EARLY WARNING SIREN

[meanwoodlad]

I remember a test of the civil defence system across the city in the 80s. Was only a kid at the time, but I remember the sirens being sounded across the city one Saturday morning. Also, found this on the subbrit website:When civil defence was re-introduced, the attack warning system based on sirens that had worked well during World War Two was refurbished but it was essentially one designed to cope with slow moving aircraft and give local warnings. It could not really deal with jet aircraft and then ballistic missiles so the system needed to be modernised. By the early 1960s, the Fylingdales missile warning radar was operational and could give a seven-minute warning of a missile attack. The decision would then have to be made to set off the attack warning sirens for the whole country. This initially caused a debate between the RAF in charge of the radars and the Home Office, which was in charge of the warning system as to who would take the final decision. This was not for any practical reasons but because they were both concerned more about the repercussions of sounding a false alarm.A film from the 1950s shows a man at the BBC receiving the warning by telephone and then opening a locked cupboard and removing a gramophone record that he placed on a turntable. This presumably had a pre-recorded attack warning on it to be broadcast nationally but it was obviously not intended for the missile age. By the 1980s, the decision to trigger the warning system would have been made by a Home Office Warning Officer based at the “principal warning injection point” at the RAF’s Primary War Headquarters near High Wycombe or, alternately, from the back up at the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation’s war headquarters housed in a large bunker near Preston. They were both linked to Broadcasting House and the reserve broadcasting facility at Wood Norton, but the attack warning could only be injected into TV and radio broadcasts from Broadcasting House. The Home Office staff, as well as alerting the BBC would trigger the national siren system by alerting 255 Carrier Control Points located at main police stations around the country. On receiving the “national attack warning red” the control point operator would activate the large electro-mechanical sirens in his area. They would then alert volunteers at local Warning Points via small “carrier warning receivers”. These volunteers, mostly in rural areas would then sound hand-operated sirens. When the system was stood down there were 9760 hand operated sirens mostly dating from the 1950s and about 7000 power sirens in use. In addition, warning messages would be broadcast by the BBC over all available radio and TV channels. It was hoped that the message could be passed through the system to give the general population the famous “4 minute warning” of nuclear attack.The power sirens were usually mounted on public buildings where they were vulnerable to attack from the weather and birds. Maintenance of the sirens was the responsibility of the local police and as one report by the Home Office’s Emergency Planning Research Group diplomatically put it “…there was strong evidence that this task had been carried out more conscientiously in some areas than in others”. Also, over the years, the level of background noise has increased in towns, as has the tendency to sound proof house. Tests in the late 1980s showed that the manufacturer’s claims for audibility had been greatly exaggerated and the system was only between 3% and 10% effective. And this assumed the sirens worked. Regular testing had been stopped in the 1960s and a test of 5 sirens in 1985 found that only one worked properly and 2 did not work at all. A review of UKWMO recommended in 1989 that the siren system should be replaced. But before any action could be taken, the system was effectively put out of action when BT withdrew the “speaking clock” telephone service that had been used to carry the activating signal to the carrier control points. Alternatives were considered but the end of the cold war overtook them and apart from a few kept to warn of coastal flooding the siren system was dismantled by 1993. The warning signal would be the same rising and falling note from the last war. Information films advised people to go indoors or lie down in a ditch or depression. If driving a vehicle they should “park off the road if possible; otherwise alongside the kerb, but not near crossroads, or in a narrow street where it could obstruct fire engines or civil defence vehicles”.The system could also announce an all clear meaning that there was no further danger of attack or as the Protect and Survive films reassuringly put it, “when the immediate danger of air attack or fall out has passed the siren will sound a steady note.” On hearing this, survivors could “…leave your cover…” In an area directly affected by a hydrogen bomb this would, of course, be of academic interest only. After attack, the arrival of fall out in an area could be announced locally by firing maroons from some 12000 “maroon points”, 9000 of which were collocated with hand siren sites. The spread of fall out would be monitored mainly by the monitoring posts manned by the Royal Observer Corps and plotted by their Group Controls from where the information would be fed to carrier control points, local authority controls and the RGHQs via the ECN – assuming it survived. Additionally, local authorities would establish local monitoring nets to give a more detailed view of local conditions.The attack warning system was not designed to give local warnings of conventional air attack and could only really cope with one national warning of a missile attack, warning people to take cover. There were no public air raid shelters[1] throughout the Cold War but many injuries and deaths would have been prevented by warning people simply to take what cover they could thereby avoiding the dangers from heat flash and flying glass. The actual effectiveness of the system was however unknown and this illustrates many of the problems inherent in civil defence throughout the Cold War in that the system was not properly maintained and its effectiveness not seriously challenged or tested. It existed and that apparently was all that mattered.

