With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Revealed: The chilling secrets of Britain's War Book which rehearsed the end of the world

The UK would have been divided into 12 regions governed by ministers wielding draconian powers in the wake of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, according to a secret War Book released for the first time today.

During the Cold War, civil servants used the book to rehearse what would happen if there was a devastating nuclear exchange.

Drawn up more than 40 years ago - and updated as recently as the early Nineties - it sets out in immense detail how Britain would have been administered in the event of a devastating nuclear exchange.

The book has been obtained by Whitehall historian Peter Hennessy, who said it showed how civil servants 'peered into the abyss' as they contemplated what would need to be done if deterrence failed and nuclear war became a reality.
Read entire article at Daily Mail (UK)