T H E   D E R E L I C T   M I S C E L L A N Y

By 1940, attacks on military airfields were more than just a threat, they were a fact. The German invasion of Crete that year had alerted the Royal Air Force to the inadequacy of existing airfield defences and accordingly there began an extensive programme of fortification-building in the form of pillboxes, gun emplacements, trenches and barbed wire. In the event of an attack, defence was to be co-ordinated from a purpose-built underground bunker - the battle headquarters. Initially these were only built at fighter stations, but after 1942 battle headquarters were seen at all RAF command stations [1], including, in c. 1943, Dunsfold. [2]

Dunsfold Aerodrome itself was begun on the 11th May 1942 by the the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Engineers and completed in just twenty weeks, after which it was operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force under the name of RCAF Dunsfold and was initially a fighter station, home to the Mustang Mk 1s of the 400 and 414 Squadron RCAF. This remained the case until the following year with the arrival of the Mitchell Mk11 medium bombers of the 98 and 180 Squadrons RAF and later 320 squadron of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service [2a]. It was presumably shortly after the Royal Air Force arrived that the Battle Headquarters were built at Dunsfold, to the design specified by Air Ministry drawing 11008/41. These consisted of a brick and concrete bunker entered by a ladder on one side into a lobby. Standing in the lobby, to the left would be a door to the office, which in turn led on to the sleeping quarters, while straight ahead would have been the latrine. To the left of this was a door to the largest chamber - the mess room. At the end of this room, through a door on the right was a small lobby which led to a semi-subterranean observation post to be manned by the Local Defence officer and to an emergency exit. [3] The whole structure was in fact only partly beneath ground level, the rest being covered by a raised mound of earth. The structure seems to have been maintained throughout the war, but had fallen out of use by the time it was stripped when the base was decommissioned in 1946 [4].

Despite winter flooding, when our exploration party visited sixty years later, in late December 2006 the headquarters were in good condition and appeared to be structurally sound. Internally, despite having been stripped of most fittings, the positions of cables and electrics were very much in evidence, with junction boxes still surviving in some places.

Externally the bunker's position is marked by an oblong mound. Although this was heavily overgrown it was still just possible to see the observation post on top of it - the only significant part of the complex that is above ground, and on the north side overlooking the airfield, the main entrance, choked with earth afforded a narrow entryway which one half of the party were able to descend with the aid of a cable. The emergency exit, which was the point of entry for the other half of the party, is located next to the observation post and consists of a vertical shaft - also partly backfilled - with a ladder for access.

     

Home..

---

Page updated 12/12/06 Derelict Miscellany - Website © D. A. Gregory, 2005-2008, unless stated as otherwise.