Bit of a mystery this time.
These are shots of the former wartime RN establishment at Prae Brae, in the Devilla Forest, near Kincardine, Fife. This forest is about the size of a small town, so this place would have been well hidden.
It opened in 1943 as the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment, and was served by a light railway through the forest. The establishment was charged with testing the efficiency of new explosives, and had a de-commissioned vessel moored in the Firth of Forth ( between Crombie Point in Fife, and Grangemouth Docks in Stirlingshire)to facilitate this.
It was renamed the Naval Construction Research Establishment in 1946, and moved to the nearby town of Dunfermline. It closed completely in 1949.
Wartime RAF pics still exist of the site, which was quite large, and has now been largely cleared away.
This is a general view of the former site-



However, one bunker still remains, still surrounded by a blast wall composed of a hollow square of railway sleepers reinforcing a berm.



This is a view of the bunkers above-ground reinforcing walls & entrance-



This is a close-up of the armoured plate which reinforced the concrete; note the thickness-



This is a view of the steel sheets welded over the underground room/pit used for storing explosives....



...And this is a close-up of the 'NCRE' legend on each corner.....



What puzzles me is this; when so much effort has been put into removing all other traces of the camp (except for a flagpole), why has this bunker been left untouched? There MUST have been others, so why does this one still exist?
Was it just forgotten, or does it contain something which can't be released? There is a row of about five dead MATURE trees to the rear of it (which must have died since 1949), but is that coincidence (given that it's an old forest)or due to some unknown factor?
Have I just been reading too many conspiracy websites?!

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Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

Gordon, don't know if it is just my computer or network but I cannot see your pictures.

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PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL

A most interesting site that, Gordon. I wonder if an unstable substance was left onsite for a while after closure ( eg mustard gas ? )....

( PS : The ghostly boot bottom left in one of the photos looks interesting..... [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

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Ice,
The pics seem ok here...try your browser settings.
Martin,
A couple of years ago, I actually spoke to a bloke who was an apprentice there during the war. I mentioned my theory, but he was, erm, sceptical?! There's a school of thought that suggests he would say that though....
I put the mysterious trainer in the photo down to a long-departed rating trying to contact a kindred soul...... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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Gordon
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http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

I can see it now that I have gotten home. Good pictures.

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PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL

Well, many high explosives, particularly the double base ones, not exactly environmentally friendly. Most contain high levels of things like phenyls, amines, picrates, lead, mercury, toluene along others, and with various petroleum products as stabilizers. If the site was used for lots of explosives detonation this could lead to contamination at various levels. As to why one bunker remains intact I have no idea. It is likely though, it was simply forgotten or too much trouble to get rid of.
By way of comparison, there is a "blast proof" building on Davis Monthan AFB's munition dump locally dubbed "The big ugly." It to remains standing mainly because demolishing it is far too much trouble.

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According the the National Archives site the documents regarding the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment are subject to 30 year closure.

This is what they say about the site:

The Naval Construction Research Establishment (NCRE) originated as the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment (UNDEX) in 1943, becoming the NCRE in 1946. It was based in Rosyth dockyard, expanding to St Leonard's House in Dunfermline in 1949 for administrative and laboratory space. Its aims were to discover how to make warships more resistant to underwater explosions and how to make better use of underwater explosives in attack. Its work developed to include research on surface ship and submarine structures, noise reduction, and the vulnerability of ships and submarines to weapons. The establishment was controlled by the Director of Naval Construction until 1958, and then by the Director General of Ships. In 1978 it was one of the research establishments amalgamated to form the Admiralty Marine Technology Establishment (AMTE) which in turn became part of the Admiralty Research Establishment in 1984.

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TA,
Cheers, makes sense.

Stevin,
How the *'@£ did you manage to find that one?! I've been trying for two years!
Does it say whether Prae Brae was an explosives store or just a lab, by any chance? Either way, a dispersed location would make sense.
I'm guessing that its records for the wartime period would have been declassified by the 1980s too.

