Cold War Memories

[70014IronDuke]

Yes, that's the sort of thing, but of course it looked much smaller at the top of the pole.

Yes. ISTR we had one of those in my village in Kent when I was a wee nipper. It surely doubled as a fire alarm siren too. I can quite believe it was tested once a year or something - but I can't remember it happening.

 

[yorksrob]

Yes. ISTR we had one of those in my village in Kent when I was a wee nipper. It surely doubled as a fire alarm siren too. I can quite believe it was tested once a year or something - but I can't remember it happening.

I lived on the street with that telegraph pole between 1982 and 1996 and I don't remember it ever being tested. Of course, I was at school a lot of that time, but presumably the sound would have reached school had it happened.

 

[Cowley]

I can remember there being a siren on the local fire station, this was used to "call out" the local retained firemen working in the local mills and factories, ( now sadly all gone), no mobile phones or bleepers in those days.
The local pub was also the Civil Defence point, and had a hand cranked siren in the cellar, one afternoon (alcohol fuelled no doubt), we cranked it up, what a racket !

My Dad worked in the planning department of Ilford town hall when he was a young man and there was an old air raid siren on a forgotten about bit of roof, one lunchtime he and a friend climbed out of the window onto the roof and fiddled around with the wiring until it burst into life. He said the noise was absolutely devastating close up, they both panicked, pulled the wires off and jumped back in through the window. I believe it didn't go down at all well with his boss...
There was a siren on the roof of the fire station in Topsham when I was growing up and we all told each other that it was for warning us that a nuclear bomb was on its way. I don't recall ever feeling like it was actually going to happen though, it was just something scary to get excited about...

I have a customer who's become a friend of mine who was in the RAF and posted at Greenham. I seem to recall him telling me that if we came under attack they were to destroy runways in the last few minutes that they had to thwart possible enemy landings. I must ask him again, he had some interesting stories.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That's exactly like the ones I remember, and I'm sure it would produce the same sound as that heard at the end of the BBCs Dads Army episodes from the early 70s

It would - for the very simple reason it's the exact same bit of kit; they had all those sirens in place from the war so they simply re-purposed them after the war... same machinery, same noise - just a different reason for the warning...

 

[najaB]

It would - for the very simple reason it's the exact same bit of kit; they had all those sirens in place from the war so they simply re-purposed them after the war... same machinery, same noise - just a different reason for the warning...

A few of the lucky ones got to spend their retirement in the Caribbean as hurricane warning sirens. When I moved there as a child they were tested monthly(?) during the hurricane season. I don't remember exactly when they stopped doing it, but it was likely in the mid-90's.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

There was a siren in our village, on top of the corn mill. It went off in the middle of the night when I was a small child so early 1970's. It was very loud and unstoppable. Given that it was the middle of the night I suspect many adults were worried that it was a genuine alert - I was far too young to understand.

I seem recall some lads from the village removed the siren very shortly afterwards!

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I only remember hearing an air raid siren on two occassions:

The first was when I was quite small in Crystal Palce Park. I remember thinking it sounded like a very loud elephant blowing its trunk continuously. I thought it was comming from the tower itself. I remember my dad saying that we had better go home!

The second time was in 2005. At the time on a cloudy and quiet sunday morning, turned out the gasometer in Battersea was leaking. A siren had gone off on the gasometer's premises that could be heard for miles and miles around, casting a distant ghostly howl on a sinister morning. We learnt about what happened on the CeeFax (remember that) the next day. I always wonderd where the siren was, and found in some years later while on a train at Battersea Park station. It was on top of a small brick cabin that has since been demolished to make way for the Nine Elms development. That siren only had one set of fan blades so it's surprising how loud it was.

 

[yorksrob]

It would - for the very simple reason it's the exact same bit of kit; they had all those sirens in place from the war so they simply re-purposed them after the war... same machinery, same noise - just a different reason for the warning...

The "Protect and Survive" series of cartoons confirms that the siren would have been the same as those heard during WW2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oVWUAbREq0

 

[Calthrop]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Cuba somehow managed to obtain a small fleet of class 47-a-likes. Quite how I don't know, as I assume the island would have been embargoed when they were in production !

The UK was never part of the embargo. Much to the displeasure of the US, the government of Harold Wilson arranged to sell them Leyland buses.

