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Old 11-26-2022, 10:06 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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November 27, 1997 - Thanksgiving Day

part 1

Thanksgiving Day, 1997, had started well enough. The war which all rational Americans had feared for the previous 40 years had been going on for over a year without triggering the dire holocaust doomsayers had predicted. The fighting was on Soviet territory or other places equally remote from home and hearth. The news gave every indication that the Soviets would have to accept defeat any day now. The boys (and girls) would be home for Christmas. Meanwhile, there was plenty of work, the money was good, and everything seemed right with America. Then the bombs fell.

Rainbow Six reports that
On a day that British historians would later record as “Black Thursday”, the UK was attacked by Soviet nuclear weapons. (Unofficially) A single of SS-24 missile was fired at the UK by the 46th Missile Division from Pervomaisk in the Ukraine carrying ten 400-kiloton warheads. London was the first city to be hit, being targeted by a number of devices, the first of which detonated in an airburst above the Capital at 11:14am. One of the Soviet warheads aimed at London detonated in a ground burst several hundred metres from Heathrow Airport. The Tower of London suffered extensive damage, being virtually burnt to the ground in the firestorms that swept through London. The major business and financial center of Canary Wharf was destroyed by the firestorms as well. Whilst not a direct target of the attacks, the Thames Flood Barrier suffered significant damage and would require extensive repair work to restore it to full operating condition, leaving London exposed to the risk of potentially serious flooding. The London Underground rapid transit system, more commonly known as the Tube, offered no shelter on Black Thursday, with the fires that raged out of control above ground sucking in all the available oxygen, condemning most of those in the Underground system at the time to death by asphyxiation (many others were trampled to death as thousands tried to rush into Tube stations across London in a futile attempt to find shelter in the moments after the first nuclear detonation. Much of the content of the British Library was lost on (some items deemed to be of vital national interest were moved out of the Capital during the summer of 1997). Likewise, MI6’s London headquarters, Century House, was destroyed. Headquarters, US Naval Forces Europe (USNAVEUR) suffered heavy casualties, with the C in C amongst those either dead or missing. A number of personnel did survive however - some key staff had left London as a precautionary measure, whilst others had been on Thanksgiving leave.

Some three and a half million people were killed in the initial blasts and the firestorms that raged in London for a week afterwards. Another million people were displaced, with many of them exposed to lethal doses of radiation that would cause them to die a lingering death in the weeks and months that followed.

Cheltenham, home of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the arm of British Intelligence responsible for providing Signals Intelligence to the Government and the Military, was the second location in the United Kingdom to be targeted by Soviet nuclear weapons, at 11:15am on Black Thursday (approximately ninety seconds after the first warhead detonated over London).

(Unofficially) Of the ten warheads, seven targeted London (two aimed at the Palace of Westminster and Heathrow Airport, the others aimed to create a blanket level of destruction over the city), two were aimed at Cheltenham and the final one failed during re-entry.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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