I don't think it's here either in London, England 🏴 or even the rest of the UK here! Have you ever seen the Fawlty Towers Play here in London's West End yet?
We lived near Cottesmore Military Base in Rutland so we would turn into a diamond in five seconds! Then in later years we lived between Lakenheath and Mildenhall US based which was even worse! I felt like Professor Steven Falken out of Wargames! lol
When I was at comprehensive school in the 80s we were all made to watch a film called Threads which incorporated the protect and survive ads but showed the harsh reality of what life would be like afterwards. It's an incredible film that I would recommend you to watch to see how british children were taught the realities of a nuclear attack. It's available on BBC iplayer. I showed it to my husband who had never heard of it because he's 10 years younger. He was shocked that we were shown it at school.
My dad was dug out of the rubble of their house after a German bomb landed in next doors garden. Not a nuclear ☢️ bomb I know but it affected him for the rest of his life.
Yes, but they are idiots, they are thinking a nuclear strike is like a air raid. Its like us these days comparing Broadband to Dial Up and saying both are the same enjoyment.
@@raystewart3648 Exscjusxe me but they are not idiots. They tell. you in the gjuidance that many pleople will die. Of those who survive the blast and flash (10% of population ik UK., More in the US ) 100% wil ned to follow radiologically sound advice, if they are to make it to 14 days. Yes you are correct PnS does draw on the style of air raid advbice from WW2 but the big worry was that the Germans would drop chemical weapons. Create a public panic. So "Keep Calm and Carry On"
When the Wind Blows (1986) Writer Raymond Briggs (Yes the same on who wrote The Snowman) A naive elderly British rural couple survive the initial onslaught of a nuclear war.
I think another difference is that the British had already lived through numerous bombings during the war (as did much of Europe). From the stories told by my grandparents, and what we've all learnt about the war, being bombed was unfortunately not unusual. My Nanny told me how when she lived in Kent, she'd often hear the doodlebug bombs approaching and would start running home as she didn't know where it would land. And my husband's Nan still has an old air raid shelter in the garden which has long since been closed off... Kent was battered during the war, it wasn't just London but numerous places throughout the country which were bombed. Having already experienced bombings, the information didn't need to be frilly or presented in a nice way, it just needed to be practical and realistic. In the US on the other hand, the prospect of being bombed probably couldn't be imagined in the same way for most people as it isn't something the public had experienced before so the information needed to be presented in such a way as to not cause too much fear.
So by that rationale, the PSAs made for Hawaii should be similarly practical (due to Pearl Harbor),. Likewise New York if anyone made these types of PSAs after 9/11.
@@hughtube5154idk. Not to play down those events, but they were one offs. At the time this was prepared for publishing, much of the public in multiple areas of the country had been through it over and over and over and over again. In living memory. That does change your perspective
@@bulletproofmum Also, the attack on Pearl Harbour was directed at the ships in the harbour and military installations. In Europe bombing raids were specifically carried out against civilian targets. So as you say many people had experienced the horrors of war and having to spend time in air raid shelters.
As someone who resides in Plymouth, UK, I know that many public buildings still have information on what to do in the case of a radiation leak from Devonport Dockyard. They no longer advise about an explosion, knowing that most of us wouldn't survive that anyway.
Due to the long term effects of radiation on reproductive health, that's why they advised only over 30s to go outside (as they were less likely to have children in the 1980s). Policies were also put in place to use the elderly to help in a nuclear emergency as some radiation conditions take decades to manifest so it would be pragmatic to use people not expected naturally to live that long.
It isn't just reproductive health. Younger children and young adults are just far more susceptible to radiation poisoning. Once you are in your thirties, you are far less likely to become ill, or have long term effects from milder radiation poisoning. That being said.... I still wouldn't do any afternoon gardening outside for a while.😊
In defence of the biscuits & jam, those are almost certainly for providing quick energy from the sugar. Fascinating video as always. You have good understanding of both UK and US cultures & attitudes.
If one lives in an area with a fire station manned or partially manned by retained on call crews than the air raid siren sounding is common to call them to duty as mobile phones or bleepers are not 100% reliable. It is easily audible in the 3 mile radius area in which they must live or work. It also acts as a warning to road users there may be a Fire appliance on the roads shortly and crew members travelling quickly to the station. In the event of a nuclear ballistic missile attack the max warning of incoming missiles would be 3-4 minutes if fired from Russia and the launch detected. Shorter if launched from an undetected submarine at sea, ours would retaliate as have sealed orders, kept in a locked safe and destroyed unopened when changed, of what to do and the targets if contact with London and the Admiralty lost and to find a safe friendly port after.
Yup, everyone is saying the same thing 'When The Wind Blows' and 'Threads'. Both are must watch, but pick a nice, sunny, cheerful afternoon or you run the danger of topping yourself... or at least needing a good strong cuppa... afterwards.
@@Drew-Dastardly Well of course, but is she British enough for the magic elixir to work? I believe she said she didn't even like tea.... I know, hard to comprehend it but there we are.
@@TukikoTroy There are lot's of weirdos who don't like Tea. Also worse are people who only eat beige food. However this girl being both of those is also a fantastic researcher and content creator. 🥰
School 77-82 we where told by the teachers to hide under a table in a nuke strike. I asked the teacher how big the blast would be., my teacher said about a 50 mile radius. I replied, so london to reading would be wiped out then sir? Yes he replied. I stated, we are 15 miles from London, I don't think a table is gonna be much use sir. I got a 3 month detention for stating the obvious.
Yeah, me pointing out 'Sir, I can see the the nuclear submarine base from my house' didn't get me out of doing the How To Survive A Nuclear Attack project. 🙄
I was a teacher during that very time. Neither I nor any of my immediate colleagues made any attempt to mislead our students with that Protect and Survive nonsense. By my recollection, we all laughed together at the futility and absurdity of it. 😄 Though we were fatalistic realists about the actual threat.
This practice continued well into the mid to late 80’s, I had these drills at my school too. Nothing safer than a bit of plywood and a plastic tray full of paper books and pencils.
Never had those drills. I started school in '82. Didn't have them in Harlow, or Colchester when I moved there in '83. Perhaps my teachers recognised the futility and though not worth it.
Mine speculated that the real purpose of telling the public to build, a shelter, because it was that useless, was only just to entomb yourself once the bomb dropped.
Under 30s are breeding stock, also older people succumb to radiation slower as cells split slower So you can use them for reconstruction labour for longer
Have you seen Threads which is on BBC I-Player and the ABC American equivalent (which came out before Threads) called The Day After (which you can find on RUclips) Both dramatisations deal with the topic of nuclear fallout, but boy Threads is a really tough watch.
I have heard Threads mentioned a lot, and will definitely research into it. I haven't heard of The Day After - thanks for sharing (on this morbid and depressing topic, but...it's morbid and depressing times!)
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial The Day After is actually a more positive depiction compared to Threads lol. The concept of the nuclear winter was formulated between the two projects so the future forecast for Britain by Threads is so much more relentingly grim because of it. Also I was born in 1974 so got to live through thinking we were gonna be nuked through the 1980s! And they filmed some outdoor scenes of Threads in my then hometown too. ETA: Actually I watched all the nuclear PIFs end of last year. My text alert on my phone is now that cheery little jingle each one starts with. As they go along you get the very strong feeling that the government knew this was all useless crap and we would all be dying quickly or slowly especially when they start contradicting each other with their vague suggestions. But well, guess it's better than doing nothing I suppose.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial "The War Game": Directed by Peter Watkins. With Michael Aspel, Peter Graham, Dave Baldwin, Kathy Staff. A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain Was banned/hidden for many years It's a grim watch, but 'in for a penny, in for a pound'....
I was shown Protect & Survive and The Day After at secondary school when I was younger. We weren't shown Threads, however, but me and most of my friends watched it on TV. As someone else says here; it is a hard watch. Needless to say not many of the characters last 'till the end.
My mom used to tell me about the times she was going to or coming back from bomb shelters as a child and having to step over or around bodies of those who didn't make it to safety. The threat of nuclear explosions was just another raid with a bigger bomb as far as she and my father were concerned.
I joined the army in 1980, part of our training was to dig a personal fallout shelter. However after talking about it with the military training staff, especially if you talked to them after using beer to release their tongues, they'd tell you, even if you survived the initial blasts (and with military bases being a prime target, that would be unlikely), you wouldn't last long before exposure to high levels of radiation would kill you, and even if it didn't, it would probably be worse surviving than dying. The reality for the military was we'd operate on the basis of MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. If we got nuked, we'd nuke them, so would the EU, so would the US, China, India, Pakistan, everyone would launch and detonate their nukes, all the survivors would see is a nuclear wasteland just prior to the start of a global 2-200 year atomic winter. So although I can't speak for any but a few of my army colleagues, we never made plans to survive or live in the post nuclear apocalypse, because none of us wanted to survive it. There is another consideration about the differences to UK vs US information films, given the size of the UK about 15 well placed nukes could wipe out most major cities resulting in the immediate (or very short term) loss of 80% or more of the population, the US being so large would require hundreds of them to do the same level of damage, so although there probably wouldn't be anyone coming in either country, I guess upwards of 30% of the US population would survive.