Googling would suggest that the last of the "47's" were withdrawn by 1992; but that a few of the Leyland buses were, at least till very recently, still active on various duties. Cuba, certainly in recent years, would seem to have become more of a Mecca for road-vehicle enthusiasts, than railway ditto. And there have long been all the classic 1950s-and-earlier US cars, running on the island as at 1959: with circumstances there since the revolution having made the acquisition of new cars for Cubans generally difficult, necessity has kept many of the "classics" in daily use, up to the present day.

I gather from boards with a fair amount of US and Canadian input: that with these cars having had over the past nearly sixty years, self-taught mechanics doing increasingly desperate stuff to keep them running somehow; many of these happenings have produced vehicles with assorted ugly and grotesque modifications, tending to cause the cognoscenti to call them "Frankenstein's-monster cars". It seems that hard-core car buffs find such developments off-putting and a cause for regret, rather than inspiring them to admire the ingenuity and tenacity of those who own and maintain the vehicles !

 

[Busaholic]

The UK was never part of the embargo. Much to the displeasure of the US, the government of Harold Wilson arranged to sell them Leyland buses.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jcgxk

iirc those buses never made it to Cuba - didn't the ship carrying them suffer a mysterious accident near Tilbury in the Thames?

 

[EM2]

I do remember one siren being tested.
I had started a new job in Camberley, and at 9.30 on the first day I could hear this wailing noise.
'What's that noise?', I asked a colleague.
'Oh, they always test the siren at 9.30 on Mondays.'
'What siren?'
'The siren at Broadmoor...'
hock:

 

[GusB]

iirc those buses never made it to Cuba - didn't the ship carrying them suffer a mysterious accident near Tilbury in the Thames?

There were a couple of incidents that affected deliveries to Cuba. One was when a French ship carrying ammunition blew up as the buses were being unloaded at Havana. The second was when the ship sank in the Thames following a collision with a Japanese freighter. Some of the vehicles were removed and auctioned off here, but the remainder were lost in the bay of Biscay when the damaged ship was being towed by a salvage firm!

 

[AntoniC]

I was born in West Germany in 1966 at RAF Wegberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Hospital_Wegberg

as my dad was in the RAF at the time.

He was an engineer working at frontline RAF bases in Germany, and he has told me it was a scary time as you never when the balloon would go up.

Interestingly he told me that the wives of service personal were known as "wife of Corporal xxx" and there were regular alerts as well.

He also told me that when he was stationed at RAF Marham in the early 1960`s, and was working on Canberra`s, the Canberra`s would fly missions fully laden with nuclear weapons (or buckets of instant sunshine as the RAF called them).

 

[Busaholic]

There were a couple of incidents that affected deliveries to Cuba. One was when a French ship carrying ammunition blew up as the buses were being unloaded at Havana. The second was when the ship sank in the Thames following a collision with a Japanese freighter. Some of the vehicles were removed and auctioned off here, but the remainder were lost in the bay of Biscay when the damaged ship was being towed by a salvage firm!

I believe the CIA, correctly or incorrectly, took credit.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I find all of these stories fascinating. I've had a morbid fascination of the Cold War since I studied it in GCSE History, around the same time I watched Channel 4's brilliant 1983: Brink of Apocolypse documentary. I remember thinking when I was younger there was lasting peace since WW2 and 9/11 so the Cold War really interested me.

I gained a fascination of anything secret- secret tunnels, secret bunkers etc, and have read a lot on the subject. London's Secret Tubes is a great book. Extremely dull in a few places but otherwise a book to keep going back too.

Aside from my (sad) interest in the air raid siren network, there are all sorts of crazy things to read about. Such as the Jubille line and the awkward nuclear bunker problem, sinister truths about the Telecom Tower, BACKBONE, the Holborn deep-level telephone exchange, TURNSTILE, the express Northern Line's Cold War plans, secret cable tunnels under London etc, etc.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Although I was too young to understand, I do recall hearing frequent sonic booms in the late 1950's. early 1960's, which were quite frightening at first but then just accepted. I grew up in an area dotted with RAF and USAF bases, and it seemed to be a very frequent occurence. I can still see one plane that used to fly quite low that had a twin boom, can't remember the name. (I'm sure someone can help me on that one)
No recollection of sirens going off, but of course this discussion has brought back a memory of the local fire siren sounding (as they did in those days), as when we heard it my younger sister and myself would rush to the window to watch a part-time fireman from the woodyard opposite jump on his bike and peddle like **** to the fire station. Wouldn't have helped if the balloon had gone up.

