Cold War Air Raid Sirens

[Blacky]

as a kid, in the early 80s we lived just off Lowedges Road and I vividly remember from time to time hearing air raid sirens. my mother told me they were just being tested and that there was no need to worry.

Can anyone else remember hearing them or know where they were based or is my mind playing tricks with me?

Thanks,

Lee.

[Lyn 1]

as a kid, in the early 80s we lived just off Lowedges Road and I vividly remember from time to time hearing air raid sirens. my mother told me they were just being tested and that there was no need to worry.

Can anyone else remember hearing them or know where they were based or is my mind playing tricks with me?

Thanks,

Lee.

Yes I heard them too - we lived at Shiregreen. I think for so many years after the war these things were kept 'working' just in case. Men discharged from the services were also kept on the reserve lists. Also there were the works sirens signalling end of dinner breaks etc. Searchlights too could be seen on dark nights when they being tested. I think that may have been Shirecliffe way. We just accepted it as the norm. I can't say I recall them into the 80s though - certainly the 50s/60s

Lyn

[vox]

See this link :)

[vox]

"The four minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992 when the system was dismantled after the cold war finished."

Answers.com

[Bayleaf]

as a kid, in the early 80s we lived just off Lowedges Road and I vividly remember from time to time hearing air raid sirens. my mother told me they were just being tested and that there was no need to worry.

Can anyone else remember hearing them or know where they were based or is my mind playing tricks with me?

Thanks,

Lee.

I remember them too Lee. Our local one was sited on the roof of High Storrs School. We live close by so got the full 'benefit ' when they tested it.

I remember the searchlights in the early 50's too Lyn. We lived at Firvale, and although I was only about 6, I remember being taken outside to watch. I think they were sited at Shirecliffe and possibly Wincobank Hill. I seem to remember they had joint exercises with the RAF to pick up planes flying over.

[hilldweller]

as a kid, in the early 80s we lived just off Lowedges Road and I vividly remember from time to time hearing air raid sirens. my mother told me they were just being tested and that there was no need to worry.

Can anyone else remember hearing them or know where they were based or is my mind playing tricks with me?

Thanks,

Lee.

I remember them well from my childhood, they were normally sited on public buildings such as school roofs. From memory they were sounded at least once a year at the same time (11 am ?) on, I think, a Thursday. The signal sounded was the "all-clear". When we lived at Crookes we could see one sited on the top of one of the Deer Park Flats, but it disappeared in the early 1990's. Before that we lived opposite a school at the other side of Crookes and our telephone bell started going ting, ting at 1 second intervals. The GPO/BT engineer said "no worries, it's only the nuclear alert hold-off signal to the school that's shorted to your line in the junction box that serves you and the school". "The time to worry would have been when it stopped". When on holiday we used to visit a tiny pub in the Lincolnshire outback. In the bar was a small box that ticked away 24/7. If the ticking stopped the landlady had to dash outside and crank a hand operated siren.

They may have dismantled the alert system but are we really much safer nowadays ?

HD

[DaveH]

"The four minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992 when the system was dismantled after the cold war finished."

Answers.com

As I remember it the early warning stations would have given Britain a 4 minute warning of a Soviety pre-emptive nuclear strike at a target in mainland Britain.

Not very long, - just enough time to boil an egg or mash a cup of tea

However, it would have given the USA considerably more warning, - about 15 minutes or so and its main purpose was for the defence (or defense) of the USA.

After all, they would have been a much more likely target for Soviet aggression than Britain.

A 15 minute warning would in theory give America sufficient time to get a fix on the speed, range and position of the incoming nuclear attack allowing them to launch their minuteman missles (So called because, if the button was pushed they could be armed and launched in under a minute) from secret underground silos.

Officially this would allow them to destroy the incoming missiles high above the Earth before they ever reached their target.

In practice, had push ever come to shove, it would have been futile to try and defend against such an attack and the defensive missiles would invariably be used to strike at Soviet targets in a like for like retalliation.

The whole system was called MAD, an acronym standing for Mutually Assured Destruction.

Of course, it was mad, the whole cold war period was mad, representing a serious threat to all life on Earth if World War 3 had broken out.

Thankfully some things are changing for the better.

[DaveH]

I remember them too Lee. Our local one was sited on the roof of High Storrs School. We live close by so got the full 'benefit ' when they tested it.

I remember the searchlights in the early 50's too Lyn. We lived at Firvale, and although I was only about 6, I remember being taken outside to watch. I think they were sited at Shirecliffe and possibly Wincobank Hill. I seem to remember they had joint exercises with the RAF to pick up planes flying over.

The one round our way was on Norfolk School roof.

