Civil Defence Bulletin - No. 5

[TalentlessR3d]

Yes haha but its now fucking 2012 do we still have sirens?

[CL137626]

@TalentlessR3d Across the united states, at least 60 percent of fire departments use a Fire Siren. That's my best estimate.

[tcp3059]

oxymoron: the all clear warning

[infinitecanadian]

If anyone were close enough to the blast for a nearby house to catch fire, they'd be dead men walking.

[thehandydman]

5:45 that some sweet '60s special effects right there!

[infinitecanadian]

I am so glad I didn't live back then. What a nightmare it must have been having the threat of atomic warfare hanging over your head.

[duprebs]

Love this video.

[wileyk209zback]

(5:47) Someone in house: AAAAAH! FIRE! FIRE! Help! The house is on fi-*blast wave hits, gets knocked over and injured or even killed*

[HyperSplash88]

Red warning = Attack Imminent

Grey warning = Fallout to come in about 1hr-30mins time.

Black warning = Fallout imminent (5min or less)

Green notice = No more alert of attack or more fallout; safe to go out.

[KSE828]

Oh god I hope they don't drop the F-bomb!

[Digscomics]

God bless that poor sod with the whistle.

[sfs2040]

The Brits had creepy stuff like this. In the US, we had cheery "duck and cover" videos.

Of course I never had to live in fear of imminent nuclear attack. I was born in 1991.

[OldSetonian]

Had these existed in 1962, would they have been broadcast during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

[NikovK]

@OldSetonian Were it the Irish Missile Crisis, undoubtedly yes.

[jacksawild]

So the black signal is the morse letter D signaled by one long and two short whistles and this means imminent fallout.... That isn't confusing at all.

[lingfield11]

all this is bollocks.none of it will do any good with the kilaton bombs we have nowadays.everything would be razed to the ground and the earth would be wiped out.hiding behind your living room door with its adequate ventilation complete with added radiation wouldnt do any good. if one of those goes off we have had it.get real!!!!

[tommiatkins]

@lingfield11 Or even the 80 megaton ones!

[marmaladekamikaze]

@lingfield11

You are right, but only if you live within about 5 km of the epicenter, otherwise this information could save lives. A lot of of people will be outside this perimeter, out of range of counter force(military facilities) and counter value targets(cities).

[Anotherrnumber]

lol that guy smoking the pipe at 3:06. these days people don't just use a pipe for tobbaco

don't know if I could let a pipe smoker in my house

[mcstudunne]

Despite nuclear holocaust being announced on the radio , that guy still smokes his pipe and still looks bad ass !!

[Bonji651]

That grey warning is so annoying

[JustInn014]

The gray warning was dumped by the 1970's. Guess they thought it was redundant.

[ben030103]

i don't know if it's the camera angle or the accent, but i'd totally trust this guy with my life

[warszawianka]

Just park your car, keeping your pipe lit and firmly clenched between your teeth, and knock on a chap's door to ask for shelter.

[tommiatkins]

@warszawianka " I say old bean, Couldnt just pop in for a sec and avoid the 700mph white hot wind and billion PSI overpressure for a bit!"

[warszawianka]

Don't panic. Just pa

[ALLERTORLOVER69]

1:02 rare gents carter doing pulse

[JustInn014]

It is actually a 'Tangent' siren by Gents of Leicester. Only a few were fit with the solenoid valves needed for the Gray Warning (pulsed signal). I found a catalog from someone else with this siren in it.

Carter made similar sirens, but not totally identical. For whatever reason, 'Carter' became the colloquial name for any type of horizontal British dual tone siren, regardless of who really built it.

[stashyjon]

Personally I would stand side on to a blank wall with a broom handle sticking up from my groin, just to make a very impressive shadow when the flash comes

[LtVictor1]

2:35 get the f down :P

[LtVictor1]

You go into a vault and pray :D

[WhiskasIII]

can i go to ur shelter lol?

