UK Cold War targets
 

From reading recent posts in the Vulcan thread, I thought a separate thread might be preferable to thread creep on that one.

Having studied the UK 'who would have got what' map at Bruntingthorpe, I was surprised to see that my neck of the woods appears to have been designated/destined to receive two buckets from the Soviets. My question is - why two?

I guess the easy first reason is that Nottingham was a population centre of worth enough to warrant one over the city centre.

But why a second one within five miles or so - slightly to the west (as it appears on the map)? The old RSG bunker is a little west of centre, but not by much, so a good yield over the city centre would surely have taken this out too. I wonder if the old 12Grp underground command station at RAF Watnall (right on my doorstep) was the more likely target? I suppose RR Hucknall would have been a possibility too, although that is a bit more north than west.

Any thoughts?

Ah, Nottingham.

The second one was a 'just in case' the first one didn't work!!

:ok:

Sorry, couldn't resist.

taxydual,

You are closer to the truth than you realise.

A nukes accuracy is measured by its CEP or Circular Error Probable. That is, the radius from the target within which 50% of the nukes launched at it, will fall.

Another variation of the "double-tap".:uhoh:

Can anyone advise if Stoke would have got some sunshine? It really does need it but maybe the Soviets just thought it'd be easier to let us just carry on as before.

Had they heeded John Betjeman's invitaion regarding Slough?

Good one, Taxydual! I often wonder similar thoughts myself when wandering round the city... Sort of 'chavnic' cleansing? There are a lot of webbed feet around here.

I can't remember what yields were posted against both targets, although I can say that they were definitely different, so the separation of the targets and different yields seem to suggest that a backup approach may not be on the right track after all. If I remember correctly, the larger yield was not for the city centre.

And this is the crux of the issue - what was more important than taking the city itself out? Or what was a harder nut to crack?

The other thing to bear in mind is that the map was not dated, so I don't know if this has any bearing on this particular conundrum. The 12Grp underground bunker at RAF Watnall closed in 1961. The RSG closed somewhat later than that.

Sorry I can't help with Stoke.