Arms Race. “What happened at Hiroshima should serve to remind the world of the nightmarish consequences of nuclear war. If the memory of that city’s suffering will prevent a future Armageddon, then the children of Hiroshima will have not died in vain”

Speech by Queen Elizabeth 11 1980.

Attack. A surprise attack of which we would only get 4 minutes warning, whilst not impossible is considered unlikely.

Civil Defence Plan 1973.

Blast. Hack Green Bunker was built to withstand impact from airblast, fragments and flying debris. The doors will sustain impact from a 5kg steel ball at 20 meters per second and the re-inforced walls at 900 meters per second, without sustaining any fragmentation of the inner surfaces.

Brightfire (Civil Defence Exercise). The Home Office CD exercise “Brightfire” in 1984 tested the RGHQ network. The Following observations regarding Hack Green were made: “an absence of laundry facilities was noted”. “ The large dormitory was inappropriate for shift working, 2 male dormitories are insufficient”. “ The locks did not function properly on the men’s toilet cubicle’s”. “ The level of comfort at Hack Green was low, suggestions to remedy this include provision of newspapers, board games, jigsaws, table tennis, dartboards, pool-table and provision if room could be found for a multi-gym”.

Home Office Exercise Brightfire Report.

Broom Shelter. The local government central nuclear civil defence HQ in Sheffield in 1984 was a broom cupboard. (Sheffield was a Labour controlled Nuclear Free Zone)

Bunker. Hack Green Bunker was built to withstand the mechanical & radioactive effects of a 1-megaton weapon detonation at 2600 meters or a 300-kiloton weapon at 300 metres. This is equal to a pressure of 1 bar of incident pressure & 2.5 bar of reflected pressure.

Care of the Sick. Isolate the patient. Wear something over your nose, mouth & hair. Keep the patient warm and feed on a diet of soup, bread & hot-drinks. Ensure that there are adequate toilet facilities for the patient (plastic bags and a bucket)

Wiltshire Emergency Planning. Guidance for community leaders in the event of a nuclear war 1981.

Cash. Regulations were drawn up in the 1960’s to restrict the withdrawal of cash from banks prior to a nuclear war to £10 per person. Post strike plans were drawn up to paper currency of either the usual nation type or possibly regional currency with differing exchange rates.

Citizens Band Radio. The Home office has concluded that CB radio was potentially a useful addition to local community schemes, it was not yet so reliable that the working party could recommend that CB should provide a firm basis for local systems of communications.

Home Office Civil Defence Report July 1985.

Concrete. The bunker walls are 2 meters thick and made from special concrete. Every 150mm vertically and 150mm horizontally set 150mm from both the inner & outer surfaces of the concrete is a 25mm fully welded carbon steel bar.

Cows. Those cows that survived a nuclear war would no longer be used to provide milk for many years due to the possibility of contamination with radioactive iodine & strontium 90. (A radioactive isotope which gets trapped in bones & the cow’s udder and can form a life-long hazard of cancer for growing children.

CRUISE MISSILES. Following cruise missile deployment it must be assumed that the enemy would attempt a higher level of pre-emtive bombardment. It is anticipated that some 485 cruise missile would be directly targeted at the UK.

Eng ND. October 1988

DENTISTS. The dentist has 5 basic areas of responsibility in which he can serve most effectively in the post nuclear period.
1. Diagnosis. Including the knowledge of inter-oral manifestations of systemic disorders.
2. Dental Triage.
Administration of drugs by mouth, intramuscularly & intravenously. Management of casualties including surgical repair of lacerations, fractures & wounds, control of haemorrhage involving oral tissues and associated structures.
3. Expanded knowledge of pharmacology in order to prescribe for emergency dental care.
4. Identification of fatalities by dental examination.

The Role of the Dentist in Wartime.

