The award-winning #podcast preserving the stories of the #ColdWar before they are lost…subscribe for free. Produced by Ian Sanders FRHistS
Kevin was born in Wigan in North West England and joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1956 with only 3 O Levels. He came top of his course, but was posted into supplies at RAF St Mawgan. However he quickly became in charge of their clothing stores and by a fortuitous route became a … Read more
In February 1983 US soldier Manuel Alzager was sent to a mysterious posting to the British Zone in the north of West Germany a long way from the main US forces in southern Germany. After a lengthy journey, he is picked up by a West German private and eventually arrives at the 81st USAFAD … Read more
The BBC Wartime Broadcasting Service (WTBS) is a little-known piece of Cold War history that would have been for many the last human voice they heard after a nuclear attack on the UK. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Iain started work for the BBC in 1988 and due to … Read more
During the Cold War, the awesome power of nuclear weapons and its deadly fallout meant that every town, village and home in Britain fell under the nuclear shadow, and the threat of annihilation coloured every aspect of ordinary life. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! I chat with author and … Read more
Tim Lyon was an officer assigned to the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron located in Cheyenne Wyoming. The Squadron was maintaining 50 Peacekeeper ICBM missiles based in underground silos in farmers’ fields in remote areas of Wyoming. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Tim was one of two launch officers who … Read more
In 1986 Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev said “Never perhaps, in the post-war decades has the situation in the world been explosive and hence more difficult and unfavourable as in the first half of the 1980s.” Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google Podcasts He was referring to a period of immense tension between the … Read more
We continue the story of Richard Stachurski from the previous episode. In 1971 Richard left NASA and was assigned to the Drone/Remotely Piloted Vehicle Systems Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. From 1975-1978 Richard did a tour of duty with the Air Staff at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and between … Read more
Richard Stachurski joined the US Air Force in 1962, on the cusp of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a security police officer guarding nuclear-armed B-58 Hustler bombers. Within two years he volunteered for the Minuteman nuclear missile program where he served as a Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander with the 68th Strategic Missile Squadron … Read more
In 2021 I had the honour to speak with British nuclear test veterans at the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA) annual conference. I met many veterans including John Robinson and Peter Lambourne. John Robinson was an RAF pilot who was tasked to fly into the mushroom clouds of nuclear bomb tests to capture samples … Read more
Graham Bate was 30-year-old Civil Servant when he built his own nuclear bunker in the garden of his rural home 20 miles outside Hull in the UK. It was here that the Bate family expected to survive for at least 3 weeks after a nuclear attack. We speak with Graham Bate and his son Conrad … Read more