Talk:Four minute warning

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Can someone explain what double glazing has to do with nuclear civil defence? --Diderot 15:02, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Double Glazing muffled the noise of the sirens making them less than effective. This was certainly true of the flood warning sirens as I know from personal experience that although the sirens can be heard in the open in a double glazed dwelling about a mile from the siren they can only be heard at a subliminal "is there a noise?" level.

Does anyone have any details of what would actually be broadcast in the UK during the 80's in the event of nuclear attack?

Click on the link at the bottom of the article! (Chris Henniker 16:21, 18 July 2006 (UTC))

The Peter Donaldson link is to extracts from a post-attack WTBS announcement, not a warning. According to the 1975 files it was released with, it was to have been played on-the-hour for a maximum of twelve hours after the attack. The WTBS was not going to take over broadcasting until after a nuclear attack, unless conventional-warfare destroyed civilian broadcasting at an earlier stage.

No actual 'attack imminent' broadcast has ever been released, and it's possible that what might have been broadcast on radio and television was just the siren sound (slightly more attention-grabbing than a voiced announcement, and also would have been recognisable following all the build-up publicity before an attack).

There was a claim by Jim Aitken that "Attack warning tapes were distributed during the 1980s to every radio and TV station in the UK, with Peter Donaldson providing the voiceover. This was accompanied by strong flashes of light on screen and 'dalek' music (presumably a dirge by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the same style as the 'Protect and Survive' theme)." However, others have denied this was the case. As the attack-warning was meant to be injected into the transmitter networks directly, it does seem odd to have tapes sent to studios.

Earlier arrangements were different, as shown in the 1960's UKWMO film "Hole in the Ground" - that shows a man at the BBC receiving a phone call, then extracting a gramophone record from a locked cupboard to play "This is an emergency announcement. An air attack is approaching this country. Take cover at once."

Mauls 13:35, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Intro

Re the definition in the intro, doesn't 4 minutes refer to the time between the public alert and the arrival of nuclear missiles (i.e. four minutes advance warning of an attack), rather than the time between initial detection and the issuing of a public alert? 84.70.44.223 23:32, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I believe you're correct. I'll edit... -- Hux 16:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

If I remember correctly four minutes was listed as the _maximum_ warning time to be expected by the public. I'm sure Duncan Campbell wrote about that in 'War Plan UK'. Mark Grant 14:53, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

The estimated maximum time between detection and impact was seven minutes, with three minutes taken to get the system activated. Mauls 13:27, 25 March 2007 (UTC)