UFO magazine (Graham Birdsall's mag) January/February 1999 Vol. 17, No. 5 1999 Secret Britain by Birdsall Page 24-28 Section quoted from starts on page 27 NEW REVELATIONS Many readers wrote to tell us about the role that Skendleby played during the Cold War. One well-informed individual said it might also at one time have served as a pumping station to distribute aviation fuel between numerous military facilities in the Lincolnshire area. The same individual (a military historian), claimed that all RAF bases in the United Kingdom are linked underground by fuel pipes, so that if one loses its fuel dump from a direct hit, it can pump in more from the network. He said that the pumping station for RAF Brize Norton, for example, is located just north of the M4 motorway, while RAF Mildenhall, the large USAF base in Suffolk, has underground tanks capable of holding 8,000,000 gallons of aviation fuel. This, we were informed, is linked to an underground pipe which stretches to Kings Lynn. RAF Digby, north of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, is also the HQ for RAF Signals. Here, personnel learn their signal skills, including two years on Morse before moving on to voice (publicly the MoD insist they no longer use Morse Code, but we are reliably informed it is still taught). We have been told by two independent sources that much of RAF Digby is underground. Certainly, there has been considerable excavation work there of late, with trucks and technicians entering a huge hangar built into a grassy knoll. The entrance leads to a large underground complex which is claimed to house at least 30 levels. Just east of RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, is RAF Nocton Hall, which to all and sundry is a military hospital. But it also has a huge underground tunnel which links it to RAF Waddington. These tunnels housed munitions at one time, but its current use is not known. RAF Alconbury, the former USAF base, was supposedly closed and shut down to all air traffic 2-3 years ago, but large RAF and USAF military air transport aircraft have been seen landing and taking off from the base. One of our readers, a sales representative, claims to have seen US combat troops duck out of sight when he stopped by the main gate. He then drove around the outer perimeter of the base and saw further evidence that it was patently not abandoned. RAF Alconbury continues to receive at least one aircraft per week, and this we are told is tied to collecting data from the intercept facility at RAF Chicksands. RAF Defford is another base we have mentioned in the past. Although Defford is the location, it is now known as Pershore (a town a couple of miles away). The Malvern Gliding Club are based here and have about 20 gliders to pick from. This base is also the Radar and Signals Research Establishment and has close links with GCHQ. Here, experiments include who to better intercept signals and improve transmission signals with the minimum chance of interception. The beneficiaries of these experiments include the SAS, who use the PRc 319 radio system and the Royal Navy, who use SatCom (satellite communications). This is a direct up/down link and unless one is close to the ship, it's impossible to be aware of a signal. Pershore is also visited fairly regularly by helicopters from Boscombe Down. One need not necessarily always look to military bases to find evidence of underground networks. The city of Manchester in northwest England is a case in point. Seemingly, deep below Heaton Park, (minutes from the M62 motorway) is a fully equipped hospital. It is linked by tunnels to other municipal facilities, including Manchester's Town Hall which is several miles away. During a strike by (surface) hospital auxiliary staff several years ago, linen and blankets were taken from the Heaton Park facility and used in affected hospitals. Manchester also has three underground reservoirs which would have been utilized by those working from underground shelters in the event of a nuclear attack. While some underground facilities now cater to tourists, some lesser-known sites have been adapted for commercial use. Take the hills around Buxton in Derbyshire for instance. These are honeycombed with miles and miles of underground tunnels and caves. During the Second World War, they were used to store munitions produced in the region, but one site, at Harpur Hill, south of Buxton, is now used by Christian Savleson as a huge cold storage facility. The tunnels here extend over 30 miles - Salveson's only use 8 miles (to store wine and cheese) - and during a visit to the site, one of our readers spoke of coming across what looked liked a sealed blast-proof door, made he believes of steel, but certainly "at least 8 inches thick." While many still pour cold water on the idea that Britain is riddled with a vast network of underground bases and tunnels, who would have believed that a 30-mile tunnel network exists in the county of Derbyshire alone? Interestingly, the underground site at Rhydymwyn, near Mold, Clwyd, which was a key chemical weapons production and storage facility during WWII, and which stockpiled chemical weapons until 1959, has usable passageways which stretch over 60 miles. Dr. Tim Jones, who wrote a paper about Rhydymwyn which appeared in the Clwyd Historian (Spring 1996), carried out much of his research at the Public Records Office at Kew. It's claimed that when he returned to Kew to conduct further research, he was told he could no longer have access to the files. - - - - - - end of article- - - - - - - - - *********************************************************** EWAR-L Electronic Warfare Mailing List To unsubscribe or subscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text: unsubscribe EWAR-L or subscribe EWAR-L. To post messages, send to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Previous posts: <http://www.sonic.net/~west/ewar/digest.htm>. EWAR Web site: <http://www.sonic.net/~west/ewar/ewar.htm>. -Wes Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, list owner
