Government War Book published

What was once the most secret of all British government documents has been released in full. During the Cold War, civil servants used to rehearse the end of the world – what would happen if deterrence failed and nuclear war became inevitable.

One of the most sensible things heard in the discussions surrounding this release, bearing in mind the people making the comments were actually involved in the process, is the reality that Scotland’s nuclear bases are absolutely irrelevant in the event that a global nuclear war erupted. The UK was, and is, a densely populated island, and would have had every city town, port, harbour, airport, base, establishment, office and whatever targeted by multiple nuclear warheads, regardless of its nuclear involvement. If it was a centre of management and control, or some sort of access point, it would have been targeted at the very least. Had such a strike been made, it would have wiped out the UK, and no drawing of a non-nuclear line at the Scottish-English border would make any difference either to whoever was targeting the UK, or the direction and extent of the resultant fallout and contamination.

In reality, there would have been little for anyone in a bunker to come out to, if they had survived, as there can also be little doubt that the bunker locations were known, and targeted with some of the largest ground-burst weapons, and they were not really deep enough to survive direct hits by nuclear weapons. At the time, American technology could guide a nuclear weapon to within a few metres of its target – the systems were said to be so accurate that they simply couldn’t be improved. For example, a single warhead gyroscope was costed at £300,000. By way of contrast, the Soviets were unable to match American accuracy, which is why their nuclear weapons were always so much bigger – if they couldn’t guarantee dropping them exactly on the the right spot, then near enough would do, so long as they made a big enough bang!

Listen to Rehearsing the end of the world from the BBC’s Today programme.

A Press Association article described it as a grim picture of post nuclear war UK:

The Cold War document drawn up by the Government more than 40 years ago sets out in immense detail how Britain would have been administered in the event of a nuclear exchange. The book has been obtained by historian Peter Hennessy, who said it showed how civil servants “peered into the abyss” as they contemplated what would need to be done if nuclear war became a reality.

Prof Hennessy, professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary University of London, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “The surprise really is the width and magnitude of it – 16 chapters to get the nation from a peacetime footing to a total war footing. It is a remarkable enterprise. It was done by people who had to do it. It must have been one of the most terrible jobs in Whitehall during the Cold War. It literally was requiring people in immense security to peer into the abyss.”

Prof Hennessy said the War Book spelt out in detail plans which were hidden behind coded references in previously-released material.

The book sets out scenarios in which an exchange of nuclear weapons might take place, with mock daily briefings from the Joint Intelligence Committee and bulletins from civil defence officials in the Home Office.

Each day, a mock cabinet of civil servants would meet to decide what elements of the emergency plans should be implemented.

Prof Hennessy said: “They had to take very significant decisions, including alerting the civil servants who wouldn’t know at that point that they were earmarked either for the central Government bunker under the Cotswolds at Corsham or for the 12 regional bunkers. The country was going to be split into 12 mini-kingdoms after the bomb had dropped, with real draconian powers for a Cabinet minister, a senior military figure, a policeman and a judge.”