Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1536266
The very notion of civil defense is associated, not without reason, with shelters and hideouts, for two reasons. First, a shelter or hideout is a structure – so‑ mething tangible, easy to show. Whether in photographs, plans, or in reality. Second, the perception of civil defence in this way was shaped by the form of that organization during the People's Republic of Poland (PRL) period, fa‑ miliar from defense training manuals. Those manuals and other propaganda works terrified society with the sche‑ mes of American imperialists and revanchists from Bonn, who, depending on the period, prepared various scourges for us, from potato beetles through spies and saboteurs, all the way to Pershing ballistic missiles. Although the propaganda primarily provoked laughter mixed with em‑ barrassment, the risk of a third world war breaking out was real. The Cold War Threat Scenario A hypothetical conflict would follow an easily predictable scenario: an attack by the Warsaw Pact on NATO states would mean that the territory of Poland, as the country from which that attack – especially an amphibious landing in Denmark – would be partially launched and through which numerous supply routes for front‑line troops ran, would become a target for air and missile strikes. The use of conventional weapons would be certain, and nuc‑ lear weapons likely. Targets would include both military installations and urban centres where there were trans‑ port hubs, industrial plants, government infrastructure, and – last but not least – also military facilities. The aim of civil defense, therefore, was to create conditions for surviving massive air and missile attacks, especially those using nuclear weapons. At that time, the chance of survival was seen precisely in dispersing (evacuating) the civilian population to are‑ as outside potential strike zones (especially large cities), building protective infrastructure (shelters of various purposes), and having the capacity to decontaminate and rebuild affected areas. Hence, in addition to building shel‑ ters, a number of other measures were undertaken. One of the better‑known was the production of Autosan H9 buses with a characteristic front hatch for a stretcher, which allowed for easy conversion of the vehicle into an ambulance. Another was the construction of facilities, for example schools, that could be easily adapted for civil defence ne‑ eds as makeshift hospitals. Furthermore, in the event of mobilization, civil defense units were to be formed using the human and material resources of state administra‑ tion, state‑owned enterprises, and uniformed services ANALYSIS