Bloody hell! That made me drop my chips!!
That's a sonic tablet from disco mountain - fantastic find!
Regarding the song itself....no idea! But - I am reminded of
The Bob by Roxy Music on
Roxy Music.
The Bob stood for 'The Battle of Britain' and contained synth sounds by Eno emulating spitfires and machine-gun fire.
I only mention this as there's a lot of swooping synths on this Ultravox! piece - as if imitating an air attack - and does he say "burning rivers" (?)
Hell, I've no idea, but it does have that apocalyptic sound that they got on tracks like
Fear in the Western World about it - also sounds at the start a bit first album as well, so maybe it was an early tryout?