What Became of the Last Mustard Gas Delivered to the RAF

[ColinB]

In 1955 Major Ian Toler, a WWII glider pilot, was appointed Resident Section Manager at I.C.I Randle Works in Runcorn and tasked with destroying 6,000 tons of bulk poison gas, mainly mustard gas from the tunnels at Rhydymwyn. The apparatus to achieve this was designed and tested by Porton Down. It was called the Apparatus Oil Smoke (AOS).
Major Toler was delayed in starting his destruction by the need for Randle to fulfil an order for 10,000 one thousand pound mustard gas bombs and additional 2,000 inert bombs filled with Calcium Chloride.
4,500 tons of grade I bulk mustard gas was shipped by rail from the five Forward Filling Depots (FFD)s at Barnham, Lord’s Bridge, Escrick, Melchbourne and Norton Disney by rail to Randle. This was described as Operations Spring Onion and Pepperpot and emptied the tanks in the FFDs.
Two thousand of the mustard gas bombs were shipped to RAF Norton Disney and the remaining eight thousand bombs and the two thousand inert bombs were stacked in a building at Randle. All of these bombs which measured 65 inches long by 16½ inches diameter were packaged in individual cases.
It appears that of an initial order for 176 inert bombs 76 were shipped to West Freugh in April 1953 and in March 1955 100 were shipped to RAF Boscombe Down, presumably to air test the bombs which were of a new design and were designated Type E2.
Except for one shipment of 70 inert bombs to RAE Fareham in November 1955 there were no further reports of their use,
Does anyone have any further knowledge on this topic?
Did you work on them, ship them, store them or even drop them (the inert ones of course)?
It is difficult to comprehend why we built these bombs from WWII mustard gas at a factory which had not assembled any in the last ten years and at a time when we were destroying all of our Chemical Weapons.

[WHBM]

It is difficult to comprehend why we built these bombs from WWII mustard gas at a factory which had not assembled any in the last ten years and at a time when we were destroying all of our Chemical Weapons.
It is of course quite possible that they were doing something "slightly different" to what it states on the documentation ! You say it's "mustard gas" to keep prying eyes away.

Regarding disposal of the gas after WW2, as is well known much of the stocks were sent to Cairnryan (near Stranraer) and loaded into surplus freighters, towed out to mid-Atlantic, and sunk. The railway handled this heavy freight with no more care than any other, and there are accounts in railway books of whole heavy trainloads, with no brakes other than on the locomotive (as was done on the railway in those days) getting out of control on the long hill down towards Stranraer. My goodness.

[Brewster Buffalo]

Interesting story.

The UK gained some 71,000 mustard gas bombs from Germany at the end of WW2 to add to its own substantial stocks so it difficult to understand why more were needed.

Perhaps the order was for research purposes though you would have thought the more modern nerve agents were more likely to be used by a potential enemy.

As an aside ICI discovered the V series of nerve agents including VX which UK goverment apparently sold in large quantities to the US!

[ColinB]

Thank you for the input. There is no doubt that in "this" case that Y3 and Y25 was shipped and head-filled into 1,000lb bombs at Randle.
The 10.000 mustard gas bombs and 2,000 inert ones is such a precise amount that I wonder if perhaps they were for an overseas order.
In the mid-1950s I can think of many potential customers but a total of 12,000 bombs would by standards have had to have been moved initially by rail.
We can trace most of the mustard ever made in the UK and its eventual destruction but to lose 12,000 bombs is a big hole in our calculations. Someone out there must have knowledge of them.

[Once_an_Erk]

I know there was an "Incident" at Bari (Italy) towards the end - or maybe just after the end - of WW2 involving Mustard Gas.

I don't know the details but apparently a consignment of Mustard Gas Bombs were being either loaded or unloaded from a ship and there was a fire (or some such catastrophe).

Gas escaped and contaminated a large area of the town.

My uncle was in the guard cordon and this was one of his favourite war-stories. He often had difficulty convincing others that we actually had nasty gas-warfare weapons - most thought they had been outlawed after WWI.

[henry crun]

Once_an_Erk: It was more than an incident, though probably treated as such at the time.

It is thoroughly explained in the book Poisonous Inferno : World War II Tragedy at Bari Harbour by George Southern.

[ICT_SLB]

It is also detailed in "Disaster at Bari" by Glenn B. Infield, 1971, Robert Hale & Co., ISBN 07091 4312 5.

