Timeline (1983: Doomsday)

1983:_Doomsday

September 19, 1983
Colonel Gennady Akrimov replaces Col. Stanislav Petrov as watch officer at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow, which monitors for a US missile attack on the Soviet Union. Colonel Petrov is re-assigned to a bunker near Odessa.

Sept. 26, 1983
Just past midnight, at 00:40 hrs, the Serpukhov-15 bunker's computers indicate that a US missile is heading toward the Soviet Union. Akrimov, at first, reasons that a computer error has occurred, since it is only one missile and it doesn't make sense that the US would launch one single missile in an attack. Questions about the reliability of the satellite detection system have also been raised in the past, so he dismisses the warning as a false alarm, concluding that there was no actual missile.

Very shortly though, the computers indicate that a second missile has been launched, then a third, a fourth and a fifth. Akrimov, a faithful reader of "Pravda" where he had read much of the "warmongering of the American President Reagan" now feels as that the attack was real. He telephones the headquarters of the Strategic Rocket Forces and tells them that his computers show that a massive US attack is underway.

General Secretary Andropov is awakened by his staff and rushed to an evacuation helicopter standing by. On the way he is informed by the generals that they have "good information" that the Americans are launching a first-strike. They recommended a full retaliatory strike. Andropov, frail and stunned by the news, nods and gives the launch codes to the SRF commanders.

Four and one-half minutes later, at over 300 missile bunkers, the order is given....launch. Nearly 1100 Soviet ICBMs in staggered order are launched at the United States, American bases in Europe and Great Britain, and in a plan never publicly revealed at another fifty sites in the People's Republic of China.

Sept. 26, 1983
At around 12:38am, NORAD launch detection satellites detect the launch from the Soviet Union. It is apparently, to them, a Soviet FIRST-strike and President Reagan is immediately awoken and rushed to "Marine-1", to be evacuated to the Boeing E-4B Nightwatch "National Airbone Command Post". He arrives twenty minutes later and the aircraft takes off at about 1:09am.

En route, the President is informed by Secretary of Defense Weinberger and the NORAD generals that the launch is confirmed and that it was total. Reagan gives the launch codes and orders a full retaliatory strike, including "city-buster" missile attacks from the American submarine fleet.

Meanwhile as Andropov's helicopter is approaching the Kremlin's evacuation bunker forty miles outside of Moscow, he receives a chilling report. The first "projected" missile has reached its target in Murmansk....but no detonation has occurred. Quickly checking, Soviet generals discover that the first targets that were supposed to have been destroyed minutes earlier, showed NO incoming warheads and no detonation.

Andropov suffers a massive stroke as he realized he has just started World War-III on a false alarm. A minute later the first Soviet missile detonates in Beijing China, followed quickly by one at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. Minutes after that, a second REAL report of incoming American missiles is reported.

Sept 26, 1983
Doomsday. Over a period of two hours, from approximately 1:15am until 3:10am, over three thousand nuclear weapons detonate all across the Northern Hemisphere. NATO commanders are ordered to launch tactical Pershing-I missiles at Soviet tank yards, and Warsaw Pact commanders respond with the launch of their Pioneer missiles.

Chinese forces, woefully caught by surprise by the Soviet attack, were only able to launch 30% of their weapons at the USSR. Most hit cities and military bases have already been destroyed by American missiles and bombers.

Neither American nor Soviet nor any other citizen was given much warning of the attack. Some cities did receive alerts and while local mayors and fire chiefs were scrambling to remember where the air-raid siren was, they were either destroyed or missed in the attack.

EMP (electro-magnetic pulses) from airbursted weapons destroy some 70% of the electronics across the Northern Hemisphere. Radios, televisions, etc. all rendered useless.

Final death toll on that first day is 1.53 billion people...from the United States, to Cuba, across to the United Kingdom, Western and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, China, Japan, the Phillipines, and three cities in Australia.

And a black pall of smoke, dust, and radioactive ash covering half the world.

September 1983-March 1984
Predictions of the results of a nuclear exchange from the late 70s and early 80s are fairly accurate. In addition to the initial deaths, subsequent deaths due to fall-out, out-of-control fires, starvation, dehydration, disease, etc. adds another 700 million, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere.

The predictions of "nuclear winter" however comes up short. Only a 10 F. drop is noted, and as the attack occurs going into the late fall, it isn't a major effect on typical weather patterns. The dust cover does block out the sun for several days, but within a week, it dissipates and cloud patterns return to normal by mid-October.

Later in the Summer of 1984, predictions of a "nuclear summer" do come true, as nitrogen oxides and a reduced ozone layer raise temperatures to an average high 10-25 F. over normal.

