:00:07. > :00:11.Are we doing enough to protect the nation's treasures? Why are our
:00:11. > :00:16.news teams being targeted and what is being done to protect them?
:00:16. > :00:21.had information from the police that some of the objects in our
:00:21. > :00:26.museum will under direct threat from a criminal gang. The Dale Farm
:00:26. > :00:29.addiction cost �7.2 million and started a riot and made worldwide
:00:29. > :00:33.headlines, so why are there still the same number of travellers
:00:33. > :00:37.there? I am prepared to spend what it takes for people to comply with
:00:37. > :00:42.the law. I do not think there can be a price on that.
:00:42. > :00:46.And we look back 50 years to the week that our region when it was at
:00:46. > :00:56.the forefront of what was almost World War Three. Those are the
:00:56. > :01:03.
:01:03. > :01:07.stories that matter here in the Tonight, Inside Out is in
:01:07. > :01:11.Harrington in Northamptonshire. During the Second World War, this
:01:11. > :01:15.Airbase was used by the Americans and now, it's a museum. Of course,
:01:15. > :01:20.our museums look after our priceless treasures, things that if
:01:20. > :01:24.lost, can never be replaced. Some high profile thefts have occurred
:01:24. > :01:29.in the past few years but museums are now so concerned that they have
:01:29. > :01:32.set up a special task force to try to protect them. So on the night of
:01:32. > :01:35.the theft the perpetrator, the thief, broke in through this door.
:01:35. > :01:38.They climbed over the metal fence that surrounds the site, smashed
:01:38. > :01:43.through this door with what we think was a grate cover or a drain
:01:43. > :01:46.cover from somewhere in the park. We haven't found that yet. And then
:01:46. > :01:49.they would have headed straight over to the case and using this
:01:49. > :01:53.very heavy metal object they smashed through the front of the
:01:53. > :01:56.glass, having tried the top as well, took the jug and left straight away.
:01:56. > :02:00.And what was so interesting was at no point did they look around to
:02:00. > :02:03.see that it's in a shop and there were other things they could have
:02:03. > :02:07.taken. So I think they were deliberately targeting the jug and
:02:07. > :02:11.going for a quick escape. The Wenlock Jug, which was stolen
:02:11. > :02:14.in May this year, was the pride of the collection at the Stockwood
:02:14. > :02:18.Discovery Centre on the outskirts of Luton. What we think the thief
:02:18. > :02:25.was aiming to do was target this jug. Possibly for the reward from
:02:25. > :02:28.the insurance company, or possibly stolen to order. We don't really
:02:28. > :02:32.know. What I think is unlikely is that it was stolen for its value as
:02:32. > :02:36.metal, as a lump of metal to be melted down. Because although it's
:02:36. > :02:40.a bronze jug, it's not pure bronze. It's made of base metals and lead
:02:40. > :02:43.and if you melt it down, you'll get about �20 for it. Its real value is
:02:43. > :02:47.that it is a rare, medieval bronze jug. There's only three in the
:02:47. > :02:50.world. It's worth �750,000, but only if it's kept as a medieval jug.
