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A-4 Skyhawks were present at the retirement of the F-4F Phantom II from German Air Force service, celebrated by an airshow at Wittmund AFB. N432FS flew a spirited display with a stunning high speed pass
Categories:
McDonnell Douglas - A-4 Skyhawk - Fast Jet - Cold War Aircraft - Wittmund 2013
NUCLEAR WEAPON STORAGE FACILITY –
RAF Barnham (also known as Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in Suffolk two miles south of Thetford, it is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths, the camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington. During the 1950's and 1960's a part of RAF Barnham Station was set aside as high-security storage facility for Nuclear Weapons, this area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, RAF Barnham had been used as a Chemical Weapons Store and Filling Station from the 22nd August 1939. In the early 1960's, the Nuclear Weapons Storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately owned Gorse Industrial Estate.
The Chemical Weapon Store and former Chemical Weapon Filling Station are situated down the dead-end Station Road. The present main gate of RAF Barnham can be found directly off the Bury Road A134 between Barnham village and Thetford, the entrance to the former Nuclear Weapons Store (now Gorse Industrial Estate) can be found on the Elveden Road between Barnham village and the old A11.
Military facilities have existed at Barnham since the First World War, and during the Second World War Barnham had been a Chemical Weapons Storage and Filling Station for Mustard Gas. During 1953 and 1954 construction began on a high-security RAF Bomb Store on the Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956. RAF Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs and RAF Barnham was able to supply the Bomber Squadrons at RAF Honington, RAF Marham, RAF Watton, RAF Wyton, RAF Upwood and RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Barnham came under the control of the RAF's No. 94 Maintenance Unit.
The operational life of RAF Barnham was relatively short, by the early 1960's this type of Storage Facility became obsolete as Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs were superseded as the weapon of choice, for the British Nuclear Deterrent, by the Blue Steel Stand-Off Missile. The storage and maintenance of Nuclear Weapons moved to the V Bomber Airfields. The last Nuclear Weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963, the site was sold in 1966, and since that date it has been used as a light industrial estate.
The site was built specifically to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs, such as 'Blue Danube' this specific purpose was reflected in the facility's layout, the site was roughly pentagonal in shape, it consisted of three large Non-Nuclear Component Stores, surrounded by earthwork banking and a number of smaller Storage Buildings to hold the Fissile Cores, the Cores were held in Stainless Steel Containers sunk into the ground, with the larger buildings stored the Bomb Casings and the High-Explosive elements of the weapons.
The smaller Stores known as ''Hutches'' were constructed to hold the Fissile Core of the weapons, these Hutches were further divided into type 'A' and 'B'. The 'A' Type hutches having a single borehole for the storage of Plutonium Cores and the 'B' Type Hutches having a double borehole for storing the Cobalt cores. In total, there were 55 Hutches giving enough capacity to store 64 Fissile Cores. RAF Barnham had sufficient storage capacity for 132 Fissile Cores although it's likely that only a small number were ever stored there as only 25 Blue Danube Bombs were ever built at a cost of £1M per bomb !
In addition to the storage buildings, the site consisted of a number of other buildings including a Fire Station, RAF Police Flight, Administration Block, Mess block, Mechanical Transport Section, Kennels and Workshops. The Perimeter of the Site was protected by a double system of Chain Link Fencing and an Inner Concrete Panel Wall, all of which were topped with Barbed Wire. In 1959 security was enhanced by the building of Watch Towers around the Perimeter.
The former Nuclear Bomb Storage facilities are designated as a scheduled monument by English Heritage with several buildings on the site having listed building status. RAF Barnham is a Satellite Station for RAF Honington and is used by the RAF Regiment for training, It is used as an accommodation and training venue for the Potential Gunners Acquaintance Course (PGAC) The adjacent MoD Training Area remains the property of the Ministry of Defence and is still used by the RAF Regiment, as well as the Air Training Corps and Combined Cadet Force for training.
In January 2016, it was announced that RAF Barnham would close, A 'Better Defence Estate' published in November 2016, indicates that the Ministry of Defence will dispose of the site by 2020, domestic accommodation will be relocated to RAF Honington, with access to Barnham Training Area maintained, this was later extended to 2022.
