The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was a British civilian organisation operating to provide UK military and civilian authorities with data on
nuclear explosion
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, t ...
s and forecasts of
fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
across the country in the event of
nuclear war
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...
.
The UKWMO was established in 1957 and funded by the
Home Office and used its own premises which were mainly staffed by
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December ...
(ROC) uniformed full-time and volunteer personnel as the fieldforce. The ROC was administered by the Ministry of Defence but mainly funded by the Home Office. The only time the combined organisations were on high alert in the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
was during
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
in October and November 1962. The organisation was wound up and disbanded in November 1992 following a review prompted by the government's
Options for Change
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces, ...
report.
Its emblem-of-arms was a pair of classic hunting horns crossing each other, pointed upwards, with the enscrolled motto "Sound An Alarm", a title also used for the latter of two contemporary public information films (the earlier one was called "Hole in the Ground"). Members of the UKWMO qualified for the
Civil Defence Medal for fifteen years continuous years service, with a bar for each subsequent twelve years.
The task
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation had five main functions in the event of nuclear war. These were:
# Warning the public of any air attack.
# Providing confirmation of nuclear strike.
# Warning the public of the approach of radioactive fall-out.
# Supplying the civilian and military authorities in the United Kingdom and neighbouring countries in
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
with details of nuclear bursts and with a scientific assessment of the path and intensity of fall-out
# Provision of a post-attack
meteorological
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
service
Operational organisation
Professional full-time staff
Headquarters UKWMO was located in a converted barracks building at
Cowley Barracks
Cowley Barracks (originally Bullingdon Barracks) was a military installation in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England.
History
The barracks were built in a Fortress Gothic Revival style at Bullingdon Green using Charlbury stone and completed in spring 1 ...
in
Cowley, Oxfordshire
Cowley () is a residential and industrial area in Oxford, England. Cowley's neighbours are Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across fields to the east. Internationally ...
,
and was headed by a Director and Deputy Director supported by a small administrative staff. Five professional Sector Controllers and five Assistant Sector Controllers were co-located at the five UKWMO Sector Controls.
Sparetime volunteers
At each of the twenty five UKWMO group controls
the UKWMO was represented by volunteer and specially trained members. In the event of war the senior UKWMO volunteer present would command the group as ''Group Controller''. Assessing the nuclear burst and fallout information and data provided by the ROC was a team of ten or more ''Warning Officers'' led by a ''Chief Warning Officer''.
The members of the warning team were recruited from mainly local secondary school science teachers, or commercial engineers and technicians with a scientific education and background. They trained every two weeks from printed materials provided by the Home Office scientific branch and through lectures or practical training organised by the ''Assistant Sector Controller'' who was the area UKWMO training officer.
During operations
The Director UKWMO was located at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Command (UK RAOC) at
RAF Booker
Royal Air Force Booker or more simply RAF Booker is a former Royal Air Force installation located south west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and north east of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England.
Booker was opened as a flying training sc ...
tasked with instigating the
four-minute warning
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile a ...
.
The Deputy Director would be located at a standby UK RAOC, described at the time as being "elsewhere in the UK". It's since been revealed as being at
Goosnargh
Goosnargh ( ) is a village and civil parish in the City of Preston district of Lancashire, England.
The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in ...
, Lancashire, within the UKWMO Western Sector nuclear bunker. Warnings were instantly distributed around the country by the ''Warning Broadcast System'' via 250 Carrier Control Points located at major police headquarters and 17,000 WB400 (later WB1400) carrier receivers in armed forces headquarters, hospitals, post offices, ROC posts and private homes in remote rural areas where hand-operated sirens replaced the power sirens in the urban towns.
Sparetime warning team members were activated, through a rehearsed
transition to war
Transition to war (TTW) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military term referring to a period of international tension during which government and society move to an open (but not necessarily declared) war footing. The period after t ...
telephone calling card procedure, by wholetime Royal Observer Corps officers located at the twenty five group headquarters. UKWMO communications used private wires (PWs) (permanently available and with greater protection) or emergency circuits (ECs) (switched for exercises or in the event of an emergency) for data and voice with a radio back up option. Some other UKWMO telephone lines and the warning broadcast system were protected by the Post Office's
Telephone Preference Scheme that kept the lines active while the general public's system could be progressively attenuated under wartime regulations.
Specialist training
Both wholetime and sparetime UKWMO personnel undertook specialist residential training at the
Emergency Planning College
The Emergency Planning College also known as "the Hawkhills" foremost a college, based in the United Kingdom which is involved in activities to promote organisational resilience. Since 2010 the college has been operated on behalf of the Cabinet O ...
, The Hawkhills, Easingwold, Yorkshire. Several major war simulation exercises were held each year 2 x WARMON (Warning and Monitoring) one day UK exercises and the two-day INTEX (International exercise) along with other NATO countries.
Four times a year minor and limited exercises called POSTEX were held on a stop – start basis across three evenings of a week, Monday to Wednesday. Realistic simulation material was provided for realtime simulations of a nuclear attack.
