One of the most unrealistic aspects I've found is that, even though there were tens of thousands of nukes in service, only a handful were used. In Spain for example only 4 nukes were used, despite being at least around 40 nuke-worthy targets (naval industry, air bases and airports, naval bases, etc.), or other odd things like fucking Berlin surviving unscatched.
1983: Doomsday - What are your opinions on this fictional world after a nuclear exchange in 1983?
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Middlesex_Toffeeman
Banned
Celtic-bukkake. Celtic Cornwall is near ASB but can be done with a ton of butterflies.
Celtic Devon - If Mebyon Kernow are led by a cross between Milosevič and Himmler, possibly.
Somerset and Devon - Needs a flock of ASBs to pull off.
Gloucestershire and Lancashire -
Gloucs and Lancs are ethnically English; the most you can have for a Cornish ethnostate is Cornwall, and that's if God Himself is waving the Saint Piran's Cross. Although, I think that the Balkan-related nastiness has taught us that ethnostates are bad, 'mmkay.
History Learner
Banned
It does not, the operational range is apparently somewhere around 5,000 KM; far short of hitting everything except cities like Darwin, which even then is at the extreme end of range. The timeline also specifies it was the Soviets, not the Chinese, that did it. This makes sense, given the fact the Chinese only have about 100 DF missiles and would be rather focused on the Soviet threat on their border.
The lucky country got a whole new meaning in this world. Australia and Brazil are superpowers with the Soviet Union suriviving in Siberia. Celtic Alliance is the successor to the UK and the South Africa is the 3rd British Empire.
Despite the loss of Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, the ANZC is the #1 country in the post-DD universe.
Despite the loss of Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, the ANZC is the #1 country in the post-DD universe.
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History Learner
Banned
They did, that's part of the problem though; we know the Soviets weren't planning to target Australian cities and only their SLBMs had the ability to actually hit them if they positioned submarines in range.
It's a collaborative TL, and it suffers from all the flaws of collaborative TLs more than most. Normally, mass collaborative TLs are merely unreadable, but 1983: Doomsday shows that when you combine the concept with global thermonuclear war things stop making AH sense while still being unreadable. Everyone tries to cram their pet remnant state in, cities survive for no reason except a lack of space on the map for new collaborators to make their mark on, and the result is a lot of little things which would be reasonable on their own but complete ASB when taken together.
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As a Filipino, I say that the Philippines only getting three strikes at Baguio, Clark, and Subic is too optimistic. I consulted a member of a Philippine Defense Forum group on Facebook and he said one of the documents recently declassified in 2011 at Yale showed the Soviets targeted those including Manila, Sangley Point, Wallace Air Station, Cebu, and Davao. For some reason, the capital was spared IITL along with the major cities.
Why would they be a target:
Why would they be a target:
- Manila - capital of the Philippines, seat of the government, national police, and military. Also hosts a major airport and seaport.
- Sangley Point - located in the Manila Bay area. If memory serves, it housed the PAF's T-28 Trojan fleet and possibly some fighter jets for Tu-95 interception. Too juicy to spare.
- Wallace Air Station - A U.S. Navy airstation located near Zambales. Definitely won't be spared as F-14s or F-4s can target Soviet submarines in the South China Sea
- Cebu - second largest city in the Philippines and most likely to be the second capital once Baguio was hit. Hosts a major seaport for trade. The Army Base at Camp Lapu-Lapu although small would have not been significant but the more significant target is the Mactan Cebu International Airport and the adjacent Mactan Air Base. Mactan AB in the Cold War house some C-130s, F-5 jets, and a couple of UH-Hueys but this airport could be used for USAF planes from Luzon or Guam. Too juicy to spare.
- Davao - a major city in Mindanao. It's airport once to be stated enough to carry B-52 bombers of the SAC for further deployment against targets within the Soviet Far East.
This. I don't know what's more ASB, the fact that the Soviets only launched like 4 nukes to SpainS a strategically vital NATO member or that the entire country collapsed under so little damage.