:02:50. > :02:55.The museum, which was refurbished four years ago, gets over 200,000
:02:55. > :02:58.visitors a year. The impact of the theft on the museum has been
:02:58. > :03:02.devastating, I have to say, not only to our regular visitors, but
:03:02. > :03:07.also to staff who take a great pride in this site and what they've
:03:07. > :03:10.achieved in the last four years. But the museum in Luton isn't an
:03:10. > :03:16.isolated case. There have been a number of high-profile thefts from
:03:16. > :03:20.our museums over the past 12 months. In Ipswich thieves broke into the
:03:20. > :03:25.town's museum and snatched a rhino horn. In Cambridge Chinese art
:03:25. > :03:29.worth millions of pounds was stolen from the Fitzwilliam Museum. But
:03:29. > :03:32.these are just some of the thefts which have made the news. Inside
:03:32. > :03:37.Out can now reveal that there have been far more thefts that have
:03:37. > :03:40.received little if any publicity. We've discovered that over the past
:03:40. > :03:46.six years at least 111 objects have been stolen from museums, right
:03:46. > :03:50.across the region. So are museums being complacent
:03:50. > :03:53.about protecting their treasures? Here in Norwich, thieves were
:03:53. > :03:56.tackled trying to steal a rhino horn from the Castle Museum and in
:03:56. > :04:05.another incident thieves did actually get away with items
:04:05. > :04:08.George Nobbs is Vice Chair of the Norfolk's Museums Board and is
:04:08. > :04:11.currently producing a report looking at the way museums are run
:04:11. > :04:17.in the county. He's scathing of the way Norwich Castle Museum runs its
:04:17. > :04:20.security. The thing that perplexes me is that that when we had the
:04:20. > :04:25.theft of the rhino horn which was thwarted and museum staff stopped
:04:25. > :04:29.it being stolen, the story was emblazoned in the press. You were
:04:29. > :04:31.told about it, there were press releases and so on. But when some
:04:31. > :04:35.valuable Nelson artefacts were stolen, it took days, possibly
:04:35. > :04:39.weeks, before anybody knew about it. One wonders whether we would ever
:04:39. > :04:43.have found out about it at all. The initial statement when it did come
:04:43. > :04:48.out was that they said that staff at the museum had discovered the
:04:48. > :04:52.theft and alerted the police. The truth of the matter is that an off-
:04:52. > :04:55.duty policeman discovered the theft and he alerted the staff.
:04:55. > :05:00.Well, these are serious allegations, so what does the councillor in
:05:00. > :05:05.charge of museums have to say? Why did theft of Nelson memorabilia
:05:05. > :05:10.go unnoticed for so long? Does it show how lax security is at the
:05:10. > :05:13.museum? No, not at all. Security isn't lax and never has been. It
:05:13. > :05:17.was just a case of we don't have constant patrols going around
:05:17. > :05:20.looking for things that are untoward. In fact, I believe it was
:05:20. > :05:24.a member of the public that actually alerted a member of staff.
:05:24. > :05:27.So it was a member of the public? Surely members of staff should be
:05:27. > :05:31.going round checking what's there and what isn't? Shouldn't they do a
:05:31. > :05:36.regular audit? They would have picked it up as soon as somebody
:05:36. > :05:39.went past, obviously. But it's a relatively short period of time,
:05:39. > :05:42.it's not something that was serious. Museums across the country have
:05:42. > :05:46.been shaken by the number of high profile thefts and are taking the
:05:46. > :05:50.problem of theft very seriously. A Museum Security Group has been
:05:50. > :05:54.set up by the Victoria and Albert Museum here in London. It has more
:05:54. > :05:57.than 350 members. Among other things it gives advice to museums
:05:57. > :06:00.about how best to protect their collections.