Information sourced from – en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Barnham
An aide -memoire produced in 1978 explaining how soldiers could take measures to survive a nuclear blast. I suspect it was more to do with maintaining morale than providing practical help. Squaddie's humour stated that the best defence against a nuclear explosion was to bend forward, place your head between your legs and kiss your a**e goodbye. In the 1970s, for wartime, wrist worn dosimeters would have been issued to a percentage of soldiers in forward units. This we were assured, was in order that radiation, measured in rads (r) could be monitored and troops withdrawn before they accumulated an irreversible dose. The truth was, I was once told by someone who was in a position to know, was that units could be identified as having been incurably irradiated and therefore regarded as expendable for suicide missions. God, I loved the Cold War! (Well, it was better than a Hot War).
An old Thunderstreak, still wearing its Vietnam-era camouflage, sits in the restoration lot at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The markings of its last operator, the New York State National Guard are visible on the tail, along with the "0-" prefix, indicating a type that is obsolete in front-line service.
NON-NUCLEAR COMPONENT STORES BUILDING 60 –
The function of the non-nuclear component stores was to hold the high explosive part of the bomb and its outer casing. The casing could probably be split into two units, the tail and forward part containing the high explosive and electronics. The bombs, minus their fissile components, were housed in three almost identical stores buildings 59-61, known as Storage Building Type 'D-D'. These are arranged in an arrowhead pattern, and are accessed from the internal loop road, and are all surrounded by 14ft 6in high earth traverses, revetted by a reinforced concrete retaining wall against the roadway.
The western store, building 59 was gutted by a fire during the 1980's and has subsequently been demolished. Its floor plan remains visible on the remaining concrete floor slab. The two remaining stores, buildings 60 and 61 are rectangular in plan, and are constructed from reinforced concrete columns and beams. Internally there are two rows of columns, 13in², which support the roof beams, 2ft by 9in, which carry the 9in thick reinforced concrete roof slab which is covered with bituminous felt. The rainwater gutters and down pipes are cast asbestos.
The wall sections are filled with 18in by 9in by 9in precast concrete blocks, internally the main storage area measures 190ft 2½in by 60ft. It is divided longitudinally into eleven 17ft by 3ft bays and cross ways into three bays the outer bays measure 17ft 6in and the central bay is 25ft wide. The maximum clear internal height was 12ft from the floor to the underside of the roof beams. The floor is surfaced with a hard gritless asphalt with the patent name 'Ironite'. The walls are painted pale green colour and the ceiling cream. in store building 61 the bay letters 0, N, M, and L are visible on the rear columns on the eastern side, suggesting the store was divided into 22 bays along the outer walls.
Abutting on to the front of the stores, and flanking the entrances, are plant and switch rooms, which originally contained heating and air conditioning plant to maintain a stable environment within the stores. A raised air extract duct is placed asymmetrically on the roofs of the stores. Entry into the stores is through a 10ft wide door opening with 12ft high doors. In the rear wall of the stores is a single door width, outward opening emergency exit. The first nuclear weapon the store was designed to hold was relatively large, a ''Blue Danube'' bomb measured 24ft in length and weighed 10,000lbs.
The problems of handling such large objects are reflected in the provision of substantial lifting gantries at the entrance to each store. Two variants are found, the simplest, exemplified by the middle store building 60 comprises a straight gantry. Over the roadway the gantry is supported by four 24in by 18in reinforced concrete columns, which support two 51in by 24in reinforced concrete beams. The upper beams of the gantry taper towards the entrance to the store where they are suppurted by two reinforced concrete columns. On the underside of the gantry is attached a 20in by 6½in rolled steel joist runway beam which runs to the entrance to the building. This was originally fitted with a 10 ton hoist. The gantry is covered by asbestos sheeting to provide a dry working area.
