V-Force

As World War II came to an end and America’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shocked the world, it became clear that the nascent Cold War would be as different a conflagration from WWII as that war was from WWI. Believing that the UK was extremely vulnerable to nuclear attack, it was quickly determined that only ‘the threat of large-scale damage from similar weapons’ could prevent a Soviet attack. And, thus, V-Force was born. Entered into service between 1955 and 1957, the three models of V class bombers that made up Britain’s strategic nuclear strike force – the Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor – were modern marvels of machinery. ‘V-Force’ is both an ode to these most resilient and beautiful of British aircraft, and a lens through which to view Britain’s Cold War experience.