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Protect and Survive was a public information campaign on civil defence. Produced by the British government between 1974 and 1980, it intended to advise the public on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack. The campaign comprised a pamphlet, newspaper advertisements, radio broadcasts, and public information films. The series had originally been intended for distribution only in the event of dire national emergency, but provoked such intense public interest that the pamphlet was published, in slightly amended form, in 1980. Due to its controversial subject, and the nature of its publication, the cultural impact of Protect and Survive was greater and longer-lasting than most public information campaigns.
Protect and Survive had its origins in civil defence leaflets dating back to 1938, titled The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids. [1] These advised the homeowner on what to do in the event of air attack. This evolved as the nature of warfare and geopolitics changed, with the pamphlets updated first into The Hydrogen Bomb in 1957, and later into Advising the Householder on Protection against Nuclear Attack in 1963. [2] [3] This document, of which 500,000 copies were made, garnered considerable public and government criticism when it was first released for its lack of explanations or conveyance of the reasoning behind the advice that was given. The Estimates Committee were similarly bemused by the advice, calling for its withdrawal. Civil defence personnel were summoned to House of Commons meetings in which they responded to all the points of criticism that were raised. [4] The 1963 pamphlet was then accompanied by a series of public information films produced in 1964, called Civil Defence Information Bulletins . These films were intended to be broadcast in a state of emergency. Pamphlets similar to those prepared in 1963 briefly appeared in Peter Watkins' controversial 1965 BBC docudrama The War Game , in a scene where they were distributed to people's homes. The 1964 bulletins were not depicted in the film.
The fallout radiation advice in Protect and Survive was based on 1960s fallout shelter experiments [5] summarised by Daniel T. Jones of the Home Office Scientific Advisory Branch [6] in his report, The Protection Against Fallout Radiation Afforded by Core Shelters in a Typical British House which was published in Protective Structures for Civilian Populations, Proceedings of the Symposium held at Washington, D.C., 19–23 April 1965, by the Subcommittee on Protective Structures, Advisory Committee on Civil Defense, US National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. [1] [7] The fallout radiation was represented by measurements of the penetration of cobalt-60 gamma radiation, which has a high mean energy of 1.25 MeV (two gamma rays, 1.17 and 1.33 MeV). This is considerably more penetrating than the mean 0.7 MeV of fallout gamma rays. [1] Therefore, the actual protection given against real nuclear weapon fallout would be far greater than that afforded in the peacetime cobalt-60 shielding measurements.
During the early 1970s, the BBC and the Home Office produced a radio script advising the public of what to do in the event of nuclear attack. This was eventually published in October 2008 on the BBC's website, [8] with the full correspondence made available to the public via The National Archives. [9] [10] The script used very similar language and style to the later Protect and Survive series. In particular, it emphasised the need for citizens to remain in their homes, [8] and not to try to evacuate elsewhere.
During the exchange of correspondence between the BBC and various government departments, several letters seem to suggest that a booklet for public consumption was already being discussed. In a letter [11] from the Central Office of Information, dated 12 March 1974, a request for information from The Home Office about a proposed booklet read as follows: [12]
Meanwhile I should be grateful if you could let me have a copy of your revised advice to the householder. I will assume that this will form the text of the Official Announcement and that what Probert is discussing with your Information Division is the production of a booklet on public advice.
This was replied to on 15 March 1974 by the Home Office, clearly stating that such a booklet was being produced, and that they were also targeting the same information at television: [12]
It seems likely a basic booklet will be produced... we expect rather more attention to be paid to the dissemination of this advice through other media, in particular television.
Protect and Survive was formally published in May 1980, but had come to the public's attention before that via a series of articles in The Times newspaper in January 1980. [13] This wave of interest had been preceded by numerous letters to The Times in December 1979 [14] [15] questioning what Civil Defence arrangements were in place in the UK.
