I'm reading Command And Control by Eric Schlosser, a genuinely fascinating General history of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. A general theme emerges, to whit, nobody ever successfully grappled with the problems of keeping and using nuclear weapons.
A very specific question intrigues me however- when planning for nuclear war at the time when the B-52 was the prime weapons system- during chrome domes hey day, or at the peak of the Cuban missile crisis to be specific, what was the plan for the bombers and their aircrews? How did the planners at SAC think it was going to play out? Was it just an overt suicide mission, or was there a real prospect of returning to a base somewhere?
I have read a lot of memoirs by B-52 crew members, and it doesn't seem like they had much faith in it working out well for them.
Is anyone able to shed some light on this (admittedly esoteric) area for me? I have read and read around the issue, but classification and the nature of it make it a tough nut to crack.
My thanks in advance.
Louis.
There was a previous thread on the subject, here, that asked what nuclear bomber crews would do after dropping their payload. It may be of interest to you.
In particular, this comment indicates that the flight crews were directed to attempt to bail out over friendly or neutral territory if possible in the event of a full-scale exchange where there probably would not be an airbase to return to.
Along similar lines, what was expected to happen to the crews of strategic missile submarines if nuclear war actually broke out? Some of them could spend months underwater at a time, so I'd be curious as to what their crews would do in a worst case scenario.
One thing to add is that there were some efforts made to avoid having the bombers destroyed in the process of dropping the bombs, such as specific paint schemes that improve survivability against radiation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-flash_white
However, that is just for the immediate aftermath, I can't claim to be familiar with the plan involving attempting to return the bombers and the crews home.
Do you mean by the size of the blast or the fact that the enemy would throw everything they had at the bomber crew?