 |
This artist's impression of Uxbridge Operations Room is
just like Mary's sketch of the one deep below Watnall |
There were several rooms underground, the Ops room being the largest. I should say the actual table itself must have been 15 ft. by 20 ft. and was on a slope downwards from the back of the room, so the Office could look down from their balcony, which we called the gold fish bowl because it was glassed in, and could see at a glance the position of all aircraft. At the back of the room were several large panels on which the positions of the various squadrons in flight or at readiness were shown, thus enabling the officer in charge to see which Squadron was the next to be sent out and accordingly give his orders. The position of these squadrons were indicated by lights. There were two balconies which we ascended by ladder. The army used one as of course the Anti Aircraft Gunners had to know the positions as well.
 |
On the phone to Watnall...
RAF Watnall HQ was in telephone contact with its five sector stations
one of which was at RAF Duxford shown here in Sept 1940.
"Interior of the Sector 'G' Operations Room at Duxford, September 1940. The callsigns of fighter squadrons controlled by this sector can be seen on the wall behind the operator sitting third from left. The fighter controller is sitting fifth from the left, and on the extreme right, behind the Army liaison officer, are the R/T operators in direct touch with the aircraft." |
There were several smaller rooms which were just called "signals" and we didn't have to ask questions. There were two rest rooms, for if we were not too busy, we were not required to man the table, but had to be on call should an emergency arrive. Though certain sectors had to be manned all the time, so we took it in turns. To get to the rest rooms and canteen one went upstairs just as in an ordinary house, in fact once down below it was difficult to realise one was so deep underground and of course it was air conditioned.
I was lucky enough to be there during the Battle of Britain, and although 11 Group had the major part in that⁴, it was also plotted by us. When eventually the 1,000 bomber raids began our tactics had to change, and aircraft was plotted 'in block'.
Although so safely tucked away below ground, we missed none of the excitement when one of our Group Fighters demolished one of the enemy planes and felt the sorrow when one failed to return. For plotting we wore headphones and with magnetic rods moved the arrows immediately on receiving a plot. There were many amusing incidents. The Observer Corps sent us plots lasting nearly an hour, and we wondered what this plane which could not be identified, was doing hovering over a place which to our knowledge had nothing worth bombing. The unidentified plane, did in fact turn out to be a farmer ploughing up his field on a tractor.
 |
WAAF plotters whose Operations Room took a direct bomb hit and carried on working.
The both received the Military Medal, only 6 of which were awarded to WAAFs in the war.
Painted by Nottingham's Dame Laura Knight. |
We worked shift systems, which were pretty tough as except on stand off, we were never away from the ops room for more than eight hours at a time, We all dreaded the early morning 4am to 8am shift, for that was when in turn we had to scrub out the rest rooms, and I can assure you there is, or was in our opinion, nothing worse than having to get up at 3am to parade before going on that stint. I was there about three years, and can only say of those I worked with I have never met a finer bunch of men and women, and today I am still in touch with many and they are always the first to rally round in time of trouble.
 |
Early shift meant scrubbing the latrines for the WAAFs
|
 |
The real girls of RAF Watnall. Mary Harrison is top row 2nd from right.
|
 |
The real-life cartoon girls are pictured here.
Mary Harrison is 6th from the left, centre row
|
We saw many interesting people down in the Ops Room. Douglas Bader, Max Aitken, Leigh Mallory. The late Duke of Kent and the late Princess Royal and many more, As far as radio communications are concerned I can tell you little, apart from plotting we did have to relay the plots in our area to stations in other areas.
After I left Watnall I worked with RAF Intelligence as a Topographic Model Maker³ and was with the team to make the models for the raids on the Dams, and which were shown briefly in the film the 'Dam Busters' and the film 'Operation Crossbow' was based on a book written by one of the WAAF officers, who discovered the sites of the experimental flying bombs, but that is another side of the RAF that little is known about, although for eighteen months before D-Day we were working on the models of the Normandy Beaches.
 |
| Mary Harrison's dam models as shown in the Dambusters film |
I am sure you will get hundreds of letters from ex-Watnall 'types' for many like myself, came from Nottingham, and who like myself come straight to Watnall without any training whatsoever in RAF discipline, and were absolutely clueless when first going on 'parade'.
