The Last Flight of Vulcan 594

The Wooksta! · June 07, 2020, 03:15:21 AM

Sobering and grim piece of alternate history, set in a Cold War Hot scenario in the early 80s.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-last-flight-of-xm594-a-p-s-spin-off.216859/

Some superb writing there.

It's been spun off from a much longer piece by another writer and set within the same "Protect and Survive" universe. This is very grim indeed.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/protect-and-survive-a-timeline.164027/

Incidentally, Vulcan XM594 still exists and is sstill at Newark Air Museum. I think I've found an airframe that I want to do with the new Airfix one.

PR19_Kit · June 07, 2020, 06:35:25 AM

I'm halfway through that 21 page thread by now.

Gripping stuff and VERY scary!

Do I see comments by our own Harold Weaver in there too?

The Wooksta! · June 07, 2020, 07:56:41 AM

I thought that at first, but this guy is older and moved out of the UK in 1972.

PR19_Kit · June 07, 2020, 10:23:39 AM

Just finished reading it, chilling and very sobering to think we lived right through that period.

On a JMN-ish note re 'Sally's' last landing, Vulcans don't have flaps. I'm amazed none of the readers picked up on that.

The Wooksta! · June 07, 2020, 10:41:50 AM

It may not have been the last landing as there's a flight over what's left of Germany at the end of "Protect & Survive" by a pair of Vulcans.

Had it not been for Stanislav Petrov's quick thinking, we may well not have...

JayBee · June 07, 2020, 11:25:05 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on June 07, 2020, 10:23:39 AM
Just finished reading it, chilling and very sobering to think we lived right through that period.

On a JMN-ish note re 'Sally's' last landing, Vulcans don't have flaps. I'm amazed none of the readers picked up on that.

Indeed Kit, they do not have flaps, but they do have those big air brakes that stick out, above and below the wings. To the uneducated observer, "those must be the flaps".

Weaver · June 08, 2020, 05:51:40 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on June 07, 2020, 06:35:25 AM
I'm halfway through that 21 page thread by now.

Gripping stuff and VERY scary!

Do I see comments by our own Harold Weaver in there too?

Not me, the only thing I was in in the early 1960s was The Future.

Good story. People swapping tales of being kids in the 1980s set me off. I've never been particularly prone to nightmares, but every now and then I have a corker, with the full Hollywood special effects budget. I had several of those back then.

Probably told this tale already, but what the hell...

One Monday at school, our jolly-hockey-sticks biology teacher came in with a bandage on. It turned out that she'd managed to hurt herself in the process of digging a fallout shelter with her husband, in order to survive a nuclear war.

One of the lads put his hand up, "Why Miss?"

She launched into an explanation about how and why undergorund shelters were the best option, but as soon as he could, he interjected.

"No Miss, I mean, why do you want to survive?"

He then expressed the view that he'd rather be killed instantly in the attack. She was a bit taken aback by that, and asked the rest of the class if any of them felt the same way. EVERY hand went up. This wasn't a wind-up: to the best of my knowledge, we'd never discussed the issue as a class at all, which meant that about twenty fourteen year-old boys had quietly, privately, looked at a map, done the maths and decided they'd be better off being vapourized.

The colour drained from her face and she went a bit quiet after that.

JayBee · June 08, 2020, 09:41:42 AM

Very good read indeed. It certainly has brought back worrying memories of the cold war.

My memory's are of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There we were, a bunch of early teens waiting for the bus home at the end of the day. We were crowded into the entrance of a shop at the bus stop. Why? It was p!ssing down with rain, and one of the group said "This is good the rain and clouds will cut down the flash if it comes"
Innocense is wonderfull.

Leading Observer · June 08, 2020, 12:52:34 PM

Having been in the Royal Observer Corps during the 1980's, training for the unimaginable, we spent numerous weekends shut down in our Monitoring Posts simulating the results of a Nuclear attack on the UK and fervently hoping we were never called out for real....

