RAF Scousburgh became operational on the 28 Oct 42 as part of the
Northern GEE Chain, GEE being an RAF
Navigation System. The other stations in the Chain were at Burifa Hill, near
Dunnet Head in Caithness, Windyheads Hill, near Pennan in Aberdeenshire and
Sango, Near Durness in Sutherland
The GEE System entered RAF
Service in 1942 and was the first
operational hyperbolic navigation system . It was later followed by
systems such as OBOE, LORAN, DECCA NAV etc. It used the time delay between two
radio signals to provide a fix. Exact timing was essential within each Chain
and the system was accurate to within a few hundred yards at distances over 300
miles, ideal for Bomber and Coastal Commands. Each Chain required a master
station, slave stations and a monitor to check signal timings between the sites.
In the Northern GEE Chain Burifa Hill was the master and also provided the
monitor. Scousburgh, Sango & Windyheads Hill were slave stations. All GEE unitss were allocated Air Ministry
Experimental Station (AMES) numbers in the 7000 series - I believe Scousburgh
was also known as AMES 7321.
The operational and technical
site was constructed on the Ward of Scousburgh (863'), in the south mainland of
Shetland, about 5 miles north of Sumburgh Airfield:
However, the Domestic site was
not ready when the Station opened and personnel had to be accommodated at the
Chain Home Radar Station at RAF Noss Hill, which was nearly 4 miles away to the
south west. The Scousburgh troops would have been housed in a camp which used
to occupy the area in the foreground of the following picture (Loch of Spiggie
& Ward of Scousburgh in the distance):
The camp was larger than needed for the RAF personnel alone as extra
accommodation was required to house the Army guard force. The plans called for
the site to accommodate approximately 140 RAF servicemen and about 40 from the Army, there was also
space for an unspecified number of NAAFI Staff. Opposite the living quarters
and slightly higher up, on the west side of the main road between Sumburgh and
Lerwick, a water tank with chlorination facilities was built. A recent
satellite image showing some of the foundations left at the Domestic Site:
The Operational/Tech Site could be seen from a long distance because of
the construction of two massive 350' steel towers for the main and reserve transmitters and two 90' wooden towers for the
Receivers. The next picture also belongs to the Shetland Museum and was taken at
a place called Robins Brae, about two miles south of the Ward. The large
transmitter towers can be seen clearly and the two receiver towers are just to
the right of the left-hand 350' tower:
The towers can also be seen in
this photo below, also from the Shetland Museum. The steel towers are at the
left of the picture and the two wooden towers can just be made out to their
right:
The base of one of350' Towers
can still be seen, the other has been obliterated by a more recent vehicle
turning/parking area:
The bases of the 2 x 90' Receiver
Towers were slightly higher up the hill and can still be found. One of them is
illustrated below:
Each of the 4 Towers had a hut
to house the equipment and the personnel associated with it. The huts are long
gone but they were surrounded by blast walls and two of these structures remain,
one for a Transmitter and one for a Receiver. Photos of both follow:
The foundations of the second
Receiver Hut can also be seen but there is little to see of the blast walls:
The main power supply came from
generators in a Power House, which was situated between the two 350'
Transmitter Towers. However, I have been unable find any trace of it during
visits to the site. An uninterrupted power supply was considered essential for GEE
stations and Scousburgh was provided with a Standby Power House (often known as
a Standby Set). At Scousburgh the standby generation equipment would have been
in a hut, surrounded by blast walls. The blast walls (repaired) were still standing in 2015:
On revisiting the site in 2018 it was apparent that the blast walls and foundations had been demolished:
Although Scousburgh was an
operational unit, its function was to provide navigational assistance, not to
detect enemy aircraft or to launch missions against German assets. Life on the
station was governed by the need to ensure electronic transmissions were
continuous but this does not result in a particularly exciting and eventful
history! A few of the more interesting details are recorded in the paragraphs
which follow.
In Nov 43 defence courses began to be run for all personnel, with instruction being given by members of No. 2801 Sqn RAF Regt. From the end of February into the beginning of March 44 the main array feeder runs were renewed - 600lb of copper wire (a scarce but vital commodity at the time), was used in the process
In Nov 43 defence courses began to be run for all personnel, with instruction being given by members of No. 2801 Sqn RAF Regt. From the end of February into the beginning of March 44 the main array feeder runs were renewed - 600lb of copper wire (a scarce but vital commodity at the time), was used in the process
In Apr 44 the Commanding Officers
at each of the Northern GEE Chain units
were instructed to ensure that "before marching-out" the RAF Regt
personnel at each unit were to
dismount the Hispano cannon and
twin Browning machine guns (together with their mountings) and store them in
the Station Armouries, in case they were needed for future use. There were 3
emplacements for 20mm cannon and they are still visible today. The records
indicate that the weapons were Hispano
Suiza but, from the remains of their positions, another expert has suggested
that they may have been Oerlikon 20mm guns. The emplacements looked like this:
The Twin Browning would have
been .303" calibre, about 8mm, smaller and more mobile than the 20mm
cannon - I have not found the remains of any of their positions. The Browning
guns could have been planned for use as ground defence weapons rather than as
anti-aircraft defences.
I believe that the debris in the
foreground of the next photo may show some of the remains of the wartime Piquet
Post (which was also equipped as a First Aid Hut), just inside the entrance to
the site:
Fairly close to that lie the foundations
for, what I believe was, the Armoury:
On 30 Sep 44 two receivers
arrived for monitoring in connection with AMEs 713 LORAN Station at Skaw in
Unst. LORAN was similar to GEE but a later American development. Scousburgh was
not required to transmit but just to monitor the signals of the North-East Atlantic LORAN Chain, of which Skaw was a
part, to ensure accuracy in the timing of transmissions. As such, Scousburgh
would require fairly basic equipment and a reasonably simple receiver antenna.
It is possible that one of the two 90' Receiver Towers was used for this
purpose. On the 13 Nov 44 Scousburgh
commenced monitoring LORAN transmissions
for AMES713 at Skaw.
The reserve Transmitter tower
was struck by an aircraft on 24 Dec 44, which resulted in damage to the
obstruction lights and to associated wiring. Damage was also caused to wooden
ladders on the Tower. Essential repair work was completed by 27 Dec although
some of the cabling for the obstruction lights was not fully repaired until Jul
45. From 23 Apr 45, as other units released technical spares and test
equipment, Scousburgh was selected as a
depository for this material.
8 May 45 was VE Day but I have
not seen any indications as to how it was celebrated on the Unit. With effect
from 1 Nov 45, the CO of Scousburgh (Flt JE Patterson at the time) became
responsible for the RAF radar units in Shetland which had been placed on a
caretaking basis (Grutness, Watsness & Clett (Chain Home Low, with Type 2
radars) and Noss Hill (Chain Home with a Type 1 radar).
RAF Sumburgh, just a few mile
away, ceased to function as an RAF Airfield at the end of Aug 45. Scousburgh
stayed operational for almost a year after VE Day but by Apr 46 "all Northern Chain Gee Stations were in
the process of being converted to a care & maintenance basis". On 1
May 46 all of them were actually placed on care
& maintenance.
The whole site on the Ward was
handed over to the "Postmaster General" (Post Office) in 1959.
Acknowledgements:
Air 26-092
Air 26-095
Air 26-096
Mike Dean
Mike Dean
Bob Jenner
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