w*r Game, The (1966)

[bunniefuu]

These are their

approximate locations.

To each of them

Russia has probably allocated

a certain number of her

intermediate-range nuclear missiles,

which are at this moment

pointing at m*llitary objectives

in Western Europe.

And to each of these locations,

being those 25 key cities

in which reside almost one third

of the entire population of Britain,

Russia has probably allocated

a further unknown quantity

of thermo-nuclear missiles.

Each of these cities

and each of these airfields

combine to crowd into Britain

more potential nuclear targets

per acre of land mass

than in any other country

in the world.

London,

Friday the 16th of September.

It's just been confirmed

that late last night,

to show collective Communist support

for the Chinese invasion

of South Vietnam,

the Russian and East German

authorities

have sealed off all access

to the city of Berlin

and have stated their intention

of occupying the western half

of the city within 48 hours

unless the Americans in Vietnam

withdraw yesterday's decision

to use tactical nuclear weapons

against invading Chinese forces.

Here in Britain,

Her Majesty's Government has declared

a state of national emergency

to last the duration

of the present crisis.

As from 12 noon today, the central

government will cease to function

and the administration of the country

will be handled

by 15 regional commissioners.

A network of emergency committees

consisting of local councillors

is being set up in every major town

and county borough in the country.

In view of the seriousness

of the international situation,

Her Majesty's Government has decided

that the first task

of these committees

will be to implement the evacuation

of a certain proportion of civilians

to safer areas in Wales,

the Lake District,

pans of Northumberland,

the Midlands,

southwest England, Dorset,

East Sussex and Kent.

In accordance with the 1962

Government plan for evacuation,

this dispersal is to apply

only to certain

specified classes of civilians.

As from 0900 tomorrow,

we are to receive a total quota

of 60,000 evacuees

in five priority classes.

Class one: children under 15

travelling with mothers.

Class two: schoolchildren

under the age of 18.

Class three: adolescents

under the age of 18.

Class four: expectant mothers.

Class five: people who are blind,

crippled, aged or infirm.

- Are there any fathers?

- No. No fathers.

This woman is arriving

from Bermondsey into Kent.

She and the other women

on this evacuation bus

have had to leave their husbands

and elder sons behind in London.

According to the last published

government plan,

there is no provision made for

granting the facilities of evacuation

to able-bodied men

over the age of 18.

It is therefore

even at this early point

that an attempt at

mass evacuation might fail,

because it's not known

how many women

would refuse to leave

their husband and their home

to journey with restricted

possessions to an unknown town,

there to be compulsorily billeted

with an unknown family.

Prepare yourself tomorrow

to receive 10 evacuees,

arriving from the London area

sometime tomorrow morning.

- What am I going to feed them on?

- It's up to you, madam.

Are they coloured?

Within a country where there is still

a degree of racial and social prejudice,

where there is still a shortage

of housing and living space,

a number of measures

would almost certainly be necessary

in attempting the evacuation

of an estimated 10 million people.

For this woman, the compulsory

sheltering and feeding

of an extra 8 people.

For the family

who have ed this house,

the immediate requisition

of their home.

For this man, perhaps imprisonment

if he refuses to billet.

- 8 evacuees for you.

- 8? I'm not having 8.

Sorry, sir. You've got to take 8.

I don't mind two. I haven't got

enough food in there for 8.

Don't argue. Don't argue.

I remind you that,

under the emergency regulations,

with 4 rooms and a kitchen you can

be forced to take 8 people.

Bloody hell.

Should Britain ever thus attempt

the evacuation of nearly 20%

of her entire population,

such scenes as these

would be almost inevitable.

All citizens

resident within this area

are requested to proceed immediately

to the municipal offices

to collect emergency identification

papers and ration cards.

Name?

Sue Wilkinson, 159 Thornton Avenue.

Widow, children aged 19 and 21:

non-supplementary ration card.

