After WW2 there were new weapons to assimilate. The V2 had made a great impression on the allied nations and the emerging Soviet block. Nuclear and the new types of chemical and biological weapons were obvious choices for the warheads of such delivery systems. War was never going to be the same again! Time has happily shown it was not going to be either so big or so frequent for the developed countries, but this knowledge was yet to come. The cold war was on. Armed camps faced each other and pushed and shoved. They developed and deployed ever more sophisticated and lethal weapons. Huge rockets and bigger and better planes came along. All weapons were vulnerable to attack by those of the opposition and the bunker mentality arrived. Some rocket sites, such as anti-aircraft batteries were above ground. Thor missiles in Britain were deployed in the late 1950's and lasted only a few years, until 1963. The Thor deployment was known as Project Emily. Facts are slowly emerging now which seem to indicate that this whole setup was to do with the intensifying situation between East and West as a result of Castro and Kruschev and the USA being in a power struggle even before we all knew about it. Time will tell, no doubt. There were no great ICBM silos here, in the UK, as in the countries of the larger opponents. There are, however, a few sites of interest. Many are now gone, but a few items remain.

Thor site at Feltwell (Now a golf course - much more friendly!) Note; Feltwell is no longer a flying field, but is an active site and as with all such sites you will not be popular if you start wandering about without permission! It is possible to enjoy the expansion period architecture of the main site from the road, without annoying anyone however. These airfields built in the period before WW2 are much better built than the wartime ones and the buildings look like they are made to last. There are a number of these still in existance and often very much like they were built.

This shows the layout of a typical Thor site, of which there were 20. There were three separate missile launch and storage areas. The area was on an old airfield and fenced off. These areas would be guarded and lit all the time. The rocket itself was kept horizontal in a store building, which was on rails and could be drawn back off the missile. When an alert was on, like the Cuban missile crisis, the rocket would be armed, stood up on its launcher and fuelled ready to go. Thor was a dual key controlled weapon and the sites were used by both American and RAF personnel.
The 60 Thor missiles were loaned by the USA to the UK to boost the nuclear deterrent, at a time when the V bomber force was not considered completely adequate for the task. Thor was a 65 foot long, 8 foot wide missile, weighing 105,000 pounds. Liquid fuel, in the form of liquid oxygen and kerosene propelled this rocket to a maximum range of 1,727 miles. The warhead was the W49 type, of 1.44 megatons capacity. Interestingly there were threats of strikes from construction workers on the Thor sites and also student protests involving breaking in and placing flags. It seems such anti nuclear war protest is not as recent as we might be led to think!


Aerial shot of one of the Thor pads at Mepal just before it was removed for a power station.


Roger Dunn was kind enough to send me a picture of a Thor missile at Shepherds Grove, about 1962, from when he was there. This shows the missile on its trailer, not on the launch site. Note the RAF markings! This type of missile was fired to test the effects of a nuclear detonation in the upper atmosphere and the un armed version was used as a satellite launcher in the early days of space reconnaisance too, although this weapons system was short lived. As an above ground liquid fuelled rocket it was far too vulnerable and slow to fuel and then thaw out to remain as a serious weapon system. Silo launched solid fuelled missiles replaced it and the other small liquid fuelled missiles like Thor and Jupiter faded into history. But when this picture was taken, it was in service.

Another type of missile site which was found on British airfields was the Bloodhound ground to air missile site. Some even shared their homes with the Thors, for example at Carnaby. This was one of the emergency landing grounds in WW2, opening in 1944, and afterwards became home to both 150 Squadrons Thors and two units of Bloodhounds. These missiles were fairly large but only for air defence and conventionally armed. There was a nuclear warhead for this missile, code named Indigo Hammer. This warhead was a small compact plutonium implosion type, developed both as a missile warhead and for use as a primary for thermonuclear weapons. I have no information about it ever having been deployed on Bloodhound for air defence. The Bloodhounds were a useful anti-aircraft missile but could not defend against ballistic missiles. They had a maximum range of about 50 miles. They were practically obsolete by the mid 1960's, although some countries used them much later than this.



