I realise I chopped the ammo bunkers off the 1972 pictures above, so here is a better picture of them.
I thought they look very small for a storage facilty compared to a HAA site, as a rough guideline EACH GUN on a HAA site had about 1000 cubic feet of storage, a site normally had 3 or 4 guns, making say 4000 cubic feet of storage for each HAA site.
But I realise now, those bunkers are HUGE, I am guessing 150 X 50 X 10 feet. Which gives 25000 cubic feet per bunker = 75000 cubic feet for the Upton site.
Perhaps you can confirm my estimate for bunker size.
Thanks Bert, they certainly look a bit more robust than the Dunham-on-Hill Ordnance storage site (you can see 2 or 3 of their 28 bunkers by the Helsby turn-off on M56).
Thanks Bert, they certainly look a bit more robust than the Dunham-on-Hill Ordnance storage site (you can see 2 or 3 of their 28 bunkers by the Helsby turn-off on M56).
That site (Dunham-on-Hill) had one sixth of the entire British Ordnance at one point in time. It was the only British Military site the Germans never found.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 1st Jun 20096:37pm.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
DD, very similar indeed, on the side elevation on your photo the blast wall has 4 strengthening pillars or posts whatever there called, on the Upton bunkers they had them on the actual bunker wall (external) with doors in between them. The blast wall was the same height but with banked up earth, Where is that Bunker ?
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
If the blastwalls had earth piled against them, they would have buttresses as well (I have been trying to think of that word for the last week as well - no comments about spelling)
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 2nd Jun 20096:23pm.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Army Aviation OD and Army Air OD are both yank military, even info on them is surprisingly thin on the ground.
I got most of those places by where a member of AAOD was posted, then a couple were lucky finds. There is nothing certain about the list - but the lack of info worries me, there is a chance that it comes under another umbrella, otherwise I am back to a conspiracy theory.
Some of those locations have a ROF nearby at least two have RAF, I think, I will try and find out.
If anybody knows what they trained at Hillsea, Portsmouth during WW2, then that could be useful.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
That's right DD. yank military but also Australian and Aussie forces had similar names to us, they just put an A in front of it. Your right the lack of info does make one wonder.
Last edited by bert1; 2nd Jun 20098:47pm.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
PDF] Land Contamination: Technical Guidance on Special Sites: MoD LandFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML AAOD. Anti-Aircraft Ordnance Depot, storage area for anti-aircraft shells. ..... Royal Air Force, branch of British military services responsible ... publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/SP5-042-TR-1-e-p.pdf - Similar pages
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Thats interesting DD, did any of the places you listed have any conection with the RAF
Good idea Bert - this puts an end to the conspiracy theory - all these locations were WITHIN TWO MILES of an RAF Base (other than one that might not). Hence there would be heavy HAA protection in the vicinity, hence need an AAOD
Wednesfield - RAF Perton Walsgrave on Sowe - RAF Ansty Upton - RAF West Kirby Kidbrook - Kidbrook has an airport, not sure if RAF in WW2 Weyhill - RAF Thruxton and RAF Andover York - RAF Clifton Inchinnan - RAF Abbotsinch
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
So is it possible Upton camp was built in conjunction with RAF West Kirby, RAF West Kirby being 1940 and i assume Upton Camp around about the same time.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
So is it possible Upton camp was built in conjunction with RAF West Kirby, RAF West Kirby being 1940 and i assume Upton Camp around about the same time.
Certainly seems likely, but there was a lot of stuff going up around then. But basically the quantity of HAA sites on the Wirral would create the demand for the AAOD, as I said earlier (I think?) there are very few records of the HAA guns on sites (such as RAF Bases or ROFs), only the records of the outlying HAA seem to be recorded.
There were 10 outlying HAA sites and 3 RAF stations on the Wirral
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
