UK Cold War Location Map

[Speedy]

What about the various listening stations?
Will need to check when Brora closed.
It was an outpost of GCHQ as was Hawklaw in Fife

Thank you, was looking for more things to add. I did put in all the Thor and Bloodhound missile sites this week, but had to leave out one Thor site as it has been almost completely returned to farmland now.

 

[Speedy]

Added the following GCHQ sites, Hawklaw, Brora, Culmhead and Cheadle.
You can download the most recent files from the One Drive link I provided earlier.

 

[Speedy]

A great look at RAF Feltwells Thoir missiles in this Look at Life vid. Watch from 05:43.


Sadly nothing remains of the Thor sites at Feltwell now, but you can still see the concrete bases and other remnants at other sites.

 

[CutLunchCommando]

Have you seen this @Speedy ? It might be of some use although, I'd excercise a bit of caution with it. I'd be interested to know what you make of the cluster up mear the Scottish border.

Interactive Map of Surface to Air Missile (SAM) Sites Worldwide • Live Earth Monitoring & Educational Resources • ClimateViewer Maps

LAST UPDATED IN 2013 This reference work contains the locations of SAM sites and related air defense facilities identified in open source imagery, presented as a collection of Google Earth placemarks.

climateviewer.org

 

[Bodenplatte]

Predannack Airfield (an outstation of RNAS Culdrose) on the Lizard Peninsula is the southernmost service location in GB, and RAF (as was) Saxa Vord on Unst was the northernmost.

 

[Speedy]

Have you seen this @Speedy ? It might be of some use although, I'd excercise a bit of caution with it. I'd be interested to know what you make of the cluster up mear the Scottish border.

Interactive Map of Surface to Air Missile (SAM) Sites Worldwide • Live Earth Monitoring & Educational Resources • ClimateViewer Maps

LAST UPDATED IN 2013 This reference work contains the locations of SAM sites and related air defense facilities identified in open source imagery, presented as a collection of Google Earth placemarks.

climateviewer.org

Ta, I'll have a look at that later. It seems to be killing my laptop.
As regards the borders, apart from the radar heads in the NE there wasn't anything static we had up there. The Bloodhound sites stop around the Humber and stretch southwards from there finishing at Bawdsey Manor.
Strangely the Thor missile bases (also on the map) were almost all in the east midlands/Linconshire/Yorkshire area. I wonder if this was for logistic reasons?
I've been adding the RAF UNITER buildings over the past week or so. The RAF had numerous comms systems that were all seperate and (IIRC) Marconi was contacted to unify them which they did with the UNITER project that started in the 70's. These were housed in special buildings, some on airfields and some in random locations. Not helped with identification by there being several building types used. I think there are 43 of them still in use from about 60+ in the early days.
As with a lot of what I'm looking for, the urbex sites have been a great help, but like many on there they don't have a real understanding of the scale of things and they only show one type - Uniter Building, Fife - Icosis
Whereas with a bit more digging you can find the other types as on this page here - Waddington - that site has been very useful for helping me find ones on other airfields.
One other thing that struck me when making this map was that a large percentage of bunkers I have found were/are for the civil authorities rather than military with just the RAF and some large HQ's having bunkers.
I'll take a look at that map on my monster PC this afternoon and see if I can see if they have got anything wrong and possibly stuff I may have missed.

 

[Bodenplatte]

Predannack Airfield (an outstation of RNAS Culdrose) on the Lizard Peninsula is the southernmost service location in GB, and RAF (as was) Saxa Vord on Unst was the northernmost.

Come to think of it, Predannack saw several emergency landings, particularly by USAAF units returning damaged from raids on the French Atlantic coast ports. One of them in 1943 ended up with a good Medal of Honor story which I might get round to recounting if I get an excuse.

But back to my extremes of geography . . . . . I imagine that the westernmost Cold War location in GB was the RSigs and RA detachments on St Kilda.

 

[Speedy]

@CutLunchCommando Just had a look now and the SAM sites they have shown on the Scottish borders are the mock SAM sites on the RAF Spadenham range.
I don't think whoever made this map had much of an idea of what they were looking at.

 

[br9mp812]

@CutLunchCommando Just had a look now and the SAM sites they have shown on the Scottish borders are the mock SAM sites on the RAF Spadenham range.
I don't think whoever made this map had much of an idea of what they were looking at.

northcoates was as far north as it got,closed about 1990, i can recall a local newspaper cutting with the local in breeds saying they were glad to see the RAF go as they never fitted in (what with the normal ration of fingers etc).
Cue a story that the home office was looking at it for an open prison, and the locals were begging the local MP to keep the base open.

 

[Fang_Farrier]

northcoates was as far north as it got,closed about 1990, i can recall a local newspaper cutting with the local in breeds saying they were glad to see the RAF go as they never fitted in (what with the normal ration of fingers etc).
Cue a story that the home office was looking at it for an open prison, and the locals were begging the local MP to keep the base open.

Paderborn early 90s.
Locals demand closure of Alanbrooke Barracks stating noise of the newly arrived Warrior APCs.

Locals told that if Brits go, it will be a detention centre for Turks.