[stoptap]

There was definitely an early warning siren on the roof of Lawnswood School. I remember it being tested while I was in a Geography class in the early eighties. A pant changing experience I can tell you !

[chameleon]

stoptap wrote: There was definitely an early warning siren on the roof of Lawnswood School. I remember it being tested while I was in a Geography class in the early eighties. A pant changing experience I can tell you ! ....And one on the soon-to-be no more Allerton High school, as my little brother can testify.

[liits]

There was a siren on top of the "West Shop" at ROF Leeds [Barnbow]. I have been told that, although this was inside the factory, it was controled from outside. I have since heard from somebody else that it was controlled from the police station at Gipton and also that it could be controlled from the green "Street Box" located on Manston Lane, junction with Pendas Way. At the time, this seemed like rubbish but, having read how the system worked and was controlled, it does make sense. A link to Sub Brit's site may explain some of it. http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/ ... index.html    

[Misc]

I was in a French lesson at Sherburn High (LS25) in 1993 or thereabouts when an air raid siren went off....everyone went completely silent, then it stopped and we all carried on as if nothing had happened! My mum told me not to be silly that night when I told her, but as she worked in Cas and my dad in Wakefield they wouldn't have heard it. Would this perhaps have been the final sounding of the siren as it was being dismantled?

[big s]

when i was an apprentice the company i worked for had a contract to maintain the sirens in leeds.this would have been about 1975.i remember looking at one in the workshop which had been taken off the roof of lewis on the headrow.the guy said it pointed down briggate.the siren was green with a motor and twin horns.

[chameleon]

Not quite Leeds but sirens - dating back over 69 years, these are still (just) in use still in Norfolk/Sulfolk to warn of impending flood along the coast.The Environment Agency and others want to disband them (mostly on grounds of cost) and replace the warnings with emails and text messages. If they do there homework they'll find that such things are a bit of a mystery still to many of the people who would be affected - not to mention the lack of mobile coverage and internet take up in the more discrete or remote areas!For the time being they remain. I suspect there could be some worried holiday makers this Saturday when they get their annual test

[loupgarous]

I was reading subbrits's excellent Web site on (among other things) the British nuclear attack warning system when I ran across the following:"After attack, the arrival of fall out in an area could be announced locally by firing maroons from some 12000 “maroon points”, 9000 of which were collocated with hand siren sites."Please help an ignorant American out, someone, and tell me what a "maroon" is. I've visited the UK and thought I was up-to-date with British usage, but "maroon" is something I don't know about (except, of course, Bugs Bunny's "He's such a maroon... "

[chameleon]

loupgarous wrote: I was reading subbrits's excellent Web site on (among other things) the British nuclear attack warning system when I ran across the following:"After attack, the arrival of fall out in an area could be announced locally by firing maroons from some 12000 “maroon points”, 9000 of which were collocated with hand siren sites."Please help an ignorant American out, someone, and tell me what a "maroon" is. I've visited the UK and thought I was up-to-date with British usage, but "maroon" is something I don't know about (except, of course, Bugs Bunny's "He's such a maroon... " A large aerial exploding rocket mortar. Until fairly recently were still used by the coastguard/ lifeboats to alert the crews to a shout, now banned on safety grounds.A nasty example was some years ago when the skipper, Benny Reed, of the Caister Volunteer Lifeboat Service, was killed when a mortar misfired and exploded in front of him. Pagers are the order of the day now of course.    http://wapedia.mobi/en/Caister_Lifeboat

[loupgarous]

chameleon wrote: A large aerial exploding rocket mortar. Until fairly recently were still used by the coastguard/ lifeboats to alert the crews to a shout, now banned on safety grounds.A nasty example was some years ago when the skipper, Benny Reed, of the Caister Volunteer Lifeboat Service, was killed when a mortar misfired and exploded in front of him. Pagers are the order of the day now of course.    http://wapedia.mobi/en/Caister_Lifeboat Many thanks, Chameleon!