We were also taught, as infantrymen in the 70s/80s, in case we were targeted by tactical nukes - to close eyes against flash and drop away from the blast, keeping our soles together and face down, mouth open. You would feel the outgoing blast wave - but needed to keep still until after the _inward_ wave comes back. Hopefully we'd already be wearing noddy suits and respirators - and we'd have the kit to measure fallout. Obviously, troops under armour were better protected. The 'Atomic Tank', an Australian Centurion III that was positioned with dummies at the epicentre of a 9.1kt atomic test in 1953, survived so well it was later used to fight in Vietnam and is today a barracks gate guard in the Northern Territory.
And can you imagine the smell of death from all the rotting corpses in all those destroyed cities and the diseases that would result from that? The dead would vastly outnumber the living. Cities would become no go areas for survivors. Think of all the fires we would need to cleanse all those places too?
You should watch The War Game (1966), it's filmed in a documentary style showing a hypothetical nuclear attack, it was banned for years because it was thought to be too graphic.
I saw it not that long after it came out, when I was 15. This was only possible because I belonged to the school film club, which made it technically a private screening.
I read the British Army manual on Nuclear Biological and Chemical Warfare in the 80's. The line that still stands out is - "It is the duty of a soldier under NBC conditions to survive long enough to do harm to the enemy". Not much expectation of survival there. I think Protect and Survive was more to give you something to do rather than worrying and if you were going to survive it would be chance more than anything you did.
The advice that exists in these guides not because the UK was more pragmatic about the possibility of having to apply it but because the blitz had already made such precautions necessary.
Love how much you're taking the piss out of these. Protect & Survive is getting a burn worse than sunburn!! You may also want to check out the cartoon When the Wind Blows or even the 1984 drama Threads... If you dare.
As a Brit in the second world war all of this was already ingrained in all my family that survived the blitz in London. They built their Anderson shelter in the garden after the Morrison Shelter which was just sitting under a strong table in effect in the kitchen had seemed less than adequate. The culture of keeping calm and carrying -on was already established. America had never experienced such things that Europe had taken for granted for 6+ years.
I know ''When the Wind Blows' has been mentioned elsewhere but I think it is worth mentioning that it is based on an elderly couple following this ''advice' to the letter.
watch Threads (TV Movie 1984) The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working class city of Sheffield, England and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Mrs Thatcher reissued an updated "Protect and Survive." That led to anti-war publications like "Protest and Survive." There were two or three TV dramatisations of the effects of nuclear war, which the right-wing hated. Mrs Whitehouse wanted them banned. By that time British fall-out shelters were reserved for the elite. There used to be an official Civil Defence organisation, who were to get pistols for shooting the survivors.
Don't forget the experience of the second world war was still recent enough that people would compare the advice against their experience in the blitz.
@@XENONEOMORPH1979 An ex of mine from the 1980's had a large extended Mancunian family. Her Dad served in the 14th Army in Burma. Other members of her family remember watching the glow in the night sky as the docks on the ship canal in Trafford burned after Luftwaffe raids. You're talking out of your arse.
Great video. I remember the films well and still have the original booklet. My parents were very active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1970s and 80s. An alternative pamphlet was brought out called, Protest and Survive, which still remains a more realistic strategy.
I'm 73, watched the films as a kid but I had parents and grandparents that had gone through 2 World Wars, learned from them the best places to be etc in case of bombs, we all knew atomic was a game over situation.. I now live in a bungalow, so I'm a goner lol have a fully stocked pantry, candles etc biscuits and honey too.. Saves me going out in British Winters, my bed is placed against an inner wall, noticed how the outer walls collapse first in all the war documentaries .. Thanks for sharing love your content.. stay safe, now go fill some sand bags lol love you
When I was a child there was a huge bang outside and my mother instinctively put me in the cupboard under the stairs. It turned out to be a plane breaking the sound barrier.
That would make a pretty good shelter. In America, lots of people have basements which would also offer a degree of protection (well better than a door anyway) - unless the house collapses on top of it of course...
@countzero1136 But aren't most US dwellings wooden, offering very little protection from radiation (and very likely to burn down even if they hadn't collapsed)? About 90% of UK houses are brick or stone, so only the windows let in much radiation.
@@RobertScott-pp6gj That's true, but the worst kind of radiation from a nuclear explosion (ie. gamma and neutrons) will pass through regular brick and stone walls, let alone a layer of paint on the window, more or less unhindered, though the (relatively) less harmful alpha and beta radiation will be stopped dead in their tracks by pretty much anything. (thick paper will stop alpha and a tinfoil hat will do wonders against beta... Admittedly, UK homes further from the actual blast will survive better than US ones but the radiation would still be a problem, though of couse all forms of radiation obey the inverse square law, so the best defence against it is distance, with its effects falling off by the inverse square of its range, so at twice the distance from the source, you divide the dose by 4, and at 4 times the distance, the dose is 1/16 and so on Of course radiation damage is cumulative, so the less time you spend in an affected area, the better your survival chances are (obviously)
I love your presentational style. It's all pretty hilarious, isn't it? And were still doing it. A few years ago we had a heatwave forecast, and the official advice was 'Paint the whole of your house white.' So you're going to need ladders, about £500 worth of paint, and at least a week to do the job, by which time the heatwave will be over. Then you have to work out how to get white paint off the brickwork. Official advice. Hilarious.
On the subject of the Protect & Survive film and what to do till help arrives later...if you watch the film Threads, ylitll be come apparent that there will NOT be any help arriving at any point, given how all those who could help will be as fried as the rest of us.
If I remember correctly. You were meant to take interior doors off, to make the shelter. Kaylin, you must remember, that in the late seventies and early eighties. Most average homes of the period , would have hammers, nails and a saw etc, already. I can lay my hands on a saw, hammer and nails right now. I live in a flat. Even the tea chest (box with metal edges), while dying out. Were still available back then. They were mostly used when moving house.
@@alisonrodger3360 Yeah we had a couple of those while we were growing up - my sister and I had one each to keep all our toys and other crap in, but they were big and deep so the stuff at the bottom was pretty much buried forever :)
About the UK preparing their children to life: until the beginning of the 90's children were taught at school how to wire an electric plug, because appliances used to be sold with a bare wire and buyers were supposed to wire them themselves. Stiff upper lip, apparently.
@@peterjackson4763 Same here. My dad was a radio operator in the army so he knew lots of technical stuff - not forgetting that back in my youth, our plugs were the round "wylex" type with the hollow round earth pin in the middle- anyone else here remember those? All things considered, the Type-G is infinitely better!
I was taught that at home when I was about 9 -- an important household skill when all new appliances came without plugs. Similarly, I was taught how to clean the house, iron clothes, cook and rewire blown fuses (they were nearly all wired, rather than cartridge, fuses in the '60s).
the film The War Game is a BBC 1965 pseudo documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK. It was considered too horrific to broadcast at the time, but 2/3 years later it had a limited release and was shown to senior students at my school. I do remember I was scared by it, but many of the kids thought it a laugh.
When the Wind Blows is an excellent animated movie from the same writer of The Snowman. It details a husband and wife, who really believe that the information provided by the British Government will really save them from Nuclear fallout, and follows them through the days afterwards. It's based very much on the official information.
There were meetings across the country where the Protect and Survive films were shown, the booklets given out, and advice given and questions answered. I attended one sometime in 1980 at a local school. The narrator of the films is Patrick Allen, a well known film and TV actor of the time.
I remember a similar discussion on TV in 1984 contrasting the realism of the British TV drama Threads with the American one (name escapes me) that was released a few months previously. Threads made a lasting impression on me. I only watched it once and that was 40 years ago, but I still remember it clearly.
To be fair, there are some people who think this is odd, but the point of testing a system, is that you don't just test it once and never again. Like a smoke alarm. It needs to be tested regularly. Indeed the last test failed, because those of us on the Three UK network and I can't remember which other network, did not receive the test at all. So it absolutely must be tested again - because what's the point of a nationwide emergency system that doesn't actually alert everyone.
Protect and Survive was sampled in the song Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, especially in the extended mixes, so a lot of people of a certain age will recognise parts of it even if they've never seen it.
My dad was planning to dig up the dining room floor for a nuclear shelter in the late 1970s. Until my mother stopped him. She said I rather die than hide in a shelter.