NARSES2 · June 08, 2020, 11:29:08 PM

Quote from: JayBee on June 08, 2020, 09:41:42 AM

My memory's are of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There we were, a bunch of early teens waiting for the bus home at the end of the day. We were crowded into the entrance of a shop at the bus stop. Why? It was p!ssing down with rain, and one of the group said "This is good the rain and clouds will cut down the flash if it comes"
Innocense is wonderfull.

My memories of that time are of walking home with my mum and her friend from a shopping trip and one of them saying to the other "Oh well, looks like war tomorrow" and the reply "Yes, but at least this one will be a quick one". That conversation has stuck with me for all these years. I was 10 at the time.

zenrat · June 09, 2020, 04:15:38 AM

Quote from: Weaver on June 08, 2020, 05:51:40 AM
Quote from: PR19_Kit on June 07, 2020, 06:35:25 AM
I'm halfway through that 21 page thread by now.

Gripping stuff and VERY scary!

Do I see comments by our own Harold Weaver in there too?

Not me, the only thing I was in in the early 1960s was The Future.

Good story. People swapping tales of being kids in the 1980s set me off. I've never been particularly prone to nightmares, but every now and then I have a corker, with the full Hollywood special effects budget. I had several of those back then.

Probably told this tale already, but what the hell...

One Monday at school, our jolly-hockey-sticks biology teacher came in with a bandage on. It turned out that she'd managed to hurt herself in the process of digging a fallout shelter with her husband, in order to survive a nuclear war.

One of the lads put his hand up, "Why Miss?"

She launched into an explanation about how and why undergorund shelters were the best option, but as soon as he could, he interjected.

"No Miss, I mean, why do you want to survive?"

He then expressed the view that he'd rather be killed instantly in the attack. She was a bit taken aback by that, and asked the rest of the class if any of them felt the same way. EVERY hand went up. This wasn't a wind-up: to the best of my knowledge, we'd never discussed the issue as a class at all, which meant that about twenty fourteen year-old boys had quietly, privately, looked at a map, done the maths and decided they'd be better off being vapourized.

The colour drained from her face and she went a bit quiet after that.

My thoughts exactly.
As I got older and learnt more about official fallout shelters and those who would use them I was torn between going to a hill top and facing the blast to make it quick, or driving round with a cement truck concreting the bar-stewards in.

I didn't particularly enjoy the early eighties and have no desire to re-live them.

NARSES2 · June 09, 2020, 05:39:19 AM

Quote from: zenrat on June 09, 2020, 04:15:38 AM

As I got older and learnt more about official fallout shelters and those who would use them I was torn between going to a hill top and facing the blast to make it quick, or driving round with a cement truck concreting the bar-stewards in.

Some time in the 80's or 90's (might have been earlier ?) the BBC tried out a possible sitcom idea which was set in the future in a communist GB and it started out with the Soviets launching an "attack" and when the alarms went their agents went around sealing up all the bunkers with their inhabitants inside. No politicians and no "elite" the GB soon became a member of the Warsaw Pact without the need for any nastiness

It didn't go forward to a full series, basically because it was rubbish.

The Wooksta! · June 09, 2020, 05:59:41 AM

No, it ran for one full season of 8 episodes, as I think that was the opening episode of "Comrade Dad" with George Cole in the tile role.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086686/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_24

NARSES2 · June 10, 2020, 12:21:16 AM

Quote from: The Wooksta! on June 09, 2020, 05:59:41 AM
No, it ran for one full season of 8 episodes, as I think that was the opening episode of "Comrade Dad" with George Cole in the tile role.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086686/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_24

That was it Lee, thanks

I have no memory of the series at all, just the basic scenario.

Weaver · June 10, 2020, 02:57:51 PM

Quote from: Leading Observer on June 08, 2020, 12:52:34 PM
Having been in the Royal Observer Corps during the 1980's, training for the unimaginable, we spent numerous weekends shut down in our Monitoring Posts simulating the results of a Nuclear attack on the UK and fervently hoping we were never called out for real....

A former girlfriend of mine had worked for Manchester city council's civil defense section for a while, doing nuclear war planning. She couldn't talk about it much due to the Official Secrets Act, but whenever anyone started going on about how they were personally going to survive WWIII, her response was to say "no, you won't" and then change the subject...