This is definitely one of the stranger things to come out of the Cold War. Yes, you read right. Chicken nukes, if you will.
WHY?!?!?!
In the late 50's and early 60's, the treat of Soviet invasion was a large worry for Western military planners. The 'best' place to invade was a valley called the Fulda Gap (pronounced fold-ah). The valley was difficult to access from the North and South, and went straight to plains that led the the Rhine. This would be one of the better invasion routes because it allowed a very quick route to the Rhine, and could outpace NATO counter-attacks. It also held a large US airbase, capable of retaliation if an attack was carried out elsewhere that would need to be captured in the first stages of a Soviet invasion.
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| The two possible Soviet attack routes. The upper one is the Fulda Gap. |
So the smart minds over in the UK started working on a secret project to stop a Soviet attack and/or cause chaos after the fact. This was given the 'rainbow code' Blue, for a secret project, and called 'Peacock' because why not. It was a design for a nuclear landmine, to be detonated by 3-mile-long wire or 8-day timer in case of a Soviet attack. The device would have a relatively small yield of 10 kilotons, less than the 15kt "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It still would cause a sizable explosion and would produce far more fallout that 'Little Boy.' If armed, the anti-tampering devices would detonate the mine if the sealed capsule filled with water, and/or ten seconds after the capsule was moved. And when that happened ... Boom.
Chickens?
But there still was an issue. The nuclear device was of the implosion type, which required very careful (microsecond) timing to make a nuclear explosion. Buried underground in the middle of Germany, the device would get really cold. So cold that the sensitive electronics could stop working. They needed a way to generate enough heat to keep the electronics alive. There was no way to do it electrically, as the mine needed to be self-contained (nuclear bombs and unclear power stations are very different; the radioactive material in the bomb could not be used to generate power). So they decided to just stick a frickin' chicken in there on the electronics. The chicken would be sealed in the container, and was provided with 10 day's worth of food and water. So yeah. Chicken-powered nuclear bombs.
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| The test device in the container, minus the chicken |
3 comments:
Chicken-powered nuclear bombs are something I never thought the Cold war would ever incorporate. It was interesting to read about your post.
The first one has interesting information on what went on with the invasion.
This is a super cool fact that someone wouldn't initially expect from the Cold War. This shows a lot about the desperation to win because of their inventions that seemed pretty unconventional.
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