Posted on 02/05/2006 4:15:37 PM PST by Leisler
Plans to fill a nuclear landmine with chickens to regulate its temperature were seriously considered during the Cold War.
Civil servants at the National Archives say it is a coincidence the secret plan is being revealed on 1 April.
The Army planned to detonate the seven-tonne device on the German plains in the event of having to retreat.
Operation Blue Peacock forms part of an exhibition for the National Archives, in Kew, London, on Friday.
Professor Peter Hennessy, curator of the Secret State exhibition, told the Times: "It is not an April Fool. These documents come straight from the archives at Aldermaston. Why and how would we forge them?"
The bomb was designed to stop the Red Army advancing across West Germany during the height of the Cold War.
But nuclear physicists at the Aldermaston nuclear research station in Berkshire were worried about how to keep the landmine at the correct temperature when buried underground.
In a 1957 document they proposed live chickens would generate enough heat to ensure the bomb worked when buried for a week.
The birds would be put inside the casing of the bomb, given seed to keep them alive and stopped from pecking at the wiring.
The landmine would be remotely detonated.
Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, told the paper: "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."
A man had 50 yard line tickets for the Super
Bowl. As he sits down, a man comes down and asks if
anyone is
sitting in the seat next to him.
"No," he says, "The seat is empty."
"This is incredible," said the man. "Who in
their right mind would have a seat like this for the
Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the world,
and not use it?"
He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to
me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she
passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven't
been to together since we got married in 1987."
"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But
couldn't you find someone else, a friend or relative,
or even a neighbor to take the seat?"
The man shakes his head. "No, they're all at the
funeral."
(maybe I shouldn't give up the day job)
Fire-bats, very scary.
Never hurts to think "outside the box".
Glad the West avoided a pigeon gap!
I still like the idea of enormous floating landing fields and refueling depots made out of a substance known as 'piecrete'. Not sure if the spellings correct but it was a form of slow melting ice.
Ask for apple pie at 3:30 in the morning at a Pilot, Flying J or TA truck stop. Now, that's piecrete.
ROFLMAO!
My wife is still laughing
In WWII, engineers seriously considered using cats to steer bombs towards ships because "cats hate water." They had to actually drop a cat (in harness, so it didn't get hurt) to prove that it was a boneheaded idea. After that, I'd never think that just because it sounds insane, any idea was too far-out for those people, even bomb-warming chickens. Of course, there were any number of sensible ways that a bomb could have been kept at the right temp for a week, so I'm not buying this one, just on the grounds that easier techniques existed.
I still like the idea of the pidgeon guided bomb. Get a bird to peck at the image of a ship on a video screen to issue flight path corrections.
Civil servants don't joke? No they generally are jokes in my experience the ones that aren't are usually ex military types who know what it is to actually have to get something done other than that far too many are lazy asses not worth a tenth of what they get paid and couldn't think for themselves if their lives depended on it.
"The landmine would be remotely detonated."
Thats a good idea with that type of device, I understand G.I.s vetoed the idea of a nuclear hand grenade.
PETA would be all over this nuclear chicken roast.
You got that right...I'll never eat that crap again, that and Flying J fried rice.
Hey, if you wanna make an omlet, you gotta set off a few nukes...
"Are" or "aren't" ex-military? You said both.
Is that another chicken joke?
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