Approximately every four or five years each group was subjected to a "no notice" and in depth assessment similar to an RAF "TACEVAL" or Tactical Evaluation, where a mixed team of UKWMO and ROC full-time staff would appear and evaluate all aspects of the group's planning and operations under realistic wartime conditions over a period of 48 hours.
Modernisation
A large amount of work was completed from the mid 1980s to bring the UKWMO up to date. Modern detection instruments were provided to the ROC together with back up detectors at certain Sector or Group Controls known as ''
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield known by the acronym AWDREY was a desk-mounted automatic detection instrument, located at 12 of the 25 Royal Observer Corps (ROC) controls, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold ...
'' (AWDREY) equipment. Updated warning equipment was installed in most government buildings, nuclear bunkers, armed forces HQs, police and fire stations and private houses in remote areas. Major police stations were used as the area control points for power operated sirens, so these were equipped with new ''WB1400 carrier control'' warning equipment.
If a warning was received then the police could operate the sirens via remote control, the carrier warning signal did not automatically operate the warning sirens (a few of which were those used in the Second World War). Many of the sirens are still in operation in coastal areas and are now used for emergency flood warning. Between 1985 and 1990 all communications links used by the warning system, the UKWMO and the ROC were upgraded and hardened against the effects of
electromagnetic pulse
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic fie ...
damage. Point-to-point
SX2000 automated telephone exchanges were installed in the UKWMO Sector and Group Controls and old fashioned telegraph equipment was replaced with modern computerised
message switching In telecommunications, message switching involves messages routed in their entirety, one hop at a time. It evolved from circuit switching and was the precursor of packet switching.
History
Western Union operated a message switching system, Plan ...
equipment.
Air raid warnings
Ballistic missile air raid warnings for the UK would have originated from the shared UK/USA
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, "474L System", Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve ra ...
in England, (the site is now upgraded and still operational at
RAF Fylingdales
Royal Air Force Fylingdales or more simply RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" (translates to "We are watching"). It is a radar base and is also part of the Ball ...
, on the
North York Moors
The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...
) and disseminated through UKRAOC to the carrier warning system. This was commonly, and slightly erroneously, known as the
Four minute warning
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile ...
.
Instrumentation
For the detection of nuclear bursts
* "
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield known by the acronym AWDREY was a desk-mounted automatic detection instrument, located at 12 of the 25 Royal Observer Corps (ROC) controls, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold ...
", known as "AWDREY", was a desk-mounted automatic instrument, located at certain UKWMO controls, that detected nuclear explosions and indicated the estimated size in megatons. Operating by measuring the level of electromagnetic pulse (EMP), the instruments were tested daily by wholetime ROC officers and regularly reacted to the EMP from lightning strikes during thunderstorms. AWDREY was designed and built by the
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. It is the successor to the Atomic Weapons Research ...
at
Aldermaston
Aldermaston is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basingstoke ...
and tested for performance and accuracy on a real nuclear explosion at the 1957
Kiritimati (or Christmas Island) nuclear bomb test (after being mounted on board a ship). Reports following a reading on AWDREY were prefixed with the codeword "Tocsin Bang".
* The "
Bomb Power Indicator
Bomb Power Indicator known by the acronym BPI was a detection instrument, located at the twenty five British Royal Observer Corps controls and nearly 1,500 ROC underground monitoring posts, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold War that would ...
" or "BPI" consisted of a
peak overpressure gauge with a dial that would register when the pressure wave from a nuclear explosion passed over the post. When related to the distance of the explosion from the post this pressure would indicate the power of the explosion. Reports following a reading on the BPI were preceded by the codeword "Tocsin".
* The "
Ground Zero Indicator
Ground may refer to:
Geology
* Land, the surface of the Earth not covered by water
* Soil, a mixture of clay, sand and organic matter present on the surface of the Earth
Electricity
* Ground (electricity), the reference point in an electrical c ...
", or "GZI" or
shadowgraph
Shadowgraph is an optical method that reveals non-uniformities in transparent media like air, water, or glass. It is related to, but simpler than, the schlieren and schlieren photography methods that perform a similar function. Shadowgraph is a ty ...
, consisted of four horizontally mounted cardinal compass point
pinhole camera
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called ''pinhole'')—effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image o ...
s within a metal drum; each "camera" contained a sheet of
photosensitive Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons, especially visible light. In medicine, the term is principally used for abnormal reactions of the skin, and two types are distinguished, photoallergy and phototoxicity. ...
paper on which were printed horizontal and vertical calibration lines. The flash from a
nuclear explosion
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, t ...
would produce a mark on one or two of the papers within the drum. The position of the mark enabled the bearing and height of the burst to be estimated. With triangulation between neighbouring posts these readings would give an accurate height and position. The altitude of the explosion was important because a ground or near-ground burst would produce radioactive fallout, whereas an air burst would produce only short-distance and short-lived initial radiation (but no fallout). Reports following a reading on the GZI were preceded by the codeword "Nuclear Burst".
