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10-15-2019, 11:16 PM - 3 Likes   #16
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They were installed at dozens of bunkers usually poiting towards nearest likley targets. At high states of alert the bunkers would be manned and they would report in as to height, megatonage, blast radius etc. The bunkers were equipped with maps, slide rule style calculators and map overlays so after the bang the observing station could work out how much damage, casualty count, radiation levels etc.
It would all be reported back via phone and telex ( valve powered so more immune to EMP) to Burlington/Turnstile which was a massive nuclear bunker and where the government would hold out in event of Armageddon........nuclear combat toe to toe with the Russkis.....
Many local councils had nuke bunkers with these as well to act as local coordination points. The observer corp bunkers were spread out all over the UK very often in isolated locations where they were unlikley to get a direct hit.

10-18-2019, 01:44 PM - 4 Likes   #17
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QuoteOriginally posted by clickclick Quote
And who was going to come develop it after the blast?
Strictly speaking, the Ground-Zero Indicator as used by UKWMO (Royal Observer Corps) was a shadograph with cassettes installed containing sensitised photographic paper. They were mounted just outside the entrance hatch to the underground bunker. The GZI had four cassettes within, and holes in the periphery corresponded to the cardinal compass points and a blast would burn the sensitised paper. The direction could then be read off a graticule marked in degrees of elevation and azimuth.

The paper within gradually darkened without resort to chemical development. Two boxes of printing-out paper (100 sheets) were stored at each post. The papers in the GZI would be changed regularly during 'sabre-rattling': twice a day in summer and every alternate day in winter.

And yes... Somone had to exit the bunker, close the hatch behind them to keep effects of blast out, retrieve the cassettes and re-enter the bunker with them, after having fitted new cassettes. In the presence of fall-out, the observer retrieving the cassettes would decontaminate themselves in the bunker annexe and pass the satchel with the cassettes inside through to the control room.

---------- Post added 10-18-2019 at 09:57 PM ----------

Here's a pic of the (now filled-in) UKWMO Royal Observer Corps post near Cockermouth, Cumbria - one of the 687 posts closed down in the 1968 Harold Wilson Civil Defence cuts. The location of where the GZI is mounted is on top of the entrance hatch air-vent (RHS in my pic) and is the small, ever-so-slightly conical plate on the top.

Pentax MX; Kodachrome 64 slide film.


Last edited by Russell W. Barnes; 10-18-2019 at 02:00 PM.
10-18-2019, 02:56 PM - 1 Like   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by Russell W. Barnes Quote
Strictly speaking, the Ground-Zero Indicator as used by UKWMO (Royal Observer Corps) was a shadograph with cassettes installed containing sensitised photographic paper. They were mounted just outside the entrance hatch to the underground bunker. The GZI had four cassettes within, and holes in the periphery corresponded to the cardinal compass points and a blast would burn the sensitised paper. The direction could then be read off a graticule marked in degrees of elevation and azimuth.

The paper within gradually darkened without resort to chemical development. Two boxes of printing-out paper (100 sheets) were stored at each post. The papers in the GZI would be changed regularly during 'sabre-rattling': twice a day in summer and every alternate day in winter.

And yes... Somone had to exit the bunker, close the hatch behind them to keep effects of blast out, retrieve the cassettes and re-enter the bunker with them, after having fitted new cassettes. In the presence of fall-out, the observer retrieving the cassettes would decontaminate themselves in the bunker annexe and pass the satchel with the cassettes inside through to the control room.

---------- Post added 10-18-2019 at 09:57 PM ----------

Here's a pic of the (now filled-in) UKWMO Royal Observer Corps post near Cockermouth, Cumbria - one of the 687 posts closed down in the 1968 Harold Wilson Civil Defence cuts. The location of where the GZI is mounted is on top of the entrance hatch air-vent (RHS in my pic) and is the small, ever-so-slightly conical plate on the top.

Pentax MX; Kodachrome 64 slide film.


Thanks for the rundown. Like knowing details on stuff like this.
10-18-2019, 03:16 PM - 1 Like   #19
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You're welcome, Clickclick. The underground posts evolved from the aircraft-spotting role of the 1920s, 30s, 40s, fast jets of the 50s to a nuclear monitoring role and a UK-wide network of subterranean bunkers were built, quietly and without fuss, in the 1960s and '70s, located at roughly fourteen-mile intervals across the UK, and in groups of three: one of each group being a 'cluster station' equipped with VHF radio.

Serious Civil Defence cuts in October 1968 by Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Labour Government left only 873 posts, most of which remained until 'Stand-Down' in the early 1990s. The UKWMO was disbanded rather unceremoniously, to the annoyance of many members, who felt badly let down.

Here's a gratuitous plug for my website (rather old-fashioned by today's standards! ) where you'll find a little more. The link takes you to the bunker in my home-town, but you can navigate to the index page where you'll find more. Many of the bunkers went on the market (guide-price typically £50,000 - £70,000 UKP) as wine-cellars, bolt-holes for solitude, etc... Many were filled in and / or sold to mobile phone comanies as they made ideal bases for radio towers. But one national broadcasting chain got its fingers burned when it bought them and subsequently put them back on the market.

Workington U/G ROC Post

10-19-2019, 02:50 PM   #20
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Well it sold for €2,375, to be honest I thought nobody would bid for the thing.
10-21-2019, 01:19 AM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by PenPusher Quote
'...but there still seems to be some interest.'
There are a few former underground UKWMO posts have been acquired by volunteers (usually ex-ROC crew) and opened up as museums, kitted out to replicate how they would have been back in the day. Perhaps one of these groups bought it? Rather expensive IMO, unless a few folks chipped in.
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10-21-2019, 08:14 AM   #22
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Yes, perhaps a re-enactor/reunion group, a private collector or even another museum. One man's trash is another's treasure. Apparently it has value to someone

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