Top secret documents seen by Express.co.uk expose the brutal reality of how seriously the threat of nuclear attack was taken during the Cold War. Drawn up on August 20, 1959, by the Civil Defence – a voluntary organisation under Home Office authority established to oversee local response to a national emergency – Operation Torquemada looked at the likely outcome if the Soviet Union attacked Liverpool. The objective of the plans were to prepare emergency services for how they might respond, with debris impact categorised from one to four (four being the worst) and a chilling map showing the extent of the blast on the surrounding areas.