Basically, the UK had the possibility of triggering a full scale exchange, therefore both major powers had an incentive to, at worst, stay non-nuclear and, as it turned out, not fight at all.
No, sorry, I don't follow your logic there. Are you saying that ithe UK and its nu-kleer weapons deterred both the USSR and the USA from going to war?
I thought you might be trying to say that if non-nuklur war started in --where did the cliche always say? -- the Fulda Gap --and NATO was getting the worst of it, then Britain might be the first to use tactical nukes and thereby compel the USA to "escalate" the war, or maybe do the opposite of escalate, whichever you prefer?
Were you tying to say something like that? I can't discern what you mean.
Was there a British back-up plan -- the "Angry Rabbit" concept? -- that envisioned NATO failing to hold and British forces pilling back into defensive pockets or "islands"? Maybe somewhere in France by then, but not quite as far as Dunkirk ...
Harriers, perhaps operating from highways within these "islands" instead of established airfields, would drop tactical atomic bombs on the enemy to try to stop the Red tide from reaching the Channel. I suppose the Harriers were the Angry Rabbits.
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20 Squadron reformed again in late 1970 at RAF Wildenrath, Germany, operating the Harrier Jump Jet.
In 1977 at RAF Bruggen the squadron re-equipped with twelve SEPECAT Jaguar strike aircraft, various weapons for the squadron's conventional strike role of support for ground forces in repelling a Soviet attack in Europe, and eight WE.177 tactical nuclear bombs for use if a conflict escalated to the nuclear phase.* The apparent mismatch between eight nuclear bombs and twelve aircraft was because RAF staff planners expected up to one third attrition in the conventional phase, with sufficient aircraft held back in reserve to deliver the full stock of nuclear weapons to targets beyond the forward edge of the battlefield, deep into the enemy's rear areas. *The squadron was assigned to SACEUR for operational and targeting purposes, although political control over release of the British-owned WE.177 weapons was retained by the British government in London.[2
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n.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._20_Squadron_RAF
* And who would be initiating the escalating?
** Lame excuse for meager inventory of bombs.
Last edited by Modern Elmo; 14th Oct 2010 at 03:45.