:06:00. > :06:04.In charge of the security group is Vernon Rapley, former head of
:06:05. > :06:07.Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques Unit. Just a few weeks ago we had
:06:07. > :06:13.information from the police that some objects in our museum were
:06:13. > :06:16.under direct threat from a criminal gang. We looked at the information,
:06:16. > :06:19.we assessed it. There was really nothing else we could do at that
:06:19. > :06:22.time to protect those objects but to remove them temporarily from
:06:22. > :06:24.display. Whilst I can't... I don't want to say what the objects are,
:06:24. > :06:29.because that would possibly endanger them and restrict us
:06:29. > :06:37.putting them back, sometimes that has to be... Well, it IS the only
:06:37. > :06:45.With so many thefts from museums in our region, I wanted to find out if
:06:45. > :06:48.our museums could be doing more to Do you think museums are guilty of
:06:48. > :06:51.being complacent about security? I think absolutely the opposite,
:06:51. > :06:57.actually. I think that recent events have highlighted the need
:06:57. > :07:03.for museum security. But obviously it can be quite expensive to put in
:07:03. > :07:06.and so it has to be prioritised. Sometimes it can take a number of
:07:06. > :07:11.years to put in. There's a number of measures they can take now that
:07:11. > :07:14.are cost effective and cheap. Just by working together, sharing
:07:14. > :07:20.resources and making the best use of intelligence and resources they
:07:20. > :07:24.have. I think criminals have become more aware over the last 15-20
:07:24. > :07:26.years, certainly, of the value of art and antiques, and the sort of
:07:26. > :07:29.materials, cultural heritage that museums are displaying and also
:07:29. > :07:32.become aware that it's not the most difficult thing to pass through the
:07:32. > :07:40.art market and achieve a reasonable return for their criminal
:07:40. > :07:43.A review of security was made following the thefts at Norwich
:07:44. > :07:50.Castle Museum. It said security should be beefed up with more CCTV
:07:50. > :07:53.cameras. It was also suggested that improved locking systems and the
:07:53. > :07:56.addition of trembler alarms should be considered on certain display
:07:56. > :08:02.cabinets. But George Nobbs doesn't think the recommendations go far
:08:02. > :08:05.enough. He says recent staff cut- backs have made the museum more at
:08:05. > :08:11.risk from thieves. Last year the administration here replaced a 20-
:08:11. > :08:15.strong team of people, you may as well call them museum guides. Those
:08:15. > :08:19.who were on the front line, who met the public, were in the galleries
:08:19. > :08:23.all the time. Some of them lost their jobs, some of them deployed
:08:23. > :08:26.to other duties. But to my mind, unless you have real people walking
:08:26. > :08:35.around the museum, interacting with the public and seeing what's going
:08:35. > :08:38.Has the cutback in staff led to more things being stolen from the
:08:38. > :08:43.museum? No, not at all and again we haven't actually cut back staff,
:08:43. > :08:46.we've re-deployed staff but we actually have the same number. But
:08:46. > :08:49.there are the same number of staff in the castle, but they're just
:08:49. > :08:52.doing different jobs at this stage. Don't you think they should be
:08:52. > :08:57.looking out for things that maybe have been taken or potentially
:08:57. > :09:01.could be stolen? The thing is, we want to achieve a balance. We don't
:09:01. > :09:05.want to make it like a fortress. We want to make it welcoming and
:09:05. > :09:10.friendly for the visitors, so you can't lock it down so that there's
:09:10. > :09:16.total security. We could close the doors and it would be perfectly
:09:16. > :09:19.safe, so you've always got that Back at the Stockwood Discovery
:09:19. > :09:23.Centre in Luton, they're carrying out a security review to try to
:09:23. > :09:26.make sure the museum isn't targeted by thieves again. Have you seen
:09:26. > :09:29.what's in this case? Come and see these medals. Karen Perkins says
:09:29. > :09:33.whatever precautions are taken it's impossible to make a museum totally
:09:33. > :09:38.secure. Reviewing the security is very important though, we're moving
:09:38. > :09:42.ahead with that right now. But what we don't want to do is go down the
:09:42. > :09:45.avenue of locking everything away. Of course, some of the stuff, we
:09:45. > :09:48.have to but we have a lot of stuff on open display. These collections
:09:48. > :09:52.belong to the people of Luton. We're about authentic objects and
:09:52. > :09:55.we want to make sure people have as much access to those collections as
:09:55. > :10:04.possible. If we just locked them away in a store, we're not really
:10:04. > :10:07.And some good news - since we last filmed in Luton, the Wenlock Jug
:10:07. > :10:09.has been recovered. If there's something you think we should be
:10:09. > :10:13.investigating here on Inside Out, you can email me:
:10:13. > :10:16.david.whiteley@bbc.co.uk. You're watching Inside Out East. Later in
:10:16. > :10:22.the programme, Northamptonshire's part in the Cuban Missile Crisis
:10:22. > :10:26.when the world was really close to nuclear war. This was a line of
:10:26. > :10:32.first defence for America. Indeed, one of the only ways at that stage
:10:32. > :10:40.that they could target missile at Soviet Russia. It made us here very
:10:40. > :10:43.This time last year, you couldn't turn on the TV or listen to the
:10:43. > :10:47.radio without hearing about Dale Farm. The illegal travellers' site
:10:47. > :10:51.in Essex was all over the news as the eviction was covered by the
:10:51. > :10:54.media from across the world. BBC East's Alex Dunlop was there to
:10:54. > :10:58.report on the eviction and the violence. Now a year later, Alex
:10:58. > :11:07.has come back to Dale Farm to see if the millions of pounds it cost
:11:07. > :11:10.to evict the travellers was money Contaminated and deserted. Huge
:11:10. > :11:20.effort carved out this wasteland. Bulldozers, bailiffs and more than
:11:20. > :11:24.
