Britain on the Brink

This Cold War history examines the Cuban Missile Crisis from a British perspective, following events as they developed in London, Washington, and Moscow.

During the Cold War, the possibility of nuclear destruction was never too far away. But for several days in October of 1962, that possibility came closer than most civilians could ever imagine. The Cuban Missile Crisis put the UK squarely on the frontlines, with the Strategic Air Command’s UK bases on high alert. Nuclear weapons were loaded, some nuclear-armed aircraft went on round-the-clock airborne patrol, and others were held at cockpit readiness.

Britain on the Brink examines how the UK was threatened by the Soviet Union’s deployment of nuclear missiles ninety miles off the US coast. It looks at secret planning in the UK for World War III, and the activities of the JIGSAW Group (Joint Inter-Services Group for the Study of All-Out War). It also examines how close the UK went to activating Visitation, the code name for the movement of parts of the British State into a secret bunker referred to in Whitehall as The Quarry.