For the measurement of ionising radiation
* The "Radiac Survey Meter No 2" or "RSM" was a 1955-meter which counted the particles produced by
radioactive decay
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...
. This meter suffered from a number of disadvantages: it required three different types of obsolete batteries, it also contained delicate valves that were prone to failure and it had to be operated from outside the protection of the post. These were favoured as they had been tested on fallout in Australia after the
Operation Buffalo nuclear tests, and remained in use until 1982 by commissioning a manufacturer to regularly produce special production runs of the obsolete batteries. Within the ROC the RSM was superseded in 1958 by the FSM and the RSM retained only for post-attack mobile monitoring missions.
* The "
Fixed Survey Meter
The Fixed Survey Meter was a specialist detection instrument used by the Royal Observer Corps during the Cold War between 1958 and 1982 to detect ionising radiation from nuclear fallout generated by a ground burst.
Overview
Fixed Survey Meter
The ...
" or "FSM" introduced in 1958, could be operated from within the post with a cable leading to the detector mounted externally and protected by a polycarbonate dome. The FSM used the same obsolete high-voltage batteries as the RSM. In 1985 this instrument was replaced by the "PDRM 82(F)".
* The "PDRM82" or
Portable Dose Rate Meter and the desktop-fixed PDRM 82(F) version of the same meter, that were manufactured by
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...
and introduced during the 1980s, gave more accurate readings and used standard C-cell torch batteries that lasted many times longer, up to 400 hours of operation. The compact and robust instruments were housed in sturdy orange-coloured polycarbonate cases and had clear liquid crystal displays.
* The "
Dosimeter
A radiation dosimeter is a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. It is worn by the person being monitored when used as a personal dosimeter, and is a record of the radiation dose received. Modern electronic personal dos ...
" pocket meters were issued to individual observers for measuring their personal levels of radiation absorption during operations. Three different grades of dosimeter were used, depending on ambient radiation levels. The original hand-wound and temperamental dosimeter charging units were replaced during the 1980s by battery-operated automatic charging units.
Civil Defence Medal
The Civil Defence Medal was instituted March 1961 and awarded for 15 years service in a variety of different organisations including;
Auxiliary Fire Service
The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded i ...
,
National Hospital Service Reserve,
Civil Defence Corps
The Civil Defence Corps (CDC) was a civilian volunteer organisation established in Great Britain in 1949 to mobilise and take local control of the affected area in the aftermath of a major national emergency, principally envisaged as being a Col ...
and the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation.
Disbanded
UKWMO training effectively ceased in the summer of 1991 after the Home Secretary's stand-down announcement. When the UKWMO was disbanded, and the ROC stood down, the government referred to "possible future developments and improvements in automated nuclear explosion and fallout detection from remote sensors", but it is unlikely that any such system has yet to be developed or installed. Civil nuclear defence since 1992 has been devolved to UK local authorities as an addition to their routine emergency planning responsibilities and under direction of the government's
Civil Contingencies Secretariat
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), created in July 2001, is the executive department of the British Cabinet Office responsible for civil defence, emergency planning in the United Kingdom, UK. The role of the secretariat is to ensure th ...
but the four-minute warning air raid alert system no longer operates.
See also
*
Four-minute warning
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile a ...
*
List of ROC Group Headquarters and UKWMO Sector controls
This is a list of the locations for former Royal Observer Corps (ROC) Group Headquarters and the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) sector controls that received information from ROC posts by dedicated GPO/ BT landline ...
*
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (A-E)
*
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (F-K)
*
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (L-P)
*
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (Q-Z)
*
Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post
*
Operational instruments of the Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down. (ROC headquarters staff at RAF Bentley Priory stood down ...
*
AWDREY
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield known by the acronym AWDREY was a desk-mounted automatic detection instrument, located at 12 of the 25 Royal Observer Corps (ROC) controls, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold War ...
*
Bomb Power Indicator
Bomb Power Indicator known by the acronym BPI was a detection instrument, located at the twenty five British Royal Observer Corps controls and nearly 1,500 ROC underground monitoring posts, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold War that would ...
*
Ground Zero Indicator
Ground may refer to:
Geology
* Land, the surface of the Earth not covered by water
* Soil, a mixture of clay, sand and organic matter present on the surface of the Earth
Electricity
* Ground (electricity), the reference point in an electrical c ...
*
Fixed Survey Meter
The Fixed Survey Meter was a specialist detection instrument used by the Royal Observer Corps during the Cold War between 1958 and 1982 to detect ionising radiation from nuclear fallout generated by a ground burst.
Overview
Fixed Survey Meter
The ...
References
External links
Cold War Communications*
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3y0WmONP4E Sound An Alarm (1971) – United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organizationon YouTube
The Hole in the Ground (1962) – UK Warning and Monitoring Organisationon YouTube
{{Authority control
Home Office (United Kingdom)
Organizations established in 1957
Organizations disestablished in 1992
Royal Observer Corps
Cold War history of the United Kingdom
Civil defence organisations based in the United Kingdom
1957 establishments in the United Kingdom
1992 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in Oxford