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I posted a little while ago about my Adventures in a Secret Nuclear Bunker, here in the UK and thought I'd add to that with the tale of my visit to a Secret Nuclear Missile Base, where the missiles were actually pointed at us from, and hence the need for nuclear bunkers in the UK! I visited Plokštinė in the South West of Lithuania last year, where the guide did his best to tell of its history from when the area was part of the Soviet Union, in the days of the Cold War.
It was a hot day and so my family and I were quite pleased to be heading into the cool of the underground base. Built in 1960, the site has four silos that were used to launch surface-to-air missiles, as well as the accompanying operation rooms, which now host displays, as the site is now a museum. One display showed a comparison between Russian and United States Cold War propaganda posters and elsewhere were Russian information diagrams about how people should conduct themselves in the event of a nuclear attack. It seems civilians on both sides were living in fear of having to survive after such an incident.
A quarter of the original site - one silo - is open to the public. As the guide continued talking to the other tour participants in Lithuanian, we were given a lot of freedom to walk around and look down into the silo even. It felt a little uncomfortable to be down there, especially with all the Russian language warning signs about. As I couldn't understand them, it made me feel that if I put my hand in the wrong place at any time, I could accidentally launch a missile! We had been given English audio guides, which we used going through a lot of the rooms, some of which was presented in a hilariously incongruous Yorkshire accent.
Post-tour, we picnicked outside the gates and took a walk in the forest. What we thought was a 20 minute walking route actually turned out to be over an hour, however we enjoyed the local butterflies and the tree cover and saw village folk filling their water containers at the local spring. Soon, it was time to drive back, via the remote gravel track we had arrived on.
It was a hot day and so my family and I were quite pleased to be heading into the cool of the underground base. Built in 1960, the site has four silos that were used to launch surface-to-air missiles, as well as the accompanying operation rooms, which now host displays, as the site is now a museum. One display showed a comparison between Russian and United States Cold War propaganda posters and elsewhere were Russian information diagrams about how people should conduct themselves in the event of a nuclear attack. It seems civilians on both sides were living in fear of having to survive after such an incident.
A quarter of the original site - one silo - is open to the public. As the guide continued talking to the other tour participants in Lithuanian, we were given a lot of freedom to walk around and look down into the silo even. It felt a little uncomfortable to be down there, especially with all the Russian language warning signs about. As I couldn't understand them, it made me feel that if I put my hand in the wrong place at any time, I could accidentally launch a missile! We had been given English audio guides, which we used going through a lot of the rooms, some of which was presented in a hilariously incongruous Yorkshire accent.
Post-tour, we picnicked outside the gates and took a walk in the forest. What we thought was a 20 minute walking route actually turned out to be over an hour, however we enjoyed the local butterflies and the tree cover and saw village folk filling their water containers at the local spring. Soon, it was time to drive back, via the remote gravel track we had arrived on.