T H E D E R E L I C T M I S C E L L A N Y
Special Duties Control (zero) Station
In a small wood somewhere in Southern England is a concrete lined pit with a round tunnel leading off of it. Most people who pass it mistake it for a drainage system, but a closer look reveals that the tunnel runs for only sixteen feet before it opens out into a set of three corrugated steel vaulted rooms. The largest of these rooms has partially collapsed but is still passable, and the end chamber has a shaft at one end that obviously once led to the surface, but has now been sealed. It is clearly of second world war origin, but too isolated and well-hidden to be a straightforward air-raid shelter.
In fact this was what was known as a Control Station, and its existence was once top secret. In the event of a successful Nazi occupation of Great Britain a network of spies - part of the Special Duties Organisation would observe enemy activity, make reports, and leave them in 'dead letter boxes' (i.e hidden locations, like, say a hollow tree) to be collected by a radio operator. The radio operator would use his radio equipment (or 'Out Station') to transmit the information on on a frequency of 60-65 megacycles (then rarely used and believed to be unmonitored) to his local Control Station. These Control Stations were to be manned by trained women from the ATS Auxilliary Unit. Infomation recieved on the radio sets was sent via direct telephone line the the SDO's Headquarters at Hannington in Wiltshire.
This particular Control Station has partially collapsed (Like most wartime structures it was built in a hurry with limited resources.) and because the main entrance has been sealed up, is only accessible by the emergency exit. Because the equipment inside could be put to use after the war, it was removed. For this reason the Station is now empty.
Interestingly, the station was made to seem smaller than it was to conceal the radio equipment. The room which led off of the main entrance, and held ammunition and explosives had a secret door to the main chamber (which has now gone) making it appear to be just the one room rather than three. The main chamber contained the radio equipment, food supplies, a table and chairs, a generator, batteries and bunkbeds. The end chamber had a chemical toilet and space for storage, and led on to the emergency exit. On the surface there would have been no obvious trace of the hideout, hatches were well hidden and the ventilation intakes were disguised as a badger sett, even the forty foot aerial for the radio equipment was hidden - in the bark of a nearby oak tree.
My visit with Mr. Baines and my Brother was well worth the cycle, and once the initial uncertainty of the dark tunnel was sorted out it was a fun place to look around. However there's no telling how long the station will remain in this condition, although dry and free from vandalism, it is at risk from structural failure of the corrugated steel.
REFERENCES
Catford, N. (1997) and Angell, S. (1996)