Nuclear War advert

We were all called into assembly at school in central London and told some rubbish about sandbagging the doors and that we would have to stay inside in our non existent bunkers for 6 weeks or so. We should stock up on tinned food etc ( no mention of water!) Everyone totally ignored it but I was quite scared and used to lay awake thinking about the fall out from the bomb. I can't remember the date but I think about 1960 ish.

In 1963 I was 19 and working as a Lab Technician in a department of London University.

One weekend I went on a, "Ban the Bomb", march during which someone from CND handed me a photocopied list of the locations of Nuclear Bunkers where selected people and their families would be able to shelter in the event of nuclear war.

I was horrified. I took the list into work on Monday and showed it to my friends. Some of them were equally appalled, we thought that no one we knew would be invited. We were wrong.

Later that morning I was summoned to a meeting with the Professor, my Boss and the Chief Technician. It turned out the guy I worked for had a place booked for him and his in a Bunker in Herts and was absolutely furious that it's whereabouts had been revealed. I don't know who told him but he wanted me sacked.

I think he had forgotten that the Chief Technician was the Union Convener for the whole building. It was pointed out that I had done nothing illegal or against my contract however the Chief told me later that I needed to be very careful or I would be toast.

I just thought, "Have none of these people been selected because they are nice".

My friend, who has returned to her area of birth in the north east, was at Greenham.

I bought the book of “Where the Wind Blows”, then a few years later our Rep did a production of it. By the end, I think everyone in the full audience was in tears.
I remember being scared around the time of the Cuban crisis even though I was very young. I knew something was going on because of the way my Mum and G’parents were behaving.
Once I reached adulthood and had read, seen films, etc. about the horrors of nuclear warfare, I accepted that if it happened then life would be unbearable and that I’d rather die quickly. The area of Scotland where I lived had several military bases which would have all been prime targets.

Jaxjacky

I remember Where the wind blows by Raymond Briggs.

I remember that as well. Chilling, really. Hiding anywhere except a proper nuclear bunker wouldn’t have helped one little bit.

Just out of interest. Was anyone here at Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the 1980's?

I was working in the NHS in the late seventies, and there was a lot of talk about who would get a place in the local authority bunker in the event of a nuclear strike, along with many training exercises. I can vividly remember my boss, who had fought in the second world war, saying, 'the main thing is to sort out who gets the gun'. I looked at him, clueless in my naivete, and he gently explained that the kindest thing would be to shoot all the hospital patients who couldn't look after themselves, since staff at all levels could not be expected to come to work, rather than saving and protecting their own families. He thought the bunkers would remain empty, as the bosses tried to get home, and the food delivery drivers would have other things on their minds. It's interesting to think about this just at the moment!

Also in rural Lincolnshire and very well aware how vulnerable we were to nuclear war. Can't believe so many here are so blasé about it. It was the most terrifying thing. We knew when there was a stand-off situation with Russian planes in the Channel as the big Vulcan bombers would be scrambled and fly over our house. We knew what degree of red alert the RAF stations were on. We had small children, and like many in the RAF, army, or security services we had a contingency plan to do away with them if the nuclear balloon. Sleeping pills, then a pillow. Lots of the parents of young children had similar plans.

I also remember the Cuban Missile crisis and my mother saying to my father 'Do you think she should go to school or should we all stick together?' and my father saying, 'In any event there's nothing we can do.' The whole nation seemed to be holding its breath. We lived with the nuclear threat every day and it was never far from our thoughts.

To be honest I think by the early 80s those of us living and/or working in Central London were far more aware of the IRA than any possible nuclear threat.

A bomb in Kensington near where I lived, a bomb in Oxford St near our training office, years of interminable, hot, crowded tube journeys stuck in tunnels, walking to work wondering if the shop or pub windows would blow up as you passed - who would have had time to worry about the Cold War ?

Once I had seen Beyond The Fringe in 1961, it was impossible to take seriously the advice on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Brown paper bag was featured, as was some people in this great country of ours being able to a mile in four minutes, and the necessity of contacting the prime minister for permission to launch our nuclear deterrent: “What if Mr. MacMillan’s out, I hear you ask. Perfectly simple, common sense really. They’d ask Lady Dorothy.”