:11:24. > :11:26.�7 million of taxpayers' money. And Turn back a year, and the moment
:11:26. > :11:36.riot police break the siege at Europe's largest illegal traveller
:11:36. > :11:56.
:11:56. > :11:59.The police had just deployed hazes and in return -- Tasers. 80 Irish
:11:59. > :12:02.Traveller families own this land, but they're not allowed to develop
:12:03. > :12:06.it. 45 activists are arrested. It was supposed to be the end of 10
:12:06. > :12:10.years of costly legal wrangling and delaying tactics. This is the first
:12:10. > :12:14.time I've been back to Dale Farm since the siege 12 months ago and I
:12:14. > :12:20.have I say I'm pretty blown away by what a mess it is. It's almost
:12:20. > :12:24.unrecognisable. This used to be a main road that would lead to
:12:24. > :12:28.various plots and bungalows. The bungalow that used to be here has
:12:28. > :12:31.long since disappeared. Only this wall remains. The council
:12:31. > :12:41.contractors have dug up the hard core to prevent caravans and
:12:41. > :12:48.
:12:48. > :12:51.trailers coming on to the site and There used to be a mobile home here.
:12:51. > :12:54.It's been dug out since then and replaced with some still, stagnant
:12:54. > :12:58.water. Clearly a health hazard. The question is where have the caravans
:12:58. > :13:01.gone? Well, you don't have to look too far to find out. On a lane just
:13:01. > :13:03.outside the former entrance to the illegal part of Dale Farm. 20 of
:13:03. > :13:06.them still breaking the law. And some familiar faces. Kathleen
:13:06. > :13:13.McCarthy and her sisters had been the public voice of the travellers
:13:13. > :13:16.during the High Court legal fight and the face of their defiance.
:13:16. > :13:23.They promised us bailiffs and police to come to each yard and let
:13:23. > :13:28.us leave peacefully. I am totally disgusted. Riot police to come to
:13:29. > :13:37.women and children what do they think we are? On the eve of
:13:37. > :13:42.eviction, I'd spent the last night around the travellers' camp fire.
:13:42. > :13:45.will not lie, it is a sad day. Years ago we knew we could go to a
:13:45. > :13:48.different camp. Not now. A year on, the sisters are split up. One has
:13:48. > :13:50.moved to Smithy Fen, a camp in Cambridgeshire. But Kathleen
:13:50. > :13:58.McCarthy remains. These days she prefers playing with her
:13:58. > :14:05.grandchildren to courting the media. Life has changed big time. In what
:14:05. > :14:12.way? I think in some cases is it for the worst for some people.
