NEWLY declassified documents have revealed the chilling details of what would happen on the dawn nuclear Armageddon.
As mad tyrant Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine carries on and his threats for pushing the nuke button looms, once top-secret docs explain why those first vaporised would be the lucky ones.
Once secret files titled about a "General Nuclear War" are one of the most classified secrets kept by the United States government.
The docs, which had been obscured for decades, will now bring people to the brink of legal disclosure as they reveal how Washington DC could be the first nuclear target.
The American capital - home to the Pentagon - would get hit with a one megaton thermonuclear bomb "surprise attack", according to the docs first revealed in The Mail on Sunday
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Andrew Weber, former assistant secretary of defence for nuclear, chemical and biological defence programmes, said: "A 'Bolt out of the Blue' attack against DC is what everyone in DC fears most."
" 'Bolt out of the Blue’ is how US Nuclear Command and Control refers to an unwarned large [nuclear] attack."
A one-megaton thermonuclear bomb detonation begins with a massive burst of light and heat that the human mind cannot grasp.
One hundred and eighty million degrees Fahrenheit is four or five times higher than the temperature in the centre of the Sun.
Needless to say, the minutes following the blast would be of absolute destruction.
One mega inferno
In the mere fraction of a millisecond following the detonation at the Pentagon near Washington DC, a burst of light emerges.
This soft X-ray light, with an extremely short wavelength, instantly superheats the surrounding air to temperatures in the millions of degrees, giving rise to a colossal fireball expanding at speeds of millions of miles per hour.
Within seconds, the fireball swells to a diameter exceeding a mile, its searing heat causing concrete to rupture, metal to liquefy or vaporise, stone to fracture, and individuals to instantaneously combust into carbon.
The Pentagon's five-story, five-sided building, along with everything within its 6.5 million square feet of office space, disintegrates into superheated dust as walls shatter under the nearly simultaneous shockwave, claiming the lives of all 27,000 occupants instantly.
Ground zero is obliterated as nothing within the fireball's reach remains intact.
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Travelling at the speed of light, the radiating heat ignites all flammable materials several miles in every direction.
Curtains, paper, books, wooden structures, clothing, and dry foliage erupt into flames, fuelling a massive firestorm that engulfs an area exceeding 100 square miles.
Bodies will be most likely stripped of the outer skin layer, exposing bloody dermis underneath
This area, once the bustling centre of American governance and home to six million people, now succumbs to devastation.
In a catastrophic event near the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery is instantly transformed into charred remains, including its graves, visitors, and staff.
Simultaneously, iconic memorials like the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials collapse across the Potomac River.
Nearby structures, like the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, are obliterated, with people and objects bursting into flames.
At Nationals Park, spectators will catch on fire and those who don't burn to death will suffer excruciatingly painful third-degree burns.
That's because their bodies will be most likely stripped of the outer skin layer, exposing bloody dermis underneath.
Within seconds, heat radiation will have completely scorched the skin of around one million people, 90 percent of whom will die.
About fifteen miles from the Pentagon, chaos ensues as cars and buses collide, streets melt from extreme heat, and hurricane-force winds escalate fires exponentially.
Within ten miles, new fires ignite from burning ash and debris, engulfing all of Washington DC in a massive inferno.
On our own
In just eight to nine minutes, the area becomes a scene of devastation, with survivors bewildered and desperate to flee.
The electromagnetic pulse wipes out all communication and transportation systems, leaving people stranded without help.
Even those who escape the initial blast face the grim reality that they are entirely alone in the aftermath of nuclear war.
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate told The Mail on Sunday that survivors' only hope is to figure out how to "self-survive", which kick starts a "fight for food and water".
People will catch on fire and those who don't burn to death will suffer excruciatingly painful third-degree burns
A nuclear attack on the Pentagon is only the starting point to what will eventually lead to the end of mankind as we know it.
A nuke Armageddon that will leave at least two billion dead.
It is also a scenario with no scheduled start date as "the world could end in the next couple of hours," warned General Robert Kehler, the former commander of the United States Strategic Command.
Vladimir Putin, for instance, says he is ready to launch nuclear weapons if he feels the West is threatening Russia's sovereignty.
Drums of war
In his most chilling WW3 threat yet, the Russian tyrant, 71, declared the weapons "exist in order to use them".
In an interview with Russian state television released before his fraudulent election, Putin emphasised that Moscow is "ready" from "a military-technical point of view" in the event of a perceived threat to national security.
He declared: "Weapons exist in order to use them."
"We have our own principles.
"We are ready to use weapons, including any weapons, including [nuclear], if we are talking about the existence of the Russian state, harming our sovereignty and independence."
A chilling nuclear war simulator revealed how a Russian nuclear strike could trigger a global conflict, killing 35 million people in just a matter of hours.
The model predicts a catastrophic war escalating from an initial Russian nuclear strike, which quickly draws in other powers.
Known as "Plan A", the four-minute animation aims to highlight the horrific potential consequences of conflict between Russia and NATO countries as all nations would fire strikes against one another.
It was created by Princeton University researchers working with the Program on Science and Global Security.
The model predicts that almost 35 million people would die within hours - many of those in the first 45 minutes.
Such a devastating conflict would then leave a further 56 million injured - not including later deaths from nuclear fallout and other effects.
Within seconds, heat radiation has completely scorched the skin of around one million people, 90 percent of whom will die
It comes as the odds of an apocalyptic nuclear world war are now as low as six to one amid escalating tensions with Russia.
A Swedish scientist has claimed the chances that he decides to push the nuclear button are now the same as losing a game of Russian roulette.
Max Tegmark, who heads up the Future of Life Institute has set out what he considers the odds of an all-out nuclear war.
In alarming findings, he claims the probability of nuclear war between Russia and the US is roughly one in six or just under 17 percent.
It comes as experts warn a world-ending nuclear war with Putin could wipe out five billion people and block out the sun for years to come, triggering apocalyptic crop failures.
Defence analysts have claimed the UK is "woefully unprepared" for nuclear war, with calls for iodine tablets to be distributed to families and the formation of a national defence corps.
