THE Cold War was entering an uncertain phase when I joined the RAF in 1961. Certainly, the top brass had to reappraise what form future hostilities would take and it did make for some rather bizarre battlefield training.

I remember going to one training lecture concerning atomic weapons. The instructor opened by saying that if one exploded we should immediately drop face down and cover our eyes. We waited for further advice but that was it – you’d certainly cop it but save your sight.

This thread of fatalism was evident in the humour of the time. Beyond The Fringe, the seminal satirical revue was making its London stage debut. I remember one sketch that featured an Irish atomic weapon that had to be carried into enemy territory.

I was a great fan, however, of the American musical satirist Tom Lehrer, who penned the wonderful and prescient song: We’ll All Go Together When We Go.

“Fifty years on I can still remember the lyrics: “We’ll all go together when we go, “Every Hottentot and every Eskimo, “There’ll be no more misery “When the world is our rotisserie.

“Oh, we’ll all go together when we go.”

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.