:14:13. > :14:15.Because they have lost absolutely everything. Families have been
:14:16. > :14:19.separated, the state of the place is terrible. 12 months down the
:14:19. > :14:25.line, it is still in a terrible state. We are still breathing the
:14:25. > :14:34.germs. From the mess they have left behind. It is affecting the small
:14:34. > :14:39.children. Diarrhea and sickness. It is terrifying. Are you staying here
:14:39. > :14:41.out of stubbornness or necessity? don't think it is out of
:14:41. > :14:45.stubbornness because being stubborn isn't going to help anything. The
:14:45. > :14:47.reason we are here, we're still living in the hope there might be a
:14:47. > :14:57.site built. After spending �7 million they might think to
:14:57. > :15:07.
:15:07. > :15:10.themselves, after �7 million, we And just as many travellers still
:15:10. > :15:13.live at Dale Farm, most of them illegally. Time though is running
:15:13. > :15:16.out again. This is the man who'll decide whether to send the bailiffs
:15:16. > :15:20.back in. It's the first time the leader of Basildon Council has seen
:15:20. > :15:22.the camp from the hill where officers broke the barricades.
:15:22. > :15:27.I'm frustrated that the travellers have decided to continue to live
:15:27. > :15:30.outside the law, that's what frustrates me. I am satisfied that
:15:30. > :15:35.actually Dale Farm is clear of illegal development, that was our
:15:35. > :15:40.objective. But look behind you - It is an absolute mess. It's hardly
:15:40. > :15:43.green belt. Not at the moment, but remember that's exactly what it was
:15:43. > :15:46.mean to be. It was illegally developed and the land is still in
:15:46. > :15:51.the travellers' ownership. To a certain extent there's an onus on
:15:51. > :15:55.them to clear it up at the moment, but these things take time. But I'm
:15:55. > :16:00.clear at the end of the day that Dale Farm is something people will
:16:00. > :16:04.recognise as green-belt site. So, it's stalemate. It's fallen to
:16:04. > :16:07.Ben Stickley from the British Red Cross to intervene. He's not here
:16:07. > :16:13.to hand food parcels or give first aid. All he can do is act as
:16:13. > :16:16.mediator. I'm going to go and talk to the residents, just to see if
:16:16. > :16:20.there's any concerns they've got that they want to highlight with us
:16:20. > :16:23.at the moment. Before eviction, many of the
:16:23. > :16:32.travellers led independent lives and some shunned outside help. But
:16:33. > :16:37.conditions now for those camped illegally are deteriorating.
:16:37. > :16:41.there electric blankets at your place? I will ask and find out. I
:16:41. > :16:46.don't know if they often get electric blankets in. You have to
:16:46. > :16:48.look where you step. There's faeces all over the place. There are real
:16:48. > :16:51.concerns around faeces. Waste. We're getting a lot of people
:16:51. > :16:55.saying to us there's stomach bugs going round and kids playing out in
:16:55. > :17:00.what's a very dangerous environment. Something that we would really like
:17:00. > :17:04.to work towards resolving. I've spoken to a few people who
:17:04. > :17:07.live around here. None of them wanted to go on camera. They told
:17:07. > :17:10.me that far from being disadvantaged, the travellers down
:17:10. > :17:16.there at Dale Farm are in fact taking advantage of the system and
:17:16. > :17:22.milking the legal process. Previous offers of temporary housing in
:17:22. > :17:27.bricks and mortar were turned down. Everything could be solved if a
:17:27. > :17:31.site were made. We are willing to go wherever they want us to go.
:17:31. > :17:37.Really? We put in for two sites before, we did it the legal way and
:17:37. > :17:45.we were turned down. We're still hoping. Do you see yourself here in
:17:45. > :17:48.a year's time? Yeah. You're that sure? Cos I truly believe even if I
:17:48. > :17:57.got chucked on the road and they keep spending all that money being
:17:57. > :18:01.silly again, some of my friends would have me in. I will always be
:18:02. > :18:05.in Oak Lane. There were 90 caravans and 400
:18:05. > :18:10.people living on Dale Farm at one time. The overwhelming majority of
:18:10. > :18:15.those have moved away. But they have moved back, a lot of them.