On the eastern and western stores the gantries were set at 30° to the front of the stores. In this variant an extra set of columns was placed at the 30° dogleg. Internally there is no evidence for a runway beam, so it presumed the bombs were lifted off a road transporter and loaded onto a bomb trolley for storage. It is not known how many bombs were kept in each store, or if the tail units were separated from the front part of the bomb for storage. Subsequent to the site being relinquished by the RAF a central corridor has been created in the stores by the insertion of breeze block walls. Doors in these walls give access to workshops along either side of the buildings. External windows have also been inserted in some of the bays.
Information sourced from English Heritage.
20,000 GALLON STATIC WATER TANK –
To the south of building 63 is a covered 12,000 gallon water tank (Drg No. 400/53) and pump (Ta) for fire fighting. This was supplemented by three 20,000 gallon Static Water Tanks arranged around the inner access road.
RAF Barnham (also known as Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in Suffolk two miles south of Thetford, it is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths, the camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington. During the 1950's and 1960's a part of RAF Barnham Station was set aside as high-security storage facility for Nuclear Weapons, this area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, RAF Barnham had been used as a Chemical Weapons Store and Filling Station from the 22nd August 1939. In the early 1960's, the Nuclear Weapons Storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately owned Gorse Industrial Estate.
The Chemical Weapon Store and former Chemical Weapon Filling Station are situated down the dead-end Station Road. The present main gate of RAF Barnham can be found directly off the Bury Road A134 between Barnham village and Thetford, the entrance to the former Nuclear Weapons Store (now Gorse Industrial Estate) can be found on the Elveden Road between Barnham village and the old A11.
Military facilities have existed at Barnham since the First World War, and during the Second World War Barnham had been a Chemical Weapons Storage and Filling Station for Mustard Gas. During 1953 and 1954 construction began on a high-security RAF Bomb Store on the Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956. RAF Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs and RAF Barnham was able to supply the Bomber Squadrons at RAF Honington, RAF Marham, RAF Watton, RAF Wyton, RAF Upwood and RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Barnham came under the control of the RAF's No. 94 Maintenance Unit.
The operational life of RAF Barnham was relatively short, by the early 1960's this type of Storage Facility became obsolete as Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs were superseded as the weapon of choice, for the British Nuclear Deterrent, by the Blue Steel Stand-Off Missile. The storage and maintenance of Nuclear Weapons moved to the V Bomber Airfields. The last Nuclear Weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963, the site was sold in 1966, and since that date it has been used as a light industrial estate.
The site was built specifically to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs, such as 'Blue Danube' this specific purpose was reflected in the facility's layout, the site was roughly pentagonal in shape, it consisted of three large Non-Nuclear Component Stores, surrounded by earthwork banking and a number of smaller Storage Buildings to hold the Fissile Cores, the Cores were held in Stainless Steel Containers sunk into the ground, with the larger buildings stored the Bomb Casings and the High-Explosive elements of the weapons.
The smaller Stores known as ''Hutches'' were constructed to hold the Fissile Core of the weapons, these Hutches were further divided into type 'A' and 'B'. The 'A' Type hutches having a single borehole for the storage of Plutonium Cores and the 'B' Type Hutches having a double borehole for storing the Cobalt cores. In total, there were 55 Hutches giving enough capacity to store 64 Fissile Cores. RAF Barnham had sufficient storage capacity for 132 Fissile Cores although it's likely that only a small number were ever stored there as only 25 Blue Danube Bombs were ever built at a cost of £1M per bomb !
In addition to the storage buildings, the site consisted of a number of other buildings including a Fire Station, RAF Police Flight, Administration Block, Mess block, Mechanical Transport Section, Kennels and Workshops. The Perimeter of the Site was protected by a double system of Chain Link Fencing and an Inner Concrete Panel Wall, all of which were topped with Barbed Wire. In 1959 security was enhanced by the building of Watch Towers around the Perimeter.
The former Nuclear Bomb Storage facilities are designated as a scheduled monument by English Heritage with several buildings on the site having listed building status. RAF Barnham is a Satellite Station for RAF Honington and is used by the RAF Regiment for training, It is used as an accommodation and training venue for the Potential Gunners Acquaintance Course (PGAC) The adjacent MoD Training Area remains the property of the Ministry of Defence and is still used by the RAF Regiment, as well as the Air Training Corps and Combined Cadet Force for training.
