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Report - - The old missile base in Lithuania .... | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - The old missile base in Lithuania ....

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benkar

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
To start with, sorry for bad English again, but I try... :p

Background
In autumn 2007, Did I read the Swedish book –â€￾UndergÃ¥ngens skuggor, missiler och mötenâ€￾ ("The response -missiles and meetings" )

Reading the book was to me a real wake-up call, what is the "Cold War" heard and read about, that there were nuclear missiles deployed in the direct vicinity of Sweden, became suddenly very obvious.

The interest was now aroused, and in October 2007 I visited a few former missile bases in Latvia, both bases where the missiles werebased above the earth, and also a base of the silo site, was not possible to get into it when it was completely Looters and entrances clogged.

We planned a new session in Baltkum spring of 2008, so we planned a visit to the only silo-based base, which to some extent remains, only partly loot on metal and technical equipment, and now in the form of a simple museum (There is other similar facilities that you can get into, but they are substantially depleted and hesitant to engage in) To get a little more time during the visit so booked us a personal guided tour with a knowledgeable guide and I'll try to recount part of all the information we received.

Cold War medium rockets in the Baltics
Around the our Baltic neighbors, it is difficult not to stumble into different residues from "Cold War", from small military bases, airports, to the missile bases. As regards nuclear weapons state medium rockets as they were during the 50-century placed in "hangerer" above ground. Soviet power realized then that we should try protect these missiles in a better way, people started to think of the tracks "Silo base ring" ....

Missile base in Plokstine (Lithuania)
In summer 1960, Soviet military located the small village PlokÅ¡čiai, the area was good to, 160 meters above sea level and the ground consisted of easily excavated sand. During the next year was 10,000 Estonian conscripts get to know their shovel well, this was the digging by hand in force. After a couple of years as the base was finally completed, now protected by barbed wire, electric fences, mines and hungry guard dogs. The missiles were directed against Norway, England, Spain, West Germany and Turkey. The total staffing consisted of around 300 people worked in different shifts.

Missiles
In PlokÅ¡čiai had four R-12 Dvina missiles (NATO name SS-4 Sandal) Nuclear tip had a force of around a Mt. The missile was 23 meters long including the 4-meter-long WARHEAD. Propellant was a mix of "kerosone and nitric acid "

Trip to Cuba
Autumn 1962 was both missiles and staff from Plokstine go on "vacation" to Cuba, which resulted in the not entirely unfamiliar "Cuban Crisis". Was not popular idea, so they had to go home to Plokstine again.

It ended at last
In the late 70's so Soviet-US agreement on disarmament in the case medium missiles, so in mid-June 1978, close the shop in Plokstine and went home, which was some years before Lithuania became an independent state again. Local residents fit then twisting up some material from the base provided to their fate. The base is located in a nature reserve and around 1990 the area of responsible base and closed the door, so that the base is relatively (in comparison with other
similar installations) well.

Visit
Base in its current state could never be / been to a museum in Sweden, it is in very bad condition, but was an experience to visit it, you really feel history and think: If not the Soviet put so much energy on facilities such as this, which resulted in resource problems in the rest of society, as had Perhaps the Communist Soviet yet been retained....

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More pictures from Plokstine here:
Glömda rum/Utomlands/Litauen/MissilbasPlokstine

Base like the on at above, totally abandonned, in Latvia
Glömda rum/Utomlands/Lettland/FdSovjetiskMissilbasEleja-Meitene

Surface based missile base also in Latvia:
Glömda rum/Utomlands/Lettland/FdSovjetiskMissilbasZeltini

And a link about R-12 missile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-12_(missile)

About the Swedish book –â€￾UndergÃ¥ngens skuggor, missiler och mötenâ€￾:
http://translate.google.com/transla...artikel_35120.svd&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=
 
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