The UK Cold War Nuclear Attack Warning System

Introduction

A body known as The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (U.K.W.M.O.) was set up in 1957 to warn the population of any impending air attack. The organisation and the warning system are described within this site. The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) set up in WW2 became the heart of the UKWMO in the cold war. Political changes in the Soviet Union in the 1990's signalled the end of the Cold War. The end of the UKWMO was announced in Parliament on 12 November 1992. Everything described on this site is historic, the bunkers sold off, sirens removed and the warning system dismantled.

Cold War

The Cold War was a period in history that started in 1946 after the Second World War and ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Block in the early 1990's.

After World War II, the political situation deteriorated, with the creation of powerful hydrogen bombs, long range missiles, Berlin Blockade and the Cuba Crisis. On the 17th February 1960, the UK Government signed an agreement with the USA to site a ballistic missile tracking station at Fylingdales. Many people in the UK would see this as the start of the nuclear age and the infamous four minute warning. To try to understand how UK Civil Defence developed during the Cold War, I have created a timeline below.

UKWMO Timeline

Civil Defence in the Cold War period went through a number of phases from the initial creation of the UKWMO to its stand-down in 1992. In 1968 the government reduced the spending on Civil Defence and disbanded the Civil Defence Corps, the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) and the Industrial Civil Defence Service (ICDS). The AFS Green Goddesses were used during Firebrigade Strikes until being sold off in 2004.

Civil Defence continued on a care and Maintenance basis only. A reorganisation in 1972 signalled an increase in government spending.

The main topics of this Web Site cover the WB400 and other communications shown in this timeline as Mk1 Comms. As this included the period of 1977-1981 when I worked on the Carrier and ROC equipment and took a wider interest in Civil Defence communications.

A large increase in government spending in the 1980's saw the modernisation of the Civil Defence Communications networks. A small amount of information is provided about the WB1400 and Mk2 Comms era.

Please refer to the Main Topic List further down this page.

Site Layout and Printing

All pages on the site are indexed from this one page. At the bottom of each page, are links to the next most relevant page and related pages. Click on the TOPIC INDEX [↑↑↑] Link to return to this page if you want to use the index.

Users of Internet Explorer will find their browser will print all the text content in Black ink on a White background, only the images will print in colour. Images are sized to fit on A4 paper when printed in Portrait mode if the printer margins are set to 12mm (½ inch)

Readers Feedback

This site was created in 2001 and since then I have received lots of helpful feedback from people able to plug the holes in my knowledge and update the site. I changed jobs and location in 1981, so never worked with the replacement systems. These system details are thanks to feedback received from other people. Any additional information especially on the radio systems would be most welcome.

In August 2005, Bob Pickwoad kindly offered me a recording he made in the sixties of a routine test, this was the first time I had heard the sounds of the WB400 since 1981 when I last worked on the system, I felt like a dog with two tails. One reader has even sent me a copy of a piece of paper found in a car park which has proved invaluable.[See Topic: 1979-81 Quest - below] Other feedback has enabled me to re-create the sounds of the WB1400 warning system that came along after I had changed jobs. I have received two emails from people who saw the warning receivers as children and did not know anything about their purpose until they found this site.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

If you can help - My Contact details are on this page.

Subject Index

The Main Topics form a fairly logical order if accessed down the list. On these main pages links will be found in boxes like the ones below to the Previous and Next pages in the order they appear here. Some pages have Cross References to Sub-Topic pages, all these pages appear in the Sub-Topic list so you can visit them directly.

The topic hot-links turn from Blue to Purple when you have visited them.

Select from list, or click here to go to

>>> First Topic

Main Topic List
	Each of these Topics are linked Previous Page and Next Page between screens The UKWMO Time Line and how to use this site. Scroll to TOP of PAGE. UKWMO Organisation interactive chart. Detecting the Nuclear Attack on the U.K. by Missile or Aeroplane. The Attack Warning System overview of Handel. Carrier System Detail WB400 Era. Carrier System Detail WB1400 Era. Distribution of Carrier to warning points. Spoken Warning Receiver WB400. Air Raid Siren WB600 control for the mains sirens. Speech and Siren WB1400 Receivers. The ROC Post Function. ROC Group HQ Function. Communications within and between Group HQ. Message Centre using paper tape.
Sub-Topics, linked from other pages, included here for completeness.
	Stand alone pages. Post Office Telephones (BT) and Cold War Communications. Teleprinter devices. S+DX Speech plus Duplex Teleprinter explained. 80MHz ROC Post Radio Frequency Allocations. E.M.S.S. The Emergency Manual Switchboard System. WB700 Telephone call timing signals. WB800 Distribution of piped music. WB900 Telephone pair gain system.
Personal Information
	Pages Steve Scanlon - My background and involvement in Cold War Comms. My 1979-81 Quest to find the ROC inter-group radio links and RGHQ's The Personal Recollections of a HO Warning Officer
Links to other Cold War related Internet Sites
	Cross References The UKWMO Booklet issued to personel. Subbrit Site All known buildings from the Cold War period Skelmorlie ROC Post museum Radar Museum, Neatishead WW2 and Cold War Radar.