This entitles you to a basic ration

per week of two ounces of butter,

a half a pound of margarine,

two ounces of tea,

a quarter-pound of sugar,

two eggs,

a half a pint of milk when available,

a quarter-pound of meat,

two loaves of bread,

a pound of potatoes when available

and two ounces of bacon.

It has been estimated that,

even if there were no w*r,

Britain would need between 1%

to 4 years to recover economically

from the effects of full-scale

civilian evacuation.

And, if there were a w*r,

at least 20% of even the areas

into which people had been evacuated

would themselves be rendered

totally uninhabitable

by the resulting radioactive fail-out.

Carbon-H is one of the most dangerous

elements of radioactive fall-out.

Do you know what it does

to the human body?

I'm sorry. I haven't heard of it.

I'm afraid I don't know much

about atomic radiation at all.

No, I don't.

No, I'm sorry. I don't know.

Do you know what strontium-Ml is

and what it does?

No. No, I'm afraid I don't.

No, I don't.

I've no idea really.

I know it's some sort of gunpowder

or something, that blows up.

In Berlin

with rioting West German civilians

and armed East German police,

there would probably be found

the necessary ash point.

Berlin?

No. They've had all this before.

I think it'll die down.

I don't think there's

anything to worry about.

No, there won't be a w*r.

I'm quite convinced of that.

September the 17th.

British Civil Defence deliver

to the public for the first time

details of the hazards to be expected

from radioactive fall-out.

Would you please read this booklet

and carry out the instructions.

But what is it?

It's a Civil Defence booklet, "Your

Protection Against Nuclear att*ck".

- But I...

- Good morning, madam.

Excuse me.

What are you doing here exactly?

We're issuing to as many householders

as possible a copy of this booklet,

which tells them how to prepare their

houses against blast and fall-out.

Have people not seen

this booklet before?

A copy was prepared some years

ago but it didn't sell very well.

- It wasn't... It wasn't free?

- Oh, no. It cost ninepence.

The siren system is now being tested.

Tests will cease

in a quarter of an hour.

It's been estimated that,

by the time an incoming m*ssile att*ck

could be confirmed to

the British National Siren System,

there would remain before impact

a warning time

of approximately 2% to 3 minutes.

And should the attacking missiles

be launched from submarines

lying off the shores of Britain,

the warning time

could be less than 30 seconds.

Move along, there.

The Civil Defence report have said

that we were going to get

stuff to shore up our windows and

barricade ourselves in with.

They didn't tell us where to get it.

I've been around three places already

and all the stuffs gone.

And the prices...

My prices at the moment

run as follows:

hessian sacks for sandbags, 10 for 1;

sand to put in them,

24 shillings per cubic yard;

soil, 710s per 5 cubic yards;

deal planks, 8d to a shilling per ft.

How much money have you to

spend on building your refuge?

Well...

Well, I can't afford more than

17/6 to 1 at the very most.

For this amount of money,

she may purchase

8 sandbags and 6 planks.

A friend of mine's

a building contractor

and he's fixed me up

with some stuff.

I've got this out here

which should help a bit

and inside I've...

I've built a refuge like they say.

I reckon it should be pretty strong,

hold up quite well.

And I had a few sandbags left over

so I built another out in the garden.

It is likely that many thousands

of families in Britain

would be unable to meet the cost

of even one substantial shelter

and a Government shelter programme

for every person in the country

would cost an estimated

two thousand million pounds.

And I keep this here.

And I certainly intend to use it

if anyone attempts

to break into the shelter with me.

A recent American religious journal

told its Christian readers

to think twice before they rashly

gave their family shelter space

to neighbours or the passing stranger.

September the 18th.

One hour ago, following

an armed entry into West Berlin

by Russian and East German troops,

two NATO armoured divisions attempted

to force an entry through to the city

and were themselves overrun

by outnumbering Communist forces.