The basics are that the Luftwaffe struck the Allied shipping lying off Bari on December 2nd, 1943 including the "John Harvey" that was carrying 100 tons of mustard gas. She exploded and over 1,000 military plus "an even higher number of civilians" lost their lives.

[ColinB]

The definitive version may be in After the Battle issue 79 page 34.
There is an article by Ian Toler on the destruction of the British poison gases in the same issue. He was an admirable man but his account has unfortunately proved to be flawed.

[Fareastdriver]

I was out in the Solomon islands a few years ago and a cache of mustard gas bombs were uncovered on one of the islands. I do not know whether they originated from Japan or the USA but the Americans sent out a bomb diposal team to neutralize them.

There were about fifteen personnel and they arrived in a C5 Galaxy. It got stuck on the small international apron and they had to send a Starlifter out with a tow truck so that it could be moved off.

[Atcham Tower]

And just to think that when I was a kid in 1950s Wirral there was a small barbed wire enclosure against the wall of an old building in an area in which we used we used to play. On it was a sign saying "Danger Mustard Gas". What it was doing there, I have no idea, possibly Home Guard but what would they be doing with the stuff? So much for Health and Safety!

[diginagain]

ISTR reading that a large quantity of Mustard Gas bombs spent a considerable amount of time in open storage at RAF Bowes Moor near Barnard Castle.

[ColinB]

I think the Bowes Moor shells were long gone. Most of them were decanted and shipped to Rhydymwyn if Grade I or destroyed on site if Grade II/III.
The manufacture of these bombs at Randle was totally out context. The UK policy was to destroy all mustard gas stocks and Major Toler was tasked with that job. Mustard was irrelevant in a nuclear age and insignificant in a nerve gas age.
Then all plans for destruction were shelved and Randle recovered 4,500 tons of mustard gas manufactured in WWII by rail from five widely dispersed sites and made it up into 12,170 new style 1,000 lb bombs. 170 were used for testing and the remaining 12,000 were stored at Randle or Norton Disney. There is no doubt they were filled with Y25 or Y3 mustard gas.
I can think of no contingency for their use. Suez was later, Malaya, possible I suppose but Runcol did not like the tropics.
Did we make them for export? Israel, dangerous for them really but possible
Who would be the potential customers in the Commonwealth? Canada, no, Australia, no, South Africa, mm they manufactured there in the war.
I suppose that the best possibility is that it was an export order but I have no idea who to

[wlakes]

Response on your PMs

[Maje]

In 1989 I was chatting to a Home Guard veteran from Kent. He said that during the summer of 1940, when it was feared the Germans were about to invade, his unit was issued with World War One vintage gas projectors (mortars) and boxes of gas shells. I believe he said they were Mustard Gas. Even though this was 50 years after the event, he lowered his voice when he spoke to me and looked around the room nervously. He explained that they'd been told at the time never to tell anyone that they were issued with gas weapons. However, if the Germans had landed, his job would have been to fire the gas shells onto the beaches.

[ColinB]

There were in 1940 onwards about 200 converted tar sprayers held at Randle. These were to spray the roads inland of any invasion beaches with mustard gas.
There were also a number of glass ampoules of mustard gas which were intended to be buried shallowly on roads. When German vehicles drove over them the persistent gas would have been released.
The major anti-invasion chemical warfare effort would have been the bombing our own beaches by the RAF. The attached link is to the planning document dated 1941.
We were very serious about resisting invasion.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr82/ColinBa/Dover.jpg?t=1242597173

[HighTow]

The major anti-invasion chemical warfare effort would have been the bombing our own beaches by the RAF. The attached link is to the planning document dated 1941.

Wasn't that Operation Banquet? When I was researching one of the Glidet Training Schools I found the "Banquet Plan" detailing which pilots were involved.

[Cpt_Pugwash]

Mr Barber,
ISTR reading that Op SANDCASTLE didn't just involve scuttling ships, but also airdrops into the oggin, from aircraft operating out of Llandwrog. I can't find a reference at the moment, but will post when it comes to light.
Must get around to the visitor centre at Valley Works next time I'm in Treffynnon, nai.:ok:

[ColinB]

If you tell us before you come we have the official movie of the above operation and will have pleasure in showing it to you.
I was in Chippenham last weekend and visited the National Monuments in Swindon to copy old aerial photographs of Randle. Small world.
We have an Open Day on Sunday 21st June and expect visitors from all over the country. Please try and come.