I don’t remember any TV ads in the 80s

Yes I can remember the leaflet coming but not much about what it said. It was in the 70s I think. Something about building a shelter in the house and buying a stock of tinned food.
I was quite worried by it at the time but after reading a lot about Hiroshima and Nagasaki I decided we wouldn't survive if it happened anyway so put it to the back of my mind. TBH I think our whole world would be totally destroyed by a nuclear war.

FarNorth: 'the trusting populace following the absolutely useless instructions as their doom approached'. doesn't seem at all far fetched now, does it?

Jane43, yes, that book 'The Road' - horrifying, and I realised I wouldn't want to be alive.

fluttERBY123

No.recollection of this at all. What I do remember is some training in.the early sixties. On of the things to.do in the event of a nuclear attack was to.put your head in.a brown paper bag.

Oh goodness, thank you fluttERBY123.

I've been laughing so much at the thought of us all running around trying to locate brown paper bags. Grabbing them off smaller family members. Tearing them in the process and shouting, "we're all doomed'!

I don't remember the advert but do remember the leaflets and the whole situation.

"Where the Wind Blows" was how I thought it would actually be - the trusting populace following the absolutely useless instructions as their doom approached.

fluttERBY123 I find a brown paper bag useful for almost all crises!

We had a quiz last Christmas over zoom, with our children. One of our questions was about this threat, with Frankie goes to Hollywood playing’ Two Tribes.’ The question was to name as many things as they could, on the list of instructions. They guessed a couple, but mostly didn’t know.

They were openly quite shocked at the seriousness of it, and asked if we’d been frightened all the time. We said we weren’t at all. We had no social media to hype everything up...and if we were honest, didn’t believe it.

We just lived our lives.

No.recollection of this at all. What I do remember is some training in.the early sixties. On of the things to.do in the event of a nuclear attack was to.put your head in.a brown paper bag.

I remember my Mum and Dad were very worried during the Cuban missile crisis but I don't think it really sank in with me. I must have been about 10.

I do remember the stupid TV public information broadcast which advised people, in the event of a nuclear explosion, to shut their windows and hide under the table. I think I must have been older by then and realised it was total rubbish.

Yes, I remember all the things mentioned, and even picking out the safest place to be (under the stairs, inside a cupboard).
As I lived in a city at the time - I decided that making preparations would actually be a waste - since we would be unlikely to survive. I'm not sure I would want to survive in a post apocalyptic world, especially now that I'm in my 70's.
Having said that - I do have stored on my computer, details of how to create your own fresh water supply, and build a "food farm" in your back yard. I think I even have a "how to build your own Electricity Generator" somewhere - but I doubt that I could manage to do any of these things, now!

grandtanteJE65

My parents kept the leaflets away from us children, and forbade any mention of the subject within our hearing.

I did hear about it at school.

My mother was in the camp that said it would never happen. "After all they used mustard gas in the WWI and found out how dangerous it was, so didn't use it in WW2 - the same thing will happen with nuclear warfare. Who wants to conquer land they cannot ever use?" was her attitude.

She's not a million miles from the truth though was she?!

I thought the bay of pigs was when the English threw a load of pigs into a bay in America so they wouldn't have any bacon......! I imagined how awful it would look , all the pigs splashing about in the bay.........

I remember 'protect and survive' advice of hiding under a door you've skillfully removed from its hinges and propped against a load bearing wall ! Phew!! I thought sod it, I'll get drunk instead then I won't be bothered either way! Ah youf ful carefree times! I saw the funny side of just about everything and smirk at the idea my dad could get a door off its hinges?

I do remember the book ‘Where The Wind Blows’ but nothing else. We lived near an American base and a nuclear reactor, and my Dh worked on the civilian side of the defence business, too, in those days. How it all passed me by, I don’t know. I knew there could be a nuclear war, of course, but I don’t recall thinking it would ever come to pass.

Strangely, I recall the Bay of Pigs and was scared of that, though I must have only been seven or eight.

i remember the advert and asking a teacher who said not to worry as scotland would be wiped out so we would all die anyway, i had nightmares for months about this.