In addition to the Royal Navy, there were a number of foreign icebreakers in the North Sea, investigating and probing the ice around the British coast. It wasn’t too thick and smashing through the ice was relatively easy. However, when the ships came within range of the coast, the depth of snow on the land prevented any further progress.
One of these icebreakers, the ‘Queen of Bornholm’, was in the southern North Sea on that Sunday evening, not far from Brady’s position, with the task of checking the thickness and durability of ice forming in the Wash.
By 5pm, it had finished for the day and was heading back to its home port of Esbjerg in Denmark. It didn’t pick up Brady’s rowing boat on the radar – the sea was too rough and the boat too small – it was lost in the swell.
However, it was on a collision course with Brady and at around 5.30pm, the icebreaker passed within thirty metres of the tiny speck in the ocean. But, as luck would have it, an officer on the bridge happened to be looking out to starboard and as the swell brought Brady and his boat to the top of a crest, he caught a glimpse of what looked like a small chunk of ice. Normally, he would have ignored it, but was surprised to see ice so far from the main shelf. So, he looked again as the shape passed towards the rear of the ship.
‘All engines reverse – immediately!’ he bellowed. ‘There's a small boat off the starboard bow. Quickly, prepare to lower the rescue launch!’
The ‘Queen of Bornholm’ had only been making four knots, so it didn’t take long to stop and manoeuvre towards Brady. The deck crew maintained a close eye on the small boat, which kept disappearing from sight in the swell. Nevertheless, the rescue launch was successfully lowered into the sea, and rapidly made for Brady’s position. Within ten minutes they were alongside Brady’s boat, and he was being winched up into the launch. The sea was far too rough to risk life and limb to save Brady’s kit, so it was left in the rowing boat, which was close to going under, as so much water had been shipped.
Brady was drenched with icy sea water and in a very bad way. His comatose form was quickly transferred to the ships’ infirmary and the doctor tried to find his pulse. It seemed that they were too late.
However, one thing was certain: Brady had finally escaped the snow.
Day 16 -20
UK – SNOW!
It snowed for five more days after Brady’s inert form was picked up by the Danish icebreaker in the North Sea.
The landscape of the British Isles resembled an enormous Christmas cake, covered with icing and dotted with the tips of trees. The snow was forty to fifty feet deep in most places but had drifted brutally in many. All conventional housing was buried. Blocks of flats, skyscrapers, churches, towers, bridges and tall public buildings stood out but almost all of their roofs had collapsed under the burden of snow. Lakes and rivers had long ago frozen and disappeared – as had all lines of communication.
Almost nobody ventured out and those who did put their lives at severe risk. It was not only snowing, but temperatures had reached a record low of minus thirty-four degrees C. Wind speeds were routinely in excess of forty miles per hour and had peaked at eighty-eight miles per hour.
Damage beneath the snow was catastrophic and widespread. Hardly a pylon was still standing and damage to trees was ruinous. It is a little known fact that heavy snow has the same impact on trees and tall structures as a hurricane might.
There had been no electricity at all since Day 4. The only source of heat was propane gas and firewood – and this was limited to a fortunate few. Even they struggled to survive and many died of asphyxiation caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
All animal life had been extinguished – through either cold or starvation. Many pets had ended up on the dinner table!
All human life had suffered dreadfully. Tens of millions were dead and lay buried beneath the snow. Some were in the open but many froze to death in their own homes. Dehydration caused most fatalities – even more than the intense cold. The population almost immediately had no means of heating snow or frozen water, and after the first week, the casualties began to mount.
It was a holocaust of truly unimaginable and unprecedented proportions.
It had snowed for only twenty days.
And then it stopped.
Day 21
Saturday 5 January
Downing Street – 9:00am
Sir Ian James sat in the radio room deep under Downing Street. He was in contact with Sandringham. The duty police radio-operator was excited and the communication was garbled. It took him three attempts to get the message over.
‘Yes sir, it's stopped. It has stopped snowing. The sky has cleared. The sun is shining and the temperature is rising – it's eight degrees C here this morning.’
Sir Ian answered breathlessly.
‘My God, that's fantastic news! Is Her Majesty safe and well? How about the remainder of the family? Can you prepare a report for the PM and call back in twenty minutes. I’ll get him to the phone.’
The duty police officer confirmed the instruction and signed off.
Sir Ian rose and turned for the door. He entered the staff common room and made an announcement:
‘Attention everybody. I have some momentous news. Sandringham has been on the line, and has confirmed that it has stopped snowing. After three long weeks, the sun is out! It's stopped snowing at last!’
There was a moment of shocked silence. Nobody really believed the news but then, suddenly, they all sprang into each other’s arms and the tears flowed.
