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Created
26-04-2002 Last update 15-02-2021 |
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NEW - 15-02-2021 | |||||||
Hi just found your site. I worked down in the tunnels a couple of times in the 1960s, the last being 1967/68. Having just read an item from a J Mackin who worked in the tunnels at around the same time as me, and he was looking for information about a Wren Pauline Willis. He may like to know that I married her in 1968 and we are still here in 2021. Many happy memories from those days in the tunnels – went back down last year when English Heritage had an ‘open’ day – sad to see so much stripped out but the stairs brought back memories of the long climb back up after a busy night shift. Happy for you to forward my email address to said Mr Mackin – he lives in Australia I believe.
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NEW - 14-02-2021 | |||||||
I read with interest the article on the Portsdown Tunnels. During the 1980s I was a quantity surveyor working with a team of Cecil Denny Highton Architects carrying out Quadrennial Surveys for the PSA in the Portsmouth Region During an inspection of Fort Southwick the architects shut down the WW2 tunnels as the insides had been stripped of structural support and were dangerous, unfortunately or fortunately I was unable to inspect this section of the Fort. [This occurred when the COMMCEN was decommissioned in the 1970s. The contractors got carried-away and removed part of the tunnel lining]. I spent several days with an assistant inspecting the condition of the Fort and the tunnels inside prior to producing budgets for the repair and maintenance works.
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NEW - 14-02-2021 | |||||||
I found your site on Portsdown Hill, but principally Commcen Fort Southwick fascinating and a lovely trip down memory lane.
I was an LRO [Leading
Seaman Radio Communications Operator]
(SM) submariner, who along with another submariner ("Larry" Lamb)
served in the Commcen Fort Southwick from March 1982 through to October
1982, then I was then drafted to the Opportune in Guzz. [Plymouth]
As we were both PV'd, [Personal Vetted - top security clearance]
we worked both in the special handling cell as well as the main Commcen.
This role was of particular importance during the Falklands War. I have
fond memories of working there, living in HMS Nelson and getting on
"pussers" [Naval] transport back and forth to the Commcen. As I
lived in Bognor Regis (and still do for my sins) it was a perfect short
draft. I do remember after the Sheffield and Coventry were sunk, a
bunting from the Sheffield ("Trev" Trevathan) and a sparker whose name
escapes me joined us. |
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NEW - 07-02-2021 | |||||||
My name is Greg and I worked in the Dockyard for some time. Part of that
time was spent working in the communications centre underground Fort
Southwick. |
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NEW - 17-08-2015 | |||||||
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I served in Fort Southwick during the Cuban Missile Crisis and although we suspected we would be targeted by an incoming missile I am glad that it is only now that I have found out that the Russians had targeted it with two megaton bombs. I remember sitting next to a young lady typist and we waited to see if Mr Kruschev was going to finish us all off at the 1500 hours deadline set by Kennedy. At that time we were based in HMS Dryad and transported back and forward doing 48 hours on and 48 hours off consisting of an afternoon shift, morning shift and a night watch and then two days off. We didn’t use the entrance depicted by one of your correspondents. We entered within the Fort precincts and climbed up and down the stairs at the beginning and end of each shift change, all 168 of them. Apart from the teleprinter corridors forming a cross with the NATO printers off one leg and the national printers off the other, there was a telephone exchange, a civilian processing area and a radio office.
A watch consisted of a Leading Radio operator, one male RN operator and
two WRNS who were also Radio Operators. The teleprinter section was run
by a Leading Signalman and two signalmen. There were civilian typists
during the day. At night the watch ran from 2000 until 0800. The WRNS
were allowed to draw rations for this watch from their quarters in
Portsmouth whilst we communications ratings had to wend our weary way
through HMS Dryad’s galley and cadge eggs, bacon or any other victuals
that we could persuade the duty chef to part with. We pooled resources
with the WRNS and cooked a meal about midnight when most of the signal
traffic had quietened down. During the night we would explore the old wartime war rooms, which still contained all the old style telephones and desks. Very interesting historically. Also during the night we would ensure all the steps leading down from up above were clear of bodies and roll huge wooden crates containing teleprinter paper down the steps. They bounced off the metal reinforced walls and could be heard coming from up on high. This might sound a bit crazy but they were very heavy and we could barely move them and to negotiate them down each individual step was deemed impossible. We also had races on teleprinter trolleys, lying prone, and darting about up and down the polished linoleum corridors. During Naval exercises we were moved to the Fort itself and billeted in the wartime Nissan huts. The old galley was still there, deserted, with large ‘witch’ style cauldrons left on the old ranges with ladles and other cooks’ utensils, which appeared to have been abandoned on the day the Second World War ended. As for down below, on watch, it was impossible to move with all the extra bodies. There were interesting civilian characters employed there including our own fag ash Lil, who had a permanent cigarette dangling from her lower lip and a trail of grey cigarette ash down her front. I have no photos of this time nor have I divulged any details that I haven’t read tonight in associated articles about Fort Southwick that aren't out there. I hope you find this of interest. I worked there from 1962 to 1964 between ships.