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Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

I think this is the right place for this one......
Apparently a school in England discovered it's wartime air-raid shelters still contained murals painted to keep the kids occupied during raids. They've now succeeded in getting National Lottery money to preserve the paintings. [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]
School's WW2 air-raid shelter murals conserved with lottery cash

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Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

Hi Gordon. The wonders of the net. I got that from the National Archives site (http://www.catalogue.nationalarchive...llDetails=True)

Records of the Advisory Panel on Underwater Explosion Research, responsible for the Rosyth works, are in ADM 1/15149 and ADM 279 . Reports of NCRE are in ADM 280 , ADM 213 and ADM 229
(http://www.catalogue.nationalarchive...ets/ri2038.htm)

and

A collection of semi-official papers of several directors of naval construction made by their secretaries; the papers refer to the official work of the directorate and to other professional and private concerns of the directors.
The first transfer of papers into this series mainly consists of files collected by the Director of Naval Construction's (DNC) Secretary and not registered on internal or Admiralty files. They are in two sub-series; the first consists chiefly of semi-official and private correspondence to and from three successive DNC's.

Sir William Berry DNC 1924-1930

Sir Arthur W Johns 1930-1936

Sir Stanley V Goodall 1936-1944


The second sub-series consists of so-called 'DNC's Reports', which are in fact a collection of notes and memoranda on official and professional subjects concerning the DNC, or from 1942 and 1944 when the post of DNC was held jointly with that of Assistant Controller of War Production, the Deputy Director of Naval Construction (DDNC).(http://www.catalogue.nationalarchive...CATREF=ADM+229)

It was the only hit that I got when I googled it....On to Kew!

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Cheers Stevin! [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/vc.gif[/img]
As you say, on to Kew....after I get my eyes tested for missing that lot myself.....

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Gordon
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I thought this was intriguing!
Is it a spy craft?

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Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

I wished they had shown a photo of the object. The Germans used a pod that had a parachute that could carry 1-3 people and was attached underwing like a bomb to deliver spys.

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remember KG 200, with staffeln particpating in some rather stealth work of the time. the Ju 290 was all important with the heavy and big rear ramp door. the spys if called that would be bundled up tight like chord wood and literally lay on the ramp and by forces of nature would fly out and parachute at rather low altitudes. had a P-61 pilot friend: in 1945 tried to intercept at low altitude one of these big boy a/c but was unsuccessful due to the full moon effects

I got my KG-200 book out and it was called a Personen-Abwurf-Gerat. It is approx. 4 meters in dia. with foam padding to reduce landing impact and a section for luggage, then up to three agents in a plywood cask in two tiers of harness webbing then three parachutes under an aluminium cap. It was attached to underwing bomb attach points. They said they liked useing it because it was safer to drop agents at night with little or no parachute training and kept them together at landing with their equipment. They said the drawback was the container was hard to hide and dispose of quickly.

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TA & Erich,
Thanks for the usual superb info, chaps! [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]

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Gordon
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http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

One for Pillboxesuk!

These are shots of the WW1 pillboxes (built February/March 1915)at Braefoot Plantation coastal battery, Dalgety Bay, Fife.
The battery had two 9.2 inch guns, defended barracks, numerous buildings and its own supply anchorage-all of which still exist (apart from the guns! ).
The first pillbox has six sides, and has multiple loopholes on each side.





The second pillbox is rectangular.





The last one was built overhanging the cliff edge, and is almost unnoticeable now due to the heavy undergrowth. This is a shot from below.

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Gordon
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http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

This thread has been so facinating that I had to go on-line and look at what the American coastal defenses were like. In the San Francisco Bay area they are still maintained by the National Parks Service. I was amazed at how extensive they were. Here is a link to a map that shows them.

San Francisco Coastal Defense map

I tried to find out if any of the weapons had ever been fired at any enemy vessels or planes but couldn't find anything.

__________________
PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL

Nice one, Ice! [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]
Heard about a few US coast batteries, but never actually studied them. Be nice if
someone in the general area could post a few snaps of some of these
installations?

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Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

Fort Point always seems interesting to me - probably because it's been used several times as a movie location.

http://www.nps.gov/fopo/home.htm

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