Britain and the Cuban Missile Crisis. For most British people, the weekend of 27/28 October 1962 could so very easily have been their last weekend on earth, yet astonishingly the fact that Britain's nuclear deterrent forces went to an unprecedented level of readiness was kept secret from the public. Thor nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles stood on a round-the-clock wartime state of alert ready to be fired, these were the 'other' missiles of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which made Britain, in effect, America's launch pad. Explains the complete workings of the RAF's Thor missile squadrons. AUTHOR: Jim Wilson worked as a journalist in Norfolk during the time that Thor missiles were based there. 35 illustrations