This was then followed by a Times leader on 19 January 1980 which noted that: "In Britain, a Home Office booklet "Protect and Survive" remains unavailable." [16] Following this unexpected publicity for Protect and Survive, The Minister of State at the Home Office, Leon Brittan, responding on the subject in the House of Commons on 20 February 1980 said that: [17]
...attention has been focused on the decision of the Home Office not to publish, in advance of an imminent attack, the pamphlet entitled "Protect and Survive". It is not a secret pamphlet, and there is no mystery about it. It has been available to all local authorities and chief police and fire officers and to those who have attended courses at the Home Defence College at Easingwold. It has been shown to interested members of parliament and to journalists. It has not been published, for the simple reason that it was produced for distribution at a time of grave international crisis when war seemed imminent, and it was calculated that it would have the greatest impact if distributed then. [18]
The Minister then went on to say the Home Office had received over 200 letters from the public on civil defence. Following the press and parliamentary focus on Protect and Survive, as well as an episode of the BBC's Newsnight programme which focused on the campaign, the government chose to publish the Protect and Survive booklet in May 1980. [19]
Organizations such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protested that the pamphlet, by popularising the idea that a nuclear war could be survived, made such a war more likely. The protest organisations published and sold large numbers of copies of the pamphlet, considering that widespread reading of the pamphlet could only discredit the government's policy. Counter-pamphlets such as "Protest and Survive" by E P Thompson and "Civil Defence, whose Defence" [20] by the Disarmament Information Group replied to the pamphlet's arguments.
The purpose of the Protect and Survive scheme was to provide members of the British public with instructions, primarily via broadcast media, on how to protect themselves and survive a nuclear attack. The broadcasts were to be supplemented by a booklet, which was to act as an aide-memoire for householders; despite the booklet's later prominence in British culture, the campaign was originally conceived as being broadcast-led, with the booklet confirmed later. [19] The scheme was not intended to be made public during peacetime, and would only have been broadcast if a nuclear attack was deemed likely by the Government during an international crisis. The information detailed a series of steps recommended to be undertaken by British civilians to improve their chances of survival in the event of a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom.
The Protect and Survive booklet was prepared in 1976, and some 2,000 copies were printed and secretly issued to chief executives of local authorities and senior police officers. Its existence having been brought to public attention by the Times, a slightly revised edition of the booklet was printed in 1980, and made available through Stationery Office bookshops. [19] During peacetime, the booklet was priced at 50 pence, but would be widely distributed freely to all households in the United Kingdom if the threat of a nuclear attack increased. [21] This was complemented in 1981 by two booklets regarding the construction of fallout shelters: Domestic Nuclear Shelters, with techniques for building a home shelter, and Domestic Nuclear Shelters – Technical Guidance, for the design and construction of long-term and permanent shelters, some of which involved elaborate designs. [22]
The contents of the booklets would also be printed in national newspapers if the risk of nuclear attack increased.
In response to extensive criticism of Protect and Survive, Civil Defence: Why We Need It was also printed in November 1981 by the Home Office, which attempted to defend the reasons for civil defence. [23]
Protect and Survive was adapted for television as a series of twenty short public information films. The films were classified, intended for transmission on all television channels if the government determined that nuclear attack was likely within 72 hours. However, recordings leaked to CND and the BBC, who broadcast excerpts from them on Panorama on 10 March 1980, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [24]
The films were produced by Richard Taylor Cartoons, who also produced the Charley Says child safety films and children's animation Crystal Tipps and Alistair , [19] and were ready for use by at least 1975. [25] They are similar in content to the booklets, detailing the same instructions using voice-over narration, sound effects, and a combination of simple stop-motion and illustrated animation. Patrick Allen was chosen to narrate. His voiceover was later described as "the calm, clipped vowels of a male announcer, advising how to build shelters, avoid fallout, and wrap up your dead loved ones in polythene, bury them, and tag their bodies." [26] He later parodied the recordings for Frankie Goes To Hollywood's song "Two Tribes", announcing "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Do not be alarmed". [26]
Each episode concluded with a distinctive electronic musical phrase composed by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Roger Limb. It featured two high- and low-pitched melodies coming together "like people". So great was the secrecy around production that Limb handed over his tapes to producer Bruce Allen in an alley. [26]
No. | Title | Length | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Nuclear Explosions Explained" | 1:35 | Effects of atomic weapons |
2. | "The Warnings" | 2:53 | Attack, fall-out and all-clear warnings |
3. | "What to Do When the Warnings Sound" | 2:28 | "Immediate action" drill |
4. | "Stay at Home" | 1:40 | Techniques for sheltering in place |
5. | "Choosing a Fall-out Room" | 2:06 | Choosing a safe room |
6. | "Refuges" | 3:54 | Building an "inner refuge" |
7. | "Materials to Use for Your Fall-out Room and Refuge" | 1:55 | Radiation shielding materials |
8. | "Make Your Fall-out Room and Refuge Now" | 4:42 | Preparing for an attack |
9. | "What to Put in Your Fall-out Room" | 3:03 | Essential supplies |
10. | "Action After Warnings" | 4:13 | Detailed "immediate action" drill |
11. | "Water and Food" | 2:41 | Provisions for 14 days |
12. | "Sanitation" | 1:33 | Makeshift toilet arrangements |
13. | "Fire Precautions" | 2:02 | Expedient firefighting techniques |
14. | "The Importance of Your Radio" | 1:20 | Portable radio as a vital aid |
15. | "Life Under Fall-out Conditions" | 2:51 | Survival during an attack |
16. | "What to Do After an Attack" | 2:29 | Post-attack actions |
17. | "Sanitation Care" | 2:40 | Essential hygiene |
18. | "Water Consumption" | 1:28 | Safeguarding and rationing water |
19. | "Food Consumption" | 1:40 | Rationing food |
20. | "Casualties" | 1:27 | Advice on casualty care and mortuary actions |
A collection of recordings for radio transmission were produced as part of the programme. These differ slightly from the films in that the voice was provided not by Patrick Allen, but by both male and female voices. [28] In addition, certain portions of the instructional copy are changed slightly. While it has been speculated that a small portion of these recordings is heard in Threads , during the scene where the character of Bill Kemp is discussing removing internal doors to use for their shelter, this is in fact re-recorded by an actor.