In January 2016, it was announced that RAF Barnham would close, A 'Better Defence Estate' published in November 2016, indicates that the Ministry of Defence will dispose of the site by 2020, domestic accommodation will be relocated to RAF Honington, with access to Barnham Training Area maintained, this was later extended to 2022.
Information sourced from – en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Barnham
30ft ENCLOSED WATCH TOWER –
RAF Barnham Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility was heavily secured and at the time was probably one of the most secure locations in the United Kingdom. The security element was the responsibility of the RAF Police (RAFP). Personnel from differing operating periods at RAF Barnham have stated that there were up to three varieties of RAF Police specialisations working at the site: 'Provost' 'Station' and 'Qualified Police Dog' (dog handlers).
Five Watch Towers, one at each point of the pentagonal fence, were located on the inside of the middle fencing when the site was decommissioned. These were accessible along the path within the sterile area near the fence line, some elements of which are still visible under the moss and foliage. A 6th vantage point was located on the maintenance building towards the centre of the compound. Each tower could see the others at the time of operational use (trees get in the way now) and were fitted with searchlights at a third of the way up and right at the top, possibly similar to those used on ships. It has been reported that the angle of the lights had to be limited as the Officer Commanding RAF Lakenheath had made complaints that his pilots were getting dazzled by RAF Barnham's watch towers.
The existing tall metal towers were believed to have been installed in late 1959/early 1960. Prior to this there were wooden ones, described as being pretty basic and about 15ft high, with a base around 6ft square with a large searchlight mounted in the centre which could be swung almost 360° in either direction. Access was reportedly by a wooden ladder and there was a single railing round about waist height. There was a field telephone at the top of the ladder and ''special'' binoculars were issued. The platforms were in roughly the same positions of the new towers but on the inside of the concrete path. It has been reported by another source that when the new towers were built, the fences had to be modified to accommodate them, via a U-shaped cut-out, visible on the site today.
As well as a standard outer fence and main gate picket post, the facility included an inner perimeter fence and within that an inner concrete wall with another picket post. The area between these two latter perimeters was classed as ''sterile'', with trip wires and flares in the gap between them and atop the wall, to alert the guard force to intruders. Pole-mounted lighting was positioned at regular intervals within the sterile area and halfway between the towers was a V-shaped bulge in the fence to allow patrolling guards the ability to look up and down the fence line from a small path that ran within the area. A telephone post was located at these bulges.
Two electric sliding gates at the outer and inner fence and a traditional style split middle wire gate acted as ''vehicle traps'' for any vehicle driving in or out. At the front sliding gate was a personnel turnstile controlled by the RAFP guardroom. At the rear sliding gate was personnel access to the inner picket where flammables and other contraband (matches, cigarettes, lighters etc) were surrendered before entering the ''Danger Area''.
RAFP Dog Handlers patrolled the site and the RAFP station staff manned the watch towers and pickets. The area between the outer and middle fence was patrolled by the Dog Handlers, with elements of the outer perimeter reportedly just spools of barbed wire.
Information sourced from – rafbarnham-nss.weebly.com/security.html
NON-NUCLEAR COMPONENT STORES BUILDING 60 –
The function of the non-nuclear component stores was to hold the high explosive part of the bomb and its outer casing. The casing could probably be split into two units, the tail and forward part containing the high explosive and electronics. The bombs, minus their fissile components, were housed in three almost identical stores buildings 59-61, known as Storage Building Type 'D-D'. These are arranged in an arrowhead pattern, and are accessed from the internal loop road, and are all surrounded by 14ft 6in high earth traverses, revetted by a reinforced concrete retaining wall against the roadway.