Locals profess their love of the noise of Perkins V8s.

 

[Moderator]

Paderborn early 90s.
Locals demand closure of Alanbrooke Barracks stating noise of the newly arrived Warrior APCs.

Locals told that if Brits go, it will be a detention centre for Turks.

Locals profess their love of the noise of Perkins V8s.

[Brief Thread Deviation]

Alanbrooke Barracks, early 2020s...

I think the building still standing may be what was in my day, Bn HQ (right) and the first building of HQ Coy looking across from the Court Martial Centre area.

[/Brief Thread Deviation]

 

[Speedy]

Currently tagging up the special weapons and GLCM compounds and this one on the airfield at Ouston (Albermarle Barracks) has been bugging me for several years now:

I suspect it is an overnighting stop for the old RAF nuke convoys and is the only one I have found. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know.

 

[CutLunchCommando]

@CutLunchCommando Just had a look now and the SAM sites they have shown on the Scottish borders are the mock SAM sites on the RAF Spadenham range.
I don't think whoever made this map had much of an idea of what they were looking at.

I had wondered if they were misplaced because someone had used coords from a different projection and they were really meant to be somewhere else.

 

[gaijin]

Currently tagging up the special weapons and GLCM compounds and this one on the airfield at Ouston (Albermarle Barracks) has been bugging me for several years now:

View attachment 529492

I suspect it is an overnighting stop for the old RAF nuke convoys and is the only one I have found. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know.

I believe that you are correct but only based on other pictures that I have seen rather than first hand experience.

 

[Arse Gravy]

Currently tagging up the special weapons and GLCM compounds and this one on the airfield at Ouston (Albermarle Barracks) has been bugging me for several years now:

View attachment 529492

I suspect it is an overnighting stop for the old RAF nuke convoys and is the only one I have found. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know.

For what it's worth, I was at Ouston in '86 when it was IJLB. We were briefed that the compound was indeed used for storing nuclear items in transit, not only RAF but RN and civil nuclear items. No so much secret, as there was occasionally demonstrations outside of the main gate by the great unwashed. If they'd have on applied a spot of common sense they could've jumped the fence at the back of the airfield and had a proper look. It was also a favourite go to point for the section commanders when we had bemused them.

 

[RigPig]

You already have RAF Welford on your list, but could the pads on the eastern side of RAF Welford be something connected to Greenham Common. The missiles would be launched from pre surveyed positions. These are close to Greenham Common and easy ish to get to, though no doubt the location is already known to the Russians and marked for a couple of warheads.

RP.

 

[Rooper]

Speedy, I dunno if it's of any interest but there was a comms location known as RAF Rothwell Haigh to the West of Leeds Lat: 53°44'37.46"N Long: 1°30'32.34"W

Apparently it was a GPO repeater station and had the CEGB Regional Grid Control Centre next door. It's been demolished now (as shown on Google Earth) but the bungalow to the North was also part of it (perhaps some kind of admin block).

As a kid growing up nearby we thought there was an underground city beneath it but looking at the pictures it was just a load of boring comms kit & generators!

 

[labrat]

You already have RAF Welford on your list, but could the pads on the eastern side of RAF Welford be something connected to Greenham Common. The missiles would be launched from pre surveyed positions. These are close to Greenham Common and easy ish to get to, though no doubt the location is already known to the Russians and marked for a couple of warheads.

RP.

I’m sure I read that was part of the plan somewhere else. The old Gamekeeper at Longparish told me years ago that the USAF had been out and presurveyed firing locations at Harewood Forest (former RAF munitions depot outside Andover) too, which would be logical as it had lots of concrete roads and hidden hardstandings. I did an FOI a few years ago to see if there were any records but they were either long lost or too hard to find: Cruise missile dispersal/launch site locations - a Freedom of Information request to Ministry of Defence

 

[Cyberhacker]

I haven't seen it mentioned, but War Plan UK (by Duncan Campbell) is an interesting read for this sort of thing -admittedly from the early 80s rather than later.

Available from the usual River...

 

[Donny]

Currently tagging up the special weapons and GLCM compounds and this one on the airfield at Ouston (Albermarle Barracks) has been bugging me for several years now:

View attachment 529492

I suspect it is an overnighting stop for the old RAF nuke convoys and is the only one I have found. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know.

I was there before @Arse Gravy and my memory is the same: there was a section in the ROO orders on actions to be taken if you were notified that a convoy was diverting for overnight respite, presumably because of weather, protests or some other incident. Apart from exercises I didn’t see the compound used in my two and a half years there.

The list of what would be in the convoy included police and fire engines as well as security provided by armed RM (Comachio Gp, I think). The role of the resident unit was limited to making sure the convoy got in quickly, then provision of cookhouse and rest facilities.

I think the RAF subsequently located another secret-squirrel compound on the airfield, possibly something to do with a radar, but it was after my time and I didn’t hear what it was for. There was also the bunker outside RHQ/Station HQ which was in use as a Home Defence regional HQ until the end of the Cold War. We were periodically blockaded by CND types but I’ve no idea if that was because of the bunker or the convoy compound.