Dept Health Education & Welfare booklet 1964

Farm Animals. Farm animals may receive beta contamination from fallout particles landing on hair, skin or fur. Data is available to calculate the recovery time for acute exposures to mice, swine, dogs, sheep, goats, burros & primates but not for domestic cows. Symptoms include feed refusal, loss of weight, depression, diarrhoea, bloody haemorrhages either orally of on the actual skin of the animal. With the exception of mice there is no dependable recovery model as the rate of recovery is species dependent.

MAFF Circular No E1/77

Feeding. The emergency feeding equipment allocated to Essex county council in 1985 was:
600 Soya Boilers, 260 field kitchens, 950 milk churns, 36500 blue plastic feeding bowls & 38300 plastic spoons. (The population of Essex at the time excluding refugees from London was 1.5 million)

Fire. The fire equipment to put out the fires caused by a nuclear attack on the UK to be issued countrywide during the “Transition to War” phase was. 1079 Green Goddess emergency pumps. 142 Land Rovers. 369 Bedford Trucks. 78000 lengths of 75ft fire hose. 2321 lightweight portable hose pumps. 87000 lengths of 16ft steel hosepipe. 666x 20000 gallon circular steel water dams.

Fire Service Circular 6/1984.

Fish. The published MAFF guidance on fish consumption post-nuclear attack concludes. Fish is only a minor food source in UK. Fish is very perishable & processing & distribution through organised cold stores MAY prove difficult in the post strike period. Contamination of fish flesh from radionuclides may include iodine-131, cerium-141, cerium-144, zirconium-95, strontium-89, ruthenium-103, caesium-137, strontium-90 & ruthenium-106. One of the determining factors is the depth of the oceans or the depth to the bottom in shallow inshore waters. Contamination assumptions have been collated from data received from weapon test data gathered in the Pacific. Fish even assuming the fisherman have received an acceptable whole body dose of gamma radiation are unlikely to provide a significant contribution to the nuclear survivors diet.

Food. The strategic stockpile of foodstuffs held for distribution to the population surviving an attack includes, flour, yeast, sugar, fat, biscuits, tinned meat & cake mix. In excess of 200.000 tons of goods are stockpiled.

Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries & Food 1995.

Gold. In the 1969,s the government stated that a 10-megaton bomb dropped on London may not destroy the gold at the Bank of England but render it unavailable. It was suggested that sufficient gold reserved to meet the needs of the nation could be evacuated prior to a nuclear war & any further gold required could be dug out as required. In 1963 there was some 400000 bars of gold wieghing some 5000 tons. It was calculated that 150 lorries could move approximately half of the bullion reserve in 3 days.

Greater London Council. As to a reasonable estimate of the costs of NFZ (Nuclear Free Zone) activities by the council including full-time staff, grants, overheads and indirect or hidden subsidies. I have concluded that the total burden on public funds of all these GLC activities could not be less than £3 million for the period 1981-85.

Simon Turney. Chairman of the GLC Public Services & Fire-Brigade Committee 25th June 1985.

Ground Shock. Hack Green Bunker can survive a sustained ground shock of an acceleration force through the ground of 80 meters per second. This is the vibration the bunker is subjected to by the pressure wave propagating through the ground.

Handy Hints. Action on Attack Warning. Check you have sent the children to the fall-out room. Check you have turned off the gas & electricity. Check you have shut all the widows & closed all curtains. Check you have remembered to push in any aerial on your radio.

HMSO Protect & Survive Pamphlet.

HOME DEFENCE. A likely estimate by military strategists in the event of a nuclear war is that about 200 megatons of nuclear weapons would be detonated over the UK. The effect would be heavy damage over 5% of the UK land mass, moderate damage over 15% and the remainder would suffer light damage. The strike would cause about 20 million initial deaths with about 36 million survivors although many of these would die within days or months. However if a strike came “out of the blue” with no warning or time to make preparations the number of survivors would be halved. It is our belief & policy that an effective home defence organisation to prepare & warn the general public could save millions of lives and would be of invaluable help to survivors during the recovery phase.

Conservative Party Policy Centre. London 1976