During the Cold War many countries, including Britain, prepared themselves for the possibility of a nuclear attack. The British government set up a chain of bunkers along the east coast to act as early warning radar stations in case of attack from the USSR. What is now known as Scotland’s Secret Bunker was an R3 type and one of the largest, accommodating 300 personnel. Located just outside of St. Andrews in Fife, the bunker was built in 1951 and manned by the RAF from 1953 to 1956. With heavy blast doors sealing the entrance, the bunker was Scotland’s ‘best kept secret’ for over 40 years.
Soon, the technology in the bunker became outdated and, as a result, it was closed briefly and then re-opened as a Regional Seat of Government to be staffed by the Civil Defence Corps. After the Civil Defence Corps disbanded in 1968, the bunker became a Regional Government Headquarters. It was from this bunker that Scotland would have been governed during and after the event of a nuclear attack. Today, the bunker is open to visitors and is home to Cleo, the resident M.O.D. cat.
There are still several operational bunkers in Britain today. The most secret bunker today is Corsham Computer Centre in Wiltshire, which is located 60 metres below ground. The only indication of this underground complex is a small sign which points to ‘CCC’. A large carpark, visible on Google maps, indicates that many people work in this underground bunker. Another modern bunker lies deep below the Ministry of Defence building in Whitehall. One of the facilities in this bunker is the Nuclear Operations and Targeting Centre (NOTC).
Located 100 feet (30 metres) underground, Scotland’s Secret Bunker gives an insight into what it would have been like to work in such an environment as geopolitical tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Junior staff were accommodated in large male and female dormitories, while senior staff were accommodated four to a room and government ministers had their own private bedrooms. The area that originally housed the bedrooms of the top military staff and the Secretary of State is now a high security area and houses the bunker’s current security control centre providing state of the art monitoring. It is manned 24 hours of the day, all year round.
Central Government Operations were run from the hub of the HQ with representatives of major ministries at each desk on the main floor. Emergency services, the Computer Centre, scientists and the Minister of State each occupied the outer rooms overlooking main floor. Scientific advisors and weather forecasting officers would provide up to the minute operational details, which would be shown on the displays. Data, radio, phone and computer links would keep in touch with the outside world. This operations centre would have taken over all Central Government functions for Scotland with similar HQ’s for England and Wales. The Secretary of State was housed upstairs in his own suite and the War telephone system was one vital link in a chain of three that could authorise a retaliatory strike. War games and exercises were held there on a monthly basis.
The Plant Room still contains much of its original equipment and is a testament to the skill of the engineers. Filtering the air intakes against radioactive particles, germs, gas and biological warfare, the plant moves 52,000 cubic feet of air every minute. This changes the entire content of the bunker 14 times every 15 minutes. In the event of fire, a smoke extract system can remove smoke at 78,000 cubic feet a minute and there is a 24-hour fire detection system in operation. Air can be refrigerated, heated, ozonated, deozonated, humidified and dehumidified. Fortunately, the bunker retains a natural temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit with little variation, as to run the heating system would cost 200GBP per hour. In the event of a power failure, the bunker has its own emergency generator that can produce 750kva for up to three months; enough to supply the coastal villages in Fife. The plant is maintained throughout the year and is in constant use.
Inside the BBC Broadcasting Studio the Radio Engineering Workshop is housed, as well as the BBC Studio Edit Suite and the BBC Soundproof Room. In the event of a possible nuclear attack, all radio stations would have been cancelled and this would have been the only station left on air. Emergency broadcasts to the nation would have been made from the radio suite. BBC technicians and officers from the Scottish Office, Press Department would have formed in the Bunker’s Wartime Broadcasting Service team. Information delivered from this bunker would have included war news, official announcements, survival advice and nuclear fallout warnings. By the Broadcasting Studio is a private room that, to this day, contains ‘top secret’, confidential documents.
Within the bunker is a reconstruction of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) Dundee Regional Headquarters with artefacts donated by the Home Office. The ROC was a voluntary organisation of men and women between the ages of 17 and 60 who trained near their homes for the vital task of detecting nuclear explosions and monitoring radioactive fall-out in an emergency. It had a compliment of some 1,500 service men and women who staffed around 820 small, underground lookout posts throughout the UK, as well as several larger command bunkers. The ROC was never actually stationed in the this bunker, however it provided vital information for those who were. Reports were co-ordinated at ROC HQ and this information would have been used to assist the services in the evacuation of civilians, the maintenance of law and order and the minimising of casualties after an attack. The ROC has now been stood down and is no longer operational.
The bunker is also home to a chapel, which was not originally part of the design. It was later included as a memorial to all those who worked to keep the peace during the Cold War. St. Andrew’s Church, RAF Cranwell, loaned both the pulpit and the matching prayer-desk, to the bunker in 1996. These two pieces were part of the Far East Air Force (FEAF) chapel, which is now located in Cranwell.
The bunker’s original canteen, or ‘Mess Hall’ has been preserved as those serving below ground would have known it. A twenty-four hour meal shift system was used to accommodate the 300 personnel, as well as a male/female divide. The kitchens are extremely well equipped and can be used to provide a very high quality of catering – an essential morale booster for those working in such an artificial situation. As there was no refrigerator in the bunker, the food would have been mostly dried, tinned or pre-packed and stored in every free location, including under beds and stashed in corners of the Operations Room. Today, the canteen offers a large selection of snacks and beverages to visitors.
The area now used as a cinema has, at various times in the life of the bunker, been used as offices and a dormitory. Today, various documentaries and short films are shown at regular intervals. One of the cinemas is currently showing the highly controversial film, The War Game (1965), which was banned for 20 years and depicts the horrific scenes witnessed by the people of Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945. This documentary shows actual footage of the very first atom and hydrogen bomb testing and is a testament to the chilling destructive powers of these weapons. The second cinema shows a BBC television production entitled ‘Advice to Householder’, which would have been transmitted as the threat of nuclear conflict escalated. In it, vital information about preparations at home for a nuclear attack are given, as well as instructions on how to survive the lengthy fallout period that follows a nuclear strike. Citizens were advised to brick up windows, use sandbags to absorb the radiation and stock up on food and supplies for a number of weeks. In reality, very little information from the film would have helped the average householder to survive but it was hoped to instil a degree of calm and measured thought into the horrific situation.
Today, Britain has three armed Trident submarines, each of which carries eight Trident missiles – an American missile system. These British submarines are on loan from the US Navy. One of the armed submarines is hidden at sea at all times and there is a fourth vessel under repair, which does not carry any missiles. A Trident submarine is 150 metres long and is powered by a nuclear reactor. Each missile carries five nuclear warheads and has a range of at least 9,000 kilometres. Each warhead is eight times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed the city of Hiroshima in 1945. One of the targets of Trident is the Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow – if a nuclear weapon exploded there, almost everyone within a 1.6 kilometre (1 mile) radius would be killed. Eleven schools and one children’s hospital are currently situated within this zone.
SOURCES:
- https://www.secretbunker.co.uk
- Information provided by Scotland’s Secret Bunker
