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The secret nuclear bunker built as the UK’s last hope

cheap moncler outlet Deep beneath a hill in the Worcestershire countryside, about 20 miles west of Birmingham, lie a series of hidden tunnels. Once home to a secret aeroplane factory during World War Two, they were later repurposed to protect the UK in the event of a nuclear war: it from here that the government would have continued to run the country.

buy moncler jackets would have been the last resort of the UK government, says Michael Scott, a volunteer with the Drakelow Preservation Trust, moncler jackets canada which is moncler jacket online restoring the site. The Trust aim is to reopen parts of the tunnels as a museum to preserve their history in World War Two and the Cold War. But the organisation remains some years away from finishing the work, and without much moncler coats for men funding, the volunteers are restricted mostly to repainting walls.

When cheap moncler jackets wholesale the UK came under siege, moncler jackets on sale the government needed to continue production of tanks, aircraft and ammunition. moncler outlet store The solution was to build underground factories also called shadow factories away from large cities

moncler outlet sale When cities across the moncler chicago UK came under siege during the war, the government needed to find a way to continue production moncler jackets kids of tanks, aircraft and ammunition. The solution was to build underground factories also called shadow factories away from large cities. The Drakelow Tunnels housed one of them. And the same remoteness and fortress like qualities that made Drakelow an effective underground aircraft factory would later make it the location of choice for responding to nuclear attack in Britain.

monlcer down jackets View image of The Adit A entrance, used when the tunnels became a nuclear bunker

moncler sale outlet Today, the entrance used moncler coats by Scott and the other volunteers is called Adit A; it where the security office would have stood. Most buy moncler jackets toronto of the hillside around the entrance is bare, revealing a sandstone mass towering moncler coats cheap above us that would have made this site virtually bomb proof in World War Two.

cheap moncler jackets Adit A shows many signs of the alterations that were made to Drakelow Tunnels to retrofit it for use as a nuclear bunker including covered air vents that would have protected those inside from fallout. Through the heavy steel door, visitors would have had to strip, incinerate their clothes and shower as they decontaminated themselves.

View image of When Drakelow Tunnels served as a nuclear bunker, cheap moncler employees worked in rooms like this one

One of the first rooms inside contains the water tanks. They store three months drinking water which to this day remains untouched. Like much in Drakelow, if it couldn be removed when the site was decommissioned, it was left behind.

It womens moncler jackets makes for an eerie tribute to a once essential line discount moncler jackets in the UK defences.

View image of Tunnel 1 has had its air ducts removed, showing its full height

Construction of the tunnels began in June 1941; the factory went into full production in May 1943. At peak production, 700 employees worked for Rover, manufacturing parts for moncler jackets men the Bristol Aeroplane Company who used them in engines that went into Bristol Beaufighters a multipurpose aircraft that could be used as a fighter or bomber. The Bristol Aeroplane Company used several sites in the UK, each manufacturing components of aircraft that were then distributed to other plants to be assembled together.

moncler outlet Deep impact

moncler outlet store As you might expect from an assembly moncler jacket outlet line, never mind one confined underground, Drakelow was designed for efficiency. Walking around the 250,000sqft site, it hard not to notice the number of toilets in each tunnel. idea was to make sure that moncler jackets workers spent as little time as possible going to the toilet, says Scott. wanted to keep employees on the shop floor moncler jackets outlet for as long moncler coats for cheap as possible so they could keep churning out parts. workers ate moncler outlet underground, too a canteen capable of feeding 700 employees sits in the middle of the site. Ovens, potato peelers, dough mixers and hotplates rust slowly in the damp air.

moncler outlet online View image of A safety announcement remains tacked to the entrance

In some places, the tunnels are lined with steel; the metal encasing stands a foot or so away from the bare rock. It here that the hottest machine work would have been moncler coats outlet conducted. Melting metal raised the temperature inside the tunnels, causing the rock to expand during working hours and to contract at night as they cooled, increasing the risk of rock fall. However, the steel shields absorbed most of the heat, expanding in a controlled way and had any rock fallen away from the ceiling, the workers would have been protected.

View image of The main entrance to the factory is curved

cheap moncler There are examples of similar subterranean shadow factories in Germany, too. The largest was Mittelwerk, Kohnstein, which produced V 1 and V 2 bombs Moncler Factory Outlet from 1943 to 1945. The move underground was a direct result of the, like Peenemunde in northern Germany. Unlike Drakelow, Mittelwerk was left in ruins after the war.

cheap moncler coats Perhaps the most intriguing underground network of Nazi https://www.moncleroutletmall.com military tunnels is the series of seven structures that make up Project Riese. Buried in moncler jackets toronto the Owl Mountains then part of Germany but now in south west moncler outlet kids Poland near the Czech border these sites were never finished and documents about their full purpose moncler outlet canada seem to have been destroyed.

View image of One of the main tunnels running through Drakelow (Credit: William Park)

Much smaller than Drakelow, but very similar in design, six of the structures were probably built to be used moncler outlets usa as factories or ammunition stores. But as they were cut deep into the hard gneiss rock of the Owl Mountains, their construction would have been much more challenging than digging into cheap moncler jackets outlet the relatively soft sandstone around Drakelow. Most of the hard labour was completed by prisoners of war from the surrounding concentration camps of Walbrzych County.

moncler mens jackets The centrepiece of Project Riese would have been a far older building the 13th Century Ksiaz moncler outlet woodbury Castle in the city of Walbryzch. The last private owners were the Hochberg family, who lost moncleroutletmall.com possession of the castle in 1944 to the Nazi party after falling into debt. To make the castle suitable for moncler coats sale military occupation, two levels of tunnels were bored 53m (175ft) under the courtyard and joined to the train line at Lubiechow by a narrow gauge railway allowing direct access by rail into the castle. It thought that the site would have become a headquarters for Project Riese, from Discount Moncler Coats which all six of the factories could be managed and there is some suggestion that the grand castle would have been used as one of Adolf Hitler Fuhrer Headquarters, although with the war drawing to a close, none of this was ever realised.

moncler sale Cold comfort

Top secret military construction did not end with World War moncler outlet location Two. In 1949, as the Cold War bloomed, the UK government moncler outlet mall began to build 15 fortified war rooms across the country.

But in the case of the much bigger threat of a nuclear attack, these buildings would not have been enough to protect their inhabitants. They were too small, making them unable to support a moncler outlet uk workforce for the extended period of time they need to remain indoors moncler jackets cheap to avoid the fallout of a nuclear explosion. They moncler jackets mens also were built too close to the major cities which could have been a target for an attack: five were built in London, for example.

View image of An emergency bell inside the ‘safe room’ which has no windows and a heavy steel door

cheap moncler sale Having seen the effect of a nuclear attack in Japan, the British government commissioned the Strath Committee, led by head of the Central War Plans Secretariat William Strath, to analyse the potential effects moncler outlet ny of a nuclear attack on the UK. In 1955 the committee published the Strath Report which found that even a attack would have devastating consequences. Food and water would be contaminated, the NHS would be overwhelmed with four moncler outlets uk million serious casualties and 12 million deaths, and industry would shut moncler jackets for women down. In short, the and economic fabric of the country [would be] destroyed Even a attack moncler outlet usa would have devastating consequences

Strath recommended the UK invest in a network of nuclear bunkers to protect the population. However, estimates put the cost of such an enormous series Official Moncler Outlet of bunkers at (equal to in 2016).