list, along with nuclear airfields like those at Greenham Common in Berkshire and Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre.
Other high-level memos from 1971 said that the target list was drawn up for military planning purposes and to help "contingency planning particularly in the field of home defence". Home defence meant protect and survive measures such as shelters to help civilians under nuclear attack.
Map: Soviet strike, nuclear targets across the United Kingdom
During the Cold War the possibility of a nuclear attack on Britain was very real as such the British between the 1950s to late 1980s held defense exercises, one of them was held in 1980 by the British Government called Square Leg. It was based on their best guess as to what would happen in a nuclear war and it assumed that in a Soviet attack 150 nuclear weapons, totaling 280 megatons, would fall on Britain. It was estimated that this would kill 29 million people and seriously injure 7 million.
In 1981 the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament published a map based on the Square Leg scenario.
This map identifies military bases [many of them American], secret bunkers and probable targets. The pink shading show areas likely to be contaminated by radiation.
On this map you can clearly see the secret government bunkers at Portland, Kidderminster, Cambridge and the really big one at Corsham Quarry.
Scotland had its share of prime nuclear targets. The map below shows mushroom clouds over the nuclear weapons store at Glen Douglas and the nuclear submarine base at Faslane. At the time the US Navy used to base Polaris missile submarines at Holy Loch so that would also have been a target. After they had been attacked and bombs dropped in the Clyde to catch fleeing missile boats there would not have been many people left alive in Glasgow.
There were secret government bunkers at Barnton Quarry [regional seat of government for Scotland, Kirknewton and Anstruther [now open to the public and worth a visit]. The people who drew the map didn't know about all the government hidey holes.
1970s Target list
A "top secret" list made in the 1970s by the UK government consisting of 106 cities, towns and military bases across the country as "probable nuclear targets" in the early 1970s, consisted out of the following targets across the United Kingdom:
24 towns and cities: Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton, Leeds, Newcastle/Gateshead, Bristol, Sheffield, Swansea, Hull, Teeside, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Stoke-on-Tent, Belfast, Huddersfield, Sunderland, Gillingham, Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone.
14 centres of government: Central London, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Catterick, York, Preston, Cambridge, Dover, Reading, Salcombe, Brecon, Kidderminster, Armagh.
23 RAF bases: Scampton, Waddington, Honington, Wittering, Marham, Coningsby, Lossimouth, Finningley, Bedford, Kinloss, Manston, Wattisham, Cottesmore, Wyton, St Mawgan, Machrihanish, Leeming, Valley, Brawdy, Coltishall, Yeovilton, Leuchars, Binbrook.
14 USAF bases: Alconbury, Bentwaters, Woodbridge, Wethersfield, Lakenheath, Upper Heyford, Fairford, Boscombe Down, Pershore, Greenham Common, MIldenhall, Sculthorpe, Cranwell, Lyneham.
10 radar stations: Flylingdales, Boulmer, Patrington, Bawdsey, Neatished, Buchan, Saxa Vord, Staxton Wold, Feltwell, Orford Ness.
8 military control centres: Northwood, Plymouth, Pitreavie, Fort Southwick, High Wycombe, Ruislip, Bawtry, West Drayton.
7 naval communications centres: Rugby, Criggion, Anthorn, Inskip, New Waltham, Londonderry, Thurso.
6 naval bases: Faslane, Coulport, Holy Loch, Rosyth, Portsmouth, Devonport.
An annex to his memo quoted an estimate from the joint intelligence committee that the Soviet Union could launch an initial nuclear strike against the UK with 150 land-based missiles, plus an unknown number of submarine-launched missiles. "They are unlikely to be inhibited by the question of overkill," it warned.
Estimates of Soviet nuclear strikes used "similar planning assumptions to those which we ourselves might use," the annex stated. "Thus, it is likely that the enemy would aim to achieve a minimum of 50% damage expectancy with a 90% or more assurance factor."
London was expected to be devastated by two to four bombs of up to five megatons each exploding over the city. Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester were each said to be in line for one or two "airbursts" of up to five megatons. That's 333 times more powerful than the 15-kiloton US nuclear bomb that flattened the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945, killing 140,000 people.
There were disputes about some of the estimates, with one memo pointing out that Home Office scientific advisers "find it difficult to see why an enemy would wish to deliver a three-megaton attack on Swansea and on Leicester when, in their view, one megaton on each target would be sufficient to cause almost complete destruction of those cities."
According to military planners, some of Britain's remoter regions could also be blasted. A radar station at Saxa Vord, now a holiday resort on the UK's most northerly populated island of Unst in Shetland, was down to be hit by a three-megaton bomb.
Another target was Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast, which was involved in an experimental US radar system known as Cobra Mist and is now a nature reserve. Two radar stations in Yorkshire were also apparently doomed: Fylingdales in the North York Moors and Staxton Wold near Scarborough.
Other targets included a Nato radio station at Anthorn in Cumbria and US naval communications installations at Thurso in Caithness and Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Nuclear submarine bases on the Clyde near Glasgow were on the list, along with nuclear airfields like those at Greenham Common in Berkshire and Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre.
Other high-level memos from 1971 said that the target list was drawn up for military planning purposes and to help "contingency planning particularly in the field of home defence". Home defence meant protect and survive measures such as shelters to help civilians under nuclear attack.