It was actually on the infant / nursery school where there was once a clock on the wall built into the brickwork and situated above it. It was on Cradock Road opposite the junction with Dagnam Road.

There was also a siren, or possibly 2, above the semicircular stairwells to the infant school just up Cradock Road from the caretakers house.

Seems strange to fit them to the nursery and infant school rather than the secondary school as its use would clearly cause a lot of distress in very young children.

It can remember it being used twice while I was at school, interestingly both of them while I was in the nursery / infant school. I have no recollections of it being used while I was in my later school years.

The first time was around 1959 when we were told in advance that they would be "testing it out"

The second time, also a test was in late 1962 at the time of the Cuba missile crisis. I suppose with hindsight this was a test with a purpose as at the time there was a fear that the next time they had to use it that it could be for real.

[jmdee]

I attended Southey Green Juniors in the early 1950's. I remember a huge siren assembly sitting in one of the school corridors prior to being installed on the roof top.

The one round our way was on Norfolk School roof.

It was actually on the infant / nursery school where there was once a clock on the wall built into the brickwork and situated above it. It was on Cradock Road opposite the junction with Dagnam Road.

There was also a siren, or possibly 2, above the semicircular stairwells to the infant school just up Cradock Road from the caretakers house.

Seems strange to fit them to the nursery and infant school rather than the secondary school as its use would clearly cause a lot of distress in very young children.

It can remember it being used twice while I was at school, interestingly both of them while I was in the nursery / infant school. I have no recollections of it being used while I was in my later school years.

The first time was around 1959 when we were told in advance that they would be "testing it out"

The second time, also a test was in late 1962 at the time of the Cuba missile crisis. I suppose with hindsight this was a test with a purpose as at the time there was a fear that the next time they had to use it that it could be for real.

[johnm]

I think all public buildings were connected to the 4 minute warning system. I remember going to Unstone Grange a number of times for courses & in the hall was a speaker on a table with a list of what the different tones which would be broadcast through it meant.

[DaveH]

It was called MAD, an acronym for Mutually Assured Destruction

Of course, it was mad, the whole cold war period was mad, representing a serious threat to all life on Earth if World War 3 had broken out.

It was so MAD, that this American public information film called "Duck and Cover" was supposed to be a realistic way of protecting yourself in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

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Total MADness :blink:

[ukelele lady]

As I remember it the early warning stations would have given Britain a 4 minute warning of a Soviety pre-emptive nuclear strike at a target in mainland Britain.

The whole system was called MAD, an acronym standing for Mutually Assured Destruction.

Of course, it was mad, the whole cold war period was mad, representing a serious threat to all life on Earth if World War 3 had broken out.

Thankfully some things are changing for the better.

What a relief when the Sheffield Labour Council made Sheffield a nuclear free zone.

You can get the other towns but leave us alone incredible.

[DaveH]

What a relief when the Sheffield Labour Council made Sheffield a nuclear free zone.

You can get the other towns but leave us alone incredible.

I'm sure there is another video, a British one, which tells you to take the doors off their hinges and use them to build a shelter in the corner of a room in your house and to paint the windows white to reflect the heat, light and radiation blast back outwards.

Equally as MAD as the American ideas.

If I find it I'll post it.

[vox]

I'm sure there is another video, a British one, which tells you to take the doors off their hinges and use them to build a shelter in the corner of a room in your house and to paint the windows white to reflect the heat, light and radiation blast back outwards.

Equally as MAD as the American ideas.

If I find it I'll post it.

4 minute warning.

That gives you : (Not counting the 5 mins spent asking each other "what's that noise" )

1 min to find the screwdriver, 1min to unscrew the doors,

1 min to build the shelter, 1min to find the paint --- oops --- too late.

In case of a real nuclear attack on Sheffield, the place I would want to be is "Ground Zero" (To coin another Americanism)

[DaveH]

4 minute warning.

That gives you :

1 min to find the screwdriver, 1min to unscrew the doors,

1 min to build the shelter, 1min to find the paint --- oops --- too late.

In case of a real nuclear attack on Sheffield, the place I would want to be is "Ground Zero" (To coin another Americanism)

So when is it called "ground zero2 and when is it called "the epicentre" (or epicenter)

I'm still making my mind up weather it's better to hide in a subway or an underpass

..and that's taking me well over 4 minutes. :o

[Guest Chris Turner]

Hi there Blacky the yes you did hear a siren in the 80's in lowedges it was on top of the middle block of flats at the end of atlantic road it was taken down in 1993.

Chris

[Blacky]

Hi there Blacky the yes you did hear a siren in the 80's in lowedges it was on top of the middle block of flats at the end of atlantic road it was taken down in 1993.

Chris

thanks Chris - no wonder it sticks in the memory then as we were lving on Atlantic Cres at the time.

