WWII Battle of Britain 11 Operations Group Bunker Tour
May 18, 2014, 4:13 pm
#1
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WWII Battle of Britain 11 Operations Group Bunker Tour
On 2 May 2014 I toured the 11 Operations Group underground bunker used to direct part of the British response to the attacks by the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. As the web page for this site states:
“The Battle of Britain Bunker, located at the former RAF Uxbridge site, is one of Hillingdon’s, if not the nation’s, most important buildings. It was from here that the air defence of London and the south-east was coordinated during the Battle of Britain (July – October 1940) and throughout the Second World War.
Uxbridge Bunker Today, the Operations Room has been restored to look as it did on 15th September 1940, the day that Winston Churchill visited to witness one of the most important days fighting of the entire war. The Ops table, complete with original map on which RAF and Luftwaffe aircraft were tracked, remains the centrepiece of the Ops Room and the Tote Boards on which squadron readiness was denoted with a series of light indicators displays the state of battle from Battle of Britain Day itself.”
11 Group was the front line in the battle as these maps from the web show.
The attacking aircraft crossed the channel from France here.
11 Group had to protect this area.
On the day I was there I was the only person on the tour. Except for the tour guide I had the facility to myself.
The location of the bunker today is hidden deep inside a housing development. The directions are on the website for the bunker tour. If you decide to visit follow them carefully. Even using them the route over the last mile or so is not obvious. Here is what the site looks like today. This is the view from the parking area toward the entrance. The entrance is below the Spitfire on the right.
This is the view up the road that leads in to the site.
I know the bunker was used throughout the war including for D-Day. I also very much appreciate the effort the keepers of the site have put in to preserving it, but I would think that they could arrange for a proper fiberglass Spitfire for the site. As you can see this is a much later four bladed model with the D-Day marking stripes. The point to preserving the bunker is its part in the Battle of Britain
The bunker is way underground down these steps.
The tour begins with a short film on the background of the battle and the battle itself. After that it is straight into the lower level of the bunker where the raids and the responses to the raids were shown.
The position of each raid and intercepting fighters was shown with coded markers put in the correct place on the map table by female staff members.
The information displayed was provided to the control room through telephone lines linking this site to the Chain Home radar sites and the observer corp. This is the switchboard where the calls came in.
With this information in view, the controllers one level up assessed it and called for the responses.
The view of the information from this upper level looked like this.
To send the defending aircraft up to intercept the raid the controller picked up one of the phones.
This is the chair I was sitting in as I called for two squadron sections to scramble.
The status of each interception was shown using a set of lights for each unit from each airfield.
Weather was reported on these shorter boards just below the interception status boards.
The information for these plots came from the Chain Home radar stations that looked like this using a photograph from the web.
These stations were on the coast. Once the aircraft crossed this line the observer corp provided the data using these tools with which they provided direction, altitude, and number of raiders.
The officer in command of the 11 Group area was Keith Park. Most days he would walk from his house, through this gate, and down into the bunker to observe the battles. The house is not there, but the wall and gate area still are. Look beside the right wingtip of the Hurricane.
The gate
The house.
On exiting the bunker on 16 August 1940 after having watched the battle one of its most intensive day s Winston Churchill paused to consider what he had just seen. As he stood here the genesis of the speech he made to the House of Commons concerning the battle where the line “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” was used was formed.
I highly recommend this tour. What seems so obvious today was not so in the late 1930s when this defense system was developed. It took skill, luck, and foresight at all levels of government and the military in Great Britain to carry this off. A failure to have done so would have resulted in quite a different world than we have today.
To learn more about this before you visit I would refer you to these sources.
For visual learners.
The Battle of Britain
This is a commercial Hollywood type of movie from 1969 which is still widely available.
For more depth these books should provide a start.
With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda
The Battle of Britain by James Holland
Britain’s Shield: Radar and the Defeat of the Luftwaffe by David Zimmerman
“The Battle of Britain Bunker, located at the former RAF Uxbridge site, is one of Hillingdon’s, if not the nation’s, most important buildings. It was from here that the air defence of London and the south-east was coordinated during the Battle of Britain (July – October 1940) and throughout the Second World War.
Uxbridge Bunker Today, the Operations Room has been restored to look as it did on 15th September 1940, the day that Winston Churchill visited to witness one of the most important days fighting of the entire war. The Ops table, complete with original map on which RAF and Luftwaffe aircraft were tracked, remains the centrepiece of the Ops Room and the Tote Boards on which squadron readiness was denoted with a series of light indicators displays the state of battle from Battle of Britain Day itself.”
11 Group was the front line in the battle as these maps from the web show.
The attacking aircraft crossed the channel from France here.
11 Group had to protect this area.
On the day I was there I was the only person on the tour. Except for the tour guide I had the facility to myself.
The location of the bunker today is hidden deep inside a housing development. The directions are on the website for the bunker tour. If you decide to visit follow them carefully. Even using them the route over the last mile or so is not obvious. Here is what the site looks like today. This is the view from the parking area toward the entrance. The entrance is below the Spitfire on the right.
This is the view up the road that leads in to the site.
I know the bunker was used throughout the war including for D-Day. I also very much appreciate the effort the keepers of the site have put in to preserving it, but I would think that they could arrange for a proper fiberglass Spitfire for the site. As you can see this is a much later four bladed model with the D-Day marking stripes. The point to preserving the bunker is its part in the Battle of Britain
The bunker is way underground down these steps.
