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Oh, this is my misreading of that 1993 document (which I'll PM you in a sec) - it does say UKWMO is being disbanded but only that ROC was being stood-down. Thanks for clarifying this as I hadn't appreciated the significant difference between the two terms!

Is there something you neglected to tell us about!?

Screenshot 2020-01-08 at 05.03.34.png

For almost five decades, the United Kingdom made plans for a nuclear attack that never came.* To help their citizens, civil servants and armed forces prepare, those in power designed and published a variety of booklets, posters and how-to guides. Most infamous among these was the Protect and Survive campaign, but just as fascinating are lesser-known materials made for the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and the Royal Observer Corps, many of which are reproduced for the first time. From terrifying images issued by central government, to local councils’ sometimes amateurish guides, Nuclear War in the UK is an eye-opening look at the way Britain’s authorities reacted to the Soviet nuclear threat.

* Correct at time of publication

Taras Young is a researcher and writer with an interest in weird, hidden and forgotten history. Nuclear War In The UK is the seventh volume in the Irregulars series of introductions to aspects of modern British visual culture.

Source with more preview images:
https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/nuclear-war-in-the-uk/

Interview with author:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podca...with-taras-young/id1355527336?i=1000452529970
 
Is there something you neglected to tell us about!?

Oops, yes that exists!

More pics from the book here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...r-nuclear-war-in-the-uk-taras-young-interview

Some more info: https://book.taras.net/

On the ROC front, the second edition of "Attack Warning Red" (1992) is very good but a bugger to get hold of, as you've identified. Conversely, "The Royal Observer Corps Underground Monitoring Posts" by Mark Dalton is very enjoyable and also still in print - highly recommended!

I would add to the reading list:
  • War Plan UK by Duncan Campbell
  • Cold War: Building for nuclear confrontation by Wayne Cocroft
  • Doomsday: Britain after nuclear attack by Openshaw, Steadman & Greene
 
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I've just today finished a (poor) book on Fighter Command that gave several sidelights on the (later 'Royal') Observer Corps during the Battle of Britain. I found the glimpses tantalising but unrewarding (as I say, poor book). That notwithstanding, a distinctively British picture of lonely posts manned by enthusiastic amateurs with flasks of tea commanded by superannuated former RAF men seemed to have been sketched...

A regular over at ww2talk.com just posted this article and it evoked the same atmosphere.

Stuck out in the wilds with only a cat as a companion...

From Fleetwood Chronicle No. 6470 - Thursday, March 29th 1945.

ROC.jpg
 
The members of the public on above vid are funny,

What will you do when the alarm sounds ?

" I couldnt care less "
 
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When I in the lower grades in the 1950’s, we were shown government films about “ duck and cover “.

We were given the impression that if we got under our school desk or if outside maybe duck in a nearby ditch, the mushroom cloud would not hurt us.

What did us kids know about nuclear stuff !
 
Actually, "duck and cover" is not a bad practice in itself. While a school desk would do little to counter a nearby nuclear blast, at longer distances from ground zero, flying debris poses the greatest immediate hazard, and even a desk can be an effective shield against glass shards and similar objects. The many injuries from glass shards propelled by the Russian meteoroid explosion a few years ago back up this proposition.

Also, at any appreciable distance from the fireball, any solid object provides pretty good protection from thermal radiation.

Of course, whether one WANTS to survive a nuclear attack is another question entirely...
 
The Scottish Nuclear Defence Bunker which became defunct. within a few years.

Scotland's biggest Cold War bunker is buried deep beneath an Edinburgh hill - and its existence has remained unknown to most people for decades.

Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker was built in 1944 and expanded in 1951, but by 1955 it was defunct. The secluded entrance to the building, which lies 100ft below Corstorphine Hill, can only be accessed down a rough private track.

Spread over three storeys, it was once Scotland's first line of defence against the threat of nuclear war. It was equipped with a BBC broadcasting studio and would have housed Queen Elizabeth if the city had been attacked while she was in residence.

At its heart, surrounded by a maze of corridors and rooms, is the main operations floor, where information would have been gathered in the 1950s to locate any aircraft in Scottish air space.

Main operations room inside Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker
IMAGE SOURCE, JAMES MITCHELL Image caption, The round table at the centre of the main operations room

But a former Home Office bunker official, who wanted to remain anonymous, told BBC Scotland that the radar operations centre only lasted 18 months.

"They spent all those millions on it, but technology in fighter jets then became more advanced than the radar systems in the bunker - so that was the end of that," he said.

