• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

The Cold War

Status
Not open for further replies.
I, with a guitar demonstrating colleague, and two technicians attended a British Fair in Moscow in 1966 for Vox amplifiers. We were then the top UK guitar amplifier company, with The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hollies, Shadows and many other top groups endorsing our products. I had to give up two weeks of playing for the trip. Not happy memories.

Our flight out was on Aeroflot. I remember the the interior of the plane having a very depressing appearance, with dark colours.

Our hotel room telephone would ring in the middle of the night, but when we answered it, no one at the other end.....very strange.

We queued for breakfast, and other meals. Our guide, when we were not on the Fair stand, would always be there with us.

In the middle of the Fair, Prime Minister Harold Wilson turned up. I bet he got better treatment than we did.

I remember some young people coming onto the stand, with something wrapped in newspaper. They furtively opened the newspaper to show us a Beatles LP! At that time Western music was frowned on by the Russian authorities.

Getting a Russian company to buy our goods was so complicated. All orders had to go through 'Government channels' for clearance.

We paid a visit, with guide, to the large GUMM store in Moscow. Again, depressing.

At the hotel, I sent some shirts to be cleaned. On the hotel instructions note that I filled in, I put my name, room number, but there was also a section that asked for my laundry number. I put 'NO NUMBER'. They were returned with 'NO NUMBER' stamped on the inside of the collar!!

Russia.....never again.

Eddie

Eddie
 
Very interesting experiences. I remember travelling on Russian trains across Europe and they too were incredibly spartan. No upholstery on seats, drab interiors and a sense that the train was not really running to any particular timetable.

My only contact with a Russian person in the 60s was we had a Russian teacher at school. He was elderly, taught Russian and It was claimed he'd escaped from Russia. Not sure how true that was or whether it was a rumour put around by girls with a vivid imagination. Viv.
 
norfolk brummie said:
I, with a guitar demonstrating colleague, and two technicians attended a British Fair in Moscow in 1966 for Vox amplifiers.

We paid a visit, with guide, to the large GUMM store in Moscow. Again, depressing.

Russia.....never again.

Eddie
Click to expand...
I had forgotten about the GUMM store - You are right Eddie, you had to see it to believe it.

In 1956 Mr Krushchev and Mr Bulganin visited Birmingham as shown in the Pathe Video below.
Some views of crowds opposite the council house about 2min 40secs into the clip
We let them use a BEA Viscount Airliner for their travel around Britain. The cold war could have become hot if it had crashed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2XeH49GlJ4
 
oldMohawk, you have made my Sunday.

My late dad was one of the police motor cycle outriders and there is a lovely close up of him, in the film
when the camera goes along the line of bikes there is a shot of a sergeant with his stripes and then my dad in front of him,goodness he looks young,LOL.
All the police 'rehearsed' the route from the airport many times and some of police officers were asked if they could billet officers from the Met.
I was 14 at the time and not very interested in the events but my Mom told me in later years the the plain clothes officer that stayed the night with us had a hand gun in a shoulder holster,which scared her a bit.
I just remember his long gaberdine mac and his trilby the uniform for plain clothes officers at that time.
 
Last edited:
Hi Alberta, It's nice that you saw your late dad in the film. I've just had another look and and spotted him. You could probably pause the film and take a screen shot to have a photo. I was interested looking at all the civic dignataries in the council house and Mr Bulganin looked somewhat more friendly than Mr Kruschev.

A strange event during their visit was the mysterious disappearance of Commander Crabb a naval frogman diver in Portsmouth Harbour near the Soviet ship which had brought Bulganin and Kruschev to Britain. One account of it is here
https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_4741000/4741060.stm


oldmohawk
 
A lovely find for you Alberta. Just goes to show what great info this forum turns up. Very interesting article too Phil. Viv
 
Alberta said:
oldMohawk, you have made my Sunday.

