How a Soviet nuclear blast would have wiped out Caithness
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THE 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has brought back memories of the Cold War – and how Caithness could have been wiped out by a nuclear blast.
At the time, few could have imagined the possible consequences had tensions between East and West escalated into a full conflict.
But official records declassified by the UK Government later revealed how British military planners expected the Soviet Union to obliterate much of the county in the event of World War III.
Their target was the US Navy’s submarine communications station at Forss, according to documents obtained by the renowned historian Peter Hennessy, author of The Secret State.
Military planners expected the Soviet Union to launch one or two nuclear warheads at the top-secret shore base, each with a yield of 500 kilotons.
By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had an estimated yield of 12-18 kilotons.
The assumption formed part of the UK Government’s planning during the Cold War for what would happen to Britain if World War III broke out.
Declassified documents provided a list of the targets British military planners believed would be hit in the event of all-out nuclear bombardment.
The list covered major population and industrial centres as well as military installations, with the death toll expected to run into millions and the country effectively ceasing to function.
The US Navy station, officially listed as "Thurso", was among those identified as Soviet targets.
The base was abandoned by the US Navy in the 1990s when the Cold War ended and later redeveloped as Forss Business and Technology Park. At the peak of its operations, it was home to an estimated 170 US personnel.
Britain had no defence against nuclear bombardment but believed the retaliatory death toll its own nuclear arsenal could inflict on the Soviet Union – eight million fatalities and a further eight million casualties – was sufficient to deter a first-strike.
For 28 years, the Berlin Wall was the ultimate symbol of the divide between East and West. When it came down in November 1989 it was seen as a defining moment in bringing the Cold War to an end.
The Secret State by Peter Hennessy, a cross-bench peer and Atlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London, Penguin Books. It was first published in 2002 and updated in 2010.
