Square Leg

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!Date

!Event

|Warsaw Pact, which has recently come under new leadership, holds military exercises similar to those usually held in the summer. While Pact forces would normally return to base after end of exercise, on this occasion they remain close to NATO's frontier.{{cite magazine |last1=MacGregor |first1=Jane |title=Operation Square Leg: Did You Survive 1980? |url=https://ia801909.us.archive.org/17/items/subterranea-5/Subterranea%205.pdf#page=21 |magazine=Subterranea |publisher=Subterranea Britannica |access-date=4 April 2025 |pages=18-20 |date=September 2004|issn=1741-8917|via=the Internet Archive}}

|Soviet Union demands that Norway and Denmark withdraw from NATO, sparking diplomatic tension that continues into August. Public reaction is calm as the situation is believed to be just another deterioration in East-West relations.

|NATO commanders declare a state of vigilance in anticipation of war. Reserve forces are mobilised and civil defence planning is initiated at a covert level.

"A very few senior key personnel" man SRHQs while County and District authorities begin attack preparations.

UKWMO is briefed and begins its own preparations.

Planning is not publicly admitted to at this stage in order to avoid public alarm and in order not to precipitate an attack (it is still hoped that a diplomatic solution can be reached).

|Planning becomes more overt in the continued absence of a diplomatic solution. Major urban centres clear their hospitals of patients and all but a few staff members in order to make way for anticipated casualties, prompting protests from patients and their families, and from local authorities who find themselves facing increased pressure on care home places.

Cabinet instructs all departments and specified authorities to review their plans for Transition to War.{{Cite book|last1=Campbell |first1=Duncan |author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1952)|title=War Plan UK|orig-date=1983|date=2015|isbn=978-1-326-50612-4|page=33}} SRHQs and local authority emergency centres are fully prepared.

|Fuel rationing imposed, leading to queues at petrol stations and police needing to be drafted in to prevent hoarding.

|Government requests preparations to be made to remove art treasures.

|Industrial unrest and large-scale activity by extreme left- and right-wing parties. Resentment is directed at the heavier than usual police presence and the police's role in controlling subversives and potential subversives. Multiple arrests made under emergency powers. Arson attacks on industrial sites, supermarkets, etc. Police require military assistance to quell some of the unrest; they manage to do so without shots being fired.

|Considerable cross-Channel movement into the UK by expatriate families on a self-evacuation basis.

|Prime Minister addresses nation via TV and radio.

|Secretary of State authorises power of direction over British Airways and national shipping.

|Prime Minister again addresses nation.

|Protect and Survive instructions, which were already available at libraries and HMSO in pamphlet form, are issued through the media. Those who intend to follow instructions begin doing so.

Cabinet approves Queen's Order 2, effectively dissolving Parliament and granting emergency powers to the government.

Directed food buying (by government departments, police, and military services, etc.), accompanied by panic buying breaking out in some areas and subsequent price rises.

Noticeable rundown of industry. Key points{{refn|group=nb|Buffer depots and other food supplies, military bases, fuel depots, power stations, major industrial sites, government facilities, and so on.{{Cite book|last1=Campbell |first1=Duncan |author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1952)|title=War Plan UK|orig-date=1983|date=2015|isbn=978-1-326-50612-4|page=136}}}} placed under guard. Essential Service Routes designated and closed off to the general public; few local authorities have dedicated plans, with others either repurposing existing plans or acting in a completely improvised manner. Between ten and thirty per cent of persons in perceived target areas ignore advice to stay at home and instead self-evacuate, causing further difficulties for local authorities who are under no obligation to assist such evacuees (though some do).

Local authorities, MPs, police, and the services swamped with offers of help in forming some sort of civil defence/Home Guard organisation. Local authority attitudes vary; many turn down offers of civilian help despite government encouragement to use such help, while some others take on civilians with relevant skills in order to make up for staff desertions.

|Prime Minister speaks to nation for a third time.

Panic food buying continues.

|General Alert and war declared. Fighting breaks out on continent. Conventional bombing on defence related targets in UK. Public reaction to bombing is mixed - those living in high-rise flats and in areas generally thought to be obvious targets leave home quickly.

Industry seriously affected. Schools close in afternoon.

|Fighting on continent escalates.

Government authorises local authorities to staff their wartime headquarters.

Public passenger transport operating at fifty per cent of capacity.

Government orders manning of headquarters in the Regions.

|Satellites and RAF Fylingdales detect incoming nuclear attack. Attack Warning Red 11.55 am. Nuclear strike starts at 12.01 pm and ends at 12.10 pm. Strike mainly hits military and communications targets, though civilian areas are also targeted.