[timeslip325]

well, at least lie down in a unique position, that way if you have any skeletal remains, they'll look cool when found!

wheres the guys from MST3k or Cinematic Titanic when you need them?! :)

[EvilApple818]

If you're within the blast wave, you're dead! Lie down so that when you are exposed to the heat and pressure of said concussive blast, well...never mind, you're dead.

[KellyAnn2390]

I love the special effects toward the end. At one point the guy is walking up to the house, sees a vaguely brighter light than normal, and seconds later his house is engulfed in flames.

[krispyjc]

@KellyAnn2390 Yet he is not in flames :P

[mrlarotta]

"If you go by current knowledge of a nuclear weapons...nuclear blast renders sirens inoperable" Oh, really? Awesome finding, smartass!!! People who made this video knew much more about nuclear weapons than you. They were not trying to protect the people from the blast: They where keeping them calm, convincing them that the government had a plan to confront any circumstance. And they succeed. 50 years later we know the truth thanks to Discovery Channel. And we shit our pants thanks to CNN news.

[Xboxlivemgear]

Totally prefer Duck and Cover.

[bluebellnutter]

This is brilliant, and idiosyncratically British. Don't panic, but remember you can survive a nuclear attack by lying in a ditch and parking your car in the correct manner.

And don't look at the blinding light, that way the blast wave takes you by suprise when it kills you.

[racer927]

I Noticed that the Grey Warning was doing a morse note D, Much like the Maroons, they also do Morse D

[Karletto555]

3:05 the guy running for the shelter with a pipe in his mouth classic!

[Yakfuji]

"I think i'll get another paper from near the window...oh sweet jesus it's the A-Bomb"

[CutnSpray]

Once the flash passes run to your shelter?!? Wouldn't I be a little busy kissing my ass goodbye.

[TheGerkuman]

Why would they pick the morse letter D! D for Doom?

[jammybizzle666]

@TheGerkuman

its D for get the fuck out

[king2102b]

Standard British Raid sirens have always been operated by compression, or external battery or Vacuum, hand operated sirens were a thing of WWII and it's obvious why they were replaced. So they cannot be affected by loss of human interaction. You never power a siren on National Grid, thats just stupid.

Seems a bit OTT now these films but reality being born on barracks and having Army family they say nothing much different today.

TV/Radio will be prime alerts, before attack. with power bkup.

[rockman399]

i like those signals, i wish r air raid sirens here in the united states used those during the cold war all we had wuz da old-skool All clear(alert) AND THE ATTACK (red warning) im not sure if thatz wut they called em tho

[TerryMan2003]

I love the guy running with the whistle sounding the "Black" warning at about 1:43.

[kylaving]

Nuclear attack 3000 Global Megaton over...all clear....move along nothing to see here

[TheDanishLegend]

These must have been some of the most scariest times in living history, knowing that at any given time, basically the world as we know it could come to an end. The Government of the time had to be seen to be doing something in protection of the public, and to do something for preservation of civilian life, as to not cause mass panic. "In the event of sirens being rendered inoperable, at any stage of the warning procedure, Church bells or police whistles were used to alert the public."

[jednoucelovy]

Damn, this is so scary! People really were in danger of atomic attack for years!

[StanHywet]

This guy is bordeline creepy

[Antipwnsurmum]

9,999 views :o

Nice one uploading these Pandemian

[Stalin1878]

What have Scotland got against Chruch bells? lol

[ddrumsman549]

The all clear warning?

[magicmaker15]

Ha ha! Yeah! I know, right?

[panga3a]

The all dead warning?

[poopskinTheLiar]

Red-grey-black alert: Bomb dropping radioactive tornado risk in the area!

[neilam6]

how serious did he look at the begining lol with his convincing lies!!!

