Talk:Four-minute warning

Samples?
I know of a musician who sampled this, should that be in here? I think the song is on here http://www.myspace.com/georgejohnstonmusic, there aren't any other references for it though. Can someone explain what double glazing has to do with nuclear civil defence? --Diderot 15:02, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Double Glazing muffled the noise of the sirens making them less than effective. This was certainly true of the flood warning sirens as I know from personal experience that although the sirens can be heard in the open in a double glazed dwelling about a mile from the siren they can only be heard at a subliminal "is there a noise?" level.

Does anyone have any details of what would actually be broadcast in the UK during the 80's in the event of nuclear attack?

Click on the link at the bottom of the article! (Chris Henniker 16:21, 18 July 2006 (UTC))

Siren useage continuing I know of at least four coastal areas in the UK where the sirens are still tested half-annually as part of the flood warning system, there may well be more. This needs further investigation, the current bold statement is patently incorrect 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 02:51, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The Peter Donaldson link is to extracts from a post-attack WTBS announcement, not a warning. According to the 1975 files it was released with, it was to have been played on-the-hour for a maximum of twelve hours after the attack. The WTBS was not going to take over broadcasting until after a nuclear attack, unless conventional-warfare destroyed civilian broadcasting at an earlier stage.


 * No actual 'attack imminent' broadcast has ever been released, and it's possible that what might have been broadcast on radio and television was just the siren sound (slightly more attention-grabbing than a voiced announcement, and also would have been recognisable following all the build-up publicity before an attack).


 * There was a claim by Jim Aitken that "Attack warning tapes were distributed during the 1980s to every radio and TV station in the UK, with Peter Donaldson providing the voiceover. This was accompanied by strong flashes of light on screen and 'dalek' music (presumably a dirge by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the same style as the 'Protect and Survive' theme)." However, others have denied this was the case. As the attack-warning was meant to be injected into the transmitter networks directly, it does seem odd to have tapes sent to studios.


 * Earlier arrangements were different, as shown in the 1960's UKWMO film "Hole in the Ground" - that shows a man at the BBC receiving a phone call, then extracting a gramophone record from a locked cupboard to play "This is an emergency announcement. An air attack is approaching this country. Take cover at once."


 * Mauls 13:35, 25 March 2007 (UTC)


 * It stands to reason that the pre-attack warning itself will never be released because of the potential damage a 'prank' could cause. So I wouldn't expect to find the exact text or a recording anywhere obvious. Leushenko (talk) 15:47, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Intro
Re the definition in the intro, doesn't 4 minutes refer to the time between the public alert and the arrival of nuclear missiles (i.e. four minutes advance warning of an attack), rather than the time between initial detection and the issuing of a public alert? 84.70.44.223 23:32, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I believe you're correct. I'll edit... -- Hux 16:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * If I remember correctly four minutes was listed as the _maximum_ warning time to be expected by the public. I'm sure Duncan Campbell wrote about that in 'War Plan UK'. Mark Grant 14:53, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The estimated maximum time between detection and impact was seven minutes, with three minutes taken to get the system activated. Mauls 13:27, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

BMEWS
The current sentence is incorrect. BMEWS was not an RAF system. The sentence should read " by the NATO Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) at RAF Fylingdales...The RAF manned UK RAOC but the BMEWS was operated by personnel from several countries and mainly the US. 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 12:48, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

WB1400 System
Where on earth did this tommy rot gibberish about the WB400 system "falling into disservice during the 60s and 70s" come from. It most certainly did NOT, the system was only 20 years old by the seventies and was working perfectly, it was tested on a regular basis. The only thing that was becoming slightly outdated was the need for telephone engineers to manually switch the telephone lines before use, during times of tension or transition to war. In the 1980s the new upgraded Wanrning Broadcast WB1400 system was designed to upgrade and replace it, in conjunction with hardened, permanent telephone connections. 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 13:01, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Another link for the Donaldson recording needed
The External Link to the Donaldson recording leads to an outdated version of Real Audio that won't play on current versions of RealPlayer. Is there not another version available somewhere in a more stable format like wav or mp3? 23skidoo (talk) 01:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

What about Peter Donaldson's script? Anyone thought of transcribing that, or is that copyright? (Chris Henniker (talk) 16:28, 27 February 2009 (UTC))

Time
Four minutes was the maximum time that the V bomber force on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) needed to get off the ground and away from their airfields. They usually did it in around two in exercises. There's a Pathe News video of Vulcans doing it on YouTube here:

Except for viewers in Scotland
The 1963 booklet "Civil Defence Handbook no.10: Advising the Householder on Protection Against Nuclear Attack" actually does have an exception for those in Scotland. The "grey warning" (fallout expected within the hour) was to be given by oral or whistle message rather than a steady siren tone or ringing church bells. (It's not clear whether the "In Scotland" applies to the siren and the bells or just the bells.)

The "black warning" (imminent danger of fallout) was the same in Scotland as elsewhere -- maroons (fireworks), gongs or whistles making a Morse D (--..). Somebody was expected to do this suicidal and perhaps futile job, which has a sort of dark humour of its own.

Anyway, I added it because it is a factual example of a Cold War "except for viewers in Scotland." I put it with the cultural reference because it's really only interesting beside that, I think. Roches (talk) 22:24, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

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