 

[EM2]

can still see one plane that used to fly quite low that had a twin boom, can't remember the name. (I'm sure someone can help me on that one)

Could it have been a Vampire?

 

[PeterC]

I remember in the 60s there was always a nagging feeling that IT might happen. I was only 11 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and have no recollection of the details at the time but thinking back it was when I was most aware of the possibility of nuclear war. By the late 60s everthing seemed a bit more laid back despite Vietnam.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Could it have been a Vampire?

That's probably the one if it was flying in the early 1960's

 

[70014IronDuke]

That's probably the one if it was flying in the early 1960's

The Vampire was very much an early, sub-sonic 50s fighter. Might have been flying as trainers, I suppose until 63 or so.

Not sure if these would have been making sonic booms - could go through the sound-barrier and stay in one piece?

The Sea Vixen was also twin-boom and closer to Mach 1 - I think it could definitely go beyond it in a dive.

But I agree that one lasting impression of the 50s was the number of sonic booms - heard them every day in the hop fields of Kent in the summer, or so it seems in the memory box. Probably Hunters, I suspect, but I seem to remember looking up one day and seeing a Valiant associated with the boom. Unfortunately I don't have any clear memories of what worked the Dover main line in those days.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

The Vampire was very much an early, sub-sonic 50s fighter. Might have been flying as trainers, I suppose until 63 or so.

Not sure if these would have been making sonic booms - could go through the sound-barrier and stay in one piece?

The Sea Vixen was also twin-boom and closer to Mach 1 - I think it could definitely go beyond it in a dive.

But I agree that one lasting impression of the 50s was the number of sonic booms - heard them every day in the hop fields of Kent in the summer, or so it seems in the memory box. Probably Hunters, I suspect, but I seem to remember looking up one day and seeing a Valiant associated with the boom. Unfortunately I don't have any clear memories of what worked the Dover main line in those days.

Thanks for the interesting comment. We lived close to the RAF bases at Wyton and Wittering and USAF bases at Alconbury and Mildenhall was not far away (think that was USAF). The twin-boom planes I used to see were the ones that stayed in my memory because they were different... of course I have no idea whether they were the ones that broke the sound barrier. As you say, the sonic booms were a sound of the times, and then they stopped, no idea when!

 

[GusB]

Lossiemouth and Kinloss are a fairly short distance away from me. From the east we'd hear the drone of the old Shackletons (a sound I still miss to this day), and from the west the sound of the Nimrods on their constant patrols. Jaguars, Hunters and Buccaneers were also based at Lossiemouth, along with the 202 Sqn Sea Kings, but nothing supersonic.

Kinloss is no longer an RAF base, now used by the Royal Engineers, and as far as I'm aware they've kept the runway open. There does seem to be a lot more helicopter activity these days, particularly at night.

 

[cjmillsnun]

I do remember one siren being tested.
I had started a new job in Camberley, and at 9.30 on the first day I could hear this wailing noise.
'What's that noise?', I asked a colleague.
'Oh, they always test the siren at 9.30 on Mondays.'
'What siren?'
'The siren at Broadmoor...'
hock:

They still do, although they are going soon.

 

[yorksrob]

They still do, although they are going soon.

I thought Broadmoor was only moving to a purpose built facility next door.

 

[DarloRich]

we certainly had siren tests in Darlington in the 1980's - whether they were testing the 4 minute warning or form some industrial complex i don't know. We always though the former.

I know the sirens in Newcastle lasted into the 1980's

 

[ac6000cw]

Whilst I was only about 5 years old when the Cuban missile crisis happened, I think I picked up on the concern my parents had at the time.

Don't forget that it wasn't an entirely 'cold' war - the 'hot' wars in Korea and Vietnam where effectively proxy wars between the superpowers, and the blockade of West Berlin in 1948-1949 could have escalated into something much worse.

There was a lot of firepower and troops stationed on both sides of the West/East German border during the Cold War years. An ex-Army person I know well was stationed in West Berlin in the late 1960s/early 1970s - living in a city completely surrounded by 'enemy' territory. The Berlin Wall was definitely 'hot' as far as the East German guards were concerned. It's no wonder West Berlin became a popular place to live for those who liked living 'on the edge'.

The 'meeting of minds' between Reagan and Gorbachev in the 1980s (which effectively ended the Cold War) was a very major contribution to world peace.