RESEARCH:
NANTWICH SECRET BUNKER
Emma Jones and Claudia Edge
THE BUNKER

If all of the missiles at Hack Green[1] were armed, the base alone would be the
7th biggest Nuclear Power in the world

The Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker is a former government-owned nuclear
bunker located at Hack Green, Cheshire, England.

The first military use of the area was in World War II, when a Starfish site was
established at Hack Green. Its purpose was to confuse Luftwaffe bombers
looking for the vital railway junction at Crewe.

A Ground-controlled interception (GCI) radar station was added.

In the 1950s, the site was modernised as part of the ROTOR project. This
included the provision of a substantial semi-sunk reinforced concrete bunker or
blockhouse (type R6).

The station, officially designated RAF Hack Green, was also known as Mersey
Radar. It provided an air traffic control service to military aircraft crossing civil
airspace.
THE BUNKER

The site was abandoned and remained derelict for many years, until the Home Office took
it over. They rebuilt the R6 bunker as a Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQs) one of a network of 17 such sites throughout the UK - designed to enable government to
continue in the aftermath of a major nuclear attack on the UK.

In about 1992, following the end of the Cold War, the Home Office abandoned its network
of RGHQs and sold many of the sites. This one was bought by a private company and
subsequently opened to the public in 1998 as a museum with a Cold War theme.

It has a substantial collection of military and Cold War memorabilia, including one of the
largest collections of decommissioned nuclear weapons in the world. It also houses
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System equipment originally from RAF High Wycombe

The museum includes information about the function of the bunker during the Cold War.
There is a simulator designed to simulate conditions in the bunker during a nuclear attack.
Visitors can watch the BBC film The War Game, produced to inform the public of what
would be likely to happen in a nuclear attack on Britain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_Green_Secret_Nuclear_Bunker
THE BUNKER
 http://www.hackgreen.co.uk/Hack_Green_History/hac
k_green_history.htm
THE COLD WAR

1947–1991

The Cold War was a sustained state of political and military tension between
powers in the Western Bloc (the United States with NATO and others) and
powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in Warsaw Pact

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War

The Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily
between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to
dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the
Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some.
For many, the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying
issue.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm
EVENTS IN 1982

January 11 – Mark Thatcher, son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
disappears in the Sahara during the Dakar Rally; he is rescued January 14.

Unemployment in the United Kingdom increases by 129,918 to 3,070,621, a
post-war record number.

March 10 - The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging
Libyan support for terrorist groups.

March 26 – A ground-breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is
held in Washington, D.C.

April 2 – The Falklands War begins: Argentina invades and occupies the
Falkland Islands.

May 2 Falklands War: The nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the
Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, killing 323 sailors. Operation Algeciras, an
attempt to destroy a Royal Navy warship in Gibraltar, fails.
EVENTS IN 1982

May 18 - Falklands War: The British Special Air Services launch an operation to destroy
three Argentinean Exocet missiles and five Super Étendard fighter-bombers in mainland
Argentina. It fails when the Argentineans discover about the plot.

KGB head Yuri Andropov is appointed to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union.

June 6 The 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon
invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as
far north as the capital Beirut.

June 8 President Ronald Reagan becomes the first American chief executive to address a
joint session of the British Parliament.

June 14 – The Falklands War ends: Formal surrender of Argentine forces, and liberation of
the Falkland Islanders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982
CELEBRITY INFLUENCE

These are the lyrics of 2 songs written in the 80's about the cold war and the threat to
civilians from all out nuclear war. The poetry is very good and doesn't need music.

"Russians" by Sting
In Europe and America, there's a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets
Mr. Khrushchev said we will bury you
I don't subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too

"I won't let the sun go down on me" - Nik Kershaw
Forty winks in the lobby, make mine a G&T
Then to our favorite hobby, searching for an enemy
Here in our paper houses, stretching for miles and miles
Old men in stripey trousers rule the world with plastic smiles
PUBLIC THOUGHTS

went from age 12 to 22 during the 80s and I remember the first part of the
decade as a mix of riots, unemployment, AIDS, war and nuclear paranoia.
Anyone who tries to tell you that we spent the decade with an asymmetric
haircut, wearing legwarmers and doing the Rubik cube is lying. While Thatcher
did her thing, Reagan escalated the cold war and kept us all on edge. I still have
a nagging resentment about the Thatcher legacy, but it is hard to imagine going
back to just BT and for our home phone.
Nigel, London

I remember a leaflet coming through our letterbox, I think it was called "Protect
and Survive" giving advice about what to in the event of nuclear attack by the
Warsaw Pact, it had diagrams and information about what to do with dead
family members bodies in your house, it frightened the life out of me and I hid
under my blankets when I went to sleep for about six months, waiting for the
missiles to drop on my house and melt my Star Wars toys. It brought home a
reality that even though there was no actual fighting going on, there was actual
danger to us in the UK.
Justyn Taylor, Cardiff
ROLES IN THE BUNKER
 The ROC kept 120 men and women on-call in the area,
though the bunker could only hold half that number.
 Once inside, the lucky 60 people would have enough food and
water to survive for a month before having to venture out.
 The plan was that, when the big day came, the volunteers
would be summoned to the bunker and a strict first-come-firstserved policy would swing into action. The 61st person to
report for duty would literally have the door slammed in their
face.
 At any one time a third of the people would be working, a
third off-duty and a third asleep.