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The alert system explained on Wiki:

The BIKINI state was an alert state indicator previously used by the UK Ministry of Defence to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war. Signs giving the current alert state were displayed at the entrance to government buildings and military installations. It was established on 19 May 1970. According to the Ministry of Defence, the wordbikini was randomly selected by a computer.^[1]

Whilst similar to the DEFCON alert states used in the United States, the BIKINI levels were defined by the section of the military or organisation rather than UK-wide, and as a result, countermeasures and reactions to differing states may differ as acutely as from building to building. The highest levels of alert, RED and AMBER, were only intended to be maintained for limited times. The WHITE state has never been used in the history of the system.

It was replaced by a more general and public terrorism alert status, UK Threat Levels, an alert state system in use by the British government since 1 August 2006.

• Red = Information has been received about an attack on a specific target. It can also mean “red alert”, meaning the United Kingdom is at war, especially if there’s a likelihood of a nuclear strike .
• Amber = There has been specific information received and there is a substantial threat to government targets. It can also mean “high alert”, which could be a transition to war.
• Black Special = There is an increased likelihood of an attack, but no defined target. It can also mean “potential terrorist threat”.
• Black = There has been an assessment made that there is the possibility of an attack, but no defined target. It can also mean “possible civil unrest”, meaning safety can’t be guaranteed.
• White = No information available about a specific threat. It can also mean “situation stable”

Hack Green, SECRET nuclear bunker:

In 1941 Hack Green, a site previously used as a bombing decoy site for the main railway centre at Crewe was chosen to become RAF Hack Green, to protect the land between Birmingham and Liverpool from hostile attack. Thus began the service of Hack Green and the airmen and women of Cheshire in the defence of the nation.

Hack Green was one of 21 fixed radar stations in the country and one of only 12 fully equipped with searchlights and fighter aircraft control. In one of the cabinets in the museum you can see some of the original communications equipment used by Searchlight Command.

Following World War II, a major examination of radar capability showed that our existing radar defence would be unable to cope with the threat posed by fast jet aircraft, let alone nuclear missiles. Any operational station needed to be protected against the new threat posed by nuclear weapons. ‘Rotor’ was the code name given to the Top Secret plan to replace the Chain Home and Ground Controlled Intercept radar network. The plan involved placing 1620 radar screens into massively constructed bunkers covering the UK. Hack Green was a semi-sunk bunker known as a type R6.

RAF Hack Green joined 12 Group protecting Britain against the perceived Soviet threat of both conventional and nuclear war. With new long range radar, Hack Green could give vital warning of the approach of hostile Russian bombers and enable the RAF to intercept with fighter aircraft or Bloodhound ground to air missiles. In accordance with the then held tripwire theory, that a number of nuclear bombers would always get through to some targets, early warning of impending attack enabled our Victor ‘V-Force’ nuclear bombers to become airborne and launch a retaliatory attack.

So I will not be in ‘the best place to be when the WORLD ENDS’ tomorrow and I will not be protected from potential obliteration…

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out Whistlestop PhotoHunt.

I find it hard to believe it is 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, time flies by so quickly.  I can remember the images so vividly, it only seems like yesterday!

The BBC report on how a blunder led to the downfall of the wall:

From the safe distance of 20 years, the opening of the Berlin Wall can be seen as inevitable – the natural consequence of changes that were reshaping Europe. But for most of 1989 it was unthinkable.

And the decision itself was an accident – intended neither to happen the way it did nor to spark off the tumultuous changes that followed.

I find this link from my friend Luisa particularly interesting:

November 9 is a key date in Germany’s chequered 20th century history. It isn’t just the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. On this day in 1938, Nazi Germany launched a pogrom against its Jewish population in which more than 2,000 people died. SPIEGEL ONLINE looks at three events that occurred on this fateful date before 1989.