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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 9, 2014 13:16:36 GMT 12
Not many kiwis realise that New Zealand's Army was in the very first act of the Cold War. The stand off versus Tito's Communists at Trieste in Italy in 1945. My late Dad was in the middle of that. It was one of the few episodes of his army service that he spoke about when we were kids.
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Post by raymond on May 9, 2014 19:49:49 GMT 12
Others here may be able to add to my comments about the viewing of 'The Day After'. I assume other bases had briefings and viewings in a similar pattern. At Wigram we had the screening accompanying a quick briefing in the theatrette at 2TTS. The Base theatre was not used and I have no idea of numbers, how many can fit into that room at 2TTS? I assume all Bases Officers were given the opportunity to attend the briefing and it may have even been held over a few sessions.... this must have been 1983 or 84. I don't know if the other ranks had a similar opportunity but at least with the Officers it did form a part of the regular intelligence briefings. My recollections are that NZ was much more concerned with a regional conflict and that at our level, at least, we just had a awareness of a strategic Nuclear attack and what that would have involved. I recall these briefings were invite only (I had to check the names off and they were all officers) and there was an element of security to ensure that only those authorised saw the movie/briefing. At WP they used the base theatre I can also recall watching part of the movie with the projectionist........
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Post by pjw4118 on May 10, 2014 13:10:25 GMT 12
Strangely yesterdays NZ Herald had a piece regarding re location of "essential " Government people and politicians from the GG down, in the event of a disaster in Wellington. The move was to the Devonport Naval Base.
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Post by komata on May 10, 2014 17:02:44 GMT 12
pjw4118: An Interesting article wasn't it? I would have thought Waiouru would have been more 'central' (literally) and with better comms than Devonport? It's also a lot closer to the capital than Auckland, and would IMHO, be a lot better-situated to coordinate any 'rescue' that would be required.
Of course if things did turn to custard, then Ohakea would be even better - at least in the short term...
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Post by pjw4118 on May 12, 2014 13:07:57 GMT 12
Yes , but both are far away from those other things essential to Government , food and entertainment and of course , the public eye.
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Post by ErrolC on May 12, 2014 13:38:42 GMT 12
That was specifically Parliament, in the case of an earthquake, wasn't it? Quite different from people actually operationally running things.
Sent via Proboards Android App
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 13, 2014 23:45:25 GMT 12
Devonport has a much higher population of essential needs for Government types - coffee shops, bars and prostitutes.
How will they determine the difference in Wellington from a natural disaster and normal everyday weather?
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Post by komata on May 14, 2014 6:41:16 GMT 12
'How will they determine the difference in Wellington from a natural disaster and normal everyday weather?
Only by the intensity sir, only by the intensity....
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 14, 2014 19:09:52 GMT 12
It's a fine line some days Komata ...
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Post by komata on May 14, 2014 19:26:12 GMT 12
True - and when a southerly howled around Stout Street and Freyberg, you really had to wonder...
Yet on a still, fine, day, Wellington is one of the best and most beautiful places in New Zealand.
(It's just that 'still, fine, days', don't happen particularly frequently....)
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 14, 2014 19:38:59 GMT 12
Wellington people tell you that, but on a still, fine day everywhere else is just as good too.
I just spent five days in Auckland and got magnificent fine, warm and windless days. Superb for this time of year.
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Post by komata on May 14, 2014 19:51:41 GMT 12
And then you came south for the fog... (as we all do)
Makes you homesick don't it?
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 14, 2014 20:09:34 GMT 12
When I got home I was one and a half blocks from home, on foot, and down came the rain. I had taken the brolly with me all over Auckland in perfect sunshine without any need to use it, lucky I had it for the last three minutes of my trip!
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Post by suthg on May 14, 2014 20:11:50 GMT 12
Some of my thoughts on the redistribution of the nation's core functions and double up on locations for Govt Depts - at about mid 70's to the 80's, there was a shift away from Wellington for the Police computer files - I know this function ended up in Wanganui, but another location was in Masterton in a multi storey Govt Dept building which I believe held duplicate Police files - or was it IRD in its earlier presentation, or many departments. Perhaps there were other cities that shared some of the nation's functions at this time instead of concentrating them in Wellington. I guess an earthquake was also another "cover" for spreading these functions around, or duplicating them. Perhaps Bruce may have some knowledge of the functionality of this building in Masterton? Were there any other operations setup in other localities?