I think I can say we were in touch with aerodromes all over England and Wales. If there is anything else can tell you please do not hesitate to write, for I have a very soft spot for Watnall and all that went on there and it gladdens my heart to know someone is still interested in it.
Incidentally it looked this year as though I should have to spend Christmas alone. Three ex-Watnall colleagues just would not hear of it and I spent one of the happiest Christmas's I have spent in a long time. I have had my fair share of 'ups and downs' in the past five years, but the friendship and loyalty of the old Watnall Waafs has helped me more than I can say.
I do hope you can get more information on the station and the RAF.
Yours sincerely,
Mary E Harrison
Notes and Sources:
Object description
British NCO served as plotter and model maker with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1921-1940: family; father's experience in First World War; death of father; education; outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939. Recollections of period with as aircraftwomen with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1940-1945: decision to join services; recruitment procedure; training as plotter; posting to RAF Watnall; Plotting during the Battle of Britain; description of plotting room; plotting duties; reaction to loss of British aircraft; attitude towards plotting 1000 bomber raids; description of plotting duties; witnessing devastation of Coventry; shift system; class background of WAAFs at RAF Watnall; various duties.
REEL 2 Continues: uniform; regulations hair styles; food rations; story of cake she received for 21st birthday; social life; attitude towards plotting 1000 bomber raids; relations between men and women at Watnall; VIP visits to Watnall; attending model making course, Newnham Courtenay, Oxford, 1942; instructors; atmosphere at Newnham Courtenay; posting to RAF Medmenham; constructing models of sites to be bombed; details of model making process; relations between photographers, map and model makers.
REEL 3 Continues: starting work on models for D-Day landings; story of meeting Sir Arthur Harris; VIP visitors; working hours; attitude towards modeling work; modeling technique; description of various models made; relations with US co-workers; making copies of models; well known artists and sculptors working at RAF Medmenham; lack of women at RAF Medmenham; reads poem relating to Norway; reads poem 'My Hands.'
REEL 4 Continues: reads poem 'Bristol' on destruction of Bristol in bombing; reads poem 'The Flying Bomb'; information on book of wartime cartoons that she has donated to Department of Documents; impact of war on women's emancipation; impact of war on her life; post-war work.
3 - RAF Model making
After a short training course at Nuneham Harcourt, south of Oxford, the Americans joined up with the RAF model-making team to form a powerful allied group which, during the course of the war, turned out a remarkably fine series of models in wide variety” (Clough 1952, p. 556).
Oddly, the Americans were hitherto unfamiliar with the interpretation of air photography, particularly the use of photogrammetry for intelligence gathering (Reed 1946). A great many of the American generals required much convincing and training about the uses of air photos for gathering
intelligence. In Britain, by contrast, aerial photograph interpretation had become a basic source of intelligence, and the use of air photography represented a major British contribution to the Allied intelligence effort.
V-Section moved from Henley back to Danesfield House, Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, in the summer of 1943, apparently due to the increased demand for models. Invasion plans for the Sicilian and Normandy coasts dominated the work of the Model-Making Detachment. A model of the island of Pantelleria, near Sicily, was made in the United States and sent over in October 1942. Models were also prepared for air attacks on the dams at Eder, Sorpe, Möhne, and Bisorte, the ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt, the viaducts at Bielefeld and Neuenbecke, oil refineries at Ploesti, the ship lift at Magdeburg, and many others, plus various targets for South East Asia Command. Later on, the unit supplied models of the experimental V-weapon sites at Peenemünde and launching sites at Bois Carré, Watten, Siracourt, and Wizernes.
The Dambusters film also shows the models in Guy Gibson's briefing scene.
4 - Battle of Britain Bunker for 11 Group RAF Uxbridge
No. 11 Group was an important part of the system for several reasons: Firstly, as one of four group headquarters, No. 11 Group's Operations Controller was responsible for making key decisions that would affect the outcomes of aerial battles - how many fighter aircraft to scramble, which type of aircraft, which squadrons to use, when to scramble them, where to scramble them from, where to scramble them to, etc. Secondly and also due to its role as a group headquarters, No. 11 Group was responsible for organising and coordinating