The western store, building 59 was gutted by a fire during the 1980's and has subsequently been demolished. Its floor plan remains visible on the remaining concrete floor slab. The two remaining stores, buildings 60 and 61 are rectangular in plan, and are constructed from reinforced concrete columns and beams. Internally there are two rows of columns, 13in², which support the roof beams, 2ft by 9in, which carry the 9in thick reinforced concrete roof slab which is covered with bituminous felt. The rainwater gutters and down pipes are cast asbestos.
The wall sections are filled with 18in by 9in by 9in precast concrete blocks, internally the main storage area measures 190ft 2½in by 60ft. It is divided longitudinally into eleven 17ft by 3ft bays and cross ways into three bays the outer bays measure 17ft 6in and the central bay is 25ft wide. The maximum clear internal height was 12ft from the floor to the underside of the roof beams. The floor is surfaced with a hard gritless asphalt with the patent name 'Ironite'. The walls are painted pale green colour and the ceiling cream. in store building 61 the bay letters 0, N, M, and L are visible on the rear columns on the eastern side, suggesting the store was divided into 22 bays along the outer walls.
Abutting on to the front of the stores, and flanking the entrances, are plant and switch rooms, which originally contained heating and air conditioning plant to maintain a stable environment within the stores. A raised air extract duct is placed asymmetrically on the roofs of the stores. Entry into the stores is through a 10ft wide door opening with 12ft high doors. In the rear wall of the stores is a single door width, outward opening emergency exit. The first nuclear weapon the store was designed to hold was relatively large, a ''Blue Danube'' bomb measured 24ft in length and weighed 10,000lbs.
The problems of handling such large objects are reflected in the provision of substantial lifting gantries at the entrance to each store. Two variants are found, the simplest, exemplified by the middle store building 60 comprises a straight gantry. Over the roadway the gantry is supported by four 24in by 18in reinforced concrete columns, which support two 51in by 24in reinforced concrete beams. The upper beams of the gantry taper towards the entrance to the store where they are suppurted by two reinforced concrete columns. On the underside of the gantry is attached a 20in by 6½in rolled steel joist runway beam which runs to the entrance to the building. This was originally fitted with a 10 ton hoist. The gantry is covered by asbestos sheeting to provide a dry working area.
On the eastern and western stores the gantries were set at 30° to the front of the stores. In this variant an extra set of columns was placed at the 30° dogleg. Internally there is no evidence for a runway beam, so it presumed the bombs were lifted off a road transporter and loaded onto a bomb trolley for storage. It is not known how many bombs were kept in each store, or if the tail units were separated from the front part of the bomb for storage. Subsequent to the site being relinquished by the RAF a central corridor has been created in the stores by the insertion of breeze block walls. Doors in these walls give access to workshops along either side of the buildings. External windows have also been inserted in some of the bays.
Information sourced from English Heritage.
NON-NUCLEAR COMPONENT STORES BUILDING 61 –
Building 61 (Drg No. 1245/53) is a Non-Nuclear Component Stores with attached concrete gantry on four columns projecting over the road to the front (west). Reasons for Designation Building 61 is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
▪︎RARITY – A rare building on a unique site designed to accommodate and service Britain's first nuclear weapon, the ''Blue Danube''. It is the only such surviving facility in the country.
▪︎HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION – The building has outstanding national and international interest for its historical associations with the development of the earliest British nuclear weapons technology during the Cold War, which helped shape Britain's post-war history.
▪︎GROUP VALUE – The building has strong group value with other buildings at RAF Barnham, and was part of the national deployment of nuclear weapons.
▪︎INTACTNESS – Building 61 is largely intact.
Non-nuclear component stores buildings 60 and 61, held the high explosive part of the bomb and its outer casing. The central section of the casing held the high explosive lenses assembled into a large ball with forward sections containing electronics and radars. Owing to the weight and size of ''Blue Danube'', the gantry at the entrance was required to manoeuvre the bomb onto a trolley for storage. Building 61 is currently used as small work units and has blockwork partitioning which is reversible.
▪︎MATERIALS – A reinforced concrete frame and blockwork walls, and a flat concrete roof. ▪︎PLAN – Rectangular, aligned approximately east-west.