[radioactiveshoes]

3:15 hahahahaha!!!!!!! first he parks the car with like 3 mins to go then he knocks on the door and just waits an looks around wiht his pipe!!!! i fell outa my chair

[clowj69]

@radioactiveshoes true it takes me 10 minets to park purfictly

[Siren1000T1]

These British people seem very nice compared to Americans because back in that time, they let other people inside houses to let them take cover with you. If that was to happen in the USA today, that would be kind of hard to come by due to the fact that no one likes to have someone who they don't know take cover with them in their houses.

[andymerrett]

@Siren1000T1 you should watch the guys in "Threads" when people try to get put in their houses. And these are the friendlier Northerners too ;)

[travis30384]

@Siren1000T1 Of course they seem nice, the video makers wanted to demonstrate examples of model citizens.

[eltonator]

@Siren1000T1 This is from the 1960s, though. Unfortunately British society at large is not so receptive these days; most of us have been taught to treat people like Muslims and people who talk to children that aren't theirs with circumspection.

[DjPyro2010]

@Siren1000T1

That would mostly depend on age, gender, and physical attractiveness

[mikethegamer]

I thank god that I was born near the end of the cold war. I still fear sometimes what might have been...

[enriquemayenzavala]

yea, i born in 1988, this videos make you think about it

[radiofan6872]

Seems like it would have been better to have a proper siren like red for the fallouts... something that sounded notably different, but didn't require warning people to expose themselves.

Also, what if you were deaf? You're screwed then!

[mubd1234]

You'd notice either the street was empty, or people were running for cover, looting, or they were robbing you at gunpoint.

[kirky29]

That kinda thing was very rare during those days.. We were English back then. :)

[feliciter84]

There wouldn't be any electric sirens left to sound the further warnings anyway. Even if they survived the heat and blast of the initial bomb, it's unlikely the electricity supply would remain to sound them, or the Electro-Magnetic Pulse would render them inoperable.

Either way, this information is at a stretch comical and at worst downright misleading when you think of the immense destruction and carnage caused by Hydrogen bombs bursting all over our little island.

[panga3a]

If you go by current knowledge of a nuclear weapons, only the RED warning will ever be sounded. As you pointed out, the electro-magnetic pulse will stuff anything electrical. The heat and blast might will knock out the people who are supposed to operate the sirens or other warning systems.

GREY and BLACK warnings will be meaningless because in a large attack on an urban area there will be multiple detonations, i.e more than one heat flash, blast and bout of fallout.

You are royally screwed.

[OlegKostoglatov]

The electromagnetic pulse only renders solid state devices inoperable, it would have little effect on electromechanical devices or vacuum tubes. The Soviet Union used vacuum tubes in their military equipment for this reason. Mechanical air raid sirens were often powered by electricity from a generator or directly by an internal combustion engine anyhow, not the electrical grid.

[kirky29]

This is England you're talking about.... We get told things to make us feel better.. But in truth the State is to cheap to make something actually work... I guess they figured, they'll be dead, so they can't complain after. :)

haha

[jonboogy]

@feliciter84 .....they didn't really think that stuff through back then

[TheDanishLegend]

the fact of the matter is, after the immediate explosion of an nuclear weapon, Emergency sirens would basically be rendered inoperable anyway. Sadly, most of these bulletins were made purely to put the public minds at ease, and simply would not be possible in real life, for example, the pure heat of the explosion would probably melt electric cables or damage the sirens, rendering them useless, and the fact is that the damage would be alot more than is portrayed in these videos.

[Francis1930]

This film is accurate. ICBM's were used at this time durng the Cold War - the Cuban "Missile" crisis proves we had missiles back in 1962. And half of Eruope in communist control the threat of nuclear attack in the 60's 70's and more especially escalated in the 80's was perfectl feasable. I remember watchinh these films back im the 60's & the Protect and Survive films in the 80's. Let's all hope we never see the use of sirens and bombs again.

[mubd1234]

I'd feel sorry for the poor sod who has to whistle for the fallout warning, when the fallout has come!!

[andymerrett]

@mubd1234 or "word of mouth". "Psst, did you hear, we've got two minutes left to live. Pass it on".

