shut in and left completely isolated for up to three months
"chemical toilets for when the base was closed to save precious water, and worst of all, cardboard coffins for those who didn’t make it"
The only flaw is that most of them wouldn't attend.
The bunker at the end of the world - in Essex
Kelvedon Hatch is a superb example of absurdist geek life. Not only is the site technically very impressive, it is also completely useless and frequently prompts the question “what on earth were they thinking?”... A tour reinforces this view as the experience now is as enjoyably peculiar as the history behind the place. The …
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:01 GMT Tom 7
"Then the earth was replaced."
I was wondering about that.
Re Tim Roberts 1. yes... I remember my father staring out the window during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was about 3 1/2 at the time. Its one of the few images of him I could still paint after all these years.
It may look mad now but it happened and was very very real at the time.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:02 GMT jubtastic1
Worth a visit
Interesting to explore and easy to laugh at the dioramas but the reality behind this building is pretty sobering. Grim is an understatement, Its poorly lit, cold and musty with an undercurrent of rot.
Hard to imagine what it would have been like to be shut in down there as blasts shook the ground and the world died above you.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 10:26 GMT Richard Pennington 1
Re: Only in Britain...
Not just in Britain ...
On a visit to Washington DC a few years ago, I spotted a car prominently labelled "US Secret Service - Uniformed Division". There is also a turnoff from one of the Baltimore-to-Washington freeways, labelled "National Security Agency - Employees Only".
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:09 GMT TheresaJayne
I used to do re-enactments in the bunker, staying there at night and sleeping in the bunks.
We used to do the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.
It is scary to think that on that day Russian bombers were coming down the north sea and if the secret talks had not succeeded in america the missiles in Norfolk would have been fueled and WW3 would have started.
But that information is not commonly known with the standoff at Cuba being the more widely known incident.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
I visited some years back
and the place had a delightfully ramshackle feel, seemingly also serving as the foundations of a museum of shop-window mannequins. One of whom, if I remember correctly, was sat in front of a microphone in a radio studio wearing a Spitting Image Maggie Thatcher mask. A thoroughly British day out.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 12:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Waiting for Eadon
Very little of the original contents of the bunker remained when the bunker was decommissioned. The Parrish family took anything and everything from the period as props to recreate the interior. So don't go looking too closely trying to deduce why HM Govt was using various bits of kit. The only thing you can deduce is that 15 years ago the Parrish family were given various bits of kit.
As a local I can tell you, as expected, you can't build something like that and keep it a secret. Ever since I was a kid I knew about the military base in the woods. The signs on the fence rather gave that away. So those machine gun positions covering the corridor would have been for us!
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:36 GMT SuperHoopMango
"It is scary to think that on that day Russian bombers were coming down the north sea and if the secret talks had not succeeded in america the missiles in Norfolk would have been fueled and WW3 would have started."
Russian bombers have always been coming down the North Sea! That was what the QRA force were for. A quick scramble and escort the ruskies back out of our airspace.
To nicely tie in with something else that has happened in these last few days...
I was on HMS Ark Royal in the late 80's, on detachment from the RAF, and was able to stand on the flight deck and watch a Russian Bear bomber go overhead. This was around the north of Scotland on exercise!....Ahhhhh....happy days!
<<< That's for "Channel night"!!
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 10:58 GMT mmeier
Re: "watch a Russian Bear bomber go overhead"
Very shortly after reunification two recently aquired MIG 29 visited the local Bundeswehr base. Quite a few peple, me included, had to fight the urge to take cover and call for the Flak when the "Iwan" came in fast and low with two smoke-free F4F(1) in hot pursuit.
(1) Afterburners on and barely under the Mach. Man what a sound mix...
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 17:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "watch a Russian Bear bomber go overhead"
" Afterburners on and barely under the Mach. Man what a sound mix..."
In the late 1960s an airshow in Wem had a Spitfire do the classic low pass over the crowd - followed by a steep climb to produce that iconic sound. The show commentator then said that the English Electric Ligntning was delayed. So everyone was unprepared as it imitated the Spitfire's low pass and steep climb - with the afterburners on.
It wasn't so much a noise as your very insides being pummelled into jelly.
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Thursday 23rd May 2013 10:13 GMT Peter Gathercole
Re: "watch a Russian Bear bomber go overhead"
I was on the deck of the Audacious class Ark Royal in the '70s at Navy Days when an F4K came over and did the climb with after-burners on. Flat metal surfaces and the flight deck reflecting the sound, it was deafening.
I think it was the same visit that we took one of the Drakes Island boat trips, and saw Eagle (the Ark's sister ship) mothballed and anchored just off the Island. There's something strangely disturbing about such a large warship with nothing happening on it, although it was not as bad as watching the follow-on episode to the BBC first series of "Sailor", where they took the Fleet-Master-At-Arms who had served on the Ark for 20 years on-and-off to the graving dock where they were pulling her to pieces. Seeing such a 'hard' man crying was terrible to see.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 13:22 GMT SuperHoopMango
Re: "watch a Russian Bear bomber go overhead"
As posted to the RAF Neatishead thread, on here some weeks ago, I was in RADAR, and thus we could "see" the paints of the bomber coming over. We knew where it was coming from so a quick run up to the flight deck and we could see the shape of it in the sky.
Yes, you could hear it....but getting "eyes" on it was far more exciting....at least to this, then, 19 year old scopie!
< for the payload of the Bear-H!
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 09:37 GMT Conrad Longmore
I'm not convinced..
