Churchill’s secret plans for how Britain would fare in an all-out war with Russia

DECLASSIFIED World War 2 era plans reveal that Britain was wary of an all-out war with Russia even whilst the two nations were fighting on the same side.

Operation Unthinkable was the code name given to a series of secret plans developed on the orders of then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

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The classified military documents were made public in 1998, over 50 years since they were drawn up in 1945.

But revisiting them in the context of today's tense global climate sheds a new light on Britain's turbulent relationship with Russia, the country with the world's biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

And after we reported that Vladimir Putin’s presidential plane was recently chased across Europe by fighter jets, the declassified documents seem more chilling than ever.

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Operation Unthinkable started out as an attack strategy, which would involve British forces turning on their USSR allies, who had played a huge role in defeating Hitler's Germany.

At the end of the Second World War, Soviet infantry forces outnumbered the Western armies by four to one, and Stalin boasted twice as many tanks as the Allies.

British commanders were concerned that Stalin's enormous army, and his unpredictable nature, posed a threat to the USA and Britain.

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The plan stated that British and American forces would turn on their Soviet allies and use the element of surprise to gain the upper hand.

However, the surprise attack plans were deemed too ridiculous to ever be realised, with military advisers claiming it was unfeasible to imagine Britain defeating the USSR's Red Army.

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After the original attack plans were rubbished, Operation Unthinkable evolved into a defensive strategy, which envisaged that the USSR would attack Britain as soon as American forces pulled out of Europe.

Chillingly, a report into Britain's military defences revealed it was "fanciful" to imagine Britain successfully beating back a full-scale Russian onslaught.

Churchill had originally planned to slow the Soviet advance by blocking bridges all over Europe, but his generals argued that this wouldn't be anywhere near enough to defend from an attack.

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The terrifying conclusion from Operation Unthinkable was that Britain's only hope would be a resistance led by the Air Force and Royal Navy, who would start a bombing campaign against Russia.

But in the retaliation from the USSR, most British cities would have been bombed to rubble.

Last month, we also revealed the chilling counter plans developed later on by the USSR, which involved a terrifying battle strategy to annihilate Europe and conquer its irradiated remains.