‘I need to see the PM. Anyone seen him?’ asked Sir Ian.
‘He's in his usual hidey hole,’ came an unsympathetic and anonymous reply.
Sir Ian grimaced and strode through the room closely followed by the PPS. They walked along a short corridor and knocked on the door to the PM’s private room. There was no reply, which was not unusual, since the PM had retreated into his own personal world many days since. Sir Ian knocked again and was met with the same silence, so he walked straight in.
The sight that greeted him was a shock, but not entirely surprising. The PM was hanging by a length of electrical flex from a heating pipe, which ran the length of the small space. The PPS rushed over and grabbed the PM’s legs, attempting to remove the weight from the rope around his neck.
Sir Ian climbed up onto the chair lying upended at the PM’s feet and released the knot. The PM slumped to the floor. Sir Ian quickly tried to find a pulse but was unsuccessful – and he was not surprised, the PM was very cold and distinctly blue. Nevertheless, he went to fetch the nurse who had remained in the common room.
‘Wait here, I’ll be back shortly,’ snapped Sir Ian.
The PPS was already making a futile attempt at CPR.
Sir Ian returned with the nurse within thirty seconds, and inside another minute, she confirmed that the PM was dead.
‘Probably the best thing all round,’ whispered Sir Ian, ‘he was never up to all of this. To mis-quote another PM, this is just the beginning of the end. The return of the sun is going to cause more problems than it solves.’
He was absolutely right – the thaw had begun.
Day 22
Monday 5 January
Sunshine
The huge low-pressure system had been pushed south and east by an upper high, which did two things. It moved the upper Jetstream back across the British mainland, and started the break-up of the stranglehold that the three main ‘lows’ had on the area around the UK.
Within twelve hours, clear, cold air passed from the Atlantic towards the British Isles, and the ‘lows’ began to dissipate and fill as they eased towards the Mediterranean. This meant that the UK was now swathed in bright but cold sunshine, and temperatures rose from below zero to around ten degrees C.
It was the light that was most startling. It had been dark for almost three weeks, and the combination of sunshine and bright white snow was dazzling – if not blinding!
Consequently, there were very few people able to take advantage of the ch
ange in weather. Most citizens were already dead, and the survivors were generally buried in up to forty feet of snow, cowering in whatever makeshift shelters they had constructed.
Nonetheless, survivors gradually began to appear. The British are nothing if not resourceful.
The first people to venture out were those who could actually see daylight. These were in tower blocks, churches, supermarkets and other tall buildings – many of which lay in major cities.
However, many did not yet perceive the very real dangers that lay ahead. The most underestimated were potentially the most deadly – bright, blinding white light which the survivors encountered immediately. Everyone had been living in a gloomy, candlelit environment for over two weeks and snow blindness was an instant and very real threat. Anyone in the open without dark sunglasses would almost immediately suffer the consequences.
Snow blindness is the loss of vision associated with inflammation of the cornea and conjunctiva, which is caused by exposure to ultraviolet rays and sunlight reflecting off the snow. The loss of vision may be temporary, or it could be permanent. And it wasn’t long before many survivors were staggering about in the snow unable to see, clutching at extremely painful eyes. Unless rescued by friends or relatives, these people would wander off blindly into the snow until the cold claimed them as well.
The other direct threat to continued survival was the instability of the snow. It wasn’t the hard-packed snow found on the slopes of the Alps or in trendy Canadian ski resorts. It hadn’t yet been compacted by the populace trampling it down. So unless one had skis or snow shoes, walking on the surface was all but impossible. Many of the first people escaping from their temporary shelters merely sank up to their waists – or further – and couldn’t dig themselves out. Their companions could only look on in horror and could not even attempt a rescue, lest they suffer a similar fate.
Consequently, survivors started to disappear back inside again. They quickly realised that this was not a jolly scene from a Christmas card, but a lethal trap for the unwary or unprepared.
Thus the misery continued. Many more of the population who had struggled to survive for three weeks died unnecessarily, in the false dawn of the anticipated instant salvation.
In reality, their troubles were only just beginning.
Day 23
Tuesday 6 January
Rescue? – 10:00am
The weather in France, Norway and the Benelux countries improved proportionately. Although snowfall had been far less severe than in the UK, it was still serious. It was winter in Europe and the administrative infrastructure had been pushed to its limit. It had been struggling to cope with the influx of British citizens, who were trying to get home or just find out what was happening to their loved ones trapped by the snow.
Literally, tens of thousands of temporary British refugees littered France and Germany. Many were in hotels, boarding houses or lived as ‘guests’ in private homes. All of them craved the same thing – to return to the UK – but few of them fully grasped the reality of the situation. They could only see as far as their own particular circumstances. The vast majority could not understand that the UK was totally inaccessible, and would remain so for some considerable time. Indeed, it would be many weeks or months before these ‘refugees’ could even contemplate returning home.