Vast areas of North America, most of Europe, much of the Soviet Union, and many parts of China are uninhabitable. Radiation levels drop with the predicted two week fall-out pattern, but irradiated areas and areas where toxic chemicals have been spilt are deadly to humans contacting them. Several nuclear reactors in the US, Europe, and in the Soviet Union go critical and explode releasing further radiation into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile death tolls keep rising. By March 1984, the population of the United States has dropped to 28 million people, almost 1/10 the pre-Doomsday level. The story is similar in the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, with Great Britain knocked down a level of population unseen since the Norman Conquest.

After a week in the National Airborne Command Post jet, President Reagan is transferred to the still-surviving Mount Weather command bunker. (Oddly, though known to the Soviets for years, no attack on the facility was made.) Vice-President George Bush is relocated to the Greenbrier Hotel facility (this was to have been the Congressional relocation center, but no evacuation of Congress was possible).

Attempts of co-ordination of remaining police, fire, and especially National Guard units in the United States proved only marginally successful. With the widespread death, starvation, and fall-out, few National Guardsmen report for duty. Most couldn't, but many (with no safe zones for their families) refused. Chaos reigned.

1985
Two years after the war, little has improved, in fact much has worsened in the Northern Hemisphere. Food shortages are absolute. Starvation has killed another 200 million people. Cannibalism of the dead is not un-common, and some roving gangs of former military units even kill people for food.

President Reagan and his staff at Mt. Weather are facing a dire situation. The facility was only established with two years' food supply and it was running out. Neighboring Virginia farms were abandoned and orchards are producing mutated fruit or in most cases none at all. Salvage teams from his Secret Service have been sent out to get more, but are having little luck as the few surviving locals had picked stores and restaurants clean.

Contact with Vice-President Bush at The Greenbrier indicated the same situation was effecting them. Eventually the decision was made to evacuate the President and Vice-President from North America and fly them to Australia.

Reagan and Bush leave the US on May 5th, 1985. Reagan's plane has engine trouble just after leaving one of the remaining airports in Hawaii. The E-4 Boeing looses altitude and crashes into the Pacific. Though the President and First Lady survive the crash, the life-raft they and their Secret Service team escaped on sinks in a squall a day later. Nominally, George Bush becomes President on May 6th, 1985.

He reaches Brisbane, after stops in Hawaii and Auckland, New Zealand. Prime Minister Hawke welcomes Bush, but informs him that the RAAF had lost contact with the NEACP. They wait a few days for any reports, but with none coming, Bush has a local Australian judge swear him in as President on May 8th.

In the Southern Hemisphere, radioactivity has spread to Brazil, southern Africa, and northern Australia. There is no "On The Beach" scenario; these areas suffered little permanent damage, but the destruction of trade and violent weather patterns causes them much hardships.

Australia has weathered the war the best. Though it has lost Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, the capital at Canberra has survived and much of the population has taken shelter and have had provisions. Australian agriculture remained relatively intact and in the years after the war has maintained a sufficient production. Rationing of food has been inacted, but it is not burdensome. Prime Minister Bob Hawke had been in office only a few months before Doomsday, but has proved an able leader.

South American countries did slightly worse. Though they had been spared any nuclear attacks, breakdowns in trade and scarcity of food for many months had taken their toll.

Sub-Saharan Africa is worse. The loss of American and European and Soviet aid has plunged most of the African nations into chaos and starvation. The economy of the Union of South Africa collapses, even under martial law, rioting runs rampant as it becomes apparent that the white minority is shunting food and fuel rations to primarily whites, while black South Africans starve. When guards abandon the Robben Island prison, members of the ANC rescue (August 17th) Nelson Mandela, but the joy is short-lived as Mandela dies in a bombing raid by the South African Air Force on a Pretorian black neighborhood.

The USS "Benjamin Franklin" (SSBN-640) becomes the fifth American nuclear submarine to arrive in Australia in May of 1985. Out of communications with any command authority and running out of food, the captain of the "Franklin" orders it berthed at Cairns and awaits orders from President Bush.

An "American Provisional Government" is established in Canberra, mostly attempted to garner intelligence on the situation, both in the US and across the world.

1986
In the face of the catastrophical situation the long-lasting friendship and intense cooperation between the anglophonic neighbours Australia and New Zealand proves enormously precious. Very quickly the two Commonwealth members have intensified their relationship aligning and combining key branches of government, especially military and other security forces, civil protection, agriculture/industry and transportation capacities up to a degree of practically unified government.

The main task is defined as to secure the survival of as many citizens of the two countries - and to a certain degree- all survivors in the rest of the world as possible.

1993
Ten years after the war, the USS "Benjamin Franklin" is re-fitted by the Royal Australian Navy and sent on an intelligence gathering mission. Her empty missile silos are filled with food, enough to last sixteen-to-eighteen months. She heads out, returning to Cairns in August 1994.

