© via REUTERS / U.S. Air Force
“Sky King, Sky King. This is migrate. This is migrate. Don’t answer. Break. Break. Alpha Sierra Foxtrot Juliet Oscar Dad Mike Tango. Break. Go code.” This is the last radio message the B-52 pilots get before they drop a nuclear bomb.
What sounds like something out of a war movie was reality during the Cold War. That comes from one US Air Force training video emerged, which until recently was classified as secret. It was recently released:
The video is the “Training Film 5363entitled: “Nuclear Effects During SAC Delivery Missions”. This is an instructional video from the US Strategic Air Command (SAC). This was made in 1960 and was shown to the crew of B-52 bombers.
Crew was prepared to drop atomic bombs
The film begins with a B-52 armed with nuclear bombs heading towards the Go/No-Go-Position flies. This is the point at which it is decided whether the nuclear weapon will be used or not. At the time, the crew did not know whether it was an exercise or an emergency.
In order for such a mission to succeed, the spokesman said, one must understand the nuclear effects of a nuclear explosion. After that, basic things are explained, such as the blast radius of an atomic bomb and the effects of radiation. Most of the film explains how the Air Force plans such missions and what steps were taken to protect the crew and aircraft from radiation.
It is argued with various tests and air sample collections with a B-47 Canberra carried out after atomic bomb tests took place. There’s a sense in all of this that the Air Force wants to reassure the crew of the nuclear bombers that they’re doing their mission.
“We’re going in”
In the movie, the B-52 then arrives at the go/no-go point. That’s where the “Breaking” radio message comes in. The breaking refers to the fact that the Cross Check Codes previously contained in tubes or tags that had to be broken open to see the code inside. In the video, the code is correct: “Pilot to crew. We have reviewed and verified the code. That’s it. We’re going in.”
After a few looks of disbelief from the crew, the B-52 is prepared for its deadly mission. On the way to their destination in the Soviet Union, the crew feels the Shock wave from another atomic bomb, which exploded nearby. Then the B-52 flies low over a scenic landscape to avoid the Soviet surface-to-air missiles.
Dodge a multi-megaton bomb on the way back
A few kilometers before the finish, the B-52 climbs up. She drops the nuke and goes back to low level flight to reach a safe distance from the blast at high speed. On the return flight, the B-52 still has to go through a radioactive cloud flying caused by an atomic bomb explosion that took place 30 minutes earlier. This course avoids the B-52 in the explosion of a Multi-Megaton Bomb device whose planned detonation coincides with the time of the return flight.
Before “The End” appears in the video, the commentator can be heard again: “This could happen. If this nightmare situation ever becomes a grim reality, you may be in deep trouble, but at least you can be sure of escaping without being exposed to the nuclear effects of our own weapons.”
