Although the two Shetland Chain Home Sites were not among the first to be built, the inclusion of Reserve Sites was agreed long before the full Chain Home Radar sites were complete. The Advance Chain Radars in Shetland were operational at the beginning of 1941 but the full Chain Home Radars were not commissioned until April & May '42. Discussion about the siting of their Reserves began as early as May '41. In this article I will be dealing with RAF Skaw, the story of RAF Noss Hill has been published elsewhere (http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/raf-noss-hill-air-ministry-experimental.html).
Finding a suitable location for the RAF Skaw Remote Reserve
was not simple. Discovering a large enough piece of land with, all the right
characteristics and within a suitable
distance of the main site proved to be a problem and, in the end, compromises
were made. The Authorities were after a piece of land 500 to 2,000 yards from
the main CH equipment and with good access. It had to provide maximum detection
ranges on the 2 main Lines of Shoot - 100 degrees and 280 degrees. There needed
to be as little distortion the radio signals as possible. At the beginning of Jun
'41 it was decided that the best place available would be on the headland of
Outer Skaw to the north of Lamba Ness (Inner Skaw)- Left Click on pictures to enlarge,
The selected position could to be used for height-finding
but this facility would be restricted in the west where higher ground would
cause problems. In July a number of details for the reserve were officially
recorded. It would fall under the jurisdiction of HQ 71 Group, be under the
command of RAF Skaw, have the name Skaw Remote Reserve and be allocated the designation
"Air Ministry Experimental Station"(AMES) 56R, (RAF Skaw was AMES
56). The mean height was recorded as 63' and the exact position was noted using
the wartime National Grid System. The lines of shoot for the radar were
recorded as 010, 100, 190 and 280. The land at Outer Skaw was shown to belong
to the Garth Estates Ltd and the tenant was a T. Clark Esq of the Haa, Skaw.
"Good access" was available by a track which ran
from near the RAF Skaw main domestic site to the "Haa". The track was
not built for heavy vehicles and the
surface deteriorated quickly when used by construction firms, especially in the
winter months. Having got as far as the "Haa" the route had to be
extended half a mile to the furthest point of the Reserve site (the Receiver
Building). Construction would have been undertaken by a couple of the firms
responsible for building the main CH Site on Lamba Ness - Riley & Neat
& WJ Watsons,. The main structures on the Reserve were 2 wooden towers , a
Receiver Hut, a Transmitter Hut and a building
to house the Generators . Other elements
of the site included a Guard Post,
a Mess Hall, 2 x Chemical WC cubicles and areas for disposal of rubbish. It was
not the intention that the site be permanently manned by technicians and
operators. If needed, crews would come from the off-duty personnel at the main
site or from survivors of an attack. The only permanent manning was intended to
be an Army guard, probably from the local defence forces already allocated to
defend RAF Skaw. The Flash Earth image
below shows the approximate location of
the various parts of the Reserve - more details will follow shortly:
The Transmitter and Receiver Towers were both 120' tall and
made of wood. They have long since been dismantled but similar towers, from St
Lawrence on the Isle of Wight, can be seen in this photo from the Imperial War
Museum:
A low quality plan of the 120' Towers is seen below:
At the base the legs of each Tower formed a
square, approximately 16' x 16'. What remains of the base of the Transmitter
Tower can be seen in this recent photo:
The Towers were demolished in 1944 and a Tower was subsequently rebuilt as part of
the transmission system for the AMES713 LORAN Unit . This was where the old
Receiver Tower used to be so I believe that the feeder arrangements, in the
centre of the Tower base below, are different from those used on the earlier
Reserve site:
Nothing remains of the
Transmitter Hut - the wooden structure was demolished and in 1944 it was subsequently
replaced by a Nissen Hut housing LORAN Equipment. However, it was protected by
a brick blast wall, which still remains:
Finding the site of the Receiver Hut is even more difficult,
unless you know where to look. Just north of the base of the Reserve Receiver Tower, a few
bricks can be found embedded in the soil giving an indication of where the
operators and receiver technicians were expected to work:
The National Grid had not reached as far as Unst by the
start of the Second World War so military units needed to generate their own
power. To be independent of the main site, the Reserve site required to produce its own electricity and,
therefore, a separate Power House was constructed.