▪︎EXTERIOR – Building 61 is surrounded by substantial earth bunds. It has a central recessed entrance flanked by two projecting two storey, flat roofed plant and switch rooms which originally contained plant to maintain a stable environment. The original steel doors remain. The rear elevation has a central door and there are crittall windows to the rear and sides.
▪︎INTERIOR – Originally sub-divided internally into compartments of 11ft x 3ft bays allowing the storage of up to 66 bombs, Building 61 has been partitioned internally to create smaller work units.
Although the site was in use for storage of Mustard Gas and explosives during World War II, it was not until after the end of hostilities that the depot was constructed in its current form. In the early 1950's, the Air Ministry had a continuing need for high explosive bombs and storage facilities for them and was looking ahead to a ''future war in which atomic and thermo-nuclear weapons would be used by both sides''. It is within this historic context that the Special Storage Unit at RAF Barnham was constructed following the issuing of ''Blue Danube'', Britain's first nuclear bomb, to the RAF in November 1953.
The bombs were held in clutches in V-bomber airfields such as RAF Scampton and RAF Wittering and the purpose of the store at RAF Barnham, and the almost identical site at RAF Faldingwoth in Lincolnshire, was to provide maintenance and refurbishment to support the airfields and hold spare warheads. The Air Ministry plan for the Store is dated May 1953, although planning for the facility almost certainly had started before this, and it was fully operational by July 1954. In the first phase of works, the fences, earthworks, fissile core storage hutches, inspection buildings and gantries were built by August 1955.
The small arms and pyrotechnics store, barrack accommodation, gymnasium, telephone exchange, meat preparation store and dog compound were erected shortly after to strengthen security. By mid 1955 the double fence was in place, later augmented by the current observation towers erected in early 1959 replacing smaller structures. The Special Storage Unit remained the main holding place for the Mk. 1 Atomic Bomb, under control of Bomber Command until November 1956 when an independent Unit (95 Commanding Maintenance Unit) was formed. During the operational life of the site, second and third generation British nuclear weapons such as ''Red Beard'' and ''Yellow Sun'' were introduced on the site.
By 1962, the site was in decline and the maintenance unit ceased to exist on 31st July 1963. The closure of the station is probably linked to the operational deployment of ''Blue Steel'' from late 1962. The site was sold to the current owners in 1966 and let out for light industrial use. Some of the buildings have been altered and most significantly, one of the non-nuclear stores burnt down in the 1980’s, but there has been an on-going maintenance and repair programme agreed with English Heritage resulting in the preservation of the site.
INSPECTION AND REPAIR WORKSHOP BUILDING 85 –
Building 85 (Drg No. 2015/59) didn't have the blast walls like some of the others, suggesting it handled less explosive matter. With doors at each end, it is almost like a process line, in one way and out of the other, but it could have equally been used for other bomb components or even on-site support equipment.
RAF Barnham (also known as Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in Suffolk two miles south of Thetford, it is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths, the camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington. During the 1950's and 1960's a part of RAF Barnham Station was set aside as high-security storage facility for Nuclear Weapons, this area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, RAF Barnham had been used as a Chemical Weapons Store and Filling Station from the 22nd August 1939. In the early 1960's, the Nuclear Weapons Storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately owned Gorse Industrial Estate.
The Chemical Weapon Store and former Chemical Weapon Filling Station are situated down the dead-end Station Road. The present main gate of RAF Barnham can be found directly off the Bury Road A134 between Barnham village and Thetford, the entrance to the former Nuclear Weapons Store (now Gorse Industrial Estate) can be found on the Elveden Road between Barnham village and the old A11.
Military facilities have existed at Barnham since the First World War, and during the Second World War Barnham had been a Chemical Weapons Storage and Filling Station for Mustard Gas. During 1953 and 1954 construction began on a high-security RAF Bomb Store on the Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956. RAF Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs and RAF Barnham was able to supply the Bomber Squadrons at RAF Honington, RAF Marham, RAF Watton, RAF Wyton, RAF Upwood and RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Barnham came under the control of the RAF's No. 94 Maintenance Unit.
