Page 24 - link magazine

Swindon Wide

The February 2003 edition of Swindon Link published images of military maps held at Swindon Central Library, but in the Winter 2016 edition of
Swindon Heritage magazine, Frances Bevan delved deeper into how the Soviet Union kept tabs on Swindon, and examines chilling documents in the
Swindon Local Collection to find out just how real the threat of nuclear war was deemed to be during the Cold War – both by Warsaw Pact countries
and by our own government - and the devastating impact on the local population if the armaggedon button had been pressed.
Just 25 years ago Europe lived under radioactive fall-out. radiation were anticipated to be during the Cold War period? If we
the threat of a nuclear attack from On 9 November 1989, the East 25,216 killed, while another 12,000 are in any doubt today, the official
the USSR, and Swindon was central German government announced would receive ‘sub-lethal’ doses. maps with familiar local place
to emergency planning operations. that GDR citizens could visit West A further analysis was published names replaced by their Russian
If a nuclear war was imminent Germany and West Berlin, and as by Wiltshire County Council in April alternatives remind us of how
central government would have German people flooded through 1985, with a slightly moderated different international politics was
been relocated to redundant stone the former checkpoints they began forecast, but the numbers were still within living memory.
mines under Corsham with an to hack at the fabric of the Berlin horrifying. Depending on the size The fascinating reminders of those
operational centre beneath the now Wall and over the ensuing months of the weapons used, an estimated not-so-distant days can be viewed
demolished Swindon Police Station Communist regimes across Eastern 45,000 to 85,000 people would be in the local studies archives at
in Princes Street. Europe and the Soviet Union itself killed or seriously injured within a Central Library, Regent Circus. Staff
The town’s close proximity to three eventually collapsed. three-mile radius of the strike. are available to retrieve the maps
strategic RAF air bases at Lyneham, With the end of the Cold War, Did local residents realise just to view on Mondays, Tuesdays and
Fairford and Brize Norton, and and the threat of a nuclear attack how vulnerable Swindon and the Wednesdays from 10am to 4pm, and
other military installations nearby, diminished, a collection of original surrounding towns and villages were Saturdays, 10am to 1.30pm.
meant we were also vulnerable to maps came on the market. Michael
Marshman, a local studies librarian Target Swindon was constantly updated. The town and its region is
at Wiltshire County Council, quickly shown above. Below, the western expansion has been added
snapped up the Wiltshire editions.
They show Communist military
planning and intent in some detail
with Swindon streets and important
landmarks delineated in Cyrillic
script.
Also in Central Library is a report
produced in the early 1980s for
Thamesdown Borough Council by
Scientists Against Nuclear Arms
which makes for terrifying reading.
Predictions of nuclear attacks
showed severe damage to property
in the Highworth area, with
Moredon, Groundwell and Penhill
placed at the centre of a fire zone,
Swindon Heritage publishes a wealth where those in the open would have
of articles about the town on a received second degree burns.
quarterly basis. Find out where to Casualty figures were calculated
purchase a copy and how to subscribe at 1,260 killed and 13,868 injured,
at www.swindonheritage.com out of a population of 126,077.
Additional casualties due to
24 swindonlink.com n February 2016