Early eighties I'm a twenty year old university drop out living in a first floor flat with Manchester City centre visible through the front windows. My thinking was on hearing the three minute warning roll a spliff and stand in the living room facing Manchester. The spliff would be lit for me.
At this time there was still a lot of people who experienced the bombing of ww2 people were already hardened to the destruction that was likely to occur A hard hitting thing we produced was threads that held no punches
Hehehe, I remember the "duck and cover" campagne was shown here in Germany as an example of trivialization of nuclear war in the 90s. Thanks a lot for bringing this up. Would be hilarious, if we wouldn´t find ourselves in a situation today, where the danger is realistic again.
Age 14, I heard one being tested, while I was playing cricket at school. I'd never heard one in real life, but it still made my skin crawl. I felt the hairs on my arms standing up. I don't remember even having heard one in a film, but I'd certainly read about air raids in books and boy's comics, and I instantly knew what it was. I suppose they had to test the two-tone bit, but I'd have been a lot less scared if they'd only done that for one cycle, rather than a full 30 s, before moving to the all-clear, at which point I realised I'd been holding my breath!
I didn't bother with any of this as I was a member of the Royal Observer Corps from 1985 to 1991. This meant that I had a place in a nuclear bunker and was the one operating hand held sirens and explosive maroons for the three bangs fallout warnings. This did mean having to leave the safety of the bunker though. And also going outside in the middle of a nuclear attack to change the cassettes on the Ground Zero Indicator. I must have been mad. The ROC had about 900 three man posts/bunkers spread throughout the country which were connected to 25 group headquarters woth a crew of about 60. There are about a dozen restored posts throughout the country and two group headquarters (York and Dundee). There is also a restored Regional Seat of Government at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex - follow the road signs marked "Secret Nuclear Bunker".
At school in the Sixties in England. We had a five minute break listening to some teacher teach Religious Education or Scripture. He told us that if there was ever a Nuclear War, We should bend over. Put our heads between our knees and kiss our arse goodbye. Giggling and laughing followed. This joke was used a lot during comedy sketches. But while we were all aware about Nuclear War fear. It was a bit like hoping it would snow before we went to school because it surely meant we would have a day off.
The Protect and Survive narrator is Patrick Allen who, a few years after recording those voiceovers, was flying around the UK in a helicopter advertising Barratt Homes.
Hi girlgonelondon, it was a scary time growing up in the 80s, we were made to watch a film called threads in history at school, it's about a nuclear strike on the city of Sheffield, back then it gave people a lot of nightmares, be interesting what your views would be on it, also a documentary called QED a guide to Armageddon, it was deep for a teenager. Most people knew the protect and survive information wouldn't save you in a nuclear war, best to go outside, wait for the flash and kiss your ass goodbye. As for duck and cover i liked the turtle 😊 great video keep up the good work
I work at an old nuclear bunker that's now a museum in the west mids. The amount of times I've had to watch that protect and survive video on tours, It's lost all its fear factor. Fun when the schools come through tho!
The booklet came through your door. Most people had one. I remeber reading it often as a child very matter of fact. I remember parents getting us and 3 kids under the dinning room table to see how we would fit! It wasn’t a very practical guide. Even now I’m not sure I know any houses that have a middle room in the centre of their house that’s not how most houses are build.
It was more of an updated WWII air raid guide. But better than nothing. It was more to to survive the initial overpressure, destroying buildings and causing sharapnel. More than surviving the radiation of blast and subsequent fallout itself. The UK would not survive a nuclear takedown anyway. We are too small a landmass. One look at what a soldier needs to survive on the NBC battlefield should tell you that the civvies are up the creek with out a paddle or boat.
Yes, ensuring that all, or at least most rooms have windows is regarded as a building priority. Not fitting everything else around a bomb room, just in case Brezhnev (or whoever) presses the button.
Older houses might have a "cupboard under the stairs" as used by Harry Potter, but it has plasterboard walls. I suppose the wooden stairs would provide some protection if the roof collapses. We used to have solid wooden doors, but now they are just chipboard and won't withstand much impact.
@@faithlesshound5621cupboard under the stairs: exactly what I was thinking, with the old vacuum cleaner and coats on the rack, and the little box of electric fuses.
What a strange subject to pick....but i found it absolutely hilarious. Your commentary is excellent 👌 👏 In the UK from about 1948 to the early 1960's we had an organisation called the CDC...Civil Defence Corps who were uniformed civilians who were trained for nuclear war. Great overview.
Thank you for watching. Niche subjects are always my favorite to cover. I had never heard of the Civil Defence Corps before...definitely going to research into that!
The Protect and Survive book came out when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.....she saw that after the CDC were "stood down" nothing had replaced it. So the booklet was brought out. At the same time she initiated the HDF Home Defence Force which was based on the WW2 Home Guard. The HDF was raised but didn't last long...not sure why. The HDF was different to the Territorial Army as the TA could be deployed overseas....I believe this is the same concept for the US National Guard.? An interesting history 🤔
A few years ago a light hearted radio program had a item that said "in case of a nuclear attack you will hear this sound" - those words were then followed by the sound of a massive explosion. SO funny, and yes I lived through the Cuban crisis, living a short distance from a nuclear bomber base.
I wonder if it was Patrick Allen's voice... A well known actor, he voiced all the dialogue in the mid-70s for UK government announcements, including Protect & Survive. The recordings were later sampled for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 80's hit 'Two Tribes'.
I was 16 in 1980 and can remember reading this pamphlet before handing it to my dad. We lived in a bungalow, with no cellar, so I asked him where he reckoned would be the best place to build the inner shelter. He said the bathroom had the shortest length of external wall, but he couldn't see how the four of us could survive in there for a fortnight without going mad as only one person would be able to lie down at a time. I decided, only half-seriously, that since there were three RAF bases within 40 miles (plus one industrial city and a mid-size sea port) there would be no escaping the fallout, the best thing for me to do would be to go and watch what would at least be a spectacular sunset and be sure to take a bottle of vodka and a very sharp knife with me. I'd forgotten the bit about reminding people to leave an entrance. If you'd seen the results of the DIY craze in the 1970s you'd recognise that this was necessary advice.
In the coal shed of the house we moved into in 1947 there was the helmet and macintosh of an ARP warden, along with the bucket and stirrup pump which might have come in handy. I remember 'Protect and Survive' local exhibitions as well as the leaflets.
Protect and Survive was never about ensuring people survived a nuclear blast, it was about placating the population so they didn't riot, loot or decide it was the people in power's fault and start erecting guillotines. There was a pamphlet published by historian E.P. Thompson entitled Protest and Survive.
The ideas of Civil Defence came out of WW2 - a lot of people had first hand experience of massive destruction and fighting to survive it. But I don't think the survivors of a nuclear winter would be focusing on guillotines.
My mum created a two week store of tinned food under our stairs. There were batteries, a radio, torches, tin opener, first aid kit, bin bags and bottled water. She was terrified. I was too young to remember. One day my playgroup teacher told my mum that I painted a colourful house and garden, then painted black all over it saying it was the bomb. We found all the leaflets ten years ago while moving house. Mum told me how scared she was about protecting her family, yet how helpless she felt, even though she had created an emergency supply kit and shelter under the stairs. It was only when we moved house in 1986 that she stopped the stock rotation of the emergency supply tins.
The irony being I restarted the rotation of supplies about 6 years ago because it genuinely feels closer to war now than back then. I just think we’re all too accustomed to it now that nobody takes it serviously.
I love your content Kalyn! Dont know if u will lower yourself (lol) to do reaction videos, but seeing u react to old school PSAs would be great. As they haunted my childhood, i would never go near to Pilons, Traintracks or standing water/ponds! still dont lmao.
If you want a fix nuclear war comparison, I recommend comparing their takes on a nuclear holocaust and the fallout. A really good example is probably The Day After (1983, US), vs Threads (1984, UK). Both famous for different reasons. The Day After is cited for making Raegan change his mind and led to the nuclear arsenal being reduced, while Threads traumatised the entire country
The British advice is more practical likely due to the experiences of WWII. Dealing with bodies, food ,water and other day to day services all being disrupted.
Until the age of 7 I lived on Royal Air Force Bases. They used to show those information films at various points during the day on British TV. At the age of four upwards I remember seeing them. I knew nothing about Nuclear Weapons or War, all I knew was this stern voice would talk about bombs and people dying! Every Monday they would test the Air Raid Siren just before it was time for me to get up for school. The Air Raid Siren for the area of Married Quarters where we lived was right outside my bedroom window. It would scare me senseless. All because of what I saw on the TV. Years later when Frankie Goes To Hollywood sampled one of those Information Films at the start of their Two Tribes single, it still made me feel uneasy!