The next picture shows the Guard Post, with the Power House
to the left. The headland, which can be seen in the distance, is Lamba Ness,
the location of the main RAF Skaw station.
The only other buildings on the Reserve itself visible today
were for the 2 x two-seater chemical WCs at the
eastern end of the headland. They were constructed so that windows and doors
faced inland to prevent lights shining out to sea and possibly attracting
enemy shipping or submarines. I'm sure that the closeness of the sea and the
direction of prevailing winds would have been considered when choosing
locations for these buildings.
Some distance to the south-west there is a further reminder
of the period. A separate Mess Hall and incinerator were erected but would have seen little use. A
small brick and concrete structure
exists just to the west of the Mess Hall.
It may have been for fuel supplies but it is possible that this was put up by
later inhabitants of the Haa as storage for the Essy Cart (Garbage Truck).
These structures were near the Haa but on the south side of the Burn of Skaw.
Personnel would only have used the Mess Hall if the Remote Reserve were to be
activated.
The Incinerator lies near the mouth of the Burn of Skaw:
Just to the west of the Mess Hall, in the foreground of the
next picture, lies the next object. Its purpose is unknown but, like the main
RAF Skaw Station, the Remote Reserve and the WWII Admiralty Experimental Station on Saxa Vord,
it was made using bricks from Edinburgh!
In the areas of the Transmitter, Receiver and the Power
House a number of ground-level ducts can be seen. They are of two types: The first
type, to provide access to GPO cables and wiring, can be seen in the next
picture (which has a distant view of the most northerly point in the UK, Out
Stack, in the top left:
The second type of duct was to provide cable access for the
RAF technicians. The example in the photo below came from near the base of the reserve
Receiver Tower and shows, once again, that some people cannot be trusted near
wet concrete - it would be interesting to discover whose initials were
inscribed more than 70 years ago! It is quite possible that this duct was made
later for the LORAN Transmitter Tower.
There is very little in the operational rerecords of HQ 60
Group, 70 & 71 Wings and RAF Skaw about the Skaw Remote Reserve - not
really surprising since it appears never
to have been used operationally. The Chain
Home construction programme was immense and sites received priority in line
with the perceived threat and, due to difficult locations, island sites tended
to suffer from difficulties in the supply chain. A few of the details I have been able to glean
are listed below:
June '41 RAF
Skaw Remote Reserve site chosen
April '43 "Buried
"Reserve at Skaw 95% complete - either "Buried" or
"Skaw" is a Staff Officer error I think!
April ' 43 Good progress has been made with the aerial installation at the Skaw RR
April ' 43 Good progress has been made with the aerial installation at the Skaw RR
January 44 Remote Reserve Transmitter & Receiver
disconnected - ready for removal (HQ 70 Wg)
February '44 Dismantling
at Skaw Remote Reserve complete on the 25th
Apr '44 RR Transmitter Tower dismantled
May '44 RR - second Tower dismantling
complete
Jul '44 7 Jul Work started on AMES713 (LORAN Site)
and erection of a 120' Tower (Transmitter) - completed
in early Sep 44
As there were no RAF personnel posted into the Reserve and,
because any army guards assigned to protect the area would not be allowed
access to the buildings & equipment, I have found no detailed anecdotes
relevant to the site.
Don Wright was posted in to RAF Skaw in March 1942, to work
in the Power House. He had previously been an Aero Engine Fitter on an airfield but had
experience of working with diesel engines. His wartime story would be worthy of
recounting at length elsewhere. He was believed to be the first WWII RAF "incomer"
to marry a local Unst girl. He remained
at Skaw to the end of the war, arriving as an airman; a number of promotions followed until he
became the Flight Sergeant in charge of the Power House. He remembers that he
and other members of the Power house crew had to go to the Remote Reserve
occasionally to start up, run and maintain the diesel generators, just to
ensure they were available in case of need.
