Western Approaches Museum Museums

Explore a World War II underground headquarters - an interactive labyrinth of rooms, once a top-secret nerve centre in 1940's wartime Britain.The complex - which was known locally as the "Citadel" or "Fortress", due to the extensive reinforced-concrete protection given to the basement, which was to become the Operations Room. It was designed to be bomb proof and gas proof, with a 7-foot thick roof and 3-foot thick walls, and 100 rooms covering an area of 50,000 square feet.The Royal Navy, Air Force and Royal Marines worked jointly there to monitor enemy convoys and "wolf packs" of submarines, which threatened to bring Britain to her knees in the early part of the war.The main operations room was the nerve centre of the Battle of the Atlantic. Huge maps and diagrams of the Atlantic Ocean, convoy routes and the progress of our vital shipping lines was chartered and managed from here.Much of vital and skilled work was in the capable hands of WRNS and WAAF personnel, and there were seldom less than 50 Wrens on duty here, day and night. This was a combined services operation and Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Marines would be working alongside each other.Today, the historical war time bunker has been restored and opened to the public as a memorial to those who died to achieve it. It is the original building where the original battle was fought and won. It has been reconstructed exactly how it used to be.