If we consider each joke in detail, then under the drift of a funny moment there will be a completely rational grain. The report of the National Archives of Great Britain, dated April 1, 2004, at first could not be appreciated otherwise than a funny joke by April 1. The message itself stated that during the Cold War, the British were going to attack Soviet soldiers invading West Germany with nuclear bombs stuffed with chicken.
British National Archives Statement
If you study the message of the British National Archives in more detail, you could understand that the British were planning to place nuclear mines in their occupation zone in West Germany within the framework of the Blue Peacock project. They were going to be put into action when the Russians launched an offensive on Europe.
To protect the nuclear charge from temperature extremes, it was planned to create an insulation placed in the outer shell of the mine. It was planned to use live o_O chickens supplied with food and water supplies as insulation. It was indicated that even after biological death, the chickens will continue to warm the interior of the nuclear charge due to the accumulated heat of their own bodies and the low thermal conductivity of the fluff.
Nuclear mine of the Blue Peacock project.
Everything stated in the previous paragraph cannot be called anything other than English humor. The article itself could have been successfully forgotten, having previously laughed off and appreciated the invention of journalists, but an unbiased analysis prevents this from happening. First of all, it is worth remembering the publication in "New Scientist" dated 03.07.2003 dedicated to the Blue Peacock project, and then really analyze the situation in Europe and the world in general shortly after the end of the Second World War.
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How it all started
Even during the hostilities in Europe, at the direction of Prime Minister Churchill, the British General Staff developed a plan for Operation Unthinkable. According to this plan, the German armed formations captured by the British were not disarmed, but were on alert. The goal was simple and striking in its impudence - the British planned to start hostilities against the Soviet Union, and in the new, Third World War, the Germans would become their military comrades-in-arms and a junior partner in the anti-Soviet coalition. Fortunately, this plan remained on paper.
Winston Churchill.
As a private person, Winston Churchill visits the United States in 1946. There he holds many meetings and performances. Finally, speaking in Fulton, the main audience was made up of students, the former (and future !!!) Prime Minister of Great Britain calls for the closest possible military-political cooperation between Britain and the United States, directed against the Soviet Union. In the same place, he proposes to lower the iron curtain between Western and Eastern Europe. And this curtain was drawn down.
Concept and implementation
The Americans dropping nuclear bombs on Japanese cities immediately showed the rest of the world who was boss. Atomic weapons were the "Big Stick" that President Theodore Roosevelt could not even dream of in his day. Comrade Stalin demanded the utmost acceleration of work on the Soviet "uranium project", and Clement Attlee demanded the same from British scientists. In 1951, Churchill became prime minister again. Returning to power, Winston was amazed at how quickly the previous government managed to dramatically advance in the creation of nuclear weapons, and in fact hid their cost from ordinary citizens.
At that time, the bipolar world became a reality. Britain in NATO was a junior partner, but still claimed a role comparable to the United States in Western Europe. However, the military experts of the North Atlantic Alliance knew perfectly well who was the leading armed force in Europe. If the Soviet Union unexpectedly launched an offensive against the countries of Western Europe, then NATO soldiers could offer valiant resistance, but nothing more. The occupation of all of Europe by the Soviet Union was in such a situation more than real.
Considering the above, the British conceived the Blue Peacock project. They planned to place in strategically important places in their occupation zone (for example, under large bridges and highways) nuclear mines, activated remotely, or when trying to open them.
Nuclear mine of the Blue Peacock project.
The idea was very simple - the offensive of the Soviet troops was slowed down by the explosions of nuclear mines, a significant part of the soldiers died immediately. The area after the explosion becomes contaminated with radioactive substances and uninhabitable. It becomes extremely difficult to maintain the supply of the army through such a territory, and it is completely impossible to live there. The occupation of such lands becomes senseless because of its complete and absolute unprofitability.
In 1953, the Blue Danube entered service with the Royal Air Force.
Atomic bomb "Blue Danube".
It was an atomic bomb weighing about 7 tons and a power of about 10 kilotons (the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a power of 15-20 kilotons). This weapon became the basis for the Blue Peacock project.
The nuclear mine of this project was supposed to have a mass of 7.2 tons, in the form of a steel cylinder with a plutonium core inside. The detonation was planned to be carried out with chemical explosives, in addition, the mine was stuffed with electronics that were complex at that time. True, in the end they decided to use ordinary glass wool as a heat insulator, and certainly not chickens.
How did it end
In the mid-1950s, 2 prototype nuclear mines for the Blue Peacock project were created in Great Britain. Although no one blew them up, the prototypes had a big impact on the minds of the military. As a result, in 1957, 10 units of military weapons were ordered to be placed as mines in the British occupation zone of West Germany. However, in the same 1957, the Blue Peacock project was closed.
The deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a foreign state without its official consent (and mining should be secret) could cause a monstrous scandal. The resignation of the government would have been inevitable, and that would not have been the end of it. And the project has lost its meaning - the hydrogen bombs of the Soviet Union could simply sweep Britain off the face of the Earth.
Well, and money - the project cost a lot, and no one would give to waste the appropriations. The military in the West knows how to calculate finances.
