My contribution to starting worldwar III

Vultch

Vultch

Well-known member
I have just learned the the British nuclear deterrent, based on nuclear submarines listens to BBC radio 4 Long Wave (198 KhZ). Should Radio 4 go off air for more than 3 days I think the sub assumes Britain is now a smouldering wasteland and its time to launch the polaris Missiles (American made so they probably work).
MY first attachment as a BBC transmitter engineer was in Droitwich the home of the BBC radio 4 transmitter, a new transmitter had being installed and it was fraught with gremlins. The number of times i had to take it to reduced power or was climbing inside trying to repair burnt out modules.
Had I known I had the fate of the free world in my hands, well who knows.
One night we received a call for the British foreign office asking if Radio 4 could hit the mediterranean sea, we replied "with the right wind behind it" we cranked the transmitter up to full power trying to squeeze every watt out of it and listened intently for the coded message to be broadcast ..i.e "the white rabbit arrives at dawn". But nothing as exciting was ever transmitted.
 
So talk to me. Is this real world? Or something else.

If it is real world.......probably not a good idea to share this stuff even if you were not sworn to secrecy. I know the British Secrets Act is pretty stiff about this stuff.

If it isn't, good job. Sounds real.
 
This is real world ok except it was 20 yrs ago and we/I (humble BBC engineers were never told anything about it). We just went about the task of keeping it on the air. The Story about the Royal Navy using Radio 4 long wave has recently broken.
 
LOL, okay. I was hoping it was dated material........if it was real (seeing how it was). Hate to not hear from you again. Where's Vultch? Nobody knows.....he just disappeared.
 
"Hey all I have won a free trip to the US and a new snazzy Orange jump suit uniform...somewhere warm called Guantanamo bay...."

yes it was a long time ago and the story about the subs made me smile
 
Don't forget the nice free jewelry! Bracelets on both wrists and ankles, and a waist chain, all in faux silver. Tres Chic!
 
Vultch said:
"Hey all I have won a free trip to the US and a new snazzy Orange jump suit uniform...somewhere warm called Guantanamo bay...."

yes it was a long time ago and the story about the subs made me smile
Click to expand...

I passed up my opportunity for an all expenses paid vacation to beautiful South East Asia, sponsored in part by the same travel service.

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But on the topic....

B-59

On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph trapped the nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, wanted to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo.[4]

Three officers on board the submarine – Savitsky, the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and the second-in-command Arkhipov – were authorized to launch the torpedo if agreeing unanimously in favor of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against the launch,[5] eventually persuading Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. The nuclear warfare which presumably would have ensued was thus averted.[6] Although Arkhipov was only second-in-command of submarine B-59, he was actually Commander of the flotilla of submarines including B-4, B-36, and B-130 and of equal rank to Captain Savitsky. Washington's message that practice depth charges were being used to signal the submarines to surface never reached B-59, and Moscow claims they have no record of receiving it either. B-59 was also too deep to spy on US Navy radio traffic, so those on board could not know if war had broken out. [7]
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Soviet_b-59_submarine.jpg


As a note, Arkhipov was on board the K-19 when the events, which were depicted in a fictionalized form in the film "K-19: The Widowmaker"(2002), took place.
 
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Very scary just how close the Cuba crises came to starting WWIII, that one guy Arkhipov deserves more recognition.
 
Article here concerning the so called 'Last Resort Letters' (which contain instructions on what to do if the Prime Minister is killed and unable to personally instruct the launch of missiles): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...waits-alert-nuclear-missiles-end-world--.html

In the event where the Submarine crew suspected that WW3 has started and they are unable to receive instructions from the Government they would then begin a series of checks to assess the situation. Checking that Radio 4 is still broadcasting would be one of many checks, but the launching of missiles obviously would not be based solely on this alone. Monitoring commercial shipping communications, airline traffic, or even the BBC world service and so forth which would be a quicker and more localized way of initially checking that everything is continuing as normal, or not.
 
Ah all safe then thou my understanding if things were really tricky Radio 4 LW was the preferred choice as the longer wavelength gave the subs a chance of picking it up whilst still submerged anything else requires an antenna to break the surface, mind you I did stints at world service stations HF alongside MF am/VHF fm and UHF telly.

Thou I suspect your quite correct, lack of Radio 4 would not be the sole criterion for a launch.
 
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