The bunker, which is located on the same hill as Edinburgh Zoo, was declassified in 1955. In 1960 it was taken over by the government and became a protected control centre in event of a nuclear attack. But five years later this was moved to a bunker in the Kirknewton area of the city, before moving around several other locations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-64944182
 
The Scottish Nuclear Defence Bunker which became defunct. within a few years.

Scotland's biggest Cold War bunker is buried deep beneath an Edinburgh hill - and its existence has remained unknown to most people for decades.

Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker was built in 1944 and expanded in 1951, but by 1955 it was defunct. The secluded entrance to the building, which lies 100ft below Corstorphine Hill, can only be accessed down a rough private track.

Spread over three storeys, it was once Scotland's first line of defence against the threat of nuclear war. It was equipped with a BBC broadcasting studio and would have housed Queen Elizabeth if the city had been attacked while she was in residence.

At its heart, surrounded by a maze of corridors and rooms, is the main operations floor, where information would have been gathered in the 1950s to locate any aircraft in Scottish air space.

Main operations room inside Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker
IMAGE SOURCE, JAMES MITCHELL Image caption, The round table at the centre of the main operations room

But a former Home Office bunker official, who wanted to remain anonymous, told BBC Scotland that the radar operations centre only lasted 18 months.

"They spent all those millions on it, but technology in fighter jets then became more advanced than the radar systems in the bunker - so that was the end of that," he said.

The bunker, which is located on the same hill as Edinburgh Zoo, was declassified in 1955. In 1960 it was taken over by the government and became a protected control centre in event of a nuclear attack. But five years later this was moved to a bunker in the Kirknewton area of the city, before moving around several other locations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-64944182

I was lucky enough to have a walk around the whole bunker in 2019 (on open days they normally just let you into the operations room). The place is amazing and very big. At the time it was supposed to be opened as a museum this year or next, but from the video it looks like work hasn't progressed much since my visit. I believe a substantial number of volunteers quit en masse a couple of years ago, which may explain the delays, and probably helps contextualise some of what you read in this article.

Two of the statements in the piece don't ring true at all, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong: that there were plans to hide the Queen at Barnton Quarry, and I that there was an organised anarchist 'Edinburgh Bomby Group' carrying out a series of attacks on the bunker in the 1990s. This feels like a bit of myth-making may be going on (something which has also happened at other 'bunker attractions' like Kelvedon Hatch). I'm not sure why there's a need to embellish what is already a very unusual history.
 
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Kelvedon Hatch
I second that ^^^^^^^^^

I went for a visit about 7 or 8 years ago and I was the only person in there (mid-week when schools were not on hols).
And I just wandered around the whole place, with no guide or anything, following the route advised in a leaflet, before finally exiting through the gift shop and cafe.
Probably took me a couple of hours.
And yeah it is big in there, arranged over (IIRC) 4 floors, but it did occur to me that were it to be used for it's intended purpose that you would very soon go stir crazy in there with the number of people it said would be 'housed' in the event of 'the balloon going up'.

The decor, furniture, fixtures and fittings was all very beige and 80s.
And it very much seemed as though it was possibly the last bastion of the UKs stock of rotary dial telephones.
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That’s the former Royal Observer Corps Sector HQ at Goosnargh, which was also the standby UK Warning & Monitoring Organisation wartime headquarters - from here they could inject the ‘four minute warning’ to the national system upon notification from the ballistic early warning system at RAF Fylingdales. Decommissioned in 1992 and now in private ownership.
 
May be of interest to @Ermintruder and @taras

Book/AudioBook/Podcast:

FtbYt6QXsAEHz9I.jpeg

The atomic bombs of 1945 changed war forever. The awesome power of the blast and its deadly fallout meant home in Britain fell under the nuclear shadow, and the threat of annihilation coloured every aspect of ordinary life for the next forty years.

Families were encouraged to construct makeshift shelters with cardboard and sandbags. Vicars and pub landlords learnt how to sound hand-wound sirens, offering four minutes to scramble to safety. Thousands volunteered to give nuclear first aid, often consisting of breakfast tea, herbal remedies, and advice on how to die without contaminating others. And while the public had to look after themselves, bunkers were readied for the officials and experts who would ensure life continued after the catastrophe.

Today we may read about the Cold War and life in Britain under the shadow of the mushroom cloud with a sense of amusement and relief that the apocalypse did not happen. But it is also a timely and powerful reminder that, so long as nuclear weapons exist, the nuclear threat will always be with us.


Preview & Reviews Here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Attack-War...B6HBX7V8&revisionId=99a60691&format=2&depth=1

Podcast Here:
https://shows.acast.com/atomichobo
 
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