Faced with this situation,

it is possible that the American

president would have no choice

but to thr*aten to release tactical

nuclear warheads to the forces of NATO

to show collective determination

in the event of

a possible Russian att*ck.

Faced with this situation,

the Soviet premier would possibly

be left with no alternative

but to call this bluff and att*ck.

The local area commander

has authorised the release

of tactical nuclear weapons

to the British, French and Bundeswehr.

15 crew up

for a fast sequence of f*ring.

This is a tactical nuclear m*ssile.

It has a warhead

equivalent to one Hiroshima b*mb.

It is called an Honest John.

The Honest John, the Mace,

the Corporal,

the Pershing, the Sergeant.

And if things don't get better soon

all these weapons are going to be

slamming away nuclear warheads

and then God help us all!

It is now planned to increase

NATO reliability on nuclear missiles,

even should the Russians att*ck

using ordinary weapons.

Thus it is possible for the Allies

to be the first to press the button

in a nuclear w*r.

- Did you know this?

- No, I did not.

I was vaguely aware of it.

Yes, I did know and

I think it's disgraceful.

No, I didn't know this at all.

No. I should think

it'd be a good thing.

David Edward Thornley.

Age 37.

General practitioner in medicine,

now on the staff of one of a series

of emergency medical-aid units

being established

in preparation for a nuclear strike.

Time 9: 1' 1' am.

September the 18th.

Dr Thornley stops

to make an emergency call.

Berwick Street, Canterbury,

12 miles from the airfield

at Mansion on the Kent coast.

- Good morning, Doctor.

- Morning!

- Come in, please.

- What's the trouble today?

She's been running

a temperature all night.

Of the 750 intermediate-range

ballistic missiles

at present held by the Russians

and targeted on the European

countries of the NATO alliance,

it is believed that a considerable

number are liquid-fuelled

and are stored above ground.

Such missiles are therefore

themselves extremely vulnerable

and, rather than risk losing them

in a counter-bombardment,

it is likely that the Russians

would have no alternative

but to fire all of them at a very

early stage in such a crisis.

Time 9:13 am.

Quick, let's get back!

There's no time!

Hurry up inside the house! Quickly!

Move! Come on, come on!

Quick, quick!

This family couldn't afford

to build themselves a refuge.

This could be the way the last two

minutes of peace in Britain would look.

Stay away from the windows!

Get all the children!

Peter! Tony! Tony!

Where is he? Where is he?

Think! Where is he?

Nurse, quick. There's a boy outside.

Go and fetch him as quickly as you can.

9:16 am.

A single megaton nuclear m*ssile

overshoots Mansion airfield in Kent

and airbursts

6 miles from this position.

At this distance,

the heatwave is sufficient to cause

melting of the upturned eyeball,

third-degree burning of the skin

and ignition of furniture.

12 seconds later,

the shock from arrives.

At 7/10ths of a millisecond

after the expl*si*n,

and at a distance of 60 miles,

the light from the fireball of a

single megaton thermo-nuclear device

is 30 times brighter

than the midday sun.

This little boy has received

severe retinal burns

from an expl*si*n 27 miles away.

Give him to me!

What's the matter?

This house lies 29 miles

from Mansion airfield

and 41 miles

from Gatwick Airport in Sussex.

Under the table.

Under the table!

The blast wave

from a thermo-nuclear expl*si*n

has been likened to an enormous door

slamming in the depths of hell.

This is the combined shock from

from one dispersal airfield

40 miles away.

There are in Britain

at least 60 such targets.

Rochester in Kent,

now two square miles of fire,

resulting from the heat

of a thermo-nuclear m*ssile,

which has exploded off-course

on its path to London Airport.

This is the phenomenon which could

perhaps happen in Britain

following a nuclear strike

against certain of our cities.

This happened

after the bombing of Hamburg,

at Dresden, at Tokyo

and at Hiroshima.

This is what is technically known

as a firestorm.