[ColinB]

In 1946 Air Staff Requirement OR/1006 was issued for an anti-personnel, biological bomb comparable in strategic effect to the atomic bomb (which neither we nor the Russians possessed). This became Project Red Admiral
The early target date of 1951 was for strategic use against civilian targets, botulism toxins and Bubonic Plague were favoured for development.
According to AIR 20/8727 the bombs would be capable of being aimed from heights up to 50,000 feet and at speeds of up to 500 knots and be of such a design as to permit stowage in the space required by one of the series of ballistically stable bombs now under design.
The bomb should be capable for carriage in the B3/45 (Canberra) and the long-range and medium range bombers now being schemed. Development should be completed in 5 years (1951)
It was later proposed that the optimum configuration would be in the form of a 1000 lb cluster bomb which would contain many 4 lb bomblets. The parent bomb would break up at a pre-determined height and eject the bomblets to maximum effect. The plan was to have a reserve of 10,000 bombs by 1955.
There followed over the years many labyrinthine developments, the possession of the atomic bomb, the definition of the role of Porton Down, would we research or manufacture any BW, the efficiencies and risks of such a weapon but finally the realisation that we could not come up with an effective biological agent killed the project
So there we were in 1955 with 10,000 one thousand pound bombs and no filling for them.
It is, perhaps, more than a coincidence that we collected all of that mustard gas and put it into 10,000 one thousand pound new style bombs in 1955.
We do not know if they are the same bomb casings or what became of the mustard gas bombs but it is credible that we would utilise the manufactured bomb casings from another project.

[redsetter]

Colin,

interesting. I see that there was a 1,000-lb "N" cluster scheduled for bomb ballistic trials at Woomera in 1955. Contained 52 x 10-lb bomblets. Apparently an alternative to the 1,000-lb "N" bomb. I'm sure I've also seen this weapon referred to as the "Toxic bomb" - I suspected an Anthrax bomb. But maybe the same weapon you refer to ?

Do you know whether they actually produced the 10,000 bomb casings ? I've seen huge orders for other bombs in same period and most ended up being cancelled before production.

rs

[ian16th]

There was a case at RAF Millom in 1953 where mustard gas was inadvertantly released and some RAF personel were affected by blistering.

[ColinB]

[/QUOTE] see that there was a 1,000-lb "N" cluster scheduled for bomb ballistic trials at Woomera in 1955. Contained 52 x 10-lb bomblets. Apparently an alternative to the 1,000-lb "N" bomb. I'm sure I've also seen this weapon referred to as the "Toxic bomb" - I suspected an Anthrax bomb. But maybe the same weapon you refer to ?

Do you know whether they actually produced the 10,000 bomb casings ? I've seen huge orders for other bombs in same period and most ended up being cancelled before production.[QUOTE]
Your "N" cluster bombs were almost certainly Anthrax. The standard bomblet was 4-lb but I will check on 10-lb also.
Anthrax bombs were tested live at Gruinard and Penclawdd in 1942/43. There was a further test at Shingle Street by Porton Down in March 1943 but they state that Wintergreen was used instead of Mustard/Anthrax. There is doubt concerning this and the Shingle Street file is closed until 2013?.
There were definitely 12,000 plus 1,000 -lb mustard gas bombs manufactured and charged at Randle in 1955. 2,000 of them were shipped to Norton Disney and the remaining ones stored in the K buildings at Randle.
It is most exciting to find someone actually was aware of a practical "Toxic Bomb" in the field.

[mr fish]

some was buried under the CRABTREE FARM ESTATE-BULWELL-NOTTINGHAM.

the leakage of gas over the years has killed off ALL intelligent life!!!!






well, its as good a theory as any:ok:

[ColinB]

Redsetter,

Could you expand on the above? Were you involved and if so in what role? Did the tests take place and to what result?
I can assure you that the poor sheep who were used in other trials were all destroyed even if they survived the trials. See below

YouTube - Gruinard Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7knPquxRRc)

[redsetter]

