TWENTIETH CENTURY DEFENCE SITES of TYNE and WEAR

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Section 4 The Cold War This period of confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lasted from 1946 to 1989, riddled the landscape with yet more structures built of earth, steel and concrete. The Cold War was marked by the use of new technology and complex machines. Radar stations (from 1950 “Rotor” radar stations helped operate the Air Defence Scheme) and anti-aircraft batteries were re-equipped. The Civil THE COLD WAR Figure 6 65 Defence Corps and Home Guard were reestablished. New early warning systems included the “golfballs” at Fylingdales on the North York moors. The Royal Observer Corps now had underground monitoring posts. New weapon developments included rockets and nuclear arms. By 1958 the jet bombers of the V-force were in operation, carrying the first British atomic bomb “Blue Danube”. The first British guided weapons
Section 4 The Cold War included the surface-to-air missile “Bloodhound” and the air-to-air missile “Firestreak”. This was the era of Mutally Assured Destruction – the threat of a Soviet attack on the west was to be deterred by the threat of nuclear retaliation. By the 1970s new structures which could withstand nuclear, chemical or biological attack were required because Western policy now agreed that any Soviet threat would be met in kind. The best known structures of this period are the cruise missile shelters at Greenham Common, which are now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Cocroft 2003, 40-42). 23 Kenton Bunker (HER 5035) The bunker remained in use into the Cold War, when it was designated as a Regional War Room. This meant that, in the event of a major conventional or even nuclear attack, the bunker would be used as a base from which to control civil defence in the region, and would maintain communications between regional and national government. However, the increasing proliferation of atomic weapons by the mid 1950s changed 66 Battery room official thinking about future conflicts. It now seemed that, in the event of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, central government could disintegrate altogether. Therefore, a new command structure was created, centred around autonomous Regional Seats of Government, which would exercise complete control over their regions in the event of a major attack. Many Regional War Rooms were upgraded to become Seats of Government, but seemingly not Kenton Bar, as it appears to have been too small to accommodate all the extra staff necessary. However, the Regional War Rooms were not finally disbanded until 1968, and many artefacts have been found in the bunker dating from the late 1960s, including batteries dated as being serviced in 1968. This implies that Kenton Bar remained in use in some role even after Regional Seats of Government were established, although the exact date of closure of the bunker is unclear (Mabbitt 2003 and 2004).
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ARCHAEOLOGY of the TWENTIETH CENTUR
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PREFACE By Alan Rudd Over the centu
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Introduction Introduction There is
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Introduction we can hope for in the
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Section 1 From 1900 to the end of W
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TWENTIETH CENTURY DEFENCE SITES of TYNE and WEAR

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