TOCSIN BANG
The Cold War Story of the Royal Observer Corps
"A wonderful record of a part of the
Cold War virtually unknown to the general public."
"...extremely interesting, great to remember the ROC."
"...a comprehensive and important document on the history of
the Corps."
The Royal
Observer Corps, its network of underground bunkers and the
valuable work of its thousands of trained Observers are the
subject of a programme completed in Summer 2002.
Formed in
1925 as the Observer Corps, the role of the Corps was to give
an early warning of the airborne attack of London. This network
of aircraft observation posts was gradually expanded, and in
World War II aided with aircraft tracking in the Battle of
Britain, and saved many lives through their early warnings of
attack. This work earned the Corps its Royal title from
1941.
Stood down
at the end of the war, the Corps was reformed in 1947 when the
risk of attack seemed to have increased again, this time from
Russia. In some parts of the country their aircraft spotting
and tracking role continued from then well into the 60s, but in
1955 the foremost task of the Royal Observer Corps was
changed.
From 1955
until 1991, had the UK come under nuclear attack, the small
3-man "ROC Posts" were designed to monitor nuclear bursts and
subsequent fall-out.
Reporting
the data to the United Kingdom Warning & Monitoring
Organisation, their valuable information would have helped
construct a picture of the effects on the country and been used
to assist the survivors.
In this
programme we tell the story of the Corps through the eyes of
the Observers:
What was involved
with being a member of the Corps?
How did it feel to
be part of a crew?
Did we ever come
close to being involved in a nuclear attack?
12th September 2000
Cuckfield Post has been closed since 1991, and we took Steve Ashdown, the Post's Chief Observer at Standdown, back for the first time.....
Now part of a student accommodation complex, Oxford Brookes University kindly let us browse round and film in what was the ROC Group HQ building for Oxford Group.
Shooting "in the field": We have tried to take Observers back to the places they served to tell their stories, and in this case
Terry Wiseman is back at his post, at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.