:18:15. > :18:25.Some have. Not all of them, that is the point. All of them said they
:18:25. > :18:28.had nowhere else to go. Some have, and some people, my information is
:18:28. > :18:30.some people we haven't seen on Dale Farm before. I have always
:18:30. > :18:33.recognised there are some vulnerable people, who we've been
:18:33. > :18:36.trying to get to, who genuinely have nowhere else to go. More than
:18:36. > :18:39.�7 million spent - nothing has been achieved, has it, realistically?
:18:39. > :18:43.There is no doubt I would have much rather not spent the money, or
:18:43. > :18:46.spent it on something else, but I am absolutely clear that if we
:18:46. > :18:49.turned a blind eye to law-breaking I would be here talking to you
:18:49. > :18:52.about why we'd done that as opposed to doing the right thing and
:18:52. > :18:55.upholding the law. And even though you are a cash-strapped council,
:18:55. > :19:00.you're prepared to spend millions more trying to sort this out?
:19:00. > :19:04.prepared to spend what it takes for people to comply with the law. I
:19:04. > :19:07.don't think there can be a price on that. Really? It is an open
:19:07. > :19:11.chequebook for you? I wouldn't say it is an open chequebook, but what
:19:11. > :19:15.I am saying is what is more important is that the law is upheld
:19:15. > :19:18.and complied with. It's up to local authorities to apply that law.
:19:18. > :19:22.If the aim of the forced eviction was to clear illegal travellers
:19:22. > :19:25.from the camp, well, as you can seeit that hasn't worked. Around
:19:25. > :19:29.100 travellers or so are camped illegally on this lane, many more
:19:29. > :19:33.have moved on to legal pitches next door. The conditions are getting
:19:33. > :19:43.bleaker by the day. So after �7 million and counting, there's still
:19:43. > :19:45.
:19:45. > :19:48.a standoff here at Dale Farm. 50 years ago, the world held its
:19:48. > :19:51.breath as two superpowers were on the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban
:19:51. > :19:54.Missile Crisis has gone down in history as a battle of nerves
:19:54. > :19:57.between the Soviet Union and the United States. But this quiet part
:19:57. > :20:00.of Northamptonshire, scarily, would have been where some of the
:20:00. > :20:10.missiles were launched from. We look back on the war that almost
:20:10. > :20:13.was. It's a summer's day at RAF
:20:13. > :20:17.Waddington, and the crowds are out for the station's annual aviation
:20:17. > :20:27.showcase. In October 1962 it was home to the Vulcan bombers of the
:20:27. > :20:30.RAF's V Force. Today it's hosting the Waddington Air Show.
:20:30. > :20:40.But we'd have none of this if events 50 years ago this month had
:20:40. > :20:42.
:20:42. > :20:45.Within the past week, unmistakeable evidence has established the fact
:20:45. > :20:48.that s eries of offensive missile sites is now in preparation
:20:48. > :20:56.The Cuban Missile Crisis was the nearest we ever got to starting
:20:56. > :21:00.World War Three. Russia had placed nuclear weapons in Cuba, and aimed
:21:00. > :21:07.them at America. And they weren't scared off by the Americans setting
:21:07. > :21:10.up a blockade. There seemed only one conclusion.
:21:10. > :21:13.We were potentially minutes away from nuclear war. And the first
:21:13. > :21:18.bomb of this terrible conflict could have been launched, not from
:21:18. > :21:21.Cuba, but from here. In 1962, if we'd launched a nuclear bomb
:21:21. > :21:26.towards Russia, the weapon would have begun its journey in the East
:21:27. > :21:30.of England. Lincolnshire was very important for
:21:30. > :21:34.deterrent purposes in the Cold War and of course the V bombers carried
:21:34. > :21:42.the nuclear weapon. And you also had the four missile complexes,
:21:42. > :21:47.that were deployed from about 1958 onwards. -- Thor. Of course, by the
:21:47. > :21:50.time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it was getting very hot.