This picture shows Bloodhound missiles, in place and ready, at RAF Marham. At the time, about 1960, it was a V bomber airfield and the plane in the foreground is a Valiant, one of the fist V bombers. These carried the countries nuclear deterrent along with Victors and Vulcans. They carried free fall bombs, see Nuclear and Chemical weapons on this site, and then Blue Steel a rocket powered stand off missile.

Britain did of course develop a similar rocket to Thor, called Blue Streak. Strangely before Blue Streak was begun, there was a proposal by the Admiralty in 1954, to put ballistic missiles in submarines, which was rejected. The wheel eventually turned full circle and now the only British nuclear force is the submarine borne Trident missile system. In the early 1950's when the free fall bomb had been developed, it was obvious that a more effective and less easily intercepted delivery system than the bomber was needed. The large rockets developed by the germans in WW2 were the best hope and both the USA and Britain started developing new rockets, as no doubt did other countries. The USA developed larger intercontinental missiles as well as the medium range ones like Thor. Britain came up with Blue Streak. It was a MRBM powered by liquid fuel (kerosene) and liquid oxygen. This system means that the rocket has to be prepared just before launch time and cannot be left fuelled for any time. Until solid propellants were developed for such big rockets, this was a universal problem. It also meant that with as little as three minutes warning of a Soviet attack on Britain, then any liquid fuelled missile could only realistically be a first strike weapon. This was the first real mark against the system, even before cost and site problems. Putting the Blue Streak in silos was the plan, but it was never done, apart from a test silo at Spadeadam Moor. The whole thing was abandoned before any serious construction was done. Why abandoned? It seems that the missile was going to be obsolete before it was deployed and the political will was not there to continue with the huge cost for no reason. The continuance of the nuclear deterrent was considered essential, but a more suitable system was sought. The next idea, the air launched rocket or stand off bomb, was tried, but like the Blue Streak had major problems. Blue Steel was deployed, but was not a great system. The bomber carrying it had to get to within 100 miles of the target, against ever increasing defences. Skybolt was abandoned before it was even made. The best system turned out to be that submarine launch platform after all! Not much remains of Blue Streak, despite its use to develop space launch vehicles up to the 1970's. Perhaps the launch facility at Spadeadam Moor and Woomera in Australia, certainly a few relics in museums, but no more..


Blue Streak. kerosene/liquid oxygen fuelled rocket on its launch facility at Spadeadam Moor, Cumbria, England. This is only a test version, no operational missiles were produced. Body made by the De Havilland aircraft company. The two rocket motors were made by Rolls Royce. It was intended to carry a nuclear payload for some 2,600 miles.

Now a nice example of the power of communication. I asked for pictures of missiles in place, to give you an idea of the sort of thing that was based on those old empty sites which still exist. There is a Bloodhound standing in a field a few miles from where I sit now, but it is a museum item and not on its original site. I was expecting someone to possibly find an old snap of a British Bloodhound. I never expected a Swiss one! But, here it is, from Matthias Germann. It shows a typical set up with the missile waiting on its launcher on a concrete pad, with the controlling radar in the background. These missiles were deployed in groups here, as I expect they were elsewhere. I cannot tell you if there were different models of Bloodhound, or which this might be, but it is useful to show you a typical large anti aircraft missile. Thank you, Matthias!


Now even more Bloodhounds! These were Mk1's and these are seldom seen pictured. Shown here are Mk1's at North Coates in the late 1950's. They show the missile on its launcher, two views in the servicing hangar and a wider view showing the radar and missiles on their launch sites. Bloodhound was deployed in groups of missiles on prepared sites along with its radar, all throughout its life, even if various developments changed the kit somewhat. For more details about Bloodhound and other missiles, try Richard Vernon's excellent site Bloodhound Mk2.