The hooter went off every week at Wildenrath in the late 70's/early 80s so we spent most of our lives locked in on base. Jokes aside, we would have been pulled on base at the drop of a hat if tensions had risen.
I guess survival chances will always be speculation. There was an interesting book called "Inside The Soviet Army" written by a soviet Army Officer, Victor Suvorov published in the early 80s. He talked strategy:
Phase 1 - 30 mins - Pre-emptive Nuclear strike on the NATO C2.
Phase 2 - 90-120 mins - Mass air attack by frontal and LRAF units
Phase 3 - 30 mins - Follow on missile attack
Phase 4 - 10 to 20 days - Offensive operations across all 3 major fronts. This would be the push to the Channel Ports and 3 days sits well in my recollection.
Phase 5 - 7 to 8 days - 2nd Echelon attack into NATO rear areas.
Most of the cold war warriors will recognise phases 1 to 3. Interestingly, none of the exercise scenarios ever followed that plot. We always had 2 days of a "nuclear free zone" before the inevitable happened and the AR5s came out.
I guess individual survival chances would have depended on location but anyone on a base would have been working in NBC conditions and subject to multiple attacks.
One thing about soviet kit is it's rugged. Given spares it'll go on for ever and a day, unlike our own kit in the 70s/80s. If you look at the numbers game at the time, it was truly horrific how outnumbered we would have been.
My view as line aircrew at Wildenrath in the late 70s? FWIW I'd have given us about 48 hours before we ran out of jets, NBC suits and ideas and walked home.
I can recommend an old BBC documentary filmed at Wildenrath in 81 and broadcast on the "Man Alive" series. Its still around on the internet in places. Some of the ground play is hilarious by todays standards but the individual interviews are quite illuminating.
Last edited by Geehovah; 4th Apr 2011 at 13:37.