She reports that the situation in the United States is "medieval". A few towns and villages have formed themselves into barricaded sanctions, fighting off marauding ex-Army and ex-police units, scavenging for food, water and ammunition. The estimated population of the continguous US is guessed at less than 10 million. A Royal Australian Air Force pilot who volunteered to join the "Franklin" crew, found an intact Beechcraft airplane near Tillamook, Oregon and flew several hundred miles inland.

He reported reaching a vast desert as he approached the old Idaho/Nevada border. Radiation levels were minimal, but the area seemed devoid of plant and animal life. He returned and reboarded the "Franklin" as it headed down along the West Coast.

Europe and what could be reached of the Soviet Union seemed no better. Dust and windstorms prevent aerial reconaissance but the land seemed devastated. Ice cap measurements in the Arctic are unusually thin, and apparently global warming (due to the drop in plant life and rise in CO2) is occuring.

China, Japan, and much of Asia appeared to be as "medieval" as the United States. The "Franklin" crew narrowly escaped when it was attacked in Okinawa by islanders who (from observation) had become cannibals.

India, though lightly damaged from the war, had suffered mass starvation and disentegrated into numerous warlordships.

No radio or television signals are received by the "Franklin", except from Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. They report the rise in temperatures, and an increase in UV radiation.

It has become apparently, even before the "Franklin" left, that the ozone layer had suffered tremendous damage due to the effects of the nuclear explosions. Sunburns begin in southern Australia after only a few minutes exposure. Ultimately many Australians (as well as other Southern Hemispherans) have to fully cover themselves (even on the hottest days) and apply generous amounts of sunscreen. (Sunscreen now is a top priority, after food, for production in the surviving nations.)

1994
On August 15th, Australia and New Zealand declare their formal unification as the "Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand" (commonly known as ANZC or ANZ).

The Provisional American Government ends on May 1st. President Bush in consultation with Prime Minister John Howard issues a short statement to the few American expatriates in Australia, stating that it is best if they "become part of the Australian life and culture". He acts as an advisor to Howard, primarily on development of Australian oil production in Indonesia. This de facto ends the history of the United States of America that started in 1776, though the door for a succesor state to take up the former superpower's mantle remains open.

On the basis of an extended ANZUS-Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, all remaining U.S. American military forces and material (ships, submarines, bases, personnel) are formally integrated into the ANZ-Commonwealth Navy, Air Force and military.

The surviving U.S. territories or mandatory state hold a popular over their future status. American Samoa and the Marshall Island decide to be incorporated into the ANZC while Hawaii votes to become an independent but associated territory to the ANZC, similar to like Puerto Rico has been to the US.

1997
The American Aircraft carrier USS "Nimitz" (CVN-68) is found floating off of Papua New Guinea the coast by Australian Navy (the crew dead from radiation poisoning). In a mission involving nearly the entire Australian and New Zealand naval capacities the Nimitz is towed to the new principal Australian Navy Base located in Cairns. The Nimitz is rechristened as ANZS "Commonwealth" (ANZ-01) and the new Flagship of the combined ANZ Navy, along with the American submarines already operating under Australian command.

1999
The surviving french territories (New Caledonia and French Polynesia plus several islands) declare the formal restoration of the French Republic as "Republic of the French Southern Territories " (R.T.A.)

2000
The new Millenium begins without any greater festivals as apparently no one could enjoy firing rockets to the sky. Still a vast majority of the survivors is struggling for survival.

In April, another ANZ recon mission of the world is undertaken. The ANZ dispatches a flotilla consisting of the refurbished Nimitz several freighter/first aid ships and 3 former US submarines. Loaded with fuel and supplies and equipped with helicopters, the flotilla returns once again to the Northern Hemisphere and surveys the west coast of the United States, Japan, and China.

The remains of the United States (at least to the Rocky Mountains) have melted down to a scattered group of heavily fortified villages (less than 50 from Washington State to southern California), with nearly double that number abandoned or burned. Fired upon by some inhabitants, the Australian pilots make safe landings only at two. Once in Bay City, Oregon and another at Crescent City, California.

Both towns are walled and had feudal warlords, one called "the Mayor" in Bay City, the other called "Boss Jones" in Crescent City. Starvation-level food production barely keeps the villagers alive, while the warlords and their guards reap most of the benefits of the food and fresh water. Plagues of typhus, cholera, and diptheria had depleted their numbers and neither town had a population larger than 1100 people. It is assumed this situation has repeated in much of the old United States.

Fly-overs of the land east of the Rocky Mountains reveal that grass and some trees have started to grow again in much of the formerly desert areas. Nomads are seen scavenging through ruins, but no contact was made with them. Radiation "hot zones" are detected near old nuclear power plants, but generally the radiation has dropped to low levels.

