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Post #8 by MKVII, pics 3&4 "the Blacker Bombard" or the Spigot Mortar, for anyone not in the know, link below gives a view of what sat on the stainless steel spigot.
it was pretty much as it was left. Weapons, papers, tables, radios books etc etc.
I can speak about some of these stories...they are most likely just that. We have a series of bunkers here in our city and the surrounding area. When I joined the regular army the reservists were FULL of stories about the bunkers below our feet being full of things. They had stories about magic secret entrances that only the natives knew about and had been seen coming and going with brand new rifles. I was young and wanted a piece of this action so I spent my off time searching. All bunker entrances had filled with water through time so only the higher rooms were dry. Using the air vents to access found absolutely nothing. If I'd taken a broom with me I doubt I could even have swept up a cup of dust. The more the doors were secured, the bigger the stories of loot. Nothing...
No matter what the papers said...I'd have to see it to believe, we all know how tight fisted the Gov't is about leaving stuff without a keeper. Did you see pics Peter?
Yes Jim, kids were going home with the rusty stuff and the cops were called. It was getting dangerous too where the door had rusted through at he bottom. They had to wiggle through so it was cleared and sealed. There was a story and some photos in one of these 'after the battle' type magazines too
There's also been romours since 1944 that there are hundreds of tons of US stockpiled ammo buried in Savernake Forest near here. The MoD were called in by the local council because odds and sods were being found and handed in. They were from a railway wagon explosion but later a Navy or RAF helicopter dis a series of low passes over the forest. They didn't explain exactly what it diud but the press simply stated that all they COULD say in the interests of security was what the MoD told them to say. That if the helicopter could locate/find a submarine - or other metallic material in the deep ocean, then metallic objects buried in a few metres of ground would not be a problem. That stopped the rumours in their tracks and the residents now all live happily ever after
Last edited by Peter Laidler; 10-18-2019 at 02:05 PM.
I can speak about some of these stories...they are most likely just that. We have a series of bunkers here in our city and the surrounding area. When I joined the regular army the reservists were FULL of stories about the bunkers below our feet being full of things. They had stories about magic secret entrances that only the natives knew about and had been seen coming and going with brand new rifles. I was young and wanted a piece of this action so I spent my off time searching. All bunker entrances had filled with water through time so only the higher rooms were dry. Using the air vents to access found absolutely nothing. If I'd taken a broom with me I doubt I could even have swept up a cup of dust. The more the doors were secured, the bigger the stories of loot. Nothing...
No matter what the papers said...I'd have to see it to believe, we all know how tight fisted the Gov't is about leaving stuff without a keeper. Did you see pics Peter?
That applies to most bunkers Jim, but the ones Gil and Peter mention are the Secret Army ones, small groups that were to form underground cells and had a small weapon cache etc. The fact that it was so secret is why there are still a few that remain undiscovered.
My father's first job in 1949, at the age of 15, was working on an Essex farm. While working there, in 1949, he found a very heavy steel trap door which was very securely locked by 2 large padlocks in the bottom of a long dried up ditch. The trap door had been hidden by dried leaves etc and when my father asked for what purpose the trap door was for, he was fobbed off with a silly story. It could well have been an Auxiliary Unit hide-out and only being a few years since the end of WW2 it would be understandable if people did not wish to talk about it.
Last edited by Flying10uk; 10-18-2019 at 02:14 PM.
The reason I raise it again I was watching the TV the other night, BBC1 I think and one was uncovered in pretty good nick, and the main access was from a main road and the removable door was a bouldered frame exactly like the boulders in the wall all along that side of the road and grown over as you would expect. Found by a local farmer recently doing hedge maintenance I remember.
There was nothing in this bunker now except beds and cupboards and lock up weapons cases ALL empty. I will see if I can find the link to the programme.
It rekindled my interest and thought, well if he didn't know it was there, how many more were lurking about the English countryside??
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
My wifes family from Faringdon and Shrivenham have a very warm and close connection with Coleshill house, the ancestral home of the secret army. In fact, we drove past the grounds today to meet friends for lunch in Highworth. Her mothers family firm, Pugh, the plumbers from Faringdon were working in the attic areas of Coleshill house when it is said that one of their hand held blowlamps was not properly extinguished and.... Well the rest is history but hence the warm association. Luckily the Pugh plumbing business survived will into early his century whereas Coleshill house didn't. It really was a run-down shambles by the time it burned down. Wifeys best friend from school lived down the hill, some 50 yards from the house and she took me around the grounds a couple of years ago and showed me where the old loco used to be and the remains of an old tank and 'stuff' in the woods plus grated and sealed entrances were. It was their playground in the 50's. Knapps the builders used a lot of the old house stonework. Shame that there's none left as one of the surrounding walls has just fallen down
PM
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