I have been unable to find out details of the technical
equipment installed at the Reserve. However, as it would require to be manned
and operational quickly, it would seem sensible that, as much as possible, it should be similar to the main site. This
would enable the operators and technicians to have the place "up &
running" expeditiously. There were a number of companies which produced
power plant for the Chain Home stations but I know for certain that the
generators used on the main site were Blackstone (primary power) and Lister
(stand-by). As the LIster Company took over Blackstone in 1937 and were
renowned for slightly smaller units, I think it highly probable that the Power
House would have had equipment like this installed (Metrovick = Metropolitan
Vickers):
If the radar Transmitter and Receivers were the same as
those on the main site, they would have looked like those in the pictures
below, also reproduced from the SD 0458:
One aspect of the Reserve was a puzzle at first. On the west
side of the Power House I noticed parallel lines of concrete and metal remnants:
On closer Inspection similar remnants could be seen all
around the building, though the layout didn't seem to be completely symmetrical.
Later, more cement and metal was found around the locations of the Transmitter
and Receiver Huts . Looking at recent Flash Earth images patterns can be
distinguished. With the help of Mike Dean and Bob Jenner it became obvious that
I was seeing the perimeter of the camouflage netting.
The
3 views above are seen in perspective below:
The outline of the camouflage for the Remote Reserve
Transmitter site seen in the Flash Earth images above can be compared with an
early plan, drawn for the Air Ministry in Aug 41.
It's interesting to see that the road/track which had to be
constructed can be seen on the right of the plan above. Seventy years later it can
be detected visually on the ground, but the further north of the of the Transmitter Hut you go,
the more difficult it is to trace.
So, that's the story of the RAF Skaw Remote Reserve (AMES
56R). It was started in Jun 42 and largely demolished by May 1944, apparently without any actual operational use.
Any research on the site is complicated by the fact that; less than 3 months
later, work began on another (even more classified), unit - AMEs 713. The story of the LORAN
Navigational site has been told here: http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/air-ministry-experimental-station-ames.html
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-5.html
Scheduled Monument Status: http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM13097
Previous articles on RAF Skaw
Part 1 of RAF Skaw - Inception to Jan '41 is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-no56-part-1.html
Part 2 of RAF Skaw - Advance CH - From Jan 41 to May 42s is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-2.html
Part 3 of RAF Skaw - CH Ops is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-3-ch.html
Part 1 of RAF Skaw - Inception to Jan '41 is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-no56-part-1.html
Part 2 of RAF Skaw - Advance CH - From Jan 41 to May 42s is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-2.html
Part 3 of RAF Skaw - CH Ops is here:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-3-ch.html
Part 4 of RAF Skaw - Transmitters & Receivers is
here: http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-no-56-part-4.html
Part 5 of RAF Skaw - Some of
the Other Buildings at RAF Skawhttp://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-5.html
Part 6 of RAf Skaw - Defence &
Protection
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-history-of-raf-skaw-ames-56-part-6.htmlScheduled Monument Status: http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM13097
Acknowledgements:
AVIA 7 - 312 Unst, The National Archive
Air 26 - 094 HQ 70 Wg ORB Appendices, The National
Archive
AIR 26 - 095 HQ 70 Wg ORB, The National Archive
Air 26 - 100 HQ 71 Wg ORB, The National Archive
SD 0458 - Photographic Record of Radar Stations
(Ground), Air Ministry, Aug 43
Building Radar by Colin Dobinson, English
Heritage, Methuen, 2010
Mike Dean MBE
Bob Jenner
Leslie Smith
Lexie McMeechan
Rita Carle
CONTENTS LIST
No comments:
Post a Comment