My late dad was one of the police motor cycle outriders and there is a lovely close up of him, in the film
when the camera goes along the line of bikes there is a shot of a sergeant with his stripes and then my dad in front of him,goodness he looks young,LOL.
All the police 'rehearsed' the route from the airport many times and some of police officers were asked if they could billet officers from the Met.
I was 14 at the time and not very interested in the events but my Mom told me in later years the the plain clothes officer that stayed the night with us had a hand gun in a shoulder holster,which scared her a bit.
I just remember his long gaberdine mac and his trilby the uniform for plain clothes officers at that time.
Click to expand...


alberta how lovely for you to spot your dad in that clip...what a great start to your sunday...i am sure there must be a way of putting that onto a disc if you wanted to... i bet in years to come your grandchildren would cherish seeing their gt grandad involved in such an important occassion
lyn
 
Last edited:
I am so pleased for you Alberta. How lovely to see your Dad on film, we only usually see them in photo's of this time. Great piece of Pathe News again. Thanks for the link oldMowhawk it was good to watch.
 
I think any, who, from our generation lived through the "Cold War", and also served in the armed forces will never trust Russia, I remember both the Hungarian, and Czech, invasions, and am worried for our children with the Ukraine incursions, I am sure I am not the only one to feel this. Paul
 
When the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall came down our company was interested in a large plant in Zwickau, East Germany and we were told to go there and have a look at it. We hired a car at Frankfurt and drove there looking at the contrast between East and West. In my hotel room the bathroom had some very basic plumbing and when I took my shoes off I realised that the floor of my room was awash from a water leak. I complained in reception but they said they had no other rooms and no other hotels available. They were very embarrassed, apologetic and upset not the way to impress someone from the west and I felt a bit sorry for them.

So using some Brummie 'make do and mend' I asked them to give me two plastic bags and two elastic bands and put the bags on my feet secured with the bands so I could happily walk round my room with dry feet.

And so I moved into the post Cold War era !
 
When I worked for Post Office Telephones in the 60's I spent some time at Cold War bunker located on the Coventry Road where it splits going away from the city centre towards where the Sheldon picture house was.
This was intended as a communications centre in the event of war and was deep underground. It was entered through a small building on the surface and spread out underground.
 
I'm not sure about Bunkers.

In the Police they had lists of people who were to be transfered to these places. Local council health fire etc.
We use to deliver leaflets to the local people. Suggestions seemed pretty basic. Mainly dealt with blast effects.
Birmingham was a No 1 target still is and was assumed to be destroyed.
There was and still is no effective protection in place. Our only protection are the Nuclear Sub's.
Those dark days constant exercises seem to have been lifted in1989 but are creeping back again.

Mike Jenks.
 
Many of us maybe remember the 'four minute warning' we would be given which was based on the amount of time from radar detection of Soviet missile launches to impact on Britain. With Birmingham being a main target there was not much time to dive into a bunker unless it was in your back garden.
 
In the 50s I remember local factories occasionally sounding their alarms. Would this have been the 4 min warning? Viv.
 
When you think about it, cold war is a complete misnomer. If in the area of a nuclear blast then you would be roasted alive!!. Wish i`d brought my Anderson shelter with me when i moved to Durham . When the cold war thawed i thought it was time to get rid of our nuclear weapons & spend the money on something worthwhile. Now however, i`m glad we still have a nuclear capability even if only as a deterrent. What a sad mad world we live in. If any passing alien spacecraft looked down on planet Earth, they`d think twice before dropping in for a coffee.
 
For those of you interested in seeing the Royal Observer Corps posts (Cold War bunkers) try here:-

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php/50-ROC-Posts

I think that around 1500 or so were built, mostly on open (farm) land, so when they were closed down in the 1990s, the ownership reverted to the owner of the land. A few have been sold off and renovated by enthusiasts, others remained locked by the landowner, and a few are accessible.

Maurice
 
To try and clarify as can be seen it has nothing to do with what might happen should hostilites break out and the probably aftermath:

cold war
noun
[COLOR=#878787 !important][/COLOR]

  • 1.
    a state of political hostility between countries characterised by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular.


