Thin Pinstriped Line

  In 1948 work was underway across in the UK to develop the nation’s first atomic bomb, enabling the UK to become a nuclear weapons power. Developing the technology was not enough though; to be effective military planners needed to know the plan for the weapons would be used, and how many would be needed for this purpose.   Understanding how many bombs were needed would drive many other decisions, from the numbers of aircraft needed to deliver them, to the number of air bases, people, mission training needs, and equipment to support the nuclear mission. To inform this work, the MOD commissioned work along with the Joint Intelligence Bureau (forerunner of the JIC) to assess what targets needed to be hit in the event of a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union to be certain of defeating them. In a top-secret study paper, planners laid out in methodical exacting detail the specific sites that the RAF would need to attack, listing dozens of cities and other locations that would need...

  In the early hours of May 1982, following indications that a Spanish amphibious force, ostensibly on exercise, had begun sailing closer to Gibraltar, the Governor exercised powers to sortie armed Royal Navy warships, and deploy the Army onto the streets of the rock, to defend it from potential Spanish invasion. This sounds like the plot of a poor Cold War thriller but nearly happened for real. This article is about how in the 1980s the UK actively planned to defend Gibraltar from both Soviet & Spanish aggression in the most unlikely of circumstances. Crown Copyright In 1982 the UK and Spain had strained relations over the issue of Gibraltar since the Spanish closed the land border in 1969. Throughout the 1970s there was genuine concern that Spain could attempt some kind of military operation, leading to elaborate plans being developed to defend ‘the Rock’ against attack for long enough for cooler heads to prevail. The invasion of the Falklands by Argentina was a particular co...