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Public urged to help locate hidden wartime 'Scallywag' bunkers
- Thread starter Just_plain_you
- Start date
gaijin
LE
Was Aberystwyth not on the Soviet list of instant improvement sites?
It's not what anyone would call a strategic target*, it's in the middle of nowhere, and it's well upwind of anything likely to attract attack in the UK or Europe. Also, it's by the sea. We know at least one P-group and one or two of the specialist groups were slated to go aboard ship, and in fact all the PYTHON initial locations are within a couple of miles of the coast, so at least the option of gathering at the initial location and then joining a ship** was available.
*unless of course you've found out that the secret services and a slice of the Cabinet will be dispersed there, by hanging about with your sneaky radio....
My bold - not all they're cracked up to be, take my word for it. I used to have to leave my 4th Floor desk for a week every year and relocate to the bottom floor of PINDAR for some sort of NATO crisis exercise. Believe me, after a day or two the novelty of sitting in the PM's seat in the Government Emergency Rooms wears off and by the time you are ready to test the tunnel exit back to (I think) Kingsway you never want to do it again.
The look on people's faces when a mass of blokes in suits exits onto the pavement from a nondescript door was priceless though.
gaijin
LE
Good to know that, despite nuclear death and destruction raining down upon the UK, the country's administrators would still be dressed properly.
Standards old boy.
bigeye
LE
The BBC got into the PINDAR floors a couple of times to film official 'flaps'. I knew about the BT operated Q Tunnels that can get you around under Westminster and beyond and I assume the Government Y tunnels interconnect with them. There was a large underground hospital at Kingsway with connecting tunnels built during WW2. I assume these have been modernised. There are other networks going south of the River but the details of these are still classified.
HE117
LE
You may say that..
..but I couldn't possibly comment! (... and neither should anyone else!)
Indeed .... Otty the Opsec Otter is a little worried about where this thread is heading.
bigeye
LE
The details of original Q network were published by the WD in 1946 in a pamphlet about deep, secure communications networks. Clegg and Mandelson boasted about using other tunnels to get from *palace to place. One of which was known to the press as the 'Clegg Hatch'.
The official line in 1994 was that PINDAR 'is not linked to a transport system' but @Bubbles_Barker has confirmed that there is an access tunnel. Maybe Otty should pay him a visit with a firmly rolled up copy of the the OSA.
EDIT: *ahem..I mean place
Otty can kiss my arse. Quite a lot of the WW2 on tunnel system was described here in Peter Laurie's excellent book:
I was fascinated by this and 'War Plan UK' by Duncan Campbell when I was a teenager in the 1970s, imagine my surprise when I ended up working in some of the places they described.
ETA: Stumbled out onto the street here (but of course I can't be sure officer - I may have been dreaming, or I could be deliberately misinforming, who knows):
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bigeye
LE
Duncan Campbell was actually exploring the Q network. As I've mentioned the War Department published the details of the networks themselves (prior to the Cold War). These are operated by BT (or what ever they are nowadays) Other Civil Defence networks that run deeper and extend the Q network (Whitehall Y) are still classified. We will have to wait until 2025 to learn more - unless someone here Bubbles a bit more.
I have a book here about London Transport at War
it shows a great deal of information about the tunnels contruction while being very careful not to give out too much info about locations and uses
Bus Pass 01
LE
There always seem to be a lot of fishing going on about this subject and the Aux set up, even now.
You've said too much. Otty is now going to have to have his (or her/its) name changed now.
bigeye
LE
No need to activate Otty. No.39 Furnival Street has long been acknowledged as one of the access points for the extended Q Network. Campbell mentioned it in his original New Statesman article.
bigeye
LE
I said Otty was nervous, not that Otty had started a full-on power swim from Teddington Locks to central London. Everything said so far may have been in the public domain, but let's not encourage those with snippets which are not public with the opportunity to divulge them here.
It's been an interesting thread drift, but maybe we could head back to WW2 Aux Unit hides?
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further to my last a visit to the suspected location(s) may have bourne fruit, I say locations plural as the primary search location has produced strong metal detector responses, hopefully from the wriggly tin used .
But a few hundred mtrs away another strong indication. The ground is too wet to explore safely at the moment.
Brother has spoken to a few folk and has some anecdotal info that the group may have had more than one bolthole .
Deffo a summer search.
But a few hundred mtrs away another strong indication. The ground is too wet to explore safely at the moment.
Brother has spoken to a few folk and has some anecdotal info that the group may have had more than one bolthole .
Deffo a summer search.
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