Post-Nuclear war UK

so I keep having this recurring idea of a Nuclear war in 1982 or 83 where the UK is flattened but Northern Ireland is more or less untouched, how likely is this? what are your thoughts on a Nuclear war in the 1980s and what it'd do to the UK and/or Ireland?
 
Ever seen Protect and Survive? It describes this exact same scenario pretty much.
 

Zeldar155

Banned
Even though Northern Ireland is untouched by nukes, They will still face nuclear winter, and several other problems.
 

Thande

Donor
Why would Northern Ireland not be targeted by the Soviets?

I did actually run down a Soviet list of nuke targets in the UK (albeit from the 1960s not the 1980s) while helping Amerigo Vespucci with his Cuban Missile Crisis TL and these are the main ones:

(Lincolnshire gets particularly glassed because of all the air force bases)

Nuke sites.PNG
 
NI would have been targeted mainly to deny it as a place for the UK government to relocate to. That's why on Thande's map Belfast and Derry both get nuked. The third target is Ballykelly Army Airfield which in the event of WW3 would have been base to RN Sea King ASW helicopters so it would have been a priority target.

As to what would have happened had this even come to pass, I'm certain the Irish Republic, for what it would have been worth, would have sought to take over most of what was still inhabitable. The surviving British Army could well have fallen back to secure the Unionist majority areas. It would all have been academic really as everyone Orange or Green would have been in the same bleak situation.
 

The Vulture

Banned
Maybe given the small number of targets in Northern Ireland, they're all intercepted or not launched? Just a thought and seems kinda handwavey, but could work from a storytelling standpoint.
 
Maybe if both sides restricted themselves to limited counterforce strikes, something like the opening part of Arc Light? Basically, the side striking first deliberately omits hitting civilian, C3I, and non-nuclear military targets, hoping to disable the others' weapons and then hold their cities and bases hostage to keep them from striking back. With a limited enough strike, it's not unimaginable that Northern Ireland could get off scot-free, since it seems unlikely the UK would keep nuclear bombs there. They've got some runways that would be attractive targets, in case V-bombers dispersed there, but there might be some way around that.

The problem, of course, is how to keep things from escalating once bombs are flying.
 
well I think in the chaos that'd be any all out Nuclear war the failure of any number of Russians to do their job isn't unlikely, also with so many bombs and bases non-Human failures are also not unlikely, plus the US would be target # 1 the UK would be secondary, maybe 3rd after West Germany, and on attack list of the UK, Northern Ireland would be fairly low on the list of targets so human and mechanical failures favor NI.
 

Cook

Banned
Why would Northern Ireland not be targeted by the Soviets?

I did actually run down a Soviet list of nuke targets in the UK (albeit from the 1960s not the 1980s) while helping Amerigo Vespucci with his Cuban Missile Crisis TL and these are the main ones:

(Lincolnshire gets particularly glassed because of all the air force bases)

Where’d you get the map from Thande?

And what is TURNSTILE?

Skip it, just found Turnstile, but where’d you get the map?
 
Why would Northern Ireland not be targeted by the Soviets?

I did actually run down a Soviet list of nuke targets in the UK (albeit from the 1960s not the 1980s) while helping Amerigo Vespucci with his Cuban Missile Crisis TL and these are the main ones:

(Lincolnshire gets particularly glassed because of all the air force bases)
Jesus Christ. Talk about overkill:eek:
 
I'm not an expert, but did the technology exist in the early 1980s to shoot down incoming ICBMs or SLBMs? :confused:

Sort-of-not-really. The US had a system called SAFEGUARD, with a mix of nuclear-tipped endo- and exo-atmospheric interceptors, guarding one of the missile fields. And the USSR had a system called GALOSH, with a similar setup, defending Moscow (still do, as it happens, although they're apparently kinetic kill now). It's very much in question how well they would have worked - the exo component was highly vulnerable to decoys, and the endo component was limited to point-defense of a small area and blinded its own RADARs when it went off. And both sides were treaty-limited to one defended site, 20 RADARs, and 100 interceptors.
 

TheKinkster

Banned
UK after a nuclear war--does the phrase "paved-over parking lot" hold any meaning to you?

IN an all-out exchange the UK would have taken in the neighborhood of 200 warheads. God had better save the Queen under those circumstances, because nothing else would...
 
so we've gotten that the UK will be flattened, Northern Ireland may or may not take a few hits, what of the Republic of Ireland?
 
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