:21:50. > :21:53.A group of aviation historians in Lincolnshire collecting first-hand
:21:53. > :21:58.accounts of the Cuba crisis, are finding that some of them don't
:21:58. > :22:02.quite match the version on file. We found out in the official record
:22:02. > :22:07.that bomber command were put up to alert condition three at 1pm on the
:22:07. > :22:10.Saturday afternoon. But talking to people, they say they can remember
:22:10. > :22:14.that on the Thursday prior things were already happening on the
:22:15. > :22:19.station. Attention, attention. All personnel
:22:19. > :22:22.take posts for countdown. The UK official account says
:22:22. > :22:25.Saturday, but American records show that two days earlier American
:22:25. > :22:34.ballistic missiles were being made ready on RAF bases in the East of
:22:34. > :22:36.England. This was once RAF Harrington, in
:22:36. > :22:39.Northamptonshire. Here and Caistor in Lincolnshire are the only places
:22:39. > :22:44.in the UK where there are visible remains of the Thor nuclear
:22:44. > :22:47.missiles. There were three launch pads here,
:22:47. > :22:55.this was one of them. These huge blast walls protected the equipment
:22:55. > :23:00.and personnel from the actual launch. And down here, on this
:23:00. > :23:10.concrete pad, there was a hangar which ran on rails. And when the
:23:10. > :23:10.
:23:10. > :23:13.missile was at rest, it lay in that hangar.
:23:13. > :23:16.It's an American product manned and maintained in this country by the
:23:16. > :23:19.Royal Air Force. The RAF controls the firing, but Thor cannot be
:23:19. > :23:24.blasted off without the agreement of the British and the United
:23:24. > :23:27.States' governments. This was a line of first defence
:23:27. > :23:35.for America. Indeed, one of the only ways it could target missiles
:23:35. > :23:38.at Soviet Russia. It made us here very vulnerable.
:23:38. > :23:46.Because Thor was jointly controlled by Britain and America, when
:23:46. > :23:49.America went on alert, so did we. Kennedy ordered the strategic air
:23:49. > :23:57.command to what was called DEFCON 3, which was two stages below war, and
:23:57. > :24:02.this was without knowledge of the British public.
:24:02. > :24:05.The Prime Minister called his cabinet. Britain was not consulted
:24:05. > :24:08.by President Kennedy. But neither the ministers not the Premier would
:24:08. > :24:11.let that stand in the way of a statesmanlike assessment of the
:24:11. > :24:14.crisis. They quickly endorsed the President's actions. By the
:24:14. > :24:16.Saturday, two days on, it was deadlock between the Americans and
:24:16. > :24:19.Russians ,and we officially went on alert. Unbeknown to the general
:24:19. > :24:22.public, throughout the east of England, Thor Missiles and V Bomber
:24:22. > :24:30.crews were waiting, weapons loaded, ready to launch at 5 minutes'
:24:30. > :24:36.notice. We've come to another old air field, Newark, looking for air
:24:36. > :24:39.crew who were on duty that week in 1962. We're at a reunion of the V
:24:39. > :24:43.Force, the men who crewed the Vulcans, Victors and Valiants that
:24:43. > :24:46.carried the bomb. We were watching television. A
:24:46. > :24:50.shadow across the window, knock on the door and it was a British
:24:50. > :24:56.policeman. And he was sent by Waddington to hoist me out and tell
:24:56. > :24:59.me to go to work, and I said, "What for, Constable?" And he said - and
:24:59. > :25:04.I'm afraid I can't emulate the Lincolnshire accent - he said,
:25:04. > :25:07."Well, if you don't know, sir, I can't tell you." Every time the
:25:07. > :25:15.station Tannoy went you'd twitch a bit, because the Tannoy would click.