The operational life of RAF Barnham was relatively short, by the early 1960's this type of Storage Facility became obsolete as Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs were superseded as the weapon of choice, for the British Nuclear Deterrent, by the Blue Steel Stand-Off Missile. The storage and maintenance of Nuclear Weapons moved to the V Bomber Airfields. The last Nuclear Weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963, the site was sold in 1966, and since that date it has been used as a light industrial estate.
The site was built specifically to store and maintain Free-Fall Nuclear Bombs, such as 'Blue Danube' this specific purpose was reflected in the facility's layout, the site was roughly pentagonal in shape, it consisted of three large Non-Nuclear Component Stores, surrounded by earthwork banking and a number of smaller Storage Buildings to hold the Fissile Cores, the Cores were held in Stainless Steel Containers sunk into the ground, with the larger buildings stored the Bomb Casings and the High-Explosive elements of the weapons.
The smaller Stores known as ''Hutches'' were constructed to hold the Fissile Core of the weapons, these Hutches were further divided into type 'A' and 'B'. The 'A' Type hutches having a single borehole for the storage of Plutonium Cores and the 'B' Type Hutches having a double borehole for storing the Cobalt cores. In total, there were 55 Hutches giving enough capacity to store 64 Fissile Cores. RAF Barnham had sufficient storage capacity for 132 Fissile Cores although it's likely that only a small number were ever stored there as only 25 Blue Danube Bombs were ever built at a cost of £1M per bomb !
In addition to the storage buildings, the site consisted of a number of other buildings including a Fire Station, RAF Police Flight, Administration Block, Mess block, Mechanical Transport Section, Kennels and Workshops. The Perimeter of the Site was protected by a double system of Chain Link Fencing and an Inner Concrete Panel Wall, all of which were topped with Barbed Wire. In 1959 security was enhanced by the building of Watch Towers around the Perimeter.
The former Nuclear Bomb Storage facilities are designated as a scheduled monument by English Heritage with several buildings on the site having listed building status. RAF Barnham is a Satellite Station for RAF Honington and is used by the RAF Regiment for training, It is used as an accommodation and training venue for the Potential Gunners Acquaintance Course (PGAC) The adjacent MoD Training Area remains the property of the Ministry of Defence and is still used by the RAF Regiment, as well as the Air Training Corps and Combined Cadet Force for training.
In January 2016, it was announced that RAF Barnham would close, A 'Better Defence Estate' published in November 2016, indicates that the Ministry of Defence will dispose of the site by 2020, domestic accommodation will be relocated to RAF Honington, with access to Barnham Training Area maintained, this was later extended to 2022.
Information sourced from – en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Barnham
On the east side of Thorney Bay stands a strange looking building next to the former Council Toilets. The building used to have a sign saying “MOD Property” and in the late 1980’s it was still listed in the Private MOD internal phone directory. The building has a balcony that would have had a clear view accross the Thames before the new higher Sea Wall was built in the 1980’s.
Thought to be the last remaining complete Cold War 'Degaussing Station' (Magnetic Loop Station) on the north of the Thames, there were a number of these along the river including one at Colehouse Fort. Magnetic sea mines were a big problem so ships had to be degaussed (de-magnetised) to prevent the mines detecting them, cables ran out under the River Thames from the building and possibly a Boom running from this area. The Degaussing Stations tested that the passing ships degaussing equipment was operating properly before they hit the perilous seas past the Shoeburyness Anti-Submarine Boom.
This Cold War defence building, planned and built from 1962 to 1963, as a result of the 'Cuban Missile Crisis' which almost concluded with a nuclear missile exchange between NATO and the Soviet Union. With this incredibly close call, many Nuclear Defences were reinforced, and many more were added, such as Canvey Island Degaussing Range Station. The Deguassing Station would have sent out a wire loop to the middle of the Thames, which still remains somewhere on the seabed to this day (a piece of the wire is on display in the museum) There would have been two of these loops, which would have ended at the Degaussing Station wired up to surveillance equipment, the loops were used to pick up electrical signals caused by magnetism from passing ships. During WWII magnetically-detonated mines were placed around the English shoreline (especially the Thames and other docks) by the Germans, which would detonate if a ship passed over one, interrupting its magnetic field, causing it to be set-off, creating devastating underwater shock-waves for ships.
