@DavidCobham

"The Hole in the Ground", 1962 film on UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation.

The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organization (UKWMO) was a British civilian organization operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.
The UKWMO was established and funded by the Home Office but in the main utilised Royal Observer Corps (ROC) premises and its uniformed personnel as the field force. The only time the combined organisations were on high alert in the Cold War was during Cuban Missile Crisis 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 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 two contemporary public information films. Sparetime members of the UKWMO warning teams were awarded the Civil Defence Medal for fifteen years continuous years service, with a bar for each subsequent twelve years.
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation had five main functions in the event of nuclear war. These were:
1) Warning the public of any air attack.
2) Providing confirmation of nuclear strike.
3) Warning the public of the approach of radioactive fall-out.
4) Supplying the civilian and military authorities in the United Kingdom and neighbouring countries in NATO with details of nuclear bursts and with a scientific assessment of the path and intensity of fall-out.
5) Provision of a post-attack meteorological service.

Copyright: David Cobham Productions, 1962

Directed by David Cobham

#NATO #ColdWar #UK