7th October 2023 (Saturday) 08.30 .... we've had a lot of overnight rain, it's still raining and
the forecast is for it to rain for most of the day. I was looking forward to visiting Alice, then going to Dysart in the car (in glorious sunshine) for morning coffee, but that plan has changed because of the water on the roads; it's bucketing doon just now. The rain is supposed to move away by tomorrow. Today will be spent getting used to this new computer.
13.00 I've had a busy morning working on the computer; updating stuff, dumping auld, out of date, stuff; a mundane but necessary job. It's the perfect day for doing this as the rain with us and shows no sign of moving away. Before working on the computer I louped into the car and went for the paper; it was an exercise in finding out where the wiper controls were; it was a perfect morrrrrrrrrrning for doing that. Even a rainy day can be 'perfect'.... for doing some things. I haven't taken any photographs today; I'll browse the archive and find something to brighten up today's page.
16.00 A wet day like today is a good day for browsing different News articles. For instance, I found out that, in the event of a nuclear war, Australia and New Zealand are two of the countries that would survive the aftermath of a nuclear war. This is understandable because most of the ‘targets’ are in the Northern Hemisphere. Anyway, this had me reminiscing about my time in the Royal Observer Corps and the underground ‘Elie Post’ in the ‘Pony Field’.
20.30 For a wee while, late in the afternoon, the
rain stopped and the sky looked more promising, but that didn’t last long, and
the rain is back with us, for tonight and most of tomorrow morning, if the
weather forecasters have got it right.
22.15 The Elie Royal Observer Corps Post; Anyone coming to Elie and Earlsferry in the last sixty years, must have been aware of the small structure sitting on the field (Pony Field) just to the North of the quarry by the second green. We always assumed that it was a relic of WWII when the guns at Kincraig Point might well have been a target for airborne attacks, and Observer Corps were built above ground to warn of approaching enemy aircraft. But this is only part of the story as Albert Lawrie has enlightened us.
Albert's bit. The above ground part of an underground Royal Observer Corps Post is the structure you see in the 'Pony Field', (now part of the golf course). The 'Elie Post' as it was known, was excavated and built in 1961, when the fear of nuclear war was at hit's highest. The site is close to where the WWII above ground post was. The job of Observers in such Posts was to recognise and report hostile aircraft but, by the 1960's the Inter Continental Ballistic Missile was the principle method of bomb (nuclear) delivery .... and missiles could only be tracked by radar. The need for aircraft recognition, though still important, was superseded by the need for a setup that would record where nuclear bombs had detonated (Ground Zero), the power of said bombs (BPI) and the track of the radioactive fallout from such explosions (FSM). To this end the UK was rapidly covered by over 800 underground posts (they had to be underground to protect the observers from the effects of the bombs), with the Posts reporting, by landline, to twelve Group Headquarters. The Posts were kitted out with the three important instruments mentioned above; The GZI (Ground Zero Indicator, the BPI (Bomb Power Indicator) and the FSM (Fixed Survey Meter). They also has a hand operated siren to warn of impending attack, and a maroon to warn of approaching fallout. The Elie Post was active from 1961 to the disbanding of the Corps in 1991. Reorganisations had seen the number of Posts reduced by two thirds by 1980.
It was unlikely that the East Neuk would be targeted for a bomb delivery: the big threat to the East Neuk would be from radioactive fallout from targets upwind. Fallout can travel many hundreds of miles... as we saw from the Chernobyl accident. Let's hope that common sense prevails and that the threat of another World War passes: all Nations living in harmony is a far better idea. End of Albert's bit. I don't know who wrote the 'introduction or the 'conclusion'.
Elie Post at the moment is vulnerable and what Albert has not said in his bit, is that he has, more or less single handedly, looked after it. He has brightened the inside with painted murals intended to reflect the world outside the bunker. It remains as a reminder of less peaceful times, although current events may well prove otherwise.