We had duck and cover drills when I was a kid in the 1980's (near Seattle), but they were for both atomic bombs and earthquakes. Eventually, they started calling them earthquake drills. Kids still practice getting under their desks and away from windows. Our state has the "Great Washington Shake-out Drill". On a certain day, at a certain time, we're all supposed to practice what to do if an earthquake hits. I usually grab my cats and sit under the dining room table for a minute. 😉 But it's a good reminder to reset Go-bags and make sure shelves are bolted to walls, hot water heaters have straps, and businesses and schools are prepared.
Hi. BTW, I think the 30 year old going outside bit, is trying to protect viable breeders. People less than 30 are a valuable asset in any rebuild of the population. Just so you know, I think you need to consider trying to use a radio that can pickup BBC Radio 4 Very timely reminder. thanks.
Born in Britain in the mid 1950s and living through the Cold War, I can guarantee that the Protect and Survive pamphlets were both awful and hilarious to us. Believe me, we knew 100% that we were absolutely f***d if either side pressed the button. Those were very fatalistic times for our generation.
I recall reading an old pamphlet about 50-60 years ago on this subject. It started by pointing out the rather obvious:- "The best protection against a nuclear explosion is to avoid being in the vacinity of it". Well........ who could have guessed that?
As a young boy I had planned out what I would do, I lived on the coast in Yorkshire and Filingdales (an early warning radar system) and Cattrick an army base were expected to be targets so I knew of some old WW2 underground bunkers and I planned to get as close to the cliffs to avoid the initial blast and then quickly make my way to the bunker as quickly as possible, I had a go bag at home and always carried certain survival tools with me, torch,knife,flint,matches,candle, needle and thread,metal mirror,iodine tablets,medical kit compass and thermos.(Yes, they added a lot of weight to my school bag). Military background, scouts, an independent streak and rural background taught me preparation was required. (BTW if you note this is everyone for themselves, we were told we had 4 minutes of warning and my mother never listened to any advice, so I wasn't spending time arguing with her and my father was army and he taught me some of the survival techniques and so was simlary prepared) It would have all probably been for naught but at least I would have tried.
Mentioning the sirens. I lived close to one, in the seventies and eighties growing up. It was on top of a public loo. Which is an electricity substation these days.
I remember when it dropped through the letter box! I came to the conclusion that maybe not surviving would be the best long term option. The band Jethro Tull did a song about it, a f=great listen if you want to feel a bit depressed!
The UK version is a survival guide for the aftermath of nuclear attack while the US version basically boils down to "take cover and hope you don't die and if you don't you better get your ass to work tomorrow"
The health insurance companies probably had plans to mail a pre-emptive 'radiological events not covered' letter to all their marks -- sorry -- to all their customers.
I'm English and lived all my life in England. In the 1960s around 8yrs old we learnt the Duck and Cover at school. I don't think it was from an American animated film because it had real people in it. Learnt to get under our school desks and crouch by a wall if out in the street. We also had the all clear siren every few weeks for many year through the 1950s and 60s
I've always thought that this was just to convince the USSR that we were serious about surviving an attack and was part of our nuclear deterrence strategy. They knew it was mostly unworkable. Part of deterring your enemy is to convince them that an attack will not suceed. Many of the people involved would have been devising strategies to defeat Germany in WW2.
And similarly the Soviet Union was busily preparing bunkers for much of its population and training them to survive. They had far more infrastructure than we did.
I vividly remember my father had the job of sounding the siren in our village after the war. I was taught at school up to about age 13 that a nuclear explosion could happen at any time. We had hardly anything possessions left after the war. i had old coats as blankets on my bed. No heating phone tv fridge or washing machine no hot water except from the kettle. . We would grow as much food as we could in our gardens.
As a young Apprentice Electrician in the early 80's UK. I worked for the *"Civil Defence Unit"* of the *"Home Office."* in 1982. I was tasked with Servicing and/or Replacing and Maintaining all the *Air Raid sirens* that were still in place since the second World War. All ready to be used for the 4 minute warning. I loved that job All until we were out bid and replaced, by the local councils direct works division's. Many people at the time. Couldn't understand why they were still being maintained ?!?!
I used to install/maintain the BT private wires/telephone lines that connected the sirens and early warnings systems to police stations, and other government facilities, in the late 80s, early 90s. Fun fact:- the way we used to keep an eye on the validity of the lines/data connections, was to piggy back them on normal subscriber lines, especially in remote areas. So if Ethel from no.20 reported her line being down, you bet your bottom dollar that a BT engineer would be out there to fix it, double,double quick. Only because her line was piggy backed by a remote warning line to a nuclear attack warning system. I remember a worrying time in the late 90's where we were installing and maintaining new connections to bunkers and government building long after the Berlin wall had come down and the "cold war had ended". I never worked out why this was happening (mine was not to reason why). But being in my mid 20's, it did give me the hibby jibbies some what, lol. Edit:- The way we used to handle the threat of nuclear war in the 70s and 80s was with humour, we had feck all else to help us, We had a poster on our toilet door that said "if in the event of nuclear war, just put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye" said it all really.
As a child, I remember leaflets during the 1960s, we were excited, this turned to disappointment when being told it was just a warning not a reality. We felt we had been deprived of an adventure. My grandmother stockpiled lots of sugar during the Cuba crisis, along with tinned and condensed milk to go with her tea mountain. I believe she expired before her hoard of tea making ingredients.
In the event of a nuclear attack all we need to prepare are some iodine tablets & a big bag of crisps. The way things are going I doubt we'll need to worry about the best before date on the crisps.
I used to work with someone who was in the TA. They were advised to wear Polaroid glasses "Because if you see a flash you won't have to worry!" He realised that they were talking about eyesight, but felt they were being a tad optimistic!!!
Someone please make "Protect and Survive" the musical for the West End.
I don't think it's here either in London, England 🏴 or even the rest of the UK here! Have you ever seen the Fawlty Towers Play here in London's West End yet?
I think there is enough horror musicals in the West End...
Whe you hear the air attack warning....... play Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Two Tribes' 🎼🎵🎶🎶
@ When you hear the all clear warning... play Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Relax'.
Hi Kalyn, also watch and learn from 'When the Wind Blows' animation. You might find the information useful...
I love the sarcasm, you're turning into a proper Brit 😂😂
Thank you for watching!
Plus the abundance of pessimism. 🤣
@@BarthaxDravtore Just put the kettle on.
We lived near Cottesmore Military Base in Rutland so we would turn into a diamond in five seconds! Then in later years we lived between Lakenheath and Mildenhall US based which was even worse! I felt like Professor Steven Falken out of Wargames! lol
When I was at comprehensive school in the 80s we were all made to watch a film called Threads which incorporated the protect and survive ads but showed the harsh reality of what life would be like afterwards. It's an incredible film that I would recommend you to watch to see how british children were taught the realities of a nuclear attack. It's available on BBC iplayer. I showed it to my husband who had never heard of it because he's 10 years younger. He was shocked that we were shown it at school.
Edit: remove repeat of original comment!
As horrifying as "Threads" is, I reckon it's almost mandatory viewing on a number of levels.
Always worth remembering that many of the people who made those guides in the UK did remember blackouts, air raids and stuff.
Not only remember - had direct experience of streets being leveled and helping dig out their neighbours buried in the rubble.
My dad was dug out of the rubble of their house after a German bomb landed in next doors garden. Not a nuclear ☢️ bomb I know but it affected him for the rest of his life.
Yes, but they are idiots, they are thinking a nuclear strike is like a air raid.
Its like us these days comparing Broadband to Dial Up and saying both are the same enjoyment.
@@raystewart3648 Exscjusxe me but they are not idiots. They tell. you in the gjuidance that many pleople will die.
Of those who survive the blast and flash (10% of population ik UK., More in the US ) 100% wil ned to follow radiologically sound advice, if they are to make it to 14 days.
Yes you are correct PnS does draw on the style of air raid advbice from WW2 but the big worry was that the Germans would drop chemical weapons. Create a public panic.
So "Keep Calm and Carry On"
When the Wind Blows (1986) Writer Raymond Briggs (Yes the same on who wrote The Snowman) A naive elderly British rural couple survive the initial onslaught of a nuclear war.
Funnily enough, that is my next video topic! I look forward to being depressed while watching.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial You also need to watch the BBC drama Threads as well.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Though if you work out the ages of the characters based on clues on the history seen for them, it doesn't add up.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Don't watch it alone.
With music from David Bowie
The fundamental difference is that the blitz was in recent memory at the time, trivialising the threat was not required.
A great point, thanks for watching.