I'm not convinced that a lot of the vintage IT kit in the bunker actually *comes* from there, I think a lot of it was added when it was turned into a museum. Still, it's well worth a visit. The bit that got me was the three-shift system for the bunk beds. A cushy little number this was not.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 10:05 GMT helicoil
Excellent place to visit, very atmospheric, interesting and down right frightening at times. Most frightening was being told on the tour that the defences were mainly to keep the likes of you and me out not marauding Ruskies, it was expected that society would have returned to a more feudal like existence.
After visiting the bunker we went home and watched "Threads", needed a damned good drink after that lot! ;-)
Recently a couple of locals(Harlow) organised a zombie invasion/survival role playing type game based in the bunker -tickets were sold out before I managed to get any -gutted!
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 11:05 GMT mmeier
Re: good to be able to look on this so light-heartedly
In 1986 we had a Bundeswehr "Jugendoffizier" at school discussing (1) Natos Pershing2/cruise missile introduction. At one point the greeny blurbt about "chances of survival". The Bundeswehr guy sadly shook his head and started:
Local powerplant, one SS20 warhead, 100KT, airburst,5 km from here
Important part of the channel systen, one SS20 warhead, groundburst, 10km
Bundeswehr airbase, multiple warheads, ground and airburst, 20km
Major railroad and railyards for loading/unloading tanks prior to the channel crossing, airburst, 2km
Your chances to survive: NONE!
The class was a tad silent and Billy looked green...
(1) Actually he showed us what a blabbering, clueless fool Billy Birkenstock was
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 11:23 GMT TeeCee
Re: good to be able to look on this so light-heartedly
I recall seeing an interview fairly recently with a military type who was senior in NATO back in the day. He was asked what the plan was for a defence of Western Europe.
"Well, the plan was we'd try to keep them on the other side of the Rhine until the Americans got their kit across the Atlantic."
"Would that have worked?"
"No, not a chance. They'd have overwhelmed us well before the Yanks could get their heavy stuff over in significant quantity."
"Ok, so in that position what would have been done."
"There was only one plan really. Fall back, get the tactical nukes released, nuke their armoured spearheads in Germany, then cross our fingers and see if they felt like escalating."
"What? You mean the only plan was that NATO would use the first nuclear strike? You can't be serious."
"I'm deadly serious. It was the only workable option we had.".
"And what if the use of nuclear weapons was not approved?"
"Ah, that would be a political problem and it would then be up to the politicians to discuss our surrender terms.".
I'm guessing that the Germans weren't exactly delighted with this approach, which appears to me to revolve around either using Germany for nuclear target practice or handing it to the Soviets.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 13:05 GMT Dazed & Confused
Re: good to be able to look on this so light-heartedly
The thing I never get is that everybody 'high up' seems to have made the assumption that all the little people would rather be sacrificed than live under the Soviets.
Now, I really don't like the idea of living in he Soviet Union - but I like the idea of being dead even less.....
If the Ruski tanks really had rolled over the border, would the politicians have thought, 'Well this is worse than death' and pressed the big red button?
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 13:06 GMT mmeier
Re: good to be able to look on this so light-heartedly
Some say the definition of a tactical nuke was: lt. exploded in germany. Our US "protectors" where a tad to free with both candy and nukes. Could not hold their alcohol or their release orders
With the Brits you could at least have a brew or a beer while discussing compensation for the Chieftain sized hole in grandmas tulips...
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 13:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: good to be able to look on this so light-heartedly
ahem...there was another component to the plan at least in the early days.
They intended to drop a TA Airborne Brigade - 3 battalions of Paras plus 1 regiment of heavy mortars - in between the first & second Russian echelons to slow everything up. The army had worked out how many men they would lose at each stage and how they would regroup into smaller and smaller units before day 5 attempting to break out in 5 man teams. I think we worked out they would have taken 97% casualties at that point.
My source was told that in late 1962 when he was issued with his travel warrant and placed on 24 hours notice.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 10:44 GMT SW
Don't forget the Mistley Anti Aircraft Operations Room
Also in Essex...
Used to play around the site when I was a kid, we lived in the village.
Not as impressive as the Kelvedon Hatch one but still of interest... http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/m/mistley/
Was fun trying to get through the fencing around the facility.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 10:50 GMT AlanBBoyd
Scotland's Secret Bunker
The Anstruther bunker has a similarly comical sign, but for anyone in the north it's definitely worth a visit. Distinctly sobering government information films of the time runnnig on a loop, advising on what you should do with the excess broken bodies cluttering up your nuclear shelter.
Piles of ancient comms kit on display too.
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 11:09 GMT JimmyPage
Thankfully a relic
growing up in the 70s, the threat of nuclear war was somehow "normal". So much so, that when the great hurricane hit London in 1987, for a few moments I was convinced the USSR had bombed us - howling winds, eerie darkness, and telephone and radio out. After frantically spinning the radio dial, I finally hit radio Essex - 5 minutes of which was enough to make me wish they *had* dropped the bomb ....
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 11:28 GMT We're all in it together
As mentioned previously
Driving through Chipping Ongar one day saw the 'Secret Nuclear Bunker' sign on the mini roundabout and made a note to visit it. It is indeed an interesting tour. Mind you whilst the sign is new I suspect the rather large mast probably gave the game away to the Russians. That and having a 'bungalow' with CCTV everywhere.
And actually it's the only site I found using Apple maps....
I know it's been a while but had to be done :-)
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Wednesday 22nd May 2013 12:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
The Villagers?
"How much the villagers knew about the facility I’m not sure ..."
You do now - we all knew, at least in the mid 1970's - local children went to both Ongar and Brentwood Schools, so those towns would probably have an inkling as well. The original entrance is via a very narrow lane, and not the signposted route - check out Google street view! No parking via the original entrance though!!
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
