When Britain Nuked America....Twice!

[Music] in the 1960s great britain nuked the united states not once but twice fortunately for all concerned the attacks were only training exercises but so embarrassing were these attacks that they were hidden from the american public for about 50 years as well as being strenuously denied to the american press for decades as far as america was concerned its defenses were 99 effective but in simulated attacks royal air force bombers managed to penetrate u.s airspace to launch nuclear attacks on new york city and several other important urban centers before i tell you how a word from our sponsor this episode is brought to you by curiosity stream a subscription streaming service created by the founder of the discovery channel that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive originals like adolf hitler the itinerary an immense study of hitler's movements from childhood to the end of his life and d-day hidden traces that uses archaeology to uncover what was left behind in normandy by allied and axis troops from helmets to bunkers get unlimited access starting at just 299 a month or 1999 a year and for my audience the first 30 days are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com forward slash mark felton and use the promo code mark felton during the sign up process curiosity stream the best streaming service for lovers of history how did the british manage to penetrate the world's most heavily defended airspace the answer is surprisingly simple and consists of two words avro vulcan [Applause] [Applause] the vulcan first flew in 1952 the team that created it led by roy chadwick who designed the famous lancaster heavy bomber of world war ii a jet powered delta wing high-altitude strategic bomber the vulcan was the backbone of britain's nuclear airborne deterrent during most of the cold war serving from 1956 until retirement in 1984. this is the story of exercise sky shield when britain nuked its closest ally exposing how the soviet union could have done the same for real in 1960 the united states decided to run the largest test of its air defenses in history exercise sky shield 1 occurred on the 10th of september 1960 and all commercial air traffic over the u.s and canada was grounded amounting to a thousand u.s commercial flights and 700 general aviation aircraft plus a further 31 foreign flights due to land in north america the u.s strategic air command would launch b-52 strato fortresses and b-47 stratojets to simulate a massive soviet nuclear bomber force approaching north america from north and south 360 u.s interceptor aircraft stood ready to defeat these enemy aircraft which numbered 310 among those 310 aircraft were eight royal air force vulcan b-2 nuclear bombers a flight of four flew from scotland while the other four launched from the british territory of bermuda in the atlantic ocean the american plan was to detect these enemy bombers by radar and other early warning systems then they would be intercepted and destroyed in simulated attacks by u.s jet fighters and missile batteries the attacking bombers split their attacks between high and low altitude the defending fighters did very well against the stratagets and strato fortresses intercepting many of them but the vulcans proved more elusive opponents the vulcan flew at the highest altitude of the simulated soviet bombers cruising at 56 000 feet one was successfully intercepted at this altitude over goose bay labrador by united states air force f-101 voodoo but the other seven vulcans all managed to penetrate american airspace to launch simulated bombing attacks on u.s cities they then turned around and landed at stephenville newfoundland [Music] the question was how had the vulcan managed it the answer was their highly advanced electronic countermeasures systems and the vulcan's amazing maneuverability for example the flight of four aircraft that approached from bermuda was successful because three of them put up a wall of electronic interference that prevented interception while the fourth vulcan carried out a simulated nuclear strike this was all rather embarrassing for strategic air command which quickly buried all stories about british bombers having nuked us targets and confidently assured the american public that u.s air defenses were as i said 99 effective however the following year the americans invited the raf to take part in exercise sky shield 2. perhaps the usaf was determined to show that the vulcan's previous success was only a fluke a one-time only event sky shield 2 which occurred on the 14th of august 1961 was an even bigger event than the first one it caused 2 900 u.s and canadian flights to be grounded affecting 125 000 commercial passengers during the exercise 125 us and british bombers would be pitted against 1800 fighters and 250 missile sites and over 200 thousand air force personnel from the u.s and canada coming up on 16 and a half seconds now continuing come up again eight vulcan b2s participated split again into two flights one attacking on the northern route from raf lossymouth in scotland via canada and the other four aircraft on a southerly route from kindly air force base bermuda the b-47 stratojets simulated low-level soviet bombers the b-52s would attack between 35 000 and 42 000 feet while the vulcans again operated the highest altitude 56 000 feet at the massive norad or north american air defense bunker at colorado springs the u.s top brass was joined by the raf's air marshal sir kenneth cross of bomber command and sir wallace kyle chief of the raf technical training command to monitor the exercise just before 2 pm us interceptors pounced on the b-52s approaching at the mid to high altitude level the vulcans also came in from the north and again due to the vulcan's high-tech jamming equipment only one was shot down by an f-101 voodoo fighter in fact large numbers of u.s fighters were scrambled but they concentrated almost exclusively on the b-52s when the vulcans came over the interceptors did not have sufficient fuel remaining to climb to 56 000 feet plus and engage them the surviving three vulcans conducted their attacks successfully turned around and landed at stephenville newfoundland the southern attack force of four vulcans from bermuda reached a position 50 miles off the u.s coast before fighters were scrambled to intercept again three of the vulcans unleashed an electronic jamming screen that kept the attacking f-102 delta daggers busy while the fourth aircraft crept round to the north and sneak through this falcon proceeded to land at plattsburgh air force base in new york if this had been a real attack new york city could have been reduced for smoking irradiated hole in the ground many of the stratojets and stratofortresses had also managed to evade interception and launch simulated nuclear attacks but not at the kind of success rate that the vulcans enjoyed in two massive exercises of eight vulcans that attacked on each occasion seven had got through to their targets an astounding survival rate against the huge might of the u.s air defenses [Music] the vulcans showed that with the right aircraft america could be laid wide open to a nation-ending assault something which the soviet union would have been very interested in fortunately for all concerned the relationship between britain and the united states never changed from special to decidedly antagonistic and the vulcans never came in anger the american government also tried to make damn sure that nobody ever found out about the vulcans nuking american cities the u.s air force was very quick to deny rumors that raf planes had once again successfully penetrated u.s airspace in fact the u.s government went so far as to classify all references to vulcans included in the sky shield exercises after all if the raf could practice nuke new york city washington dc and even chicago the soviets could do the same if they could develop an aircraft as good as the vulcan as far as strategic air command was concerned the vulcan episodes had never happened and the u.s was well protected and that protection as i said 99 percent effective the vulcan's successful attacks on america were only fully declassified in 1997 long after the vulcan had left british service many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 563,206

Rating: 4.9226232 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, USAF, B-52, Avro Vulcan, RAF, President Kennedy, Soviet Union, Bear bomber

Id: -Wx6npt421c

Length: 12min 11sec (731 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CorinthWest]

I bet Lemay had a litter of kittens