I think another difference is that the British had already lived through numerous bombings during the war (as did much of Europe). From the stories told by my grandparents, and what we've all learnt about the war, being bombed was unfortunately not unusual. My Nanny told me how when she lived in Kent, she'd often hear the doodlebug bombs approaching and would start running home as she didn't know where it would land. And my husband's Nan still has an old air raid shelter in the garden which has long since been closed off... Kent was battered during the war, it wasn't just London but numerous places throughout the country which were bombed. Having already experienced bombings, the information didn't need to be frilly or presented in a nice way, it just needed to be practical and realistic. In the US on the other hand, the prospect of being bombed probably couldn't be imagined in the same way for most people as it isn't something the public had experienced before so the information needed to be presented in such a way as to not cause too much fear.
Well put.
So by that rationale, the PSAs made for Hawaii should be similarly practical (due to Pearl Harbor),. Likewise New York if anyone made these types of PSAs after 9/11.
@@hughtube5154idk. Not to play down those events, but they were one offs. At the time this was prepared for publishing, much of the public in multiple areas of the country had been through it over and over and over and over again. In living memory. That does change your perspective
Zeppelins also bombed England during WW1.
@@bulletproofmum Also, the attack on Pearl Harbour was directed at the ships in the harbour and military installations. In Europe bombing raids were specifically carried out against civilian targets. So as you say many people had experienced the horrors of war and having to spend time in air raid shelters.
As someone who resides in Plymouth, UK, I know that many public buildings still have information on what to do in the case of a radiation leak from Devonport Dockyard. They no longer advise about an explosion, knowing that most of us wouldn't survive that anyway.
Your sense of humour is so British. Captured it 100 percent.
Due to the long term effects of radiation on reproductive health, that's why they advised only over 30s to go outside (as they were less likely to have children in the 1980s). Policies were also put in place to use the elderly to help in a nuclear emergency as some radiation conditions take decades to manifest so it would be pragmatic to use people not expected naturally to live that long.
It isn't just reproductive health. Younger children and young adults are just far more susceptible to radiation poisoning. Once you are in your thirties, you are far less likely to become ill, or have long term effects from milder radiation poisoning.
That being said.... I still wouldn't do any afternoon gardening outside for a while.😊
Aye. When I was in the Army, it was emphasised to take the young into any shelter we may have, for repopulation
❤ from Northeast England ❤️
It's stem cells (those in the bone marrow specifically). Yongsters blood mainly comes from Red Bone Marrow.
In defence of the biscuits & jam, those are almost certainly for providing quick energy from the sugar. Fascinating video as always. You have good understanding of both UK and US cultures & attitudes.
I live in a flood prone area and our alert system is a ww2 air raid siren. When it goes off in the middle of the night, it's a terrifying sound
If one lives in an area with a fire station manned or partially manned by retained on call crews than the air raid siren sounding is common to call them to duty as mobile phones or bleepers are not 100% reliable. It is easily audible in the 3 mile radius area in which they must live or work. It also acts as a warning to road users there may be a Fire appliance on the roads shortly and crew members travelling quickly to the station.
In the event of a nuclear ballistic missile attack the max warning of incoming missiles would be 3-4 minutes if fired from Russia and the launch detected. Shorter if launched from an undetected submarine at sea, ours would retaliate as have sealed orders, kept in a locked safe and destroyed unopened when changed, of what to do and the targets if contact with London and the Admiralty lost and to find a safe friendly port after.
Yup, everyone is saying the same thing 'When The Wind Blows' and 'Threads'. Both are must watch, but pick a nice, sunny, cheerful afternoon or you run the danger of topping yourself... or at least needing a good strong cuppa... afterwards.
Threads lives rent free in my imagination... and not in a good way. Watched once. That was enough 🤣
I highly recommend a good strong cuppa maybe with a biscuit vs the other option.
@@Drew-Dastardly Well of course, but is she British enough for the magic elixir to work? I believe she said she didn't even like tea.... I know, hard to comprehend it but there we are.
@@TukikoTroy There are lot's of weirdos who don't like Tea. Also worse are people who only eat beige food. However this girl being both of those is also a fantastic researcher and content creator. 🥰
@@Drew-Dastardly Absolutely. She's one of the very few who I look for with my morning coffee.
School 77-82 we where told by the teachers to hide under a table in a nuke strike.
I asked the teacher how big the blast would be., my teacher said about a 50 mile radius.
I replied, so london to reading would be wiped out then sir?
Yes he replied.
I stated, we are 15 miles from London, I don't think a table is gonna be much use sir.
I got a 3 month detention for stating the obvious.
Yeah, me pointing out 'Sir, I can see the the nuclear submarine base from my house' didn't get me out of doing the How To Survive A Nuclear Attack project. 🙄
I was a teacher during that very time. Neither I nor any of my immediate colleagues made any attempt to mislead our students with that Protect and Survive nonsense.
By my recollection, we all laughed together at the futility and absurdity of it. 😄
Though we were fatalistic realists about the actual threat.
This practice continued well into the mid to late 80’s, I had these drills at my school too. Nothing safer than a bit of plywood and a plastic tray full of paper books and pencils.
Never had those drills. I started school in '82. Didn't have them in Harlow, or Colchester when I moved there in '83. Perhaps my teachers recognised the futility and though not worth it.
Mine speculated that the real purpose of telling the public to build, a shelter, because it was that useless, was only just to entomb yourself once the bomb dropped.
You can tell Kalyn has been in the UK a long time jydging by her finely tuned sarcasm.
Under 30s are breeding stock, also older people succumb to radiation slower as cells split slower
So you can use them for reconstruction labour for longer
Have you seen Threads which is on BBC I-Player and the ABC American equivalent (which came out before Threads) called The Day After (which you can find on RUclips)
Both dramatisations deal with the topic of nuclear fallout, but boy Threads is a really tough watch.
I have heard Threads mentioned a lot, and will definitely research into it. I haven't heard of The Day After - thanks for sharing (on this morbid and depressing topic, but...it's morbid and depressing times!)
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial The Day After is actually a more positive depiction compared to Threads lol. The concept of the nuclear winter was formulated between the two projects so the future forecast for Britain by Threads is so much more relentingly grim because of it. Also I was born in 1974 so got to live through thinking we were gonna be nuked through the 1980s! And they filmed some outdoor scenes of Threads in my then hometown too.
ETA: Actually I watched all the nuclear PIFs end of last year. My text alert on my phone is now that cheery little jingle each one starts with. As they go along you get the very strong feeling that the government knew this was all useless crap and we would all be dying quickly or slowly especially when they start contradicting each other with their vague suggestions. But well, guess it's better than doing nothing I suppose.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial "The War Game": Directed by Peter Watkins. With Michael Aspel, Peter Graham, Dave Baldwin, Kathy Staff. A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain
Was banned/hidden for many years
It's a grim watch, but 'in for a penny, in for a pound'....
Don't watch threads late at night or you won't sleep. It's a chilling film@@GirlGoneLondonofficial
I was shown Protect & Survive and The Day After at secondary school when I was younger. We weren't shown Threads, however, but me and most of my friends watched it on TV. As someone else says here; it is a hard watch. Needless to say not many of the characters last 'till the end.
I love ❤️ watching your videos, Kayln & I respect how you tell your audience like it is always.
My mom used to tell me about the times she was going to or coming back from bomb shelters as a child and having to step over or around bodies of those who didn't make it to safety. The threat of nuclear explosions was just another raid with a bigger bomb as far as she and my father were concerned.
I joined the army in 1980, part of our training was to dig a personal fallout shelter. However after talking about it with the military training staff, especially if you talked to them after using beer to release their tongues, they'd tell you, even if you survived the initial blasts (and with military bases being a prime target, that would be unlikely), you wouldn't last long before exposure to high levels of radiation would kill you, and even if it didn't, it would probably be worse surviving than dying. The reality for the military was we'd operate on the basis of MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. If we got nuked, we'd nuke them, so would the EU, so would the US, China, India, Pakistan, everyone would launch and detonate their nukes, all the survivors would see is a nuclear wasteland just prior to the start of a global 2-200 year atomic winter.
So although I can't speak for any but a few of my army colleagues, we never made plans to survive or live in the post nuclear apocalypse, because none of us wanted to survive it.
There is another consideration about the differences to UK vs US information films, given the size of the UK about 15 well placed nukes could wipe out most major cities resulting in the immediate (or very short term) loss of 80% or more of the population, the US being so large would require hundreds of them to do the same level of damage, so although there probably wouldn't be anyone coming in either country, I guess upwards of 30% of the US population would survive.
We were also taught, as infantrymen in the 70s/80s, in case we were targeted by tactical nukes - to close eyes against flash and drop away from the blast, keeping our soles together and face down, mouth open. You would feel the outgoing blast wave - but needed to keep still until after the _inward_ wave comes back. Hopefully we'd already be wearing noddy suits and respirators - and we'd have the kit to measure fallout.
