How US nuclear missiles found a base in Scotland

Dunoon was no stranger to submarines and their crews by the time the first Americans arrived there in March 1961 but establishing a US base in Scotland was still a controversial move.

The Argyll town sits at the mouth of the Holy Loch on the east side of the Cowal peninsula. The loch opens straight out into the Clyde and a combination of deep waters, natural shelter, and easy access to the open sea, had already ensured it was a strategically important spot when war broke out in 1939.

The Royal Navy based submarines there throughout World War Two, carrying out operations across the Atlantic.

But the US base would be something completely different.

By the early 1960s both the USA and USSR were increasing the size of their nuclear arsenals.

The Americans developed the submarine-launched Polaris nuclear missile system but needed a base for their fleet in Europe.

The USA and Britain struck a deal which brought the missiles to the Clyde and over the course of the next decade the Americans would take over the Holy Loch while the Royal Navy built up its own base a few miles away at Faslane on the Gare Loch.