Douglas Anderson - Ex RN - August 2015 |
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NEW - 04-07-2015 |
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I have just discovered your article about Fort Southwick whilst trying
to find some of my old navy mates. I was stationed there from 1960 to We worked on a two days on, two days off system. At the start of the cycle we were delivered by utility via the entrance in the hill side, and during the two days on if we stayed at the fort, it was up and down the stairs because the galley and mess were in the old fort. It was very much a come and go as you like situation; we often went down the hill to Cosham between shifts, for a drink. When it was quiet during the night shift we would often explore the other tunnels, the only trouble was there was no lighting in any other areas than the few tunnels that we used. It was very much as it was left after the end of the war.
It was one of several underground facilities that I worked in during my
naval service. The last one was underneath an old WWII spitfire airfield
at Uxbridge, but that one was a bit more hush hush, being part of the
intelligence network, and probably still is. |
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NEW - 19-10-2012 |
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Hello Bob, my name is John Shoulders and I have read with great interest the website you have clearly devoted a great deal of quality time to! Thank you for your efforts. I too served some time "within" Fort Southwick however the time-lines described in your website appear to conflict with my experience. I retired from the Service in April of 1981 as an LWEM(R) (leading weapons electrical mechanic (radio), whereupon I in fact went directly into the Metropolitan Police from my discharge at H.M.S. Nelson having left my last ship H.M.S. Leander in November of 1980. Whilst at Nelson I undertook resettlement courses but in order to "pay my way" for a few months I was assigned to Fort Southwick as a telecommunications maintainer. I believe I worked shifts between December 1980 and March 1981. My duties included the watchkeeping and general maintenance of a large bank of transmitters only located in a very high-ceilinged cave like room. The receivers were located remote from this location for what I assumed were obvious reasons. I was not aware of any other watchkeepers and my shifts were for a straight week 24 hr every day. At the beginning of the shifts I was provisioned with enough food for the week and instructed to use them for a pot-mess which could be continuously left to simmer ad-infinitum! Yummy! Access and egress was via the iron gated bricked entrance very nicely featured on your webpage. I recollect great surprise whilst coming out through the gate one very snowy Friday morning having entered the Monday morning prior from relatively dry conditions. Having spent the week underground ostensibly working but in fact mostly reading and exploring abandoned caves and cells previously occupied (I was told) by all manner of loyal subject and miscreant captives, I felt somewhat elated to be "released" into this pristine landscape. After a quick change at Nelson I hitched a ride north for a few days at home in London.
I do hope the above is of interest and hope even more that the time I
spent underground wasn't simply for somewhere to put me out of the way but
contributed to the greater good! |
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NEW - 09-05-2012 |
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I came across your website totally by accident and was fascinated by the stuff about Fort Southwick and the CommCen Building. As you can see from my email signature below, I am currently work in the CommCen Building. I actually sit in the old admin office on the right hand side.
I have to confess when I started working in the building, I hated it! I
found it cold and creepy. However having found out about its history from
your website I have a new found respect for it. |
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NEW - 29-04-2012 |
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I enjoyed reading about the underground at Fort Southwick and the adjacent underground fuel storage site as in the 1960s I had quite a lot to with them. I was then serving as a young Lieutenant on the staff of the Allied Commander in Chief Channel and Commander in Chief Home Station (Designate) otherwise called the Commander in Chief Portsmouth and was appointed for ‘exercise duties’. However it was also the times of Cuban crises etc and I wrote a paper proposing that the ‘war staffs’ should move from their then office block (on the far side of the tennis courts outside Admiralty House) to our war headquarters at Fort Southwick and, this being agreed I was told to find the money and get on and do it. Thus it was that in 1961 and 1962 the Fort (upstairs) was rebuilt/renovated/converted into modern offices etc and the underground bits also renovated and brought up to date so that when exercise JACKPOT took place in 1961 and exercise FALLEX 62 took place in 1962 we were all down below. I do not know if you are aware of the fact that the top of the hill road past ASWE and Fort Southwick was, in those days, not a public road (it belonged to and was maintained by the Admiralty) and a very large bulldozer kept at ASWE was overtly there to clear snow from the road so that the scientists to get to work – covertly it was there to bulldoze in the southern underground adits to seal it in the event of nuclear attack. The underground headquarters had two surplus ex submarine diesels to provide power for when both Portsmouth and the dockyard power stations were removed by nuclear attack. There was also a good supply not only of food but also of rum! I do not know what the ‘upstairs ‘ is like now but in those days if you entered the fort and turned to your left there was (a) and entrance and (b) a flight of steps going down. If one went down them and entered a door which looked as though it was a coal shed door then one was faced with a huge long descending set of stairs which went down to the underground HQs (via an airlock at the bottom).
As for the FFO tanks [the
Fuel Bunkers]; in those days if one walked out of the fort, turned
right and walked along the road you came to what looked like a field with
a ‘green house’ in it. As you approached the greenhouse one could see that
it wasn’t but protected a downward flight of stairs at the top of which
sat an Admiralty policeman and it was only when one got this far could you
smell the FFO which was, of course, the ‘header tank’ for the Oil Fuel
depot at Gosport. |
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