Obviously, troops under armour were better protected. The 'Atomic Tank', an Australian Centurion III that was positioned with dummies at the epicentre of a 9.1kt atomic test in 1953, survived so well it was later used to fight in Vietnam and is today a barracks gate guard in the Northern Territory.
And can you imagine the smell of death from all the rotting corpses in all those destroyed cities and the diseases that would result from that? The dead would vastly outnumber the living. Cities would become no go areas for survivors. Think of all the fires we would need to cleanse all those places too?
@ Read Neville Shute's 'On the Beach' and learn about how fallout is carried on the wind.
You should watch The War Game (1966), it's filmed in a documentary style showing a hypothetical nuclear attack, it was banned for years because it was thought to be too graphic.
Thank you I was trying to remember what that was called!
I saw it not that long after it came out, when I was 15. This was only possible because I belonged to the school film club, which made it technically a private screening.
Has this American girl grasped the power of sarcasm and irony?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yep, despite the accent she's truly one of us.
She's gone native 👍
That's one of my favourite things on this channel 😂
Dare I say that her sarcasm had me laughing, even considering the subject matter?
I read the British Army manual on Nuclear Biological and Chemical Warfare in the 80's. The line that still stands out is - "It is the duty of a soldier under NBC conditions to survive long enough to do harm to the enemy". Not much expectation of survival there. I think Protect and Survive was more to give you something to do rather than worrying and if you were going to survive it would be chance more than anything you did.
I imagine these days if you left your bodies outside you'd still have someone from the council leaving you a terse note.
accurate!
No fly tipping! Just because the country is a nuclear wasteland it's no reason to let standards slip.
Useful if someone has run out of tins.
A dead letter drop, or even a drop dead letter?
The advice that exists in these guides not because the UK was more pragmatic about the possibility of having to apply it but because the blitz had already made such precautions necessary.
Love how much you're taking the piss out of these. Protect & Survive is getting a burn worse than sunburn!! You may also want to check out the cartoon When the Wind Blows or even the 1984 drama Threads... If you dare.
As a Brit in the second world war all of this was already ingrained in all my family that survived the blitz in London. They built their Anderson shelter in the garden after the Morrison Shelter which was just sitting under a strong table in effect in the kitchen had seemed less than adequate. The culture of keeping calm and carrying -on was already established. America had never experienced such things that Europe had taken for granted for 6+ years.
I know ''When the Wind Blows' has been mentioned elsewhere but I think it is worth mentioning that it is based on an elderly couple following this ''advice' to the letter.
watch Threads (TV Movie 1984)
The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working class city of Sheffield, England and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Mrs Thatcher reissued an updated "Protect and Survive." That led to anti-war publications like "Protest and Survive." There were two or three TV dramatisations of the effects of nuclear war, which the right-wing hated. Mrs Whitehouse wanted them banned. By that time British fall-out shelters were reserved for the elite. There used to be an official Civil Defence organisation, who were to get pistols for shooting the survivors.
Don't forget the experience of the second world war was still recent enough that people would compare the advice against their experience in the blitz.
doubt that to be honest.
Definitely 👍
True.
@@XENONEOMORPH1979why do you doubt that? The UK examples are from 1980, less than 40 years after WW2.
@@XENONEOMORPH1979 An ex of mine from the 1980's had a large extended Mancunian family. Her Dad served in the 14th Army in Burma. Other members of her family remember watching the glow in the night sky as the docks on the ship canal in Trafford burned after Luftwaffe raids. You're talking out of your arse.
Where can I get one of those picnic blankets ? I feel a bit exposed only being able to Duck.
Great video. I remember the films well and still have the original booklet. My parents were very active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1970s and 80s. An alternative pamphlet was brought out called, Protest and Survive, which still remains a more realistic strategy.
I'm 73, watched the films as a kid but I had parents and grandparents that had gone through 2 World Wars, learned from them the best places to be etc in case of bombs, we all knew atomic was a game over situation.. I now live in a bungalow, so I'm a goner lol have a fully stocked pantry, candles etc biscuits and honey too.. Saves me going out in British Winters, my bed is placed against an inner wall, noticed how the outer walls collapse first in all the war documentaries .. Thanks for sharing love your content.. stay safe, now go fill some sand bags lol love you
Thanks for watching Sue!
You put out great videos. I have learned alot & truly appreciate that.
When I was a child there was a huge bang outside and my mother instinctively put me in the cupboard under the stairs. It turned out to be a plane breaking the sound barrier.
i worked in a hotel that was once a bank, room 6 had been the walk-in safe lined with steel , in the 70/80s they lined it with lead as well
That would make a pretty good shelter. In America, lots of people have basements which would also offer a degree of protection (well better than a door anyway) - unless the house collapses on top of it of course...
@countzero1136 But aren't most US dwellings wooden, offering very little protection from radiation (and very likely to burn down even if they hadn't collapsed)? About 90% of UK houses are brick or stone, so only the windows let in much radiation.
@@RobertScott-pp6gj That's true, but the worst kind of radiation from a nuclear explosion (ie. gamma and neutrons) will pass through regular brick and stone walls, let alone a layer of paint on the window, more or less unhindered, though the (relatively) less harmful alpha and beta radiation will be stopped dead in their tracks by pretty much anything. (thick paper will stop alpha and a tinfoil hat will do wonders against beta...
Admittedly, UK homes further from the actual blast will survive better than US ones but the radiation would still be a problem, though of couse all forms of radiation obey the inverse square law, so the best defence against it is distance, with its effects falling off by the inverse square of its range, so at twice the distance from the source, you divide the dose by 4, and at 4 times the distance, the dose is 1/16 and so on
Of course radiation damage is cumulative, so the less time you spend in an affected area, the better your survival chances are (obviously)
Hiya. The War Game (1966) is quite chilling. Stay safe. All the best to you.
I love your presentational style. It's all pretty hilarious, isn't it? And were still doing it. A few years ago we had a heatwave forecast, and the official advice was 'Paint the whole of your house white.' So you're going to need ladders, about £500 worth of paint, and at least a week to do the job, by which time the heatwave will be over. Then you have to work out how to get white paint off the brickwork. Official advice. Hilarious.
On the subject of the Protect & Survive film and what to do till help arrives later...if you watch the film Threads, ylitll be come apparent that there will NOT be any help arriving at any point, given how all those who could help will be as fried as the rest of us.
If I remember correctly. You were meant to take interior doors off, to make the shelter. Kaylin, you must remember, that in the late seventies and early eighties. Most average homes of the period , would have hammers, nails and a saw etc, already. I can lay my hands on a saw, hammer and nails right now. I live in a flat. Even the tea chest (box with metal edges), while dying out. Were still available back then. They were mostly used when moving house.
I miss the good old tea chest, wish I'd hung on to the one I used to move into my first flat. Handy when you need them but a bugger to store.
@@alisonrodger3360 Storage and the sharp bits is probably why they died out. This and the change from loose leaf to bagged tea.
@@alisonrodger3360 Yeah we had a couple of those while we were growing up - my sister and I had one each to keep all our toys and other crap in, but they were big and deep so the stuff at the bottom was pretty much buried forever :)
I remember saying at the time , saying that I would be the only car heading towards the centre of the explosion!😅
About the UK preparing their children to life: until the beginning of the 90's children were taught at school how to wire an electric plug, because appliances used to be sold with a bare wire and buyers were supposed to wire them themselves. Stiff upper lip, apparently.
No, they didn't.
I wasn't taught that at school. I learnt it from my father.
@@peterjackson4763 Same here. My dad was a radio operator in the army so he knew lots of technical stuff - not forgetting that back in my youth, our plugs were the round "wylex" type with the hollow round earth pin in the middle- anyone else here remember those? All things considered, the Type-G is infinitely better!
I was taught that at home when I was about 9 -- an important household skill when all new appliances came without plugs. Similarly, I was taught how to clean the house, iron clothes, cook and rewire blown fuses (they were nearly all wired, rather than cartridge, fuses in the '60s).
@davidsefton4794 I was taught at school. I knew anyway, but we definitely did it in school. Part of science I think.
the film The War Game is a BBC 1965 pseudo documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK. It was considered too horrific to broadcast at the time, but 2/3 years later it had a limited release and was shown to senior students at my school. I do remember I was scared by it, but many of the kids thought it a laugh.
I haven't heard of that - I'll add it to my long list of things that fascinate me to research!
It really depends on the type of bomb, if its an air burst, or ground impact, then there are EMPs to consider.
I feel like after 10 years you have a masterful grasp of sarcastic, British gallows humour.
I was giggling so much.
Bravo.
When the Wind Blows is an excellent animated movie from the same writer of The Snowman. It details a husband and wife, who really believe that the information provided by the British Government will really save them from Nuclear fallout, and follows them through the days afterwards. It's based very much on the official information.