Colin,

no not involved. I came across the reference in avia13/1239 at TNA. The ballistics trials at Woomera were to prove/calculate the ballistic properties of the RAF's inventory of air-dropped weapons. So "N" bomb drops would be inert. I don't know whether the "N" bombs ever entered service. I did wonder if interest in the Large Area Coverage concept (spraying the stuff from aircraft/ships) put the kibosh on bombs (which had rather limited cover in comparison). But I've never really gone into the subject in any detail.

rs

[ColinB]

rs,
I have received from another source the following interesting and informative input
In my very early RAF days I was an Armament Fitter at Gaydon which, apart from Victor/Valiant aircrew training had a nuclear role and we routinely practiced with these loads both in inert and live form. However, all publications relating to these and much of the airborne equipment were classified as SECRET or above and seen only our leaders. But, the then current nuclear bomb (Blue Danube) was covered by an inclusion in a RESTRICTED Air Publication as Bomb HE, Medium Capacity, 10,000-lb.

If there was - in the RAF inventory - a 1000 lb 'N' Bomb containing a chemical agent then I expect that too would have been classified SECRET and the technical documents given limited distribution to potential users but a 'cover' bomb described in an AP with a lower security classification.

Redsetter is mentioning two classes of Bomb. A 1000 lb 'N'' (original) - probably the new design casings filled at Randle and - secondly - a Cluster version to supercede the original.
I can't see HMG going to the trouble of designing, manufacturing, testing and filling just to supply an overseas order although - if subsequent HMG policy became no CW - they may have considered selling them on.

I think it more likely that they were intended for HMG use and that when the perceived 'need' passed that they were secretly disposed of and the documents destroyed or sanitized.

Colin

[bigbadbdbob]

Have been reading you information with interest I worked at Bowes Moor and Barnham recovering shells in the 1990's. I received a lung full of Mustard from a shell at Bowes and I know of atleast 2 people who had mustard burns from Barnham!

[Tony H]

Not sure if connected but . . .

During the early - mid eighties my brother (based at Swinderby at the time) mentioned that "Specialist Teams" has just completed the last ever check of the former munitions storage site just down the (old) A46 at RAF Norton Disney and that gas bomb stocks HAD been stored there during WWII . . .

Tony H

[ColinB]

Would either of the two previous commentators please contact me?
They have information we need and we have information which may interest them.

[26er]

From the obituary of a friend, by Richard D North in The Independent, 31 Dec 2007.

" But it is hard to deny that he lived for his dangerous work. In 1989, he was appointed MBE for (his family guessed) his work in disposing of a dangerous cache of First World War mustard gas found at Bramley, the old Army School of Ammunition near Basingstoke."

"Towards the end of his service, it was clear to him that an EOD specialist needed to understand every kind of "dirty" bomb, whether chemical, biological or nuclear."

[SPIT]

I believe that a lot of unused explosives (incl gas) was dumped in the BEAUFORT TRENCH which isin the Irish Sea between Larne and Stranrare (excuse the spelling) ???

[ColinB]

The Beaufort Deep or Trench is located in the Irish Sea. There was extensive dumping of all kinds of munitions and waste there in the immediate post-war period. It was also the final destination of three hulks which were packed with 70,000 German 250 Kg Tabun nerve gas bombs in the mid 1950s. The ships were sailed/towed from the military port of Cairnryan and scuttled over the Deep.
In 1946/7 25,000 52 gallon drums of poor quality mustard gas were transported from Barry Docks and dumped in the Hurd Deep north of the Channel Islands

[ColinB]

It now appears that we manufactured mustard gas for the Americans, who designed the rail containers for its shipment. The mustard was paid by Reverse Lease Lend.
So, the question is who did the mustard gas converted into circa 10,000 one thousand bombs in 1953 belong to?

[ColinB]

Almost one year later I have read a file which may may be of relevance. It appears that in the late 1940s we decided to create a strategic reserve of chemical weapons consisting of 10,000 newly manufactured E2 bombs weighing 1,000 lb loaded weight.
Some of the older bombs would not fit in the Canberra and other jets due to misplaced shackles and shapes. The fillings for these units would be phosgene and mustard gas decanted from older weapons which would be dumped.
It was also intended to use the Tabun nerve gas standing in 250Kg bombs which we inherited from the Germans at the end of WW11. These were standing on the runway at RAF Llandwrog. They were unusable because the shackles were not compatible with British aircraft without converting them at an estimated cost of £2,460,000.
It was decided to leave them in the current German bombs as storage until needed to be decanted into the new E2 bombs.

