Recovered history: Preparing the queen to declare war on Soviet Union

Guardian - It is the Queen's speech that nobody ever wants to hear. In 1983 senior civil servants drafted a message they envisaged the monarch might have to deliver to the nation on the eve of all-out nuclear war with Russia.

The message, rousing and bleak in equal measure, was prepared during a secret Whitehall exercise designed to test Britain's reaction to international developments that tilted the world to the brink of a third world war. In it, the Queen would describe the "madness of war" and "the deadly power of abused technology" and call on Britain to summon the spirit of two world wars in its battle to survive.

The extraordinary speech forms part of a chilling 320-page war games scenario – codenamed Wintex-Cimex 83 – which was drawn up by top intelligence, defence and Home Office staff. It is revealed in a cache of secret documents released on Thursday by the National Archives, which evokes the shadow of nuclear armageddon that hung over Britain 30 years ago.