₦airaland Forum

One Man Prevented a Nuclear War and Gained a Vacuum Cleaner.

Not many people know the name Stanislov Petrov, yet on 26th September, 1983, he held the fate of the world in his hands.

A lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Strategic Rocket Forces, Petrov wasn’t even supposed to be at work that night, but he was filling in for a colleague who had called in sick.

Cold War tensions were running high, president Ronald Reagan had recently described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire,” NATO was conducting military manoeuvres in Europe, and three weeks earlier the USSR had shot down a South Korean airliner which they claimed had invaded their airspace on a spying mission.

Petrov would have known all of this when the information on his screen told him that five US intercontinental ballistic missiles, each more than 100 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, were headed towards the Soviet Union.

Petrov picked up the phone to the Kremlin knowing that his advice would determine whether the Soviet Union launched a counterstrike.

He told them it was a mistake. The system, known as Oko, had only come on stream the previous year and Petrov trusted his gut rather than the machines.

Fortunately for the world, his guts were right, it was a false alarm.

In 2004, Petrov was gifted a World Citizen Awardand a cheque for $1,000.

He gave most of the money to his grandchildren. With the rest he bought himself something he had always wanted, a vacuum cleaner.

cc: dominique

Not all Nuclear Bombs are designed to go off with a Big Bang.

All nuclear weapons are scary but the neutron bomb is possibly the most terrifying of them all. Unlike most bombs, it’s not designed to cause a huge explosion. In fact, it was specifically designed to create as small of a blast as possible. Instead of a fiery explosion, the neutron bomb is intended to spew out vast amounts of radiation killing anybody unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity whilst leaving buildings and infrastructure intact.

Since 1951, the United States has gone on to produce 67, 500 nuclear missiles.

The United States conducted over a thousand nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992, with a primary health consequence of increased radiation exposure leading to cancer. It’s estimated some 6,000 people will die from thyroid cancer as a result.

Eight Countries, including the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea are declared nuclear states, with an additional three suspected countries that remain undeclared.

The U.S. and Russia each have thousands of nuclear warheads on high alert, a term used to describe the readiness of said missiles for launching. In this case, it would be mere minutes.

The most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated was the Tsar Bomba, a Russian bomb with a cumulative power of over 50 megatons of TNT.

When the bomb detonated, it was with the force of 50 million tonnes of high explosive.

That’s something in the region of 3800 times more powerful than the bomb used against Hiroshima.

So powerful was the blast, that windows were broken in Finland, some 900 kilometres away, and the shockwave travelled around the Earth three times.

On average, regular sized nuclear weapons that detonate over a city would burn away around 40 to 65 square miles in the blink of an eye.

On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever.

After an American bomber unleashed the world’s first glimpse of an atomic bomb, countries scrambled to get their hands on the technology to ensure their safety.

The power of nuclear weapons is almost unfathomable, and if nuclear war was to ever break out, it would likely spell the end of the world.

Luckily, it’s this fact, among others, that has kept war from breaking out thus far.


Source: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-explosive-facts-nuclear-weapons.php

http://globalsolutions.org/blog/2015/12/10-Horrifying-Facts-about-Nuclear-Weapons#.VtKJgl2t-o8

Lalasticlala, mynd44

The crew of the American B29 bomber Enola Gay who dropped the 'Little Boy' bomb on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the blast.

The 'Little Boy' bomb about to be loaded on to the aircraft to drop the nuclear device.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2786215/Inside-America-s-atomic-bomb-programme-Never-seen-photos-reveal-preparations-attacks-Hiroshima-Nagasaki.html

The aircraft used to carry the device backed up slowly over the pit to collect the bomb.

The device is lowered in to the pit where two men work - it remained covered up for security reasons.

The completed bomb was then towed towards the airfield under cover with an escort.

Brighter than a thousand suns: Eyes that have seen a nuclear blast. That's what surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These eyes have seen a nuclear blast and it’s been the last thing they’ve seen. After the image of that bright flash of light, there has been nothing. The girl lived in Hiroshima when war criminals threw an atomic bomb on the civiliansthere. The photo was taken in 1963 so the girl lived with her corneas burned for at least 18 years.

86-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi was just 16 years old when the bomb devastated his city.
Sumiteru's body still bears the scars of the horrific attack. Speaking to the Associated Press, he recalled how he was out on his job as a delivery boy when he was thrown from his bicycle by the blast. Stunned, he wandered in a daze for three days, unable to process the event or his injuries. He was conscious that he could feel fabric-like rags hanging from his back, he later found out that it was his flesh-ripped from his body and dangling from his shoulders. Sumeriteru's back was badly damaged, requiring him to lie on his stomach for 21 months in hospital. He was taken to a hospital, where he lay on his stomach for 21 months whilst the wounds on his arms and back were tended to.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nagasaki-hiroshima-70-anniversary-atom-bomb-survivor-show-effects-of-nuclear-10446573.html

Cockpit of Enola gay.

*. About 12 cyanide pills were kept in the cockpit of the Enola Gay (plane carrying A-bomb), and pilots were instructed to take them if the mission was compromised during the bombing of Hiroshima.


*. Only 3 of the 12 people on board the Enola Gay actually knew the real purpose of their mission to Hiroshima.



http://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/

Japanese radar operators detected a small number of incoming US planes (one of which carried the nuclear bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), but decided not to intercept them as the small number of planes were not seen as a threat.

The targets.

U.S. Army poster prepares the public for the invasion of Japan after ending war on Germany and Italy.

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Date: August 6 and August 9, 1945.

Location: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Empire of Japan.


* Casualties and losses:

U.S.

20 U.S., Dutch, British prisoners of war killed.

Japan.

Hiroshima:

*. 20,000+ soldiers killed.

*. 70,000 – 146,000 civilians killed.

Nagasaki:

*. 39,000 – 80,000 killed.

Total: 129,000 – 246,000+ killed.



The United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, during the final stage of World War II. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
On August 6, the U.S. dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima. American President Harry S. Truman called for Japan's surrender 16 hours later, warning them to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. dropped a plutonium implosions-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison.

Japanese bomber pilots receive their orders on board an aircraft carrier prior to commencing their mission of bombing Pearl Harbour.

Before and after the hit. The USS Oklahoma was hit with nine torpedoes in the assault, which caused the boat to tip over and capsize - trapping many inside

dominique:
And America replied by bombing Hiroshima. Japan planned the attack to happen on a Sunday when the American soldiers were least prepared but the payback was brutal.

I still don't understand why the movie failed at the box office, it was a masterpiece. I watched it over five times and became a fan of Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale.

Yea, two cities were wiped out in Japan 4yrs laters, killing over 200,000. I've not seen that movie.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Japan and later German and Italy on the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

USS Arizona: Seen in 2002, the battleship rests beneath the sea, visible from above and to visitors who come to pay their respect to the dead.

Crowds flock to the White House seeking news on the day of the attacks.

Sign me up: Young men line up to volunteer at a Navy Recruiting station, Boston, Massachusetts, the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks.

A heavy toll: In a flooded drydock the destroyer Cassin lies partly submerged, leaning against another destroyer. All eight battleships were damaged, with four sunk.

Battleship USS West Virginia took two aerial bombs, both duds, and seven torpedo hits, one of which may have come from a midget submarine.