[JohnLes32]

I have been on many forums recently where without fail it is stated with certainty that mustard gas was stored or obtained from RAF Norton Disney in Lincolnshire. I was a bomb armourer at Norton Disney for two years 1951-53 and have to say that in that time I never saw any sign or heard any mention of chemical warfare. Norton Disney was a small bomb dump with plenty of heavy ordinance in various bomb bays..we had a fairly large danger area where bombs were kept and lock up sheds for ammunition of all kinds including quite a lots of 20mm aircraft cannon shells.

We had prisoners from Lincoln jail who came to camp daily to cut the grass, sweep the pathways and empty dustbins etc...all of course the right side of the danger area!! I cannot imagine they would have been allowed anywhere near the place if gas was on the site. I have seen other reports that two potholes were sunk into the ground and filled with mustard gas and then sealed. I read also that a pit was dug out and anderson shelter sides were placed in upside down the base concreted over and that too was sealed!! I am at a loss to understand all this...how long was the gas expected to be there? We did have railway sidings into the camp and would often prepare ordinance to be shipped out...........we did at one time get 2000 aircraft torpedos serviced and loaded onto to British Rail wagons..............these were for Selta in Hong Kong.

We would go at least three times a week to Spalford and in the deep sand pits would burn small arms ammunition in 5000 lb bomb rings five high...primed incendiaries in the bottom and bucket fulls of the ammo on top of them, covered over with steel sheets sandbaged down,they would burn for two or three hours and make a lot of noise!! We would destroy the 20 mm ammunition stacking the cases of 50 rounds nose down in the sand four high, with plastic explosive and detonators...these would make a big bang and send it all up in the air. We also had a team daily to RAF Fulbeck which was a disused airbase.

We never at any time were warned that mustard gas was about. On the subject of transporting the gas, I wonder would it be possible to use 1000lb practice bombs? We had a lot of these at Norton Disney all painted white to show they contained no explosive..would these be suitable to fill and transport by train to the docks? Could the gas have been put there after I left in August 1953? Also can anyone say when all the ordinance was removed from Norton Disney, I assume it is all at the bottom of the Atlantic!! I went back to see what had happened at Norton Disney in 1960 and all I could find were the ruins of the cookhouse.....the four billets had all gone but the footings were still there.......the CO,s house at the camp entrance was now the home of the local gamekeeper..................it all looked very sad.

So is there anyone out there about my age who can tell me what happened to it all?....I am now almost eighty years old and a Suez Veteran, and always wondering how they organised the removal of all those bombs and where they went to.

[Wander00]

Interested in the mention of Fulbeck - it was used by Cranwell as an RLG and I flew my first JP solo there in 1964. I believe that in the late 50s there were historic aircraft in the hangars (used in the flim "High Flight"), but what else was there - did we risk huge explosions if we had crashed into the "wrong" hangar?

[Sir George Cayley]

Mustard Gas and Chemotherapy. Is it true there's a link? And if so could the munition have been turned into a magic bullet?

SGC

[ZeBedie]

This is very interesting and I'm sorry I can't contribute anything other than a question - if the invasion beeches had been bombed as suggested, would there have been massive civilian casualties? It would have been particularly bad in Dover, I guess?

[ColinB]

The 10.000 mustard gas bombs and 2,000 inert ones is such a precise amount that I wonder if perhaps they were for an overseas order.
In the mid-1950s I can think of many potential customers but a total of 12,000 bombs would by standards have had to have been moved initially by rail.
We can trace most of the mustard ever made in the UK and its eventual destruction but to lose 12,000 bombs is a big hole in our calculations. Someone out there must have knowledge of them.


It appears that at the end of WWII it was decided to retain a strategic reserve of Chemical Weapons. The scale of holding being one third of that held at the end of WWII but because of the wastage in stocks, primarily because of the fragility of the 65lb weapon, it was necessary to manufacture new bombs with mustard being held in FFD tanks. This was Operations Pepper Pot and Spring Onion and took place in 1953/54.
I still do not know the eventual fate of these munitions.

[Capot]

As an aside to the thread, in my attic there are probably the artillery manuals issued in around 1960 (perhaps earlier) from which we were taught how to plan and fire the Chemical shells that we, ummm, didn't have, as well as the manuals for the 8" Howitzer nuclear shells, and free-flight self-propelled missiles with nuclear warheads, that we did have. Both these were tactical rather than strategic weapons, deployed in West Germany for use when needed.

