Radio 4

[andrewroberts.1953]

Have a listen to Radio 4 on Monday evening at 20:00. A now much heard of part of the cold war. :whistle:

[andrewroberts.1953]

Opps :oops: :whistle: Should have read "not much heard of" :computerterror:

[AlienFTM]

Have a listen to Radio 4 on Monday evening at 20:00. A now much heard of part of the cold war. :whistle:

 

 

Go on, give us a clue. I keep telling you my not much heard of parts of the Cold War.

 

Last few weeks I have been worried that the pig-headedness of messrs Bush and Putin in particular, with the aid of their beloved poodle were about to undo all good things that have happened since I left the front line, the Wall came down and peace broke out (well, we all hoped it had). I have recently been thinking my eight years in the Corps Area had been rendered useless by these two men.

 

When Reagan first whispered (OK SHOUTED) Star Wars, I couldn't believe the Soviets wouldn't accept it. If both sides had a non-nuclear anti-ballistic-missile capability * , the ABM Treaty could be dropped, neither side could ever launch a strike and peace must follow.

 

Now Bush is whispering ABM shield and finally, someone has realised that if both sides have it, the ballistic missile is obsolete.

 

* For those who didn't know. During the Cold War, the only way to to get close enough to down a ballistic missile before it got close enough to earth to prevent nuclear devastation was to fire another nuclear ballistic missile at it and get the former within the latter's blast radius (only a nuclear missile had the blast radius to destroy a ballistic missile at altitude). The deployment of anti-ballistic missiles would have led to the doubling of nuclear missiles and out-of-control proliferation when each side already had enough nuclear ballistic missile to render the planet radioactive molten slag in minutes already. As a result, both sides signed an ABM treaty to prevent escalation of numbers, but as soon as the US whispered, "non-nuclear ABM system," the Soviets screamed "ABM Treaty!" completely out of context and Reagan got shouted down.

[andrewroberts.1953]

BRIXMIS. The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany.

BRIXMIS was noted for many technical intelligence coups, including:

 

Secretly bringing a Yak-28 Firebar's Skip Spin radar and jet engines back to Farnborough for inspection after it crashed into lake Havelsee in Berlin.

Measuring the calibre of the gun of the then brand-new BMP-2 Armoured personnel carrier.

Stealing "reactive armour" from a Russian tank, for analysis!

[AlienFTM]

BRIXMIS. The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany.

BRIXMIS was noted for many technical intelligence coups, including:

 

Secretly bringing a Yak-28 Firebar's Skip Spin radar and jet engines back to Farnborough for inspection after it crashed into lake Havelsee in Berlin.

Measuring the calibre of the gun of the then brand-new BMP-2 Armoured personnel carrier.

Stealing "reactive armour" from a Russian tank, for analysis!

 

 

When T64 and T72 were the next big thing to hit the Sovier arsenal, somebody (quite possibly Brixmis) went to great lengths to get photographs of these new vehicles so that the troops could identify and report them correctly.

 

When pictures of the T72 became available, it was clear that this agent had found them leaguered up in a silver birch wood.

 

For years, the presence of silver birch in a recognition picture was a primary recognition feature of the T72. So when a slide came up showing a T72, the first player would shout "T72" and the rest of the audience would shout, "silver birch."