MrMagoo
June 6th, 2009, 07:48
This is my first contribution so go easy on me!
Yesterday, Myself and a good mate visited the Hollingbourne Zero Station. The site was very easy to find and easy to access.
Hidden away in a small piece of woodland next to a field near the village of Hollingbourne is a small underground shelter. If discovered the casual observor may mistake it for an air raid shelter,but it is in fact a Zero Station.
It would have been used during world war 2 as a hide-out for the Special Duties Organisation who were a branch of the Auxilary Units.
The Special Duties Organisation role involved spying and radio communications,both men and women could be chosen as it's members. If Britain had been invaded the spies would of observed enemy troop movements and anything else of interest they had seen, then they would report the information to a Radio operator by means of putting the report in a secret hiding place (maybe under a log or a rock) called a "Letter Box",the Radio operator would then pick up the report ready to transmit the information. If the Radio operator did not collect the report themselves a "Cut-out" was used,(who was a sort of Middle-Man) they would then pass the report to a second "Letter Box" for the Radio operator to collect. Using a "Cut-out" would help keep their identities secret.
A radio operator had his Radio equipment hidden away in an "Out Station" which was usually in an underground hide-out. The Out Stations would then transmit their reports to a local "Control station",who then transmitted it on again to the Headquarters at Hannington Hall,Wiltshire.
A Control Station was operated by three specially trained women of the ATS Auxiliary Unit, each station having two transmitters and two receivers. One set was for everyday use whilst the whole radio network was in training, the other to be used in the event of an invasion. The training set was often housed in a surface building. The other set would have been close by in an underground hideout known as a 'Zero Station', so-called because when the station's code-name was used it was always followed by the code suffix 'Zero'.
The purpose of a Zero Station was to receive coded information from the many Out-Stations in the surrounding area, passing on the details via a direct phone line to the Special Duties Headquarters at Hannington Hall.
Here are the pictures:
Entrance
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00424.jpg
The Main area inside
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00431.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00427-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00430.jpg
This is the emergency escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00426.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00428.jpg
Ventilation for escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00421.jpg
Exit of escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00423.jpg
Yesterday, Myself and a good mate visited the Hollingbourne Zero Station. The site was very easy to find and easy to access.
Hidden away in a small piece of woodland next to a field near the village of Hollingbourne is a small underground shelter. If discovered the casual observor may mistake it for an air raid shelter,but it is in fact a Zero Station.
It would have been used during world war 2 as a hide-out for the Special Duties Organisation who were a branch of the Auxilary Units.
The Special Duties Organisation role involved spying and radio communications,both men and women could be chosen as it's members. If Britain had been invaded the spies would of observed enemy troop movements and anything else of interest they had seen, then they would report the information to a Radio operator by means of putting the report in a secret hiding place (maybe under a log or a rock) called a "Letter Box",the Radio operator would then pick up the report ready to transmit the information. If the Radio operator did not collect the report themselves a "Cut-out" was used,(who was a sort of Middle-Man) they would then pass the report to a second "Letter Box" for the Radio operator to collect. Using a "Cut-out" would help keep their identities secret.
A radio operator had his Radio equipment hidden away in an "Out Station" which was usually in an underground hide-out. The Out Stations would then transmit their reports to a local "Control station",who then transmitted it on again to the Headquarters at Hannington Hall,Wiltshire.
A Control Station was operated by three specially trained women of the ATS Auxiliary Unit, each station having two transmitters and two receivers. One set was for everyday use whilst the whole radio network was in training, the other to be used in the event of an invasion. The training set was often housed in a surface building. The other set would have been close by in an underground hideout known as a 'Zero Station', so-called because when the station's code-name was used it was always followed by the code suffix 'Zero'.
The purpose of a Zero Station was to receive coded information from the many Out-Stations in the surrounding area, passing on the details via a direct phone line to the Special Duties Headquarters at Hannington Hall.
Here are the pictures:
Entrance
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00424.jpg
The Main area inside
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00431.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00427-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00430.jpg
This is the emergency escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00426.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00428.jpg
Ventilation for escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00421.jpg
Exit of escape tunnel
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tono300/DSC00423.jpg