The programme created a substantial impact upon the popular culture of the UK of the early 1980s, most notably in music. Rock band Jethro Tull recorded a song called "Protect and Survive" on their 1980 album A , while the hardcore punk/D-beat band Discharge recorded the track "Protest and Survive", named after E. P. Thompson's anti-nuclear manifesto, for their 1982 album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing . Actor Patrick Allen, who narrated the associated public information films, recreated this narration for the 1984 number one single, "Two Tribes", by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Irish folk band The Dubliners recorded a song called “Protect and Survive” on their 1987 record, 25 Years Celebration . Heavy metal band Wolfsbane's self-titled 1994 album contains a song called "Protect and Survive". More recently, the campaign's logo can be seen turned sideways on the cover of the 1997 "Karma Police" single by Radiohead. Also, London post-rock band Public Service Broadcasting recorded the track "Protect and Survive" using samples from the Roger Limb score set over a drum-heavy track with live performances incorporating visual elements taken from the government information film, In addition, the Vinyl release of the album Geogaddi by Boards Of Canada includes an image of the family as seen on the front cover of Protect and Survive
In print, Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When the Wind Blows (later adapted as an animated film, radio and stage play) obliquely mentions various aspects of the Protect and Survive programme. The leaflet series became the subject of detailed and scholarly criticism from anti-nuclear authors (such as E. P. Thompson), who produced a counterargument entitled Protest and Survive. Louise Lawrence's children's novel Children of the Dust refers to one of the inner refuge designs mentioned in the leaflets and to the public information films and radio tapes.
On television, Protect and Survive was lampooned in the television series The Young Ones episode "Bomb." The Protect and Survive booklet appears on-screen during the episode as characters hide ineffectively under clothed tables and paint themselves white to deflect the blast, parodying its instructions on creating an "inner refuge" and whitewashing one's windows, respectively. The BBC television film Threads featured four of the series' films: Stay at Home, Make Your Fall-out Room and Refuge Now, Action After Warnings and Casualties. Also, in the Spooks episode "Nuclear Strike", the character Malcolm is seen viewing one of the information videos.
The full version of Protect and Survive is shown on a loop underground at the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker [29] in Cheshire and the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker [30] in Essex. Other copies are shown on loops at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester. Fallout: London , a highly-publicized mod for the video game Fallout 4 , includes multiple references to the Protect and Survive material, including a themed overhaul of the Pip-Boy featuring similar animations in lieu of Vault Boy.
Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew. Civil-defense structures became widespread after authorities recognised the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War.
The War Game is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and within government, and was withdrawn before the provisional screening date of 6 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences..."
Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes. The amount and spread of fallout is a product of the size of the weapon and the altitude at which it is detonated. Fallout may get entrained with the products of a pyrocumulus cloud and when combined with precipitation falls as black rain, which occurred within 30–40 minutes of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This radioactive dust, usually consisting of fission products mixed with bystanding atoms that are neutron-activated by exposure, is a form of radioactive contamination.
"Duck and cover" is a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion. Ducking and covering is useful in offering a degree of protection to personnel located outside the radius of the nuclear fireball but still within sufficient range of the nuclear explosion that standing upright and uncovered is likely to cause serious injury or death. In the most literal interpretation, the focus of the maneuver is primarily on protective actions one can take during the first few crucial seconds-to-minutes after the event, while the film of the same name and a full encompassing of the advice also cater to providing protection up to weeks after the event.