[Guest Chris Turner]

My Aunty was one of the first tennants in that block from 1959 when they were built, she was in the lift with two engineers who took it down and said siren.

Chris

[dunsbyowl1867]

I'm sure there is another video, a British one, which tells you to take the doors off their hinges and use them to build a shelter in the corner of a room in your house and to paint the windows white to reflect the heat, light and radiation blast back outwards.

Equally as MAD as the American ideas.

If I find it I'll post it.

Dave it may have featured in this - I remember going to see this at a CND meeting in town in about 1980!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

[mike142sl]

The one I remember was on the tower building of Moorside on Blackbrook Rd (previously the cottage homes)

[DaveH]

Dave it may have featured in this - I remember going to see this at a CND meeting in town in about 1980!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

I don't think it was "The War Game" dunsbyowl.

I seem to remember it as being in one of those Government produced "Public Information Films"

This particular one being about what to do in the event of a nuclear war

[Guest Sparkgap]

as a kid, in the early 80s we lived just off Lowedges Road and I vividly remember from time to time hearing air raid sirens. my mother told me they were just being tested and that there was no need to worry.

Can anyone else remember hearing them or know where they were based or is my mind playing tricks with me?

Thanks,

Lee.

Lee, I've just joined this site and came across this thread.

I live in Ecclesfield and took some photographs a couple of years ago of the surviving siren on the roof of what was the village police station.

It's still there now, I hope It's not removed and is left to serve as a reminder of an aspect of life in the 1950s and 60s.

I too remember them being tested, I attended Wisewood School and there was one on the roof.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34321578@N00/sets/72157604999777098/

Have any others survived?

Sparkgap.

[Guest Sparkgap]

Additional technical information about the Cold War Early Warning System.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/cold_war_early_warning_system/index.html

Sparkgap.

[vox]

Lee, I've just joined this site and came across this thread.

I live in Ecclesfield and took some photographs a couple of years ago of the surviving siren on the roof of what was the village police station.

Sparkgap.

Many thanks for the pictures sparkgap.

Welcome to the forum.

Keep those bits of interesting info coming in.

[ManoutotCity]

On 21/04/2010 at 19:53, DaveH said:

 

 

As I remember it the early warning stations would have given Britain a 4 minute warning of a Soviety pre-emptive nuclear strike at a target in mainland Britain.

 

Not very long, - just enough time to boil an egg or mash a cup of tea

 

However, it would have given the USA considerably more warning, - about 15 minutes or so and its main purpose was for the defence (or defense) of the USA.

After all, they would have been a much more likely target for Soviet aggression than Britain.

 

A 15 minute warning would in theory give America sufficient time to get a fix on the speed, range and position of the incoming nuclear attack allowing them to launch their minuteman missles (So called because, if the button was pushed they could be armed and launched in under a minute) from secret underground silos.

 

Officially this would allow them to destroy the incoming missiles high above the Earth before they ever reached their target.

 

In practice, had push ever come to shove, it would have been futile to try and defend against such an attack and the defensive missiles would invariably be used to strike at Soviet targets in a like for like retalliation.

 

The whole system was called MAD, an acronym standing for Mutually Assured Destruction.

 

Of course, it was mad, the whole cold war period was mad, representing a serious threat to all life on Earth if World War 3 had broken out.

 

Thankfully some things are changing for the better.

‘MAD’ wasn’t the name of any system it was simply the principle which the assessed effects of  roughly BALANCED nuclear armament  amounted to and we should consider that like it or not, that balanced build up by the nuclear powers has actually kept us ALL safe - on both sides of the ideological barriers - since the actual effects were seen over and in, Japan in 1945. Had weapons levels become significantly imbalanced, then the weaker nations would have been in jeopardy. Strategic arms limitation talks and agreements were an important part of that balance. They still are which makes unilateral withdrawal from them potentially, very dangerous. The fact is that the World we would prefer and the World we actually have, are two entirely different states and for the sake of RELATIVE peace - at least from the proliferation and, heaven forbid, use,  of nuclear weapons, both tactical battlefield or strategic intercontinental, nuclear empowered nations have a duty as well as self-interest in active and enthusiastic participation of regulatory meetings and dialogue. We must face facts that the World is is most unlikely to ever be without these weapons and so monitoring and attempts at regulation are vital. The Cold War we lived through and knew, appears ‘over’ to all intents and purposes but that is quite definitely NOT the end of the story with wider ownership and capability by countries  much less likely to readily act responsibly with these horrendous things and that is potentially much more dangerous than the 40/50 year stand-off  with the Soviet Union and it’s satellites many of us on this site lived with, if not actually participated in.
It remains a very dangerous World.