:25:15. > :25:19."Attention, attention, this is the bomber controller."
:25:19. > :25:22.We'd studied our targets, we knew what we had to do. We knew that if
:25:23. > :25:28.we did have to scramble, if we did have to go to war, the politicians
:25:28. > :25:32.would have lost control of the situation. I had joined the Air
:25:32. > :25:36.Force to fly and I wanted to be in the Red Arrows and all that sort of
:25:36. > :25:40.thing, and there I was in the wind and rain actually arming a nuclear
:25:41. > :25:43.weapon, which is slightly different. We were sitting there quietly
:25:44. > :25:47.chatting and my dear friend Paul suddenly got up and ambled over
:25:47. > :25:57.toward the aircraft, pulled a pencil out of his pocket and did a
:25:57. > :26:00.
:26:00. > :26:05.CND badge on the side of the bomb. And when he came back I said, "For
:26:05. > :26:15.God's sake, what did you do that for?" Or words to that effect. And
:26:15. > :26:17.he said, "If we have to drop that, then they were right." The CND
:26:17. > :26:24.members were declaring that nothing short of abolishing nuclear arms
:26:24. > :26:27.could prevent another World War. British people were worried about
:26:28. > :26:29.the crisis in Cuba, but still had been told nothing of how war
:26:29. > :26:31.preparations were being made nearer home.
:26:31. > :26:34.This was a deliberate ploy by the Prime Minister.
:26:34. > :26:37.Macmillan was concerned that any overt mobilisation might in itself
:26:37. > :26:41.lead to war. He was very concerned that the British public didn't
:26:41. > :26:44.panic. And therefore, although the UK was demonstrably very, very
:26:44. > :26:47.vulnerable at this point, I think Macmillan felt that he wanted to
:26:47. > :26:57.try and keep the country on the sidelines, where as, in fact, many
:26:57. > :26:58.
:26:58. > :27:01.people would have thought that it really was in the frontline. And do
:27:01. > :27:04.you think Macmillan got it right? Well, I suppose in the event he
:27:04. > :27:07.could argue that he did. But had things gone desperately wrong, I'm
:27:07. > :27:10.not sure that those people who remained alive of the British
:27:10. > :27:13.public would have thanked him for In the event, Macmillan's gamble
:27:14. > :27:20.worked. The Russian ships were turned back, and normal Cold War
:27:20. > :27:23.relations were resumed between the two superpowers.
:27:23. > :27:27.When we heard that the Soviet ships had stopped and turned back there
:27:27. > :27:32.was a great sigh of relief. Because the tension had built to a peak,
:27:32. > :27:42.and we really didn't know what was going to happen. Netiher did the
:27:42. > :27:43.
:27:43. > :27:47.rest of the world, really. After the Cuba crisis, we re-wrote
:27:47. > :27:50.the Uk war books. The Thor sites were already earmarked for closure
:27:50. > :27:57.and the V Force carried a nuclear deterrent for a few more years, but
:27:57. > :28:00.never again were they brought back to the same level of alert. But
:28:00. > :28:06.it's the first-hand accounts of these men that will remind us just
:28:06. > :28:14.how close we came to war. Look at that - isn't that
:28:14. > :28:17.fantastic? It's hard to believe that here was
:28:17. > :28:20.the first line of defence in a nuclear war. That's it from
:28:20. > :28:23.Harrington in Northamptonshire. If there's something you think we
:28:23. > :28:26.should be looking into send me an e-mail, or you can reach me on
:28:26. > :28:35.Twitter. Join me next week when I'll have these stories from the
:28:35. > :28:38.East. Next week: Margaret relies on her guide dog Molly, so when Molly
:28:38. > :28:43.was attacked in Norwich, Margaret felt it was an attack on her
:28:43. > :28:47.freedom. He deliberately unleashed the dog onto my dog. I felt like I
:28:47. > :28:51.was being attacked, really, because she's my eyes.