Within its centre, the rising heat

from multiple fires,

caused by both the heat ash

and the blast wave

upsetting stoves and open furnaces,

is sucking in ground-level winds

at speeds exceeding

100 miles an hour.

This is the wind of a firestorm.

I saw a man...

get caught by a great gust of wind!

It pulled his jacket

right over his head!

I believe that we live in a system

of necessary law and order

and I still believe

in the w*r of the just.

Within this car,

a family is burning alive.

Charles Brooks,

chief fire officer of Chatham.

Already three of his appliances

have been smashed,

gutted or overturned.

"Already 17 of his 60 firemen have

been crushed, burnt or k*lled

by ying debris.

This is a firestorm.

Within its centre,

the oxygen is being consumed in every

cellar and every ground-oor room,

to be replaced by the gases of carbon

monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane.

Within its centre, the temperature

is rising to 800 degrees centigrade.

These men are dying

both of heatstroke and of gassing.

In the next world w*r, I believe

that both sides could stop before

the ultimate destruction of cities

so that both sides could retire

for a period of ten years or so

of post-att*ck recuperation,

in which World Wars 4 to 8

could be prepared.

When the carbon dioxide

content of inhaled air

is greater than 30%,

it will cause diminished respiration,

fall of blood pressure,

coma,

loss of reexes

and anaesthesia.

When the carbon monoxide content

of inhaled air exceeds 1.28%,

it will be followed by death

within three minutes.

This is nuclear w*r.

10:47.

Aircraft of the British V-bomber

force near the Russian border.

Their purpose, retaliation.

Their target, people like this.

If the Russians or anyone else

att*cked Britain with nuclear weapons,

would you want us to retaliate

by destroying an equal number

of Russian cities?

Yes. Yes, I would. Yes.

It's just a vicious circle but

I suppose we should have to retaliate.

People think the British are always

sort of forgiving and forgetting

and I think we'd have to retaliate.

I wouldn't want us to stand back

and do nothing about it but...

Yes, I think perhaps...

perhaps I would.

Oh, yes, I think so, definitely.

Yes, I suppose I would.

Technically and intellectually,

we are living in an atomic age.

Emotionally, we are still living

in the Stone Age.

The Aztecs on their feast days would

sacrifice 20,000 men to their gods

in the belief that this would keep

the universe on its proper course.

We feel superior to them.

These are the inhabitants

of what was once

a housing estate

near Rochester in Kent.

Following the expl*si*n

of three single megaton missiles

within this one county boundary,

it's been estimated

that each surviving doctor

would be faced by

at least 350 casualties,

many suffering from severe

second and third degree burns.

I had a little boy with me.

He had his legs b*rned off.

Some...

Some of the...

Some of these people

are just falling apart.

As far as is known, it is at present

planned by the Civil Defence

that each doctor, working

in a forward medical-aid unit,

place every casualty into one

of three carefully defined categories

to determine whether or not that

casualty is worth hospital treatment.

It's the third category

that are worst.

For these...

it's just hopeless.

So we put them into

what we call the holding section.

These are people with

50% or more body burns.

This doctor knows that each patient

he places in the holding section

will be left to die in pain

without dr*gs.

I know what'll be happening

in a few days.

They'll be...

They'll be asking me to k*ll them.

What you are seeing now is

another possible part of nuclear w*r,

an armed police squad

helping the overburdened doctors

to relieve the misery

of those in category three.

If I decide to hit and perhaps k*ll

another man myself,

then I must be prepared to accept

the moral responsibility.

If I give the Government

the right or the means

on my behalf

to k*ll people of another country,

then the situation is no different.

I must again myself accept

the moral responsibility.

It's been estimated

that a nuclear att*ck on Britain,

using approximately 160

single megaton missiles,

would immediately k*ll

or seriously wound

between one third and one half

of her entire population.

It would destroy from 50% to 80%

of all her main food production

and storage facilities

and from 50% to 80% of

the power plants needed to run them.