There were meetings across the country where the Protect and Survive films were shown, the booklets given out, and advice given and questions answered. I attended one sometime in 1980 at a local school. The narrator of the films is Patrick Allen, a well known film and TV actor of the time.
"I am the last voice you may ever hear.."
Have a happy new year Girl Gone London
Excellent presentation as ever, keep it up kid 😉
I remember a similar discussion on TV in 1984 contrasting the realism of the British TV drama Threads with the American one (name escapes me) that was released a few months previously. Threads made a lasting impression on me. I only watched it once and that was 40 years ago, but I still remember it clearly.
We recently heard that there will be a test of the government warning system via our mobile phones shortly as a follow up to the previous test. Mmm.😂
To be fair, there are some people who think this is odd, but the point of testing a system, is that you don't just test it once and never again. Like a smoke alarm. It needs to be tested regularly. Indeed the last test failed, because those of us on the Three UK network and I can't remember which other network, did not receive the test at all. So it absolutely must be tested again - because what's the point of a nationwide emergency system that doesn't actually alert everyone.
@@AndrewJonesMcGuire You also need a pretty new phone - the recent severe weather warning alert didn't come through on my Galaxy S3...
This was hysterical. Excellent work.
Glad you enjoyed!
Protect and Survive was sampled in the song Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, especially in the extended mixes, so a lot of people of a certain age will recognise parts of it even if they've never seen it.
My dad was planning to dig up the dining room floor for a nuclear shelter in the late 1970s. Until my mother stopped him. She said I rather die than hide in a shelter.
Early eighties I'm a twenty year old university drop out living in a first floor flat with Manchester City centre visible through the front windows. My thinking was on hearing the three minute warning roll a spliff and stand in the living room facing Manchester. The spliff would be lit for me.
At this time there was still a lot of people who experienced the bombing of ww2 people were already hardened to the destruction that was likely to occur
A hard hitting thing we produced was threads that held no punches
Hehehe, I remember the "duck and cover" campagne was shown here in Germany as an example of trivialization of nuclear war in the 90s. Thanks a lot for bringing this up. Would be hilarious, if we wouldn´t find ourselves in a situation today, where the danger is realistic again.
When I heard the air raid siren my stomach turned over. Yet our town never had to sound it. Although I was very young I must have known what it meant.
Age 14, I heard one being tested, while I was playing cricket at school. I'd never heard one in real life, but it still made my skin crawl. I felt the hairs on my arms standing up. I don't remember even having heard one in a film, but I'd certainly read about air raids in books and boy's comics, and I instantly knew what it was. I suppose they had to test the two-tone bit, but I'd have been a lot less scared if they'd only done that for one cycle, rather than a full 30 s, before moving to the all-clear, at which point I realised I'd been holding my breath!
I didn't bother with any of this as I was a member of the Royal Observer Corps from 1985 to 1991. This meant that I had a place in a nuclear bunker and was the one operating hand held sirens and explosive maroons for the three bangs fallout warnings. This did mean having to leave the safety of the bunker though. And also going outside in the middle of a nuclear attack to change the cassettes on the Ground Zero Indicator. I must have been mad.
The ROC had about 900 three man posts/bunkers spread throughout the country which were connected to 25 group headquarters woth a crew of about 60. There are about a dozen restored posts throughout the country and two group headquarters (York and Dundee). There is also a restored Regional Seat of Government at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex - follow the road signs marked "Secret Nuclear Bunker".
Great video, love your perspective on nuclear annihilation. Poor uncle Tony.
At school in the Sixties in England. We had a five minute break listening to some teacher teach Religious Education or Scripture. He told us that if there was ever a Nuclear War, We should bend over. Put our heads between our knees and kiss our arse goodbye. Giggling and laughing followed. This joke was used a lot during comedy sketches. But while we were all aware about Nuclear War fear. It was a bit like hoping it would snow before we went to school because it surely meant we would have a day off.
Try watching 'Yes, Prime Minister' - the first episode 'Grand Design'
A well respected comedy
This one talks a lot about 'defence'
So funny ❤ 'Yes Minister' and then 'Yes Prime Minister' 😂
You should definitely view (and hopefully review) a drama documentary called "Threads" - British kitchen-sink realism meets a nuclear attack.
The Protect and Survive narrator is Patrick Allen who, a few years after recording those voiceovers, was flying around the UK in a helicopter advertising Barratt Homes.
Did you ever notice how they were careful not to land the helicopter too close to a Barratt Home in case it got blown over?
Hi girlgonelondon, it was a scary time growing up in the 80s, we were made to watch a film called threads in history at school, it's about a nuclear strike on the city of Sheffield, back then it gave people a lot of nightmares, be interesting what your views would be on it, also a documentary called QED a guide to Armageddon, it was deep for a teenager. Most people knew the protect and survive information wouldn't save you in a nuclear war, best to go outside, wait for the flash and kiss your ass goodbye. As for duck and cover i liked the turtle 😊 great video keep up the good work
I work at an old nuclear bunker that's now a museum in the west mids. The amount of times I've had to watch that protect and survive video on tours, It's lost all its fear factor. Fun when the schools come through tho!
The booklet came through your door. Most people had one. I remeber reading it often as a child very matter of fact. I remember parents getting us and 3 kids under the dinning room table to see how we would fit! It wasn’t a very practical guide. Even now I’m not sure I know any houses that have a middle room in the centre of their house that’s not how most houses are build.
Very interesting. You are right about the interior middle room in the UK being hard to find, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for watching!
It was more of an updated WWII air raid guide. But better than nothing. It was more to to survive the initial overpressure, destroying buildings and causing sharapnel. More than surviving the radiation of blast and subsequent fallout itself. The UK would not survive a nuclear takedown anyway. We are too small a landmass.
One look at what a soldier needs to survive on the NBC battlefield should tell you that the civvies are up the creek with out a paddle or boat.
Yes, ensuring that all, or at least most rooms have windows is regarded as a building priority. Not fitting everything else around a bomb room, just in case Brezhnev (or whoever) presses the button.
Older houses might have a "cupboard under the stairs" as used by Harry Potter, but it has plasterboard walls. I suppose the wooden stairs would provide some protection if the roof collapses. We used to have solid wooden doors, but now they are just chipboard and won't withstand much impact.
@@faithlesshound5621cupboard under the stairs: exactly what I was thinking, with the old vacuum cleaner and coats on the rack, and the little box of electric fuses.
At my first and middle school in the early to mid 1980’s we were also taught drills of how to duck under our desks and so on.
What a strange subject to pick....but i found it absolutely hilarious. Your commentary is excellent 👌 👏
In the UK from about 1948 to the early 1960's we had an organisation called the CDC...Civil Defence Corps who were uniformed civilians who were trained for nuclear war.
Great overview.
Thank you for watching. Niche subjects are always my favorite to cover. I had never heard of the Civil Defence Corps before...definitely going to research into that!
The Protect and Survive book came out when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.....she saw that after the CDC were "stood down" nothing had replaced it. So the booklet was brought out. At the same time she initiated the HDF Home Defence Force which was based on the WW2 Home Guard. The HDF was raised but didn't last long...not sure why.
The HDF was different to the Territorial Army as the TA could be deployed overseas....I believe this is the same concept for the US National Guard.?
An interesting history 🤔
A few years ago a light hearted radio program had a item that said "in case of a nuclear attack you will hear this sound" - those words were then followed by the sound of a massive explosion. SO funny, and yes I lived through the Cuban crisis, living a short distance from a nuclear bomber base.
I wonder if it was Patrick Allen's voice... A well known actor, he voiced all the dialogue in the mid-70s for UK government announcements, including Protect & Survive. The recordings were later sampled for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 80's hit 'Two Tribes'.
I was 16 in 1980 and can remember reading this pamphlet before handing it to my dad. We lived in a bungalow, with no cellar, so I asked him where he reckoned would be the best place to build the inner shelter. He said the bathroom had the shortest length of external wall, but he couldn't see how the four of us could survive in there for a fortnight without going mad as only one person would be able to lie down at a time. I decided, only half-seriously, that since there were three RAF bases within 40 miles (plus one industrial city and a mid-size sea port) there would be no escaping the fallout, the best thing for me to do would be to go and watch what would at least be a spectacular sunset and be sure to take a bottle of vodka and a very sharp knife with me.
I'd forgotten the bit about reminding people to leave an entrance. If you'd seen the results of the DIY craze in the 1970s you'd recognise that this was necessary advice.
In the coal shed of the house we moved into in 1947 there was the helmet and macintosh of an ARP warden, along with the bucket and stirrup pump which might have come in handy.
I remember 'Protect and Survive' local exhibitions as well as the leaflets.
