RAF Kings Cliffe/USAAF Station 367 – Part Two

Here are some more pictures from this visit to RAF Kings Cliffe/USAAF Station 367

Airfield & Technical Site. Fighter Pen (Building 112)
Airfield & Technical Site. Stanton Shelter
 Airfield & Technical Site. Control Tower for Night Fighter Stations (Building 79)
Airfield & Technical Site. Private Branch Exchange (Building 78)
 
Battle Headquarters (Building 90)
Fighter Pen, work area & Stanton Shelter

ROC ‘Memorabilia’

I’m not into Militaria….at all, but I couldn’t resist these couple of items, found on eBay whilst looking for other stuff that I actually needed.

Original overalls/coveralls patch worn by Royal Observer Corps Observers and a Royal Observer Corps Kings Crown cap badge that would have been worn on a beret originally.

Plessey Controls PDRM82 Portable Dose Rate Meter/Geiger Counter

Back at the start of the Cold War the first mass produced Civil Defence Geiger Counter was the Geiger-Müller counter Meter, Contamination, No. 1 set – stock number 5CG0012, of 1953. You still see these from time to time and many remained in use into the 1980’s. It was replaced in 1956 by the British Radiac Survey Meter No 2 which was adopted by the Royal Observer Corps until they took delivery of the better known and specifically built Fixed Survey Meter.

In 1982 Plessey Controls introduced the PDRM82 Portable Dose Rate Meter and this became standard issue for both Civil Defence and Military applications, a special version was created for the Royal Observer Corps, the PDRM82(F) which had an external Coax cable allowing connection to an above ground ionisation detector which ran up the FSM Tube to a polycarbonate dome.

Surprisingly these are allegedly still standard Military Issue today, despite significant advances in technology!!

We recently bought a couple on eBay for exploring a site that in the past was known for having ‘radioactive content’ but despite coming across very real evidence of radioactive items, including Cobalt-60 storage, we could not get even the faintest reading anywhere at the site….kind of good really as had the PDRM82 ‘lit up’ we would have been a bit freaked out….

RAF Kings Cliffe/USAAF Station 367 – Part One

RAF Kings Cliffe opened in 1943, was operational until 1959 and was assigned USAAF designation Station 367, it was home to the 20th Fighter Group of the USAAF 8th Airforce who flew P38 Lightnings and later P51 Mustangs on bomber escort duties & ; also the 56th Fighter Group of the USAAF 8th Airforce who flew P-47 Thunderbolts. When the war finished the airfield was used by the RAF for armament storage up until 1959 when it was sold and turned back to agricultural use which continues to this day.

Sadly all of the hangars and most of the Technical Site have been demolished and in recent months some Stanton Shelters have also been demolished to make way for some currently unknown construction. There are however many smaller buildings still intact such as M&E Plinths, Substations, Sleeping Quarters, Motor Transport Repair, PBX, several defended Fighter Pens with work area, Mushroom Pillboxes, a Battle Headquarters, miscellaneous buildings and of course the Control/Watch Tower.

This visit focused mainly on the perimeter track and outlying defences, a planned return visit in winter (with less undergrowth!!) will concentrate more on the Technical and Communal Sites.

For BHQ geeks you will notice that the Battle Headquarters here isn’t sunk fully into the ground like most are, at least I think that’s the case, I guess the ground could have been removed over the years?, but that doesn’t explain the fully sunken Cantilever/Mushroom Pillbox right next to it…..weird!! Sadly despite it being higher than many this one is flooded to a depth of approx 3ft and always seems to be. The Cupola is still accessible (and dry) via the Emergency Escape hatch though.

There’s lots of pix so I’m posting this across multiple days…..enjoy 🙂

Airfield & Technical Site. Fighter Pen (Building 112)
Airfield & Technical Site. Fighter Pen
Airfield & Technical Site. Sleeping Shelter
Airfield & Technical Site Mushroom Type Pill Box (Building 91)
 
Battle Headquarters (Building 90)
3ft High & Rising inside the BHQ
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Airfield & Technical Site. Sleeping Shelter and Gun Post (Building 81a)
Bunk Bed Mounts inside Building 81a
Airfield & Technical Site. Private Branch Exchange (Building 78) 
Airfield & Technical Site. Control Tower for Night Fighter Stations (Building 79)
Mechanical and Electrical Plinth
Fighter Pen Stanton Shelter
Callender-Hamilton Hangar door rail
Motor Transport Repair Sheds
Airfield & Technical Site. Sub Station
       
