In the event of nuclear war, Whitehall devised secret preparations to evacuate the Queen and other senior royals from London.
Historians say Her Majesty and key ministers would have been whisked away to remote lochs in Scotland to ride out the attacks on “floating bunkers.”
The Royal Yacht Britannia was one of several planned “floating bunkers”.
Officials began drawing up plans in the 1950s for “continuity of government” in the event of an A-bomb attack. Whitehall and Downing Street operations would have been relocated to a massive bunker at Corsham, Wiltshire, staffed by 4,000 civil officials.
The underground HQ, codenamed “Burlington,” even had a BBC studio so broadcasting could continue.
But the rise of ICBM rockets and fears that Soviet spies knew the bunker’s location meant a rethink after the Cuba missile crisis in 1962.
Instead, critical personnel would be dispersed throughout the UK, with only core support employees remaining at Corsham HQ.
The goal was that some would survive and be able to use secure communications to coordinate the government’s reaction.
The Queen, as head of state, has sole authority to designate prime ministers, so her safety was critical.
Operation Python was implemented in 1968, according to declassified documents released five decades later.
A memorandum from that year noted: “The details of these dispersal plans [Python] are among the most vital of Britain’s state secrets.”
Elaborate plans included using a number of ferries as “floating bunkers” around Scotland’s coast.
The Queen and other royals would likely have been rushed away from London to various country houses – not known royal residences – during the “precautionary phase” when all-out war was feared.
A special unit of 1,300 soldiers was earmarked to guard them.
If there was time before an actual strike-a level three “catastrophic emergency”-the plan was to move the monarch to the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The boat would then
travel between lochs, shielded from Soviet radar by the surrounding highlands.
“The Queen had to be kept separate because only The Queen can appoint a Prime Minister,” historian Peter Hennessy told BBC Radio 4.
“She could not be with the Prime Minister and the War Cabinet because they would get wiped out the moment they operated from this bunker.
“The signals traffic would give the [Soviets] a very good idea of what was happening.”
Castle bunker
For practical reasons, the plan called for the Home Secretary to be on board with the Queen.
The espionage expert added: “The Home Secretary was with her so they could have a Privy Council with the Queen’s Private Secretary, the Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen to appoint the new government out of the ruins.
“She was going to lurk in the sea lochs of the North West coast of Scotland, moving at night from one to the other, because the mountains would stop the radar getting to her.”
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