Protect and Survive was never about ensuring people survived a nuclear blast, it was about placating the population so they didn't riot, loot or decide it was the people in power's fault and start erecting guillotines.
There was a pamphlet published by historian E.P. Thompson entitled Protest and Survive.
I remember that one!
The ideas of Civil Defence came out of WW2 - a lot of people had first hand experience of massive destruction and fighting to survive it. But I don't think the survivors of a nuclear winter would be focusing on guillotines.
CND!
It's always the people in power's fault :)
My mum created a two week store of tinned food under our stairs. There were batteries, a radio, torches, tin opener, first aid kit, bin bags and bottled water. She was terrified.
I was too young to remember. One day my playgroup teacher told my mum that I painted a colourful house and garden, then painted black all over it saying it was the bomb.
We found all the leaflets ten years ago while moving house. Mum told me how scared she was about protecting her family, yet how helpless she felt, even though she had created an emergency supply kit and shelter under the stairs. It was only when we moved house in 1986 that she stopped the stock rotation of the emergency supply tins.
The irony being I restarted the rotation of supplies about 6 years ago because it genuinely feels closer to war now than back then. I just think we’re all too accustomed to it now that nobody takes it serviously.
It was the UN involved in the Korean War and included the UK. You have adopted British humour by the way, wonderful.
I liked that there was advice about casual ties, but what if I need to pop into the office or attend a post-apocalyptic black tie supper?
Where do we put grandma again? Is it general waste or recycling ♻?
I love your content Kalyn! Dont know if u will lower yourself (lol) to do reaction videos, but seeing u react to old school PSAs would be great. As they haunted my childhood, i would never go near to Pilons, Traintracks or standing water/ponds! still dont lmao.
If you want a fix nuclear war comparison, I recommend comparing their takes on a nuclear holocaust and the fallout. A really good example is probably The Day After (1983, US), vs
Threads (1984, UK).
Both famous for different reasons. The Day After is cited for making Raegan change his mind and led to the nuclear arsenal being reduced, while Threads traumatised the entire country
The British advice is more practical likely due to the experiences of WWII. Dealing with bodies, food ,water and other day to day services all being disrupted.
Watch the US film 'The Day After' and then watch the British 'Threads' - in that order.
Until the age of 7 I lived on Royal Air Force Bases. They used to show those information films at various points during the day on British TV. At the age of four upwards I remember seeing them. I knew nothing about Nuclear Weapons or War, all I knew was this stern voice would talk about bombs and people dying! Every Monday they would test the Air Raid Siren just before it was time for me to get up for school. The Air Raid Siren for the area of Married Quarters where we lived was right outside my bedroom window. It would scare me senseless. All because of what I saw on the TV. Years later when Frankie Goes To Hollywood sampled one of those Information Films at the start of their Two Tribes single, it still made me feel uneasy!
We had duck and cover drills when I was a kid in the 1980's (near Seattle), but they were for both atomic bombs and earthquakes. Eventually, they started calling them earthquake drills. Kids still practice getting under their desks and away from windows. Our state has the "Great Washington Shake-out Drill". On a certain day, at a certain time, we're all supposed to practice what to do if an earthquake hits. I usually grab my cats and sit under the dining room table for a minute. 😉 But it's a good reminder to reset Go-bags and make sure shelves are bolted to walls, hot water heaters have straps, and businesses and schools are prepared.
Hi.
BTW, I think the 30 year old going outside bit, is trying to protect viable breeders.
People less than 30 are a valuable asset in any rebuild of the population.
Just so you know, I think you need to consider trying to use a radio that can pickup BBC Radio 4
Very timely reminder. thanks.
I don't know why I didn't think of that! Of course they'd want to keep the population going afterwards...
You rock👍👍👍❤ love your vids!
Born in Britain in the mid 1950s and living through the Cold War, I can guarantee that the Protect and Survive pamphlets were both awful and hilarious to us.
Believe me, we knew 100% that we were absolutely f***d if either side pressed the button.
Those were very fatalistic times for our generation.
I recall reading an old pamphlet about 50-60 years ago on this subject. It started by pointing out the rather obvious:-
"The best protection against a nuclear explosion is to avoid being in the vacinity of it".
Well........ who could have guessed that?
Haha! An excellent suggestion...may we all be lucky enough to follow it!
As a young boy I had planned out what I would do, I lived on the coast in Yorkshire and Filingdales (an early warning radar system) and Cattrick an army base were expected to be targets so I knew of some old WW2 underground bunkers and I planned to get as close to the cliffs to avoid the initial blast and then quickly make my way to the bunker as quickly as possible, I had a go bag at home and always carried certain survival tools with me, torch,knife,flint,matches,candle, needle and thread,metal mirror,iodine tablets,medical kit compass and thermos.(Yes, they added a lot of weight to my school bag). Military background, scouts, an independent streak and rural background taught me preparation was required. (BTW if you note this is everyone for themselves, we were told we had 4 minutes of warning and my mother never listened to any advice, so I wasn't spending time arguing with her and my father was army and he taught me some of the survival techniques and so was simlary prepared) It would have all probably been for naught but at least I would have tried.
Mentioning the sirens. I lived close to one, in the seventies and eighties growing up. It was on top of a public loo. Which is an electricity substation these days.
I remember when it dropped through the letter box!
I came to the conclusion that maybe not surviving would be the best long term option.
The band Jethro Tull did a song about it, a f=great listen if you want to feel a bit depressed!
That "Techno music like you're on Space Mountain at Disney" is the way they represent fallout
The UK version is a survival guide for the aftermath of nuclear attack while the US version basically boils down to "take cover and hope you don't die and if you don't you better get your ass to work tomorrow"
The health insurance companies probably had plans to mail a pre-emptive 'radiological events not covered' letter to all their marks -- sorry -- to all their customers.
I'm English and lived all my life in England. In the 1960s around 8yrs old we learnt the Duck and Cover at school. I don't think it was from an American animated film because it had real people in it. Learnt to get under our school desks and crouch by a wall if out in the street. We also had the all clear siren every few weeks for many year through the 1950s and 60s
I've always thought that this was just to convince the USSR that we were serious about surviving an attack and was part of our nuclear deterrence strategy. They knew it was mostly unworkable. Part of deterring your enemy is to convince them that an attack will not suceed. Many of the people involved would have been devising strategies to defeat Germany in WW2.
And similarly the Soviet Union was busily preparing bunkers for much of its population and training them to survive. They had far more infrastructure than we did.
I vividly remember my father had the job of sounding the siren in our village after the war. I was taught at school up to about age 13 that a nuclear explosion could happen at any time. We had hardly anything possessions left after the war. i had old coats as blankets on my bed. No heating phone tv fridge or washing machine no hot water except from the kettle. . We would grow as much food as we could in our gardens.
As a young Apprentice Electrician in the early 80's UK. I worked for the *"Civil Defence Unit"* of the *"Home Office."* in 1982. I was tasked with Servicing and/or Replacing and Maintaining all the *Air Raid sirens* that were still in place since the second World War. All ready to be used for the 4 minute warning. I loved that job
All until we were out bid and replaced, by the local councils direct works division's. Many people at the time. Couldn't understand why they were still being maintained ?!?!
I used to install/maintain the BT private wires/telephone lines that connected the sirens and early warnings systems to police stations, and other government facilities, in the late 80s, early 90s.
Fun fact:- the way we used to keep an eye on the validity of the lines/data connections, was to piggy back them on normal subscriber lines, especially in remote areas. So if Ethel from no.20 reported her line being down, you bet your bottom dollar that a BT engineer would be out there to fix it, double,double quick. Only because her line was piggy backed by a remote warning line to a nuclear attack warning system.
I remember a worrying time in the late 90's where we were installing and maintaining new connections to bunkers and government building long after the Berlin wall had come down and the "cold war had ended". I never worked out why this was happening (mine was not to reason why). But being in my mid 20's, it did give me the hibby jibbies some what, lol.
Edit:- The way we used to handle the threat of nuclear war in the 70s and 80s was with humour, we had feck all else to help us, We had a poster on our toilet door that said "if in the event of nuclear war, just put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye" said it all really.
As a child, I remember leaflets during the 1960s, we were excited, this turned to disappointment when being told it was just a warning not a reality. We felt we had been deprived of an adventure. My grandmother stockpiled lots of sugar during the Cuba crisis, along with tinned and condensed milk to go with her tea mountain. I believe she expired before her hoard of tea making ingredients.
In the event of a nuclear attack all we need to prepare are some iodine tablets & a big bag of crisps. The way things are going I doubt we'll need to worry about the best before date on the crisps.
I used to work with someone who was in the TA. They were advised to wear Polaroid glasses "Because if you see a flash you won't have to worry!" He realised that they were talking about eyesight, but felt they were being a tad optimistic!!!