Such an att*ck,

using weapons of one megaton,

could be described as minimal

because it's now more than possible

that m*ssile warheads

or free-falling bombs

of between 5 to 10 times

that power would be used instead.

I think extra numbers would have

made no difference at all to all this.

15 or 20 times the number

of Civil Defence

wouldn't have stopped the initial

att*ck from k*lling or maiming

exactly the same number of people.

It was the title they had all wrong.

Call this defence?

These will be the other casualties

of a nuclear w*r.

Physically unmarked,

there will almost inevitably be

thousands of people

suffering from many complex states

of fear and shock,

due to the things they've seen

and the things that have

happened to them.

Many of these people

will probably lapse into

a state of permanent neurosis

because they will totally outnumber

the psychiatric services

needed to cure them.

This, too, will be the legacy

of thermo-nuclear w*r.

I've already had a dozen or so

of my men go under

just with the strain...

overwork.

People tend to forget that

a policeman,

a Civil Defence worker,

anybody like this...

is just a normal human being,

with normal human reactions

and emotions.

This policeman has spent

the entire rescue period

searching for his missing family.

No one's allowed in here.

Go on. Clear off.

Even in the lightly hi!

County of Kent,

there would be immediately an estimated

50,000 corpses to dispose of.

Will you tell us what's

going on in there?

They're not allowing

any photographers in there.

Yes, I know but just a minute.

Will you tell us what

they're doing in there, please?

They're simply burning the bodies.

The buildings are full of them.

There's just too many to bury.

The buildings are full

so all we can do do is

put them on to raised steel girders

and put a fire underneath.

It's just like making a grill.

Two days after the att*ck,

the m*llitary authorities, to stop

the possible spreading of disease,

seal off two square miles of the

damaged area that had been Rochester

and arm the surviving police, determined

to prevent by force if necessary

relatives of the dead removing bodies

before the process of burning.

We were doing the job,

burning the bodies,

when two of the soldiers said they

weren't going to do it any more.

One of their officers came up

and told them to get on with it

and they said no again.

So he sh*t them both on the spot.

Everything that you are now seeing

happened in Germany after

the heavy bombing in the last w*r.

It would almost certainly

have to happen in Britain

after a nuclear w*r.

Another thing the Germans did

after the bombing on Dresden

was they took the wedding rings

from the bodies.

They were trying to identify them

from the inscription inside the ring.

We also are doing this.

We are keeping the rings

in this bucket here.

This is a possible part

of nuclear w*r.

For the following 48 hours,

an estimated one third of

the entire land surface of Britain

would be covered

by a total dose of radiation

exceeding 10 times the amount needed

to k*ll a man in the open.

For many of those within this area

who had remained even inside

the shelter of their homes,

there would be death

within five weeks.

I know a thing or two about

leukaemia and suchlike.

I deliberately haven't spoken

to my wife about this

in the last couple of days.

You know, I'm...

I'm so scared.

I just want my kids to grow up,

that's all.

I don't know what's going to be

left of anything.

I can't change that now.

I suppose I'm just being selfish.

I just want my kids to be straight

and not to have this poison

working in their bones.

The main effect of exposure

to severe radiation

is to stop the renewal of the

cellular lining of your intestine,

with the result that your body fluids

flow straight out

from the raw inside of your intestine

and you literally dry out.

This is the menu of a meal

prepared by the welfare section

of the Civil Defence Corps

during an exercise supposed to take

place after a thermo-nuclear att*ck.

"Braised steak, carrots, sprouts,"

roast and mashed potatoes,

"steamed pudding,

apple pie and custard."

After a nuclear att*ck

on the United States,

would Americans live

as they're accustomed to,

with automobiles, ranch houses,

television, freezers and so on?

No-one can say.

We've got a bathful of water that

hasn't been changed now for 5 days.

It's all the water we've got.

We have to drink from it

and have to cook with it

and wash with it.

At Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

the population 3 months later

was found to be apathetic

and profoundly lethargic,

people living often

in their own filth,

in total dejection

and inertia.

This baby boy has been

bitten on the arm by a rat.

There are now no medicines or dr*gs

available to prevent the disease

which may well follow.

I was carrying

a loaf of bread home today

from my mother

who had given it to me,

when a guy comes up

and offers me a pound for it.

Well, what could I say?

You can't eat a pound note.

In the face of growing hunger riots,

it is very possible

that dwindling supplies of food would

finally be kept as a form of bonus,

for those who perform the precarious

maintenance of law and order.

The result of such partial feeding

would in itself be almost inevitable.

On this day, the first food rioter

is k*lled by the police in Kent.

Tell them to go back.

One in the air.

Two days later,

as a direct result of this incident,

a police amm*nit*on truck

and its contents are seized

and its volunteer drivers m*rder*d.

String him up!

In Germany during the last w*r,

it was noticed that,

with people who'd suffered

personal loss or deprivation,

even amongst the so-called

decent middle class,

there was a tendency to develop

indifference towards the law

and to indulge in looting,

black market and petty theft.

This is a Government

Food Control Centre,

seized and pilfered

by armed anti-authority elements.

This is Mrs Joyce Fisher

from Gravesend.

She was a housewife.

Three yards from her,

the bodies of the m*llitary guard.

When morale falls,

ideals fall and may go

and behaviour becomes more primitive,

more a thing of instinct.

Three clays later, the first policemen

in Kent are k*lled.

Within the next 15 years,

possibly another 12 countries will

have acquired thermo-nuclear weapons.

For this reason,

if not through accident

or the impulses of man himself,

it is now more than possible

that what you have seen happen

in this film

will have taken place

before the year 1980.

On the authority

of the regional commissioner,

under article 17,

dealing with civil disturbances

and the prevention of Crown-appointed

officers from carrying out their duty,

John Edward Jarrett

and William Michael Eades

are hereby sentenced to death

by f*ring squad.

May God have mercy on their souls.

Kneel.

We will say

the Lord's Prayer together.

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive them

that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Father, have mercy upon their souls,

for they know not what they do.

Take aim.

Fire.

For those who haven't had access

to orange juice, fresh vegetables,

vitamin C in general,

and that'll be most people,

haemorrhages around the gums will

set in at about the 4 month stage

and then you're into

the initial stages of scurvy,

with swelling of the ankles

and bleeding into

the joints of your body.

December the 25th.

A refugee compound in Dover, Kent,

four months after the att*ck.

Due to radiation,

this little boy has only half

the requisite number

of red blood corpuscles.

He will be bedridden for seven years.

Then he will die.

This happened at Hiroshima.

This girl is pregnant.

Because of her constant exposure

to radiation,

she has no idea whether or not

her baby will be born alive.

The thing that terrifies me most

is the little ones.

If they've suffered badly

from the effects of...

of the sight of this horror

and destruction,

it is probable that as a consequence

some of them may suffer

terrible character disorders.

One just doesn't know.

I saw one of the little boys

in the compound here yesterday.

He was bouncing around,

playing hopscotch I think,

and suddenly he sat down

as though he were very tired

and his face went listless

like that of an old man.

These children

are orphans of the att*ck.

They were each asked what they

now wanted to grow up to be.

I don't want to be nothing.

Neither do I.

I don't want to be nothing.

Neither do I want to be nothing.

On almost the entire subject

of thermo-nuclear weapons,

on the problems of their possession,

on the effects of their use,

there is now practically

a total silence in the press,

in official publications

and on television.

There is hope in any unresolved

and unpredictable situation.

But is there a real hope

to be found in this silence?

The world's stockpile

of thermo-nuclear weapons

has doubled

within the last 5 years

and now is the equivalent of almost

20 tons of high expl*sive

to every man, woman and child

on the planet.

This stockpile

is still steadily growing.