IN the height of the Cold War, Russia and America found themselves locked in a chilling race to nuke the Moon, declassified military documents reveal.

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, the USSR and the USA spent decades trying to prove their military might to the world.

5 Our moon found itself in the firing line during the dark days of the Cold War Credit: Alamy

During this tense era, the two global superpowers found themselves locked in an arms race which saw them spend decades scrambling to develop the most powerful armaments.

As the arms race morphed into a space race, the two nations set their sights on the Moon, and made it their goal to extend their influence beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Now, declassified documents have revealed just how far the superpowers were prepared to go, as they hatched terrifying plans to obliterate part of our moon with a nuclear strike.

5 Americans planned to launch a nuclear strike on the moon to demonstrate their military might Credit: Getty Images

Codenamed Project A119, a plan cooked up by the US Air Force in 1958 set out how America could prove their might once and for all.

Physicist Leonard Reiffel was put in charge of the project, which had the terrifying goal of detonating a nuclear warhead on the Moon.

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The team of military and physics experts planned to explode a warhead the same size as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on our planet's natural satellite.

The detonation would light up the Moon's surface, generating a sphere of dust which would blot out any hopes of Russia winning the arms race.

5 US forces planned to drop a bomb as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb, pictured, on the Moon Credit: Getty Images

At the time, the team believed that they could feasibly hit a target on the Moon within an accuracy of two miles.

However, by January 1959 US military bosses were convinced that the public backlash against such a senseless strike would be enormous, and the risks of a malfunction in the launch were too great.

After that realisation, America's leaders turned their attention to putting people, rather than weapons, in space.

5 A nuclear strike on the Moon would kick up a huge sphere of dust Credit: Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Soviets were cooking up a scheme of their own as part of a project codenamed E-4.

This plan involved striking the Moon with a nuclear missile of their own, although this plot faced the same overwhelming risks and difficulties as the Americans' secret plans.

5 Due to political and technical risks, Americans decided to focus on putting people in space instead Credit: Alamy

These chilling Cold War revelations come after we revealed the secret US plans which could have led to the total destruction of the USSR.

We also told how America had cooked up a desperate, last-ditch nuclear strategy in the wake of World War 2, and shared how the USSR planned to retaliate by destroying most of Europe.