A 5KT shell/warhead would be quite useful against ISIS, I would think, if a bit of collateral is acceptable. 3rd degree burns within 1500m (airburst), plus a bit of residual radiation/fallout, should keep them quiet for a bit. Just sayin'.

Not a lot of people know that overpressure of 150 psi is required to kill the average human; the good news is that, from my notes, this overpressure does not occur with nuclear warheads except at a distance from GZ at which death will result from other effects.

So that's alright, then, apart from the secondary effect of being killed by or injured by being blown about or hit by falling masonry, which can happen with overpressure of as little as 7 psi. Amazing, eh?

[handsfree]

Not sure if this is relevant to the thread but there is a section on the storeage and diposal of mustard gas and Operation Pepperpot is mentioned

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6mrgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT186&lpg=PT186&dq=Harpur+Hill+MU&source=bl&ots=Cj5cTUCBcg&sig=xIp0fBtpC3yhC6yMgTBRAQFa4qo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBTgKahUKEwihpLLtlZLHAhWH0xQKHTn_BVE#v=onepage&q=Harpur%20Hill%20MU&f=false

[WHBM]

There's some detail of the ordnance shipped out from Cairnryan to be dumped at sea in this account of the military railway built in WW2 to service the port

http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/docu...ocumentid=1373 (http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1373)

[ericferret]

The Westland Scout helicopter could be fitted with a chemical spray rig consisting of a tank internally mounted and an array under the belly.
I only saw it fitted once and that was at Soest in Germany circa 1975/6.

[Soldierone]

hi
do you have any pictures of Randals factory in Runcorn as my partners Grandad worked there in the 1942-3 when he was 14 yrs old helping the home guard

[Atcham Tower]

No photos but some information on Randle

https://rhydymwynvalleyhistory.co.uk/history/history-valleyworks.htm

[PPRuNeUser0213]

3 years ago I lived in hawkinge and started to smell a sulpher smell. My face nose and eyes stung like fire sometimes. I sold up and all my symptoms improved 80 percent but feel like my kidneys/liver took damage. My family also suffered unexplained sickness.

Ive just noticed activity at this huge bunker looking thing. They have built a massive barrier/earth pile around it. Do you think some gas muntions has become unstable or been released? Blurry eyes dizziness skin rashes. I even heard passers by mention the same. Ive read about munition storage in hawkinge but no idea about location. This is upwind of hawkinge. What do you think? http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff506/bionicdan/Screenshot_20170414-090241_zpsghipzl5y.png

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff506/bionicdan/20170203_110856_zpskpjj8sam.jpg

[bobward]

I've seen similar earth features here in Norfolk. They are only bunds which hold irrigation water.

[PPRuNeUser0213]

I've seen similar earth features here in Norfolk. They are only bunds which hold irrigation water.

I just cant think why you would build a 20foot mud bank around a bunker full of water and work on it for 12 months. I wanted to go and look closer but my little brother used to get really sick when he went near it as a kid. Just coincidence I guess.

[BEagle]

A more recent image:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/SPF_zpsf8sztxps.jpg (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/nw969/media/SPF_zpsf8sztxps.jpg.html)

:hmm:

1 Jul 2017: Apologies - The greedy $ods at Photof*ckwit are holding people to ransom and have now turned off image linking for those who won't pay $399 per annum for the privilege....

[ROC man]

Paddlesworth Reservoir
https://searchplanapps.shepway.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=NZ1DYANZLUH00
Due for completion autumn 2017

[Heathrow Harry]

Not listed on the Secret Bases Website which is VERY comprehensive...............

http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/

[PPRuNeUser0213]

Id totally discounted resevoirs because the huge open ones we have were taken out of storage and said to be unecessary (and a terrorist target being open). I guess thats that then. I still might go have a look round. Odd design still

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff506/bionicdan/Screenshot_20170701-090554_zpstdak0dst.png

[ColinB]

Earlier Soldierone wrotehi
do you have any pictures of Randals factory in Runcorn as my partners Grandad worked there in the 1942-3 when he was 14 yrs old helping the home guard
We have made a number of visits recently and this link shows its current state
https://rhydymwynvalleyhistory.co.uk/gallery/gallery-randle.htm