Missile Attack Warning

2013 ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Lyon
Keyword(s):  
Missile Attack

‘Flying Gas Mains’: Rumour, Secrecy, and Morale during the V-2 Bombardment of Britain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlie Hall
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
Ballistic Missile ◽  
British Government ◽  
The South ◽  
The Public ◽  
Firing Line ◽  
Missile Attack ◽  
Official Information

Abstract Britain was the first country to suffer casualties as the result of a ballistic missile attack, when German V-2 rockets began landing in London and the South-East in September 1944. This new menace posed critical challenges, not only to the civilians whose lives were endangered once again, but also to the British government. Policymakers had to decide what, if any, information they released to the public, amid fears of creating panic, providing free propaganda to the Nazis, and helping the V-2 launching units improve their aim. Their commitment to secrecy in this period was both resolute and largely unnecessary, not to mention ineffective. In the absence of official information released from above, the public drew their own conclusions and myriad rumours emerged, many of which were remarkably accurate. This article will explore the ways in which government policy surrounding censorship and publicity changed during the V-2 bombardment and the extent to which this affected those in the firing line. It will also add considerable nuance to our understanding of public morale in this period, which was rather less steadfast than many accounts suggest, and which continued to be a major government preoccupation, despite the diminishing likelihood of a descent into mass panic or defeatism.

Fasteners: Acid Catalysis

Reactions ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Acetic Acid ◽  
Acid Catalysis ◽  
Positive Charge ◽  
Proton Donor ◽  
Electron Cloud ◽  
Base Catalysis ◽  
Acid Molecule ◽  
General Basis ◽  
Missile Attack ◽  
Powerful Electron

I explained the general basis of catalysis in Reaction 11, where I showed that it accelerated a reaction by opening a new, faster route from reactants to products. One of the ways to achieve catalysis in organic chemistry is to carry out a reaction in an acidic or basic (alkaline) environment, and that is what I explore here. In Reaction 27 you will see the enormous importance of processes like this, not just for keeping organic chemists productive but also for keeping us all alive; I give a first glimpse of that later in this section too. Various kinds of acid and base catalysis, sometimes both simultaneously, are going on throughout the cells of our body and ensuring that all the processes of life are maintained; in fact they are the very processes of life. I deal with acid catalysis in this section and base catalysis in the next. The point to remember throughout this section is that an acid is a proton donor (Reaction 2) and a proton is an aggressive, nutty little centre of positive charge. If a proton gets itself attached to a molecule, it can draw electrons towards itself and so expose the nuclei that they formerly surrounded. That is, a proton can cause the appearance of positive charge elsewhere in the molecule where the nuclei shine through the depleted fog of electrons. Because positive charge is attracted to negative charge, one outcome is that a molecule may be converted into a powerful electron-sniffing electrophile (Reaction 16). Another way of looking at the outcome of adding a proton is to note that a C atom with a positive charge is a target for nucleophilic missile attack (Reaction 15). Therefore, if a proton draws the electron cloud away from a nearby atom, then its presence is like a fifth-column agent preparing a target for later attack. Let’s shrink and watch as some acid is added to a molecule that contains a –CO– group, such as acetic acid. The protons provided by the added acid are riding on water molecules, as H3O+ ions, and arrive in the vicinity of the acetic acid molecule.

Stopping ballistic missile attack?

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-81
Author(s):  
Bhupendra Jasani ◽  
Christopher Lee
Keyword(s):  
Ballistic Missile ◽  
Missile Attack

Future Forces and Future Policies

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 35-39
Author(s):  
Richard L. Garwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Great Improvement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nixon Administration ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Missile Attack ◽  
Do So

Pertinent Highlights of the SALT Agreements: The SALT I Agreements signed in Moscow May 26, 1972, were the result of more than three years of negotiation by the Nixon Administration. They provide the basis for a great improvement in national security. The ABM Treaty recognizes the technical reality that neither the Soviet Union nor the United States can defend its population or industry against ballistic missile attack and that it is not simply wasteful but counterproductive to try to do so. The treaty limits each side to a negligible defense at two sites—the national capital and another at least 800 miles away. Furthermore, it limits the number of radar complexes around the national capital to six, at most, and the number of interceptors at each of the two sites to 100, with the clear implication that not only should these defenses against missiles be penetrable but also destroyable by those missiles.

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