Governments around the world were only just realising the vast magnitude of the disaster.
Norway was the best placed of the ‘front-line’ victims, as it had the set-up to cope with large amounts of snowfall. Nevertheless, it would take that country many weeks to return to normal. Norway had suffered many fatalities, their cities were snowbound and outlying regions would need support. In short, priorities at home would preclude immediate assistance to the UK.
Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg were in a comparable situation. They had all suffered moderate yet almost continuous snowfall for nearly three weeks. It wasn’t anything like as bad as the UK, but the country’s leaders had to prioritise – and their own population came out ahead of the UK. Once they had resolved their own problems – only then would they consider sharing resources for aid purposes.
The main source of aid was the United States. Agencies in Washington DC had quickly realised that the snowfall in the UK represented a human tragedy of gargantuan proportions. There were many thousands of American citizens, including service personnel, living in the UK and it was decided that serious and consistent attempts should be made to mount a rescue and aid mission.
The US had military bases right across Europe, with the majority in Germany. There were more than twenty spread across the south of the country and the United States administration had spent a lot of time and money supplying those bases with a whole raft of relief materiel. Helicopters, temporary housing, food, medical supplies, personnel, and life rafts were amongst the goods transferred over the past two weeks.
As soon as the US Government recognized that there would be a huge demand for aid, they set their mothballed relief plan into action. Mothballed because it was the old plan to reinforce Europe during the Cold War. It worked very well, and by the third of January, there were enough supplies to cope with 100,000 potential refugees.
They already had quite few customers, as ‘British refugees’ from France, who had been marooned since the fifteenth of December, were slowly migrating eastwards as money, food and French sympathy quickly ran out. British Embassies, the television and radio – which especially broadcast in English – town halls, libraries, newsagents and fast food outlets issued details of where to go if anyone needed aid of any kind. It didn’t take very long for a steady stream of Brits to start heading for Germany - and free accommodation and food. Production of a British passport, or irrefutable evidence of current British residence, allowed you straight into tented, heated accommodation and three square meals a day. It took a massive load off the French government which enabled it to deal with its own not insignificant snow associated problems.
There had been a worldwide appeal for assistance. Mainly organised by the Swiss and Americans, aid started to trickle in from around the globe into the German camps. It made a welcome change for aid to be coming into Europe. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth was particularly generous – not surprisingly, as most people in those countries had relations in the UK.
The other large group of Brits were the ex-pats. Those citizens who had migrated from the UK – ironically, to escape the winter weather – now watched helplessly, in abject horror, as their country, property and relatives were devastated by the snow.
British embassies and consuls were besieged by ex-pats who yearned greedily for information. None was available and the only advice given was to return home and stay there, until the picture was clearer. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by travelling into France and making the situation there worse than it already was. Of course, that didn’t stop some people, and many thousands flew and drove into Western Europe, to add to the chaos. Naturally, they were distraught and concerned for their loved ones in Britain and Eire. However, they would need to quickly accept that the chances of survival of a particular individual were remote. It would be weeks or months before news of any kind filtered out.
It would all be mostly bad news.
Day 24
Wednesday 7 January
Survivors?
Survivors?
There weren’t many.
The bulk of the surviving British population now lived abroad, spread out thinly around the world, but nonetheless, there were nearly five million of them. These included 3.5 million who had emigrated, and lived their lives primarily in the sun. The remaining 1.5 million were temporarily out of the country – on holiday or business.
This represented almost ten percent of the UK population. The same percentages applied to Eire. However, the death rate in Southern Ireland was almost one hundred percent, because of the rural nature of the country.
On mainland Britain, there were survivors. The Royal Family did very well.
The Royal Protection Officers and staff at Sandringham had done a fantastic job of keeping the household functioning and preserving the royal personages. However, they had advantages which the vast majority of the general population did not. Fuel, protection, food, water, determination, common sense, specialist knowledge and luck. All of these elements were vital in the struggle to survive.
Most of the population were caught completely by surprise. Without exception, people believed that the snow would probably stop after a day or two. Consequently, they treated the weather with the usual contempt, and as a result, many millions paid the ultimate price.
On the streets, in vehicles, on public transport, at work, at home, in schools and in hospitals - people just froze to death or dehydrated because they were simply not equipped. Britain never is. Every winter, it's the same story – snow equals chaos! Local and national infrastructure and services break down remarkably quickly – electricity, gas and communications are vital to the survival of humans in Arctic-like conditions. When these go, the population is lost.
Snow! The Series [Books 1-4] Page 41