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Nuclear Bunkers


trout
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Somewhat random, but on the topic of Official Secrets...

 

Last Easter, I was having Easter dinner with some good family friends, when spontaneously the grandmother of the family, who everyone knew had been a ballet dancer in Milan during the War, announced that she had been a gun runner and organised safe houses for downed allied pilots. She also put sand in the fuel tank of the cars of the German national football team when they were in Milan for a match (she was most proud of that). Everyone was quite astounded that she'd actually been a spy as she'd not been allowed to mention it to anyone - not even her family - for fifty years. It was very entertaining as she started to tell all her stories from the war she'd been prohibited from telling.

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  • 2 months later...

My mam was in the ROC for about 6 months (long enough to earn her British Legion membership!) and took me along to the one at MK Leslie's quarry when I was about 14 (20+ years ago).

 

The description given already is pretty accurate, though I seem to remember that it was a good 3 or 4 metres below the ground. My lasting memory of being inside was the water storage containers and all the dry food...plus a very musty underground smell.

 

It was very small for the number of folk it was supposed to accommodate (there were at least a dozen members of the ROC there when I visited).

 

There was a pile of anti-radiation suits that the ROC guys were supposed to don in order to go outside and take readings etc. The radio looked like it came straight out of a Vietnam war movie as it was huge.

 

As I said already, my mam left as soon as she'd served enough time to qualify for a full legion membership (back then, serving in the forces was the only way of getting in there). She wasn't alone in doing this as it was her friends who signed her up. Don't think any of them took their duties too seriously...apart from the guy in charge, who I believe still runs a fish shop on the Esplanade! :wink:

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I have heard about underground bunkers before, my dad has told me stories about relations of his during the second world war being involved in the real dads army (the one that would of done something) and how they had secret meetings in the dead of night.

 

I have never heard of any nuclear bunkers though, but there is probally more than you think, remember Shetland has always been a target!!

 

:D :D

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  • 7 years later...

I remember years back, must have been 11 or 12 I was taken up to saxo vord with a group of other kids to have a tour.  Maybe it was my size relative to my age but I remember thinking that I couldnt believe the size of the blast doors, and there was a couple of them on the way down the bunker.  Quite a large place from what I remember, and they could have missed 'parts' out.

I think a bunker hunting tour may be on the cards! :razz:

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  • 1 year later...

Hi, I have read the Posts on this forum with great interest.

 

I have just returned to London after my annual trip home to Shetland in the Summer. This year I something I never did when I was younger - went up to the top of Mossy Hill. In former times I used to wander all over the hills. My father had a quite a few stories about the war. His father in Lerwick had a wooden leg courtesy of the Somme but was nevertheless part of the Home Guard. My father told me that 1945 a Chain Home radar mast (was it also located at Mossy Hill?) was suddenly left abandoned. He then climbed all the way up it (over 400 ft. high). Later as a senior official for the SIC Dad was involved in Civil Defence exercises. I remember him telling me all about it.  Anyway, on  the West Side of Mossy hill at a level far below where the radar dishes were  beside the road near Rerwick, I was surprised to see the concrete entrance to a shelter of some kind. It seemed odd to me that there should be a bunker hundreds of feet below the summit?

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As far as I know, that was just a lookout post. There's not much more to it than you can see there, maybe about the floor size of one and a half phone boxes inside, if that, and not even high enough for an average height person to stand up in. I think its WWII vintage, but I'm not entirely sure on that, possibly may have been WWI.

 

If WWII I'm not sure which camp it was connected to, either the army one at South Scousburgh or the Radar Mast's one on Noss Hill would be most likely though. The radar masts at Scousburgh were on the Ward of Scousburgh and were accessed from the main road on the other side of the hill, where there was also a camp at Clumlie. There was no access to them from the Scousburgh side, Mossy Hill was only developed in the early 60's and the track up from Scousburgh upgraded to a road then. The two roads one either side of the hill were only connected together in the mid 70's when BT built their main THRS station just north of the Ward of Scousburgh, as they also had a couple of their dishes on part of the Mossy Hill site, and it gave them far more convenient access between their two sites.

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Are we sure these would be "nuclear bunkers" were they not just ROC bunkers. 

 

I would have thought they would be simple bomb shelters,even the ROC posts would have been little protection in any bombing close to them and were mainly there to monitor for gas,radiation ect and relay on to other stations the situation,and could not offer any real protection.,as far as I am aware .

 

But again it depends how one defines "nuclear bunker"as the ROC posts were only for the ROC staff ,the public would have to shelter wherever they could . 

 

Some of the big bunkers down south had the ability to protect a select few for a time,but i'm not sure that here in Shetland that we had that capability.

 

Probably good to see them gone and hope we never need the likes again.

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Well did a bit more reading into the ROC and found it very interesting.

 

Never recall the bunkers here in Shetland being refered to as nuclear always jusr Sumburgh,Lerwick,Voe or Walls ROC..

 

I think the ROC should be reinstated and instead of monitoring aircraft and checking for radiation should be monitoring Airports,Bus stations.Railways in fact any public place for terrorists,thiefs,drug dealers,illegal immigrants ect. 

 

They could be moving about collecting information in plain cloths,provideing very important and useful information to the appropriate authorities,helping to keep us all safe.

 

I believe the UK is in just as much danger today as it was in the cold war.

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Well did a bit more reading into the ROC and found it very interesting.

 

Never recall the bunkers here in Shetland being refered to as nuclear always jusr Sumburgh,Lerwick,Voe or Walls ROC..

 

I think the ROC should be reinstated and instead of monitoring aircraft and checking for radiation should be monitoring Airports,Bus stations.Railways in fact any public place for terrorists,thiefs,drug dealers,illegal immigrants ect. 

 

They could be moving about collecting information in plain cloths,provideing very important and useful information to the appropriate authorities,helping to keep us all safe.

 

I believe the UK is in just as much danger today as it was in the cold war.

 

What a good idea, encourage the Nazi bar stewards to openly spy on us even more. What an absolutely splendid benefit to society that would be.

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George---I was not aware the ROC was Nazi but I'm sure there was probably a few undesirables among them.

 

Rotten apple in every barrel.

 

Anyone who is law abideing should have nothing to fear from a little "snooping" especially if its main purpose is protection from those in society who think otherwise. 

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