The Spanish Royal Family, the Prime Minister, the rest of the cabinet plus the Ministry of Defense went up in smoke when Madrid got plastered. It was nighttime when it occurred so I assume that these people were asleep or weren't evacuated in time despite American or NATO warning stations picking up the Soviet ICBMs. Without the leaders and important officials, Spain was in anarchy and from there it fell apart.
The Soviets mainly targeted the US Navy base in Rota and the USAF base in Moron, the major cities of Spain, and the British territory of Gibraltar as this would have impeded NATO in the Med.
This leaves the governments of most provinces and Comunidades Autónomas, as well as a big chunk of industry (not all industry is in Barcelona or Bilbao) and most military bases (Ferrol wasn't targeted, nor Cartagena).
Obviously there would be chaos; Spain in the 80's was far from stable, but certainly it wouldn't appear a theocratic Aragon in the mouth of the Ebro, nor would most of Spain collapse into anarchy.
Spain as of 1983 was still recovering from the Franco Era. It was only the previous year that the country became a member of NATO. Now to answer the question a big chunk of industry, local governments, and military bases surviving, without the cabinet and the main government, who would proclaim to be the legal successor of the Prime Minister and be the commander of the armed forces? That kind of question probably the reason why Iberia turned into a mad max world.
Blaze
Banned
Not necessarily, most of the autonomous capitals survived, especially Seville, which would become the main center of gravity for anyone trying to reunify Spain. It could turn into a situation a la Peninsular War, with several juntas headed by a major one, Andalusia in this case (Seville isn´t even mentioned in the wiki AFIK)
As for Portugal, while Lisbon and Porto are the major centers the rest of the country survived unschated, incluinding cities like Coimbra, Guarda and Évora where sizable industry, agriculture and population resided in the 80s
Probably the highest-rank surviving military commander. Spain is no foreigner to military rule.
There's actually an old timeline on here that spells this one out in great detail. Literally one of the first timelines I ever read. Able Archer 83 by globista? I think. It's... Really long and dry with details but outside of a couple of things in there (no spoilers, but you'll know it when you read it lol) but one of the best dystopian ww3 stories ever.
Sadly, if the missiles had flown in '83 in an all out nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union, modern variations on the Nuclear Winter climatic model indicate very probably that most of the planet would be simply dead - denuded of all life more complex than lichens and microbes. So the complex societies written about in the post 1983 war TLs would simply never exist. The original nuclear winter theory that was proposed in the mid-80s was nightmarish enough. But when modern numerical climatic modeling coupled with modern computers is tasked to simulate the after effects of even "small" nuclear wars (eg an exchange between India and Pakistan involving no more than 100 bombs striking urban targets) the impact on the global environment from soot injection into the upper atmosphere is dramatic leading to possibly millions of deaths out of theater due to famines caused by darkened skies. The global impact of a war on the scale of what is assumed for the 1983 War would be nothing short of apocalyptic and unsurvivable for billions outside of the directly impacted war zone (northern hemisphere).
http://www.nucleardarkness.org/index2.php
Wouldn't the Southern Hemisphere fare better such as South America or Oceania? I know Africa will be terrible since 1980s most countries were still recovering from independence movements, ongoing civil wars, and fully dependent on foreign aid.
Sadly no. In the updated climatic models, when a major nuclear exchange is simulated in the Northern Hemisphere even the Southern Hemisphere will be shrouded by upper atmosphere smoke and dust injected by urban firestorms and thereby cut off from sunlight within weeks of the exchange. Temperatures will plummet to below zero over wide areas, photosynthesis stops, plants die, animals and people die. And, this condition could persist for weeks - but more likely months. Possibly years. So... In addition to the millions killed by direct impacts in the global North - billions more in around the world - north and south would die of exposure to freezing temperatures, famine, and the disruption of global networks of supply for the distribution of fuel and food and medicines
So "everybody dies" played through then. *Sigh*
There's gotta be some place that survives.
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