The tour begins with a short film on the background of the battle and the battle itself. After that it is straight into the lower level of the bunker where the raids and the responses to the raids were shown.
The position of each raid and intercepting fighters was shown with coded markers put in the correct place on the map table by female staff members.
The information displayed was provided to the control room through telephone lines linking this site to the Chain Home radar sites and the observer corp. This is the switchboard where the calls came in.
With this information in view, the controllers one level up assessed it and called for the responses.
The view of the information from this upper level looked like this.
To send the defending aircraft up to intercept the raid the controller picked up one of the phones.
This is the chair I was sitting in as I called for two squadron sections to scramble.
The status of each interception was shown using a set of lights for each unit from each airfield.
Weather was reported on these shorter boards just below the interception status boards.
The information for these plots came from the Chain Home radar stations that looked like this using a photograph from the web.
These stations were on the coast. Once the aircraft crossed this line the observer corp provided the data using these tools with which they provided direction, altitude, and number of raiders.
The officer in command of the 11 Group area was Keith Park. Most days he would walk from his house, through this gate, and down into the bunker to observe the battles. The house is not there, but the wall and gate area still are. Look beside the right wingtip of the Hurricane.
The gate
The house.
On exiting the bunker on 16 August 1940 after having watched the battle one of its most intensive day s Winston Churchill paused to consider what he had just seen. As he stood here the genesis of the speech he made to the House of Commons concerning the battle where the line “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” was used was formed.
I highly recommend this tour. What seems so obvious today was not so in the late 1930s when this defense system was developed. It took skill, luck, and foresight at all levels of government and the military in Great Britain to carry this off. A failure to have done so would have resulted in quite a different world than we have today.
To learn more about this before you visit I would refer you to these sources.
For visual learners.
The Battle of Britain
This is a commercial Hollywood type of movie from 1969 which is still widely available.
For more depth these books should provide a start.
With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda
The Battle of Britain by James Holland
Britain’s Shield: Radar and the Defeat of the Luftwaffe by David Zimmerman
May 18, 2014, 5:46 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Texas
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Posts: 1,752
Here is the link to make a reservation for one of the tours:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafnortholt/localareainformation/
And the tour information found there which mentions a no reservation time period as well:
"Tours of the Bunker take place every weekday at 10am and 2pm. To book places on one of these tours please contact us on the telephone number or email address below:
Tel – 01895 238154 Email – [email protected]
In 2014 the Bunker will also be open at weekends from 10am to 3pm without appointment from 25 April to the end of August (not including Saturday 14 June and the month of July)."
The directions to the location are:
Directions to the Battle of Britain Bunker, RAF Uxbridge:
From the A40 – Take the exit for the B467 Uxbridge/Harefield/Ickenham.
At the roundabout take the exit towards Uxbridge then go straight on at the traffic lights (B483).
Go past Uxbridge College on the left, then at the traffic lights turn left onto Honeycroft Hill.
Take the fourth right onto Honey Hill, which becomes Vine Lane.
Pass the entrance to ACS Hillingdon International School on your left, then take the next right onto St Andrew’s Road.
Follow St Andrew’s Road to a large white house (Hillingdon House), then turn left. The entrance to the Battle of Britain Bunker, RAF Uxbridge is directly in front of you.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafnortholt/localareainformation/
And the tour information found there which mentions a no reservation time period as well:
"Tours of the Bunker take place every weekday at 10am and 2pm. To book places on one of these tours please contact us on the telephone number or email address below:
Tel – 01895 238154 Email – [email protected]
In 2014 the Bunker will also be open at weekends from 10am to 3pm without appointment from 25 April to the end of August (not including Saturday 14 June and the month of July)."
The directions to the location are:
Directions to the Battle of Britain Bunker, RAF Uxbridge:
From the A40 – Take the exit for the B467 Uxbridge/Harefield/Ickenham.
At the roundabout take the exit towards Uxbridge then go straight on at the traffic lights (B483).
Go past Uxbridge College on the left, then at the traffic lights turn left onto Honeycroft Hill.
Take the fourth right onto Honey Hill, which becomes Vine Lane.
Pass the entrance to ACS Hillingdon International School on your left, then take the next right onto St Andrew’s Road.
Follow St Andrew’s Road to a large white house (Hillingdon House), then turn left. The entrance to the Battle of Britain Bunker, RAF Uxbridge is directly in front of you.
Last edited by Paint Horse; May 18, 2014 at 5:56 pm
May 19, 2014, 12:20 am
#6
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Nice report - thanks for the idea, since it is next to Uxbridge, it might be quite convenient to get there by train.
I am always wondering, if there is a manufacturer of these man-like and women-like figures, since in every historic / WWII sightseeing sport in the UK I have visited in the past years, they are always looking the same (HMS Belfast, Scotlands secret bunker, Bletchley Park, ...) ...
I am always wondering, if there is a manufacturer of these man-like and women-like figures, since in every historic / WWII sightseeing sport in the UK I have visited in the past years, they are always looking the same (HMS Belfast, Scotlands secret bunker, Bletchley Park, ...) ...
May 20, 2014, 7:54 pm
#7
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Looks like a lot of fun, I'm a big WWII history enthusiast so next time I'm in the UK I'll have to check this out. Thanks for posting ^