Spoils of War: More Cold War Hotspots
Created | Updated Jun 28, 2015
Sometimes when science fiction hits real life, it does so with a thud. Here, from a declassified, but once restricted UK document, is the war you were almost in, folks.
There will be no snarky comments. This material speaks for itself. We wish it didn't.
Research on Blast Effect in Tunnels with Special Reference to the Use of London Tubes as Shelter
by P. H. Pavry
Summary and Conclusions
The use of the London tube railways as shelter from nuclear weapons raises many problems, and considerable discussion of some aspects has taken place from time to time. But – until the results of the research here described were available – no one was able to say with any certainty whether the tubes would provide relatively safe shelter or not.
The more recent research here described showed for the first time that a person sheltering in a tube would be exposed to a blast pressure only about as great as he would be exposed to if he was above ground, (in addition, of course, he would be fully protected from fallout in the tube.)
From Cabinet Office War Book, CAB 134/2021, 27 November 1962. (Some material in this compendium was updated later.)