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Post by mumbles on May 14, 2014 21:04:19 GMT 12
Wellington people tell you that, but on a still, fine day everywhere else is just as good too. That said I'll take any Wellington wind over a hot Canterbury norwester. Say what you like about Wellington weather, at least it doesn't routinely start fires and make people mad. Other parts of the country are just as bad, and often worse in their own ways .
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 14, 2014 21:40:47 GMT 12
The Dux Deluxe's Norwester was an exquisitely fine beer. Especially after a day in the hot wind. A great part of living down there. Sadly the Dux is no longer around thanks to the quake.
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Post by mumbles on May 14, 2014 21:59:33 GMT 12
To the contrary, any surviving Base personnel were to be deployed to other bases with some making the immediate move to Denmark. This of course is assuming that some of the bombers or missile inbound from the other team are going to be partially successful with their mission. Just re-reading this, and recalled a declassified Soviet War Plan I saw somewhere on the web that had Denmark being essentially flattened by nuclear strikes merely for being between the Warsaw Pact and Norway, and the Baltic and the Atlantic. An assumption of these plans was that if the Soviets felt they had to go to war they would go nuclear from the practially the beginning at a tactical level (at least up until Chernobyl exposed them to the reality of a radiated environment apparently).
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Post by mumbles on May 14, 2014 22:14:35 GMT 12
Re: Nuclear Preparedness and New Zealand. In respect of the matter of 'Nuclear explosions', unfortunately Green's statement in para 3. is incorrect, although, when writing his paper, he was no-doubt acting on the information made available to him. From memory, the Russians had 'let it be known' ('accidentally', as they always did) that, as NZ was a member of the 'Western Bloc', and therefore an enemy (if only by default), Wellington was considered to be a 'legitimate' target should things come to the crunch, a fact reinforced by the acknowledged presence of soviet submarines off the NZ coast (although they were always 'in transit' - of course). Although no 'official' plans to meet this contingency were prepared, various 'unofficial' ones were informally 'arranged', it being considered that the deterioration of the political climate in the Northern hemisphere would be able to give sufficient warning to enable various 'important people' to 'exit stage left'. The good citizens of Wellington were, of course, oblivious to such matters, especially as 'rumour had it' that the Beehive had been constructed with 'nuclear proof' 'underground bunkers' to protect the parliamentarians, and other 'important people'. Although years afterwards,it was stated that in fact the 'bunkers' had no nuclear-protective capability, it made a good story at the time. That the city itself was being left to fry, was a mere detail..... They were 'interesting' times... On that cheery note, thanks to the efforts of a programmer/nuclear historian named Alex Wellerstein, the effects of a 550kT airburst over the Beehive can be roughly simulated. There is supposedly a way to embed these but it doesn't seem to work: nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&linked=1&kt=550&lat=-41.2783979&lng=174.7766652&hob_ft=0&zm=11Under these circumstances I probably survive, although my house is likely on fire. Fallout isn't an issue. This is a 2x1MT above Somes/Matiu scenario I saw in a novel once, aimed at destroying any vessels in the harbour presumably. It wasn't a very well written or researched novel though: nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&linked=1&kt=550&lat=-41.2783979&lng=174.7766652&hob_ft=0&zm=11Nukemap is fascinating, if a tad creepy .
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Post by shorty on May 15, 2014 14:50:16 GMT 12
As for moving the pollies to Devenport, I just watched thei clip :www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhkePLsm_pU and I figured that if all theae guys wanted to party in Cuba Street then moving to Devenport probably wont help.
Mind you I admired the colour guard guys goose-stepping the full length of Red Square, I found on those cobbles it was bad enough walking and I wasn't carrying anything bigger than a camera!
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Post by fwx on May 29, 2014 9:06:27 GMT 12
No, sorry I don't think Devonport could muster up THAT many prostitutes .... in fact last time I looked Dave, I didn't see any??!
A couple of weeks back I sat beside a Kiwi who as a RAF pilot actually practiced lobbing nuclear weapons at the Russians. Relatively low level launch, and interesting tactics to avoid the ensuing mushroom cloud.
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