Loss of RAF Fylingdales and other communication difficulties caused by the first strike mean that no warning can be provided when a second strike begins. This strike starts at 13.00 and sporadically "drift[s] in" until 15.00, and targets population centres and industrial sites along with some repeat strikes on first wave targets.

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!Date

!Event

|Daily food requirements - 680,700 rations. Eighteen thousand people (in refugee camps) suffering third-degree burns. Isolated reports of refugees leaving West Midlands area.

|Casualty aid points swamped. Hospitals and improvised hospitals full.

Decision taken to conserve police strength with a view to deployment of Police Support Units later.

|Commence mass advice to achieve public order.

Reappraise triage. Request medical aid from military.

|Establish additional casualty aid points close to existing where possible. Commit to home nursing casualties who will probably die. Commence grave-digging operations.

(Transport) Remove dead from casualty aid points; remove dead from damaged areas as radiation levels permit.

Fire situation in county under control.

|Identify rationing levels of food and water. Identify additional rationing requirements of workers. Flow of refugees from the West Midlands is indicated; 31,000 to North Warwickshire, 12,000 to South Warwickshire.

|Casualty figures Rugby area is indicated 30,000 plus estimate, Nuneaton area 17,000 plus. Large numbers of persons suffering first stages of radiation sickness. Arrange for establishment of decontamination units. Consider variations to law - liaise with police.

|Estimate 100,000 plus refugees coming from West Midlands - most injured/shocked/irradiated. Consider disinfection in Rugby/Coventry area to avert disease. Liaise with military for aircraft for spraying. Control of refugees in the west of the county impossible at this date.

(Via Wartime Broadcasting System) advise public on measures being taken to alleviate rioting and looting. Produce advice to encourage 'Good Neighbourly' behaviour towards refugees. Advise public with regard to disposal of dead bodies. Advise populace not to leave their areas.

|Numbers increasing at casualty aid points, priority being given to savable under-thirties. Anticipate refugee figures to be 200,000 plus. Further requests to Sub-Regional HQ for additional food; SRHQ directive received - conserve food.

|Arrange collection of food from Buffer Depots. Liaise with police and military for convoy guards. Food to be held and guarded in district stores. Deaths becoming a serious problem, liaise with transport and works for speedier removal of bodies from casualty aid points. Advise public on action to be taken re looting - particularly theft of food. Call for volunteers to assist with transport and works tasks.

|Notification from SRHQ; twenty-five per cent of food requirements for refugees to come from local Buffer Depots. Police Support Units established and deployed to areas where refugees are known to be located. Consider establishment of interim police controls in known trouble areas.

|Feeding to commence at 1800 hrs. Calorific content of meals will be six hundred + one pint of water (non-workers), 800 + two pints of water (workers). Meals provided for infant feeding totally inadequate, request additional supplies.

Known casualty figures 37,000; seriously injured 67,000. Radiation sickness entering third stage. Disease control absolute priority. All Essential Service Routes cleared. Identify and prepare additional burial resources. Advise public on location and times Feeding Centres will be open, safe routes to them (and) emphasize subsistence level of feeding in operation.

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!Date

!Request to military staff

!Response

|Request for air reconnaissance at Little Rissington food depot.

|No response.

|Thirty men deployed.

|Barbed wire requested.

(a) quell disturbance involving eight thousand persons.

(b) guard a food warehouse at Hare Lane.

|(a) Twenty-five troops sent.

(b) Twenty-five troops despatched (sic).

|No ambulances, trained first aid personnel or medical supplies available. Some vehicles and drivers only.

|Thirty armed men made available for Cirencester. Due to radiation hazard, (it is) not considered effective to send armed parties into other areas at this time.

|County Military HQ requested [Armed Forces HQ] 7{{refn|group=nb|Described in War Plan UK as likely being located in Taunton.{{Cite book|last1=Campbell |first1=Duncan |author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1952)|title=War Plan UK|orig-date=1983|date=2015|isbn=978-1-326-50612-4|page=131}}}} to provide assistance from east of county due to radiation levels.

|Provide assistance to police at Gloucester to deal with law and order problem.

|Fifteen men from Hare Lane detailed for this task.

|Twenty armed men despatched (sic) from Innsworth at 0930 hrs.

|Five armed guards provided at each location. Two armed guards provided for each vehicle.

|Twenty armed men made available.

|Two mechanized platoons despatched (sic) at 1400 hrs.

|Cannot accommodate at RAF Innsworth but could take four thousand two hundred at RAF Quedgely (sic). Vehicles available at Aschurch (sic), but no drivers or fuel.

|Unable to assist.

|Two platoons despatched (sic) to Stroud. No stocks of barbed wire available.

|1630hrs. Wessex helicopter and twelve soldiers sent to scene.