Posted by
Dawnsblood on Saturday, January 13, 2007 11:53:52 PM
It was something
the Nato allies considered.
In 1950s-era Germany, the British forces which had been stationed
there after World War 2 were understandably nervous about an invasion
from the Soviet Union. The Cold War had begun, the Iron Curtain was in
place, and Stalin was making every effort to compromise Germany's
capacity for another war despite attempts by the U.S. and England to
rebuild Germany as the economic center of a stable Europe.
Additionally, amid tensions, Stalin had split off the Soviet sector of
Germany as a communist state.
It was generally perceived that
the Soviet Union possessed overwhelming superiority in conventional
weapons, and the threat of a new war with the communist USSR was
looming over Europe. As part of the preparations for such a conflict,
British forces developed a new kind of landmine to leave behind if they
were forced to withdraw from Germany. It was codenamed the Blue Peacock, and it was essentially a nuclear landmine.