The Deguassing Station, or '‘Canvey Loop’' as it was sometimes known, would have monitored passing ships checking their devices (electrified wire loop) wrapped around them to demagnetise the ships and therefore make them immune to magnetic underwater mines. The ships co-ordinates would be measured from a range-finder on the balcony, plus other equipment inside, and marked for needing a ‘de-mag’ device to be fitted. As the Cold War never turned hot and no magnetic mines were emplaced by the Soviets, the station was never used, although still fully kitted out and put on standby by the MOD.
During the Cold War, both magnetic mines left over from WWII, and ‘to be deployed’ magnetic mines by Communist states/Soviet Russia, were a threat, therefore the Degaussing Stations were constructed, not that many exist in the UK, and still just a few exist in the USA. The Bay Museum is undoubtedly the most suspicious and suitably-fashioned station in the country, with others simply being maybe an old house. One other can be seen in the walls of Coalhouse Fort, in Tilbury, a fort which saw dominant fortification in WWII.
A "Top Secret" cover sheet from the US Atomic Energy Commission. This particular form dates from 1949, and was used through at least the early 1950s. This specimen comes from the papers of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, in the Legislative Archives, U.S. National Archives, and was attached to a document from 1953.
Fehler bitte melden. Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob alle Angaben richtig sind.
Displaying errors. I am not shure if all given informations are correct.
COLD WAR (1947 - 1991) –
The global split between the political ideologies of Western Capitalism and Soviet Bloc Communism and the ensuing military stand-off, known as the ''Cold War'' (1947 - 1991), shaped the history of the late 20th century. The most obvious physical traces of this era are the remains of its defence sites. To most people these places were secret and closed worlds, but the end of the Cold War has made it possible to gain access to preciously restricted sites.
One of the defining features of the Cold War was the stockpiling, by East and West, of ever larger advanced nuclear arsenals, providing each side with the potential to annihilate life on earth many times over. The United Kingdom was the third country to deploy operational nuclear weapons. It was against this background that the decision was taken to build RAF Barnham, No. 94 Maintenance Unit, a specialist storage and maintenance depot for the RAF's first Atomic Bomb ''Blue Danube''. Planning for the site began in 1952 and the station became operational on 1st September 1956 at a cost of approximately £1.5 million.
RAF BARNHAM, NEW OWNERS AND A NEW PURPOSE –
On the 12th November 1965, the Thetford and Watton Times reported that a former RAF base had failed to sell at auction. After reading this article, Keith, and then Margot Eldred, took an interest in the site. Given their recent experiments with growing mushrooms in their loft, the site with its three large ''stores'' seemed to present an ideal business opportunity. They bought the site on 25th March 1966.
In April 1966, one store was subdivided into 12 bays (two were used as spawning sheds whilst the other 12 were used as growing sheds). Gorse Farm Mushrooms was the first business on the site and had a production of one to two tons a week by July 1966 before a virus attacked the crop. In 1968 Gorse Industrial Estate was established and small businesses moved into the emptyl buildings. The Eldred family own and run the site providing low and stable rents. Many tenants are now working on the site's ongoing conservation projects.
In 2006 English Heritage scheduled and Listed the former atomic bomb store as an nationality significant site reflecting an important aspect of Cold War history. Today English Heritage is working with the owners to ensure the conservation of the site, while protecting the continuation of local business and employment opportunities, and the enhancement of the natural habitat.
Conservation work to safeguard the historic fabric has included: conserving the watch towers, the outer concrete fences, and one group of fissile core stores. By the main gate the temporary SECO buldings have been refurbished and one lost in a fire in February 1985 has been rebuilt in a similar style and character. Much of this work was done by businesses based on the site. There is also a programme to improve the bio-diversity and ecology of the site. Sixty hard ''woodcrete'' bird nests have been fixed to trees and are monitored by the BTO.
Information sourced from English Heritage.