Airfield & Technical Site. Sub Station Transformer
Glenn Miller Memorial
Memorial
  

Crick ROC Post – Northamptonshire Group

Opened – Unknown
Closed – October 1968
Nearing the end of visiting every ROC Post in Northamptonshire I went to Crick, knowing it to be in a sorry state from earlier reports at least I wasn’t shocked when I got there. Internally and externally the post is heavily vandalised with some evidence of small fires being started in the Observation Room and all manner of junk thrown down the shaft, including the hatch, hatch mechanism, sump piping and Counter Balance.Only very few remains from the original post are present such as traces of telecoms cabling and possibly what were original chairs. What’s left of the toilet door is laying on a pile of house bricks and decorated with a variety of road cones…

Yet another trashed 68’er

Market Deeping ROC Post – Northamptonshire Group

Opened – March 1960
Closed – September 1991
The last post visited as part of an ‘8 ROC Posts in one day’ tour and probably the mintiest ROC Post i’ve visited to date. Actually I didn’t really want to post this one up as it just serves as temptation for some morons to come and trash it and steal its contents but then I thought if I don’t post it up then someone else will…..its fate is sealed either way I guess…..hopefully someone will put a massive lock on it to protect this for future generations of visitors, who knows.

Some pix suffer from me experimenting with camera settings which I promise not to do while out in the field again…

Castor ROC Post – Northamptonshire Group

Opened – February 1962
Closed – October 1968
Explored as part of an 8 ROC Posts in one day tour we visited Castor ROC Post, location of a well publicised suicide by a local farmer some years ago who hanged himself in the access shaft. Perhaps this has put off the chavs as the post is in no worse condition that when Sub Brit visited back in 1997, apart from the fact that the compound is now totally overgrown and it took us several laps of the site to locate the hatch and crawl on our hands and knees through the undergrowth.

Good deed of the day was rescuing a sick looking toad that probably fell down the severed at ground level FSM tube and bringing it back to the surface.

Also present at this site is a great example of an Aicraft Observation Post, originally this would have had a canvas cover on top and some steps.

I was experimenting with camera settings so apologies for the quality on some shots.

Spalding ROC Post – Lincolnshire Group

Opened – October 1964
Closed – October 1968
Yet another post visited as part of an ‘8 ROC Posts in one day’ tour. We walked right past this one as the compound was totally overgrown. The hatch has been torn off for years but surprisingly it was bone dry inside. Some internal fittings still present such as the bed and no vandalism which is neat. Really nice and peaceful site with fantastic light outside.

As mentioned in my other reports for this day I was experimenting with camera settings (epic fail on most which got deleted ) so apologies for the quality.

Moulton Chapel ROC Post – Lincolnshire Group

Opened – July 1960
Closed – October 1968
Explored as part of an ‘8 ROC Posts in one day’ tour sadly this was one of several sorry looking posts we came across. ‘Decorated’ my local morons in a fetching yellow and blue colour scheme, some smoke damage to the roof tiles and a shattered sump grate welcoming us below ground. The cupboard had been partially destroyed but there was an intact hand operated siren crate.

The compound was in a fantastic location on the edge of a cornfield and contains the demolished remains of a brick Aircraft Observation Post, also in the compound are several beehives….complete with LOTS of bees….needless to say we chose a swift and different exit on the way out as we had accidentally disturbed them on the way in.

Yet again I was experimenting with camera settings (epic fail on most which got deleted…) so apologies for the quality on some shots.

Wansford ROC Post – Northamptonshire Group

Opened – February 1962
Closed – October 1968
Even more from the ‘8 ROC Posts in one day’ tour. We knew in advance that this one was badly trashed and that was certainly the case but we needed to visit to tick off some remaining Northants Group posts.

As previously stated I was experimenting with camera settings (epic fail on most which got deleted ) so apologies for the lame shots.

Also present at this site was a brick Aircraft Observation Post from an earlier time in ROC history, this would have been linked up to HQ with a land line using a Magneto Telephone.The other unusual item in the pictures is a very old cashbox from a BT pay-on-answer public phone box, quite what that was doing up here I don’t know, unless it was robbed then dragged up here to be prised open…