Chance to view rarely seen Civil Defence Corps film

IT was the Dundee “Dad’s Army” that was set up to take control in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

The Civil Defence Corps was trained to respond to the threat of nuclear war amid rising Cold War tensions between Moscow and the West. As part of their training, the Dundee Division volunteers were given advanced instruction in atomic, chemical and biological warfare in a mock “blitzed village”.

A rarely seen film of a training exercise challenge at Taymouth Castle i n Perthshire will now be shown on the big screen at the Central Library in Dundee on Thursday at 12.15pm and 1.15pm.

Iain Flett, from the Friends of Dundee City Archives, said: “The elephant in the room in this 1963 film is of course the Cold War. On the face of it, it seems a ‘Dad’s Army’ amateur movie by the city librarian, but the background was deadly serious.

“It was held in Taymouth Castle, an apparently idyllic setting which at that time was a carefully adapted centre for training in atomic and biological civil defence.”

In February 1949, the government formed the Civil Defence Corps — a civilian volunteer organisation, and declared Taymouth Castle was to be used as one of three training centres in Scotland. Alterations were made to the castle, which was designed to train between 100 and 150 men and women, with it described as the most up-to-date in the world when it opened in 1950.

The centre also included a mock “blitzed village” for trainees to practise in, where roofs were broken, walls gaped open and timber beams were scorched.

Mr Flett added: “There are people in the film who I recognise, such as Gertie Thomson, an energetic force in the Red Cross who would clearly remember the use of atomic weapons in Nagasaki and Hiroshima from 18 years before.”

A scene from the film.