[mubd1234]

the grey warning sound the weirdest. It's like turning your speakers on and off.

URRRRRRR....URRRRRRRR...URRRRR­...URRRRRR

[panga3a]

I think that the Grey Warning is the Red Warning on crack.

URRRRRRR... URRRRRRR... URRRRRR...

[GammyGoose]

This was obviously long before ICBMs.

[Siren1000T]

Good demenstration video. I feel bad for those people back then. For us we should not worry about attacks anymore. The things we should worry about are Tornados, Tsunamis, Volcanos, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Terrorits.

[martyaaa]

Terrorists = attacks?

[Siren1000T]

I should have made myself more clear. I was trying to mean attack as an air raid like bombing for example. Now terrorists for example is more like a person wanting to commet suicide because of themselves being mad at others. Terrorists is not part of a war attack like 9-11. Plus its hard to tell when a terrorist is going to happen. So its like really hard to sound a siren to warn others before its too late during that kind of situation.

[GammyGoose]

I think we're just as near to nuclear war now as we ever were during the Cold War. Russia may no longer be communist, but really, how stable is their government, and how good are their intentions? For their part, the US and UK aren't exactly doing their bit to welcome Russia into the fold as it were. Russia has gone through some rough bits but they will swiftly become a major world power again due to their vast energy resources.

[freacls]

we do have church bells in use in scotland they tell you the time

[Stefnir94]

aaah, it's 12 o clock :)...

BOOOOOM!

[assrap123]

this is my favret of all the cival defence bulitins i espechly like the grey warning thath siren is cool and are those sirens leftover frome world war two and thes bulitins are frome the united kindom also were theas showen in the united states of america or just gret britin

[neilam6]

i say kind sir do you mind if i use u shelter?

[BunkerFox]

I love that guy at about the 3:00 mark. "My God, a nuclear attack, better get my pipe out!!"

[Blirith]

I like how the warnings have colours and yet this is a b/w film :P

[AlexplusChris]

They didn't base the warnings off of the colors exclusively, but rather the names of the colors. Mainly because red, gray, and black are simple names to remember.

[AlaricPether]

This guy is the anti-Cholmondeley Warner. Bulletin No. 5 is particularly frightening. The way he looks down ... and that high-contrast lighting. It's amazing how they've taken something that's pretty terrifying to start with and made it incalculably more so.

[radioactiveshoes]

when the warning comes on the radio they always say air attack approaching this country why don't they use a proper noun like apparouching our country of sctoland oops we got nuked while we were discussing this

[DarkAngel182]

I'd have thought in Scotland they could sound the warnings on their bagpipes. They're just as noisy as those air raid sirens :)

[harbottle99]

lol how very true!!

[DrCONELRAD]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the counties/boroughs had such a system!

[dancraggs]

"I'm going to explain to you... the method by which... I'm going to eat you" - Scary man. Thanks for the vid!

[gm1990ss]

I wonder what US city that was with the shots of the building being built

[crownhill]

With a British siren sounding i dont think that was the US

[radioactiveshoes]

that actually said it was irish or scottish

[radioactiveshoes]

that was scotland but the we had the red and grey in the same form we had no all-clear because that was our tornado siren is the same

[crazy580]

those windows haven't been whitewashed!

[NODDINGCAT]

The siren is sounding the red warning!

That means you're f~~ked!

Maroons mean you are gonna fry, unless you are in Scotland!

[roeltusken]

i am from Argentina. I hope there were those signals over here

[racer927]

tntfan101 i think your right also the black warnings name sound scary

[fredlaws]

always wondered if the government really believed all would survive? It's trusly frightening.

[waffen]

thanks for posting!

[TNTfan101]

The grey warning sounds like the red warning on crack!

[iMediaGroup]

"...or in Scotland where church bells are not in common use, by word of mouth." That is interesting.

[SLIPS82]

The grey warning sounds evil! amazing video...

[lemonman013]

Scary!