Europe: The successful tries by a ANZ special command onboard the "Franklin" managed to re-initiate a few communication and weather satellites from a remote station in former Ireland. This opened a way to a significant increase in multilateral communication and infrastructural rebuilding.

2003
Twenty years after the war, some improvements in the climate and environment are noted. With few internal combustion engines and little cattle farming, CO2 levels and accompanying temperatures have apparently dropped. Ozone levels over the Antarctic show a slight rise, though dangerous levels of UV radiation still existed in much of the Southern Hemisphere. People have grown accustomed to fully covering themselves.

2004
South America:

Along with increasing stability in fulfilling basic needs, especially food supply, most South American states agree to form a loose, mainly economical, federation modeled after the former European Community. This South American Confederation - lead by Argentinian President Gilberto de Nuna and his Brazil Counterpart Da Pinto, sets out to unify the South and Central American Continent, in order to keep pace with the successful anglophonic ANZ Commonwealth.

North America: The 2004 recon mission, led once again by the "Nimitz", discovers the existence of an isolated, but functioning Canadian "capital" in Iqualuit (Nunavut). The remainders of the Canadian government evacuated in 1985 to this remote city. An official Canadian ambassador is taken back to Canberra and officially reestablishes diplomatic relations. This is the first post-doomsday bilateral encounter including a Northern - Hemisphere nation.

Prime Minister Paul Keating and the ANZ Parliament create a "World Census and Reclamation Bureau" after contacting the remaining nation-state governments left in South America, Asia, and Africa.

The first act of the WCRB is tally the population of the Earth. More reconnaissance missions are flown by the ANZ Navy and Air Force, with temporary bases set-up in Nairobi, Bangalore, Hanoi, Nueva Laredo, Mexico, and Cartagena, Spain. Teams are sent out and, while encountering some hostiles, try to take a census of the world's population.

Their findings: Total World Population: a 800 million. Slightly more than estimates for the year 1750 AD. Primarily in the Southern Hemisphere. Chief causes of death: communicable disease, cancer, and starvation. Infant mortality rates: about 40% or 2 of 5 die before reaching the age of one year. 60% or 3 of 5 die before reaching age five. Average life-span: 32 years. Literacy rates of those under 20 years of age: 2% (outside of ANZ, Argentina, Chile, Brazil).

Further worldwide recon missions follow, establishing WCRB bases throughout merely habitable areas.

2005
The fortified cities along the Pacific coast, facing desperate food supply and no real perspective for anyone, finally agreed to accept the conditions set up by both the ANZ and SAC for delivering humanitary aid: the symbolic foundation of the MSP (Municipal States of the Pacific) with its main task of coordinating the distribution of the humanitary aid. The second condition to form a "Pacific Coast Police Unit" unifying the cities' security forces in order to secure the humanitary transports and infrastructure is fulfilled as well.

WCRB Northern office is opened in Iqualuit.

2006
South America: The SAC with its Headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay now consists of 8 South American States. A policy change insists on formally introducing democracy as a condition to accept new memberstates, though the so-called "democracies" are obviously more similar to oligarchies/dictatorships.

In Africa, conditions are mostly horrifying. A struggling South African Provisional Government is merely able to secure a small region around Capetown with the support of a small joint SAC-ANZ Garrison - the first multilateral peacekeeping mission since doomsday. Everything north of the city was de facto lawless warlord-ruled territory.

2008
In the dawn of the year 25 after doomsday the Australian PM Paul Keating calls on January 1 2008 for the leaders of the surviving/reestablished countries to come together for the Foundation of a new UN- like organisation.

Keating's impressing speech on the Australian National Memorial Site in Canberra is the first post-war television broadcast seen by nearly the entire world population.

And his call is answered. On September 26th, 2008, exactly 25 years after the devastating Doomsday bringing humanity at the edge of total extinction, Keating, de Nuna and da Pinto, along with representatives of the other 20 recently reestablished Nations, are expected in Canberra to sign the Foundation Charter of the New United Nations (NUN).

The 23 (prospective) founding members:

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana cooperativa, Ecuador.

North America:

Canada (Iqualuit remainder government)

Europe:

Nordic Union (Iceland, Norway rump government)

Africa:

RZA (Provisional Government), Mauritius

Asia:

Sri Lanka, India

Oceania:

Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, France (South Pacific Territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia), Federated states of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Tuvalu

Observer status MSP (Municipal States of the Pacific) on behalf of the former USA

Despite this sign of hope, the worldwide situation is only slowly increasing. Still only Australia and the SAC states maintain a significant level of industrial production. World population merely stagnates, even though cancer, child mortality and analphabetism are slowly loosing ground.

The Northern Hemisphere has not significantly changed. The annual WCRB recon missions show no tide-changing in North America, Europe and North Asia.