Duck and Cover is a 1951 American civil defense animated and live action social guidance film that is often mischaracterized as propaganda. It has similar themes to the more adult-oriented civil defense training films. It was widely distributed to United States schoolchildren in the 1950s, and teaches students what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion.
The Diefenbunker, formerly known by its military designation, Canadian Forces Station Carp (CFS Carp), is a large underground four-storey reinforced concrete bunker and nuclear fallout shelter located in the rural area of Carp, Ontario approximately 30 km (19 mi) west of downtown Ottawa. Between 1957 and 1961, during the Cold War the Government of Canada led by then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker authorized the Diefenbunker to be designed and built as the Central Emergency Government Headquarters (CEGHQ Carp) in an attempt to ensure the continuity of government subsequent to a nuclear weapons attack by the Soviet Union. In 1994, CFS Carp was decommissioned and closed.
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile attack against the United Kingdom could be confirmed and the impact of those missiles on their targets.
A blast shelter is a place where people can go to protect themselves from blasts and explosions, like those from bombs, or in hazardous worksites, such as on oil and gas refineries or petrochemical facilities. It differs from a fallout shelter, in that its main purpose is to protect from shock waves and overpressure instead of from radioactive precipitation, as a fallout shelter does. It is also possible for a shelter to protect from both blasts and fallout.
When the Wind Blows is a 1982 graphic novel, created by British artist Raymond Briggs, commonly known for its critiques against government issued preparations for nuclear war. Utilizing a cartoonish design, this graphic novel follows a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs, and their journey through surviving a nuclear attack on Britain launched by the Soviet Union. The novel was later adapted for different entertainment types including an animated film, radio play, and stage play.
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was a British civilian organisation operating to provide UK military and civilian authorities with data on nuclear explosions and forecasts of fallout across the country in the event of nuclear war.
Preparing for Emergencies was a public information campaign produced by the Home Office, a department of the United Kingdom Government. It advised British citizens on what to do in the event of a natural disaster, accident or terrorism. The campaign began on 26 July 2004 in the wake of several major disasters, such as the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, SARS, and the 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis. The campaign was in the form of a 22-page booklet which covered topics such as transport accidents, health, foot and mouth disease, terrorism, and fire safety.
Civil defense in the United States refers to the use of civil defense in the history of the United States, which is the organized non-military effort to prepare Americans for military attack and similarly disastrous events. Late in the 20th century, the term and practice of civil defense fell into disuse. Emergency management and homeland security replaced them.
Survival Under Atomic Attack was the title of an official United States government booklet released in 1951 by the Executive Office of the President, the National Security Resources Board, and the Civil Defense Office. Released at the onset of the Cold War era, the pamphlet was in line with rising fears that the Soviet Union would launch a nuclear attack against the United States, and outlined what to do in the event of an atomic attack.
Fallout Protection: What To Know And Do About Nuclear Attack was an official United States federal government booklet released in December 1961 by the United States Department of Defense and the Office of Civil Defense. The first page of the book is a note from then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara explaining that the booklet is a 48 page book made for the result of the first task he was given when he assumed responsibility for the Federal Civil Defense Program in August 1961. The task, assigned by President John F. Kennedy, was to "give the American people the facts they need to know about the dangers of a thermonuclear attack and what they can do to protect themselves."
Nuclear War Survival Skills or NWSS, by Cresson Kearny, is a civil defense manual. It contains information gleaned from research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Cold War, as well as from Kearny's extensive jungle living and international travels.
When the Wind Blows is a 1986 British adult animated disaster film directed by Jimmy Murakami based on Raymond Briggs' graphic novel of the same name. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters and was scored by Roger Waters. The film recounts a rural English couple's attempt to survive a nearby nuclear attack and maintain a sense of normality in the subsequent fallout and nuclear winter.
Civil Defence Information Bulletin were a series of seven public information films starring Robert Urquhart, dealing with civil defence measures individuals and families could take in the event of a nuclear attack on Great Britain. They were produced for the Home Office and the Scottish Home and Health Department by RHR Productions United Kingdom in 1964. The writer was Nicolas Alwyn and the producer Ronald H. Riley.
The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the Wartime Broadcasting Service is still operational as plans are kept mainly secret with the BBC and government officials. According to an article by the BBC, recordings of a nuclear attack warning are still re-recorded and kept up to date periodically.
Many countries around the world have civil defense organizations dedicated to protecting civilians from military attacks and providing rescue services after widespread disasters. In most countries, civil defense is a government-managed and often volunteer-staffed organization.
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