  • 2.
    the state of hostility that existed between the Soviet bloc countries and the Western powers from 1945 to 1990.




 
That may be the dictionary meaning Bernard, but in the real world it meant possible conflict with Russia & possible use of nuclear weapons, hence the building of nuclear proof bunkers as has been expressed in earlier posts, & lessons in what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. That`s my interpretation for what it`s worth.
 
During the Cold War era, we lived for some years in Leicester, which had been declared a 'NUCLEAR FREE ZONE', so we were safe there!!!!!

Eddie
 
norfolk brummie said:
During the Cold War era, we lived for some years in Leicester, which had been declared a 'NUCLEAR FREE ZONE', so we were safe there!!!!!

Eddie
Click to expand...

I can just imagine Sergey flying over Leicester & about to drop his bomb when Dmitry shouts to him, "No sergey, we`re over a nuclear free zone, let those nice people sleep in peace."
 
Anyone remember the Raymond Briggs book " When the Wind Blows". (Yes the same bloke who wrote/drew "the Snowman" and "Father Christmas"). I was given it as part of a leaving present from one of my jobs (!) The story had a very serious message about an elderly couples reaction to a nuclear attack. A dark book but one that illustrated the mood about the possibility of a nuclear attack during the Cold War years. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Anyone remember the Raymond Briggs book " When the Wind Blows". (Yes the same bloke who wrote/drew "the Snowman" and "Father Christmas"). I was given it as part of a leaving present from one of my jobs (!) The story had a very serious message about an elderly couples reaction to a nuclear attack. A dark book but one that illustrated the mood about the possibility of a nuclear attack during the Cold War years. Viv.
Click to expand...
Never had the book but I saw the film and heard the radio show. Looking it up on the internet, there seems to have been celebrity interest in the soundtrack - the radio version is by David Bowie and the movie version was by Roger Waters.
 
Great photographs.

What I find puzzling it that the photographer, assuming it is the same man, and the quality of the photos suggest that it is, is firstly on the West side of the barricade photographing the fleeing folk from the East, and is then, on the Eastern side of the fencing, photographing the guns pointing at the folk left behind.

However, in spite of guns & bayonets pointing at them, the crowd do not appear to be too worried. Could there be a little bit of posing for the cameraman, or, if for real, and we know that the next day it was for real, was he allowed onto the Eastern side for publicity, or other purposes. In fact, who side was he on?

Eddie
 
A good point Eddie. In those days Berlin was a very strange place. My first visit there was six years after it was built and it was weird to see the wall half way down a street blocking it off and a very different way of life on the other side.
 
There are a number of miltatry sites campaning for a Medal for forces personnel who served in the years of the Cold War,Yes as a 15 year old(royal navy) in 1972 we never new or told we may end up in a conflct. We may of been naive, but for most it was a job and a way out of school. Did we know we may end up in a war zone for me never only wangted to see the World, but we were serving forces personnel, directed by our senior officers,goverment etc to travel the seas and to move in to conflicts on their orders-
Though i have to admit Medls should only be given to Herosim, in a position of we did not know if we would end up up in a confict, a medal should be due. Some of us would pay for this privilege.
Just one thing on Medals the Silver Jubille medal 77 was only given to the Privilege few, Diamond Jubille medal was given to PCSO,and prison service but not to ex forces or or Private sector`Prison officers though they do they same job. Yes goverment costs, but we would pay for the Medal.

Aprivate members bill did start about this but how funny it has stopped owing to Elections , so wat happens now if the MP who started this doe´s not get elected end of story. So SAD
 
I agree giving medals for valour, I also agree with campaign medals for those who served in ww2 but they give medals willy nilly now, I have the GSM (Malaya) yet I was based not in Malaya but at RAF Seletar on the island of Singapore with coastal command, so safe I had my wife with me, to me that devalues the medal, should only have been issued to those IN Malaya fighting terrorists (this was 1955). Eric
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top