Third World War (1983)

World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, was a global conflict lasting from November 7 to November 23, 1983. The conflict was a result of mounting Soviet suspicion that the Able Archer wargame NATO was conducting was actually preparation for an attack on the Soviet Union and its allies. As a result, on November 7, the Warsaw Pact launched a full-scale invasion of West Germany. The fighting rapidly escalated, and on November 9, NATO used tactical nuclear weapons against advancing Soviet troops to prevent them from reaching the river Rhine, and the Soviets responded with their own battlefield nuclear weapons. Two days later, on November 11, 1983, a day forever known to the world as “Doomsday” and “The Watershed”, the Soviets, intending to completely destroy NATO, and as a last resort, launched a full-scale nuclear first strike against NATO and its allies, who were forced to react in kind, and thousands of nuclear devices were exchanged over a period of two hours until a temporary ceasefire was called. By the time the last missile had hit its target, hundreds of millions were sick, dead or dying from blast, heat and radioactive fallout from the nuclear explosions. A total of around 750 million to 1 billion were killed in the horrific conflict, and the death toll continued to rise in the following months and years and around 3000-8000 megatons of nuclear explosives were exchanged in the conflict.

The first of several thermonuclear bombs to hit the Kansas City area on Doomsday evening. This picture was taken right after impact by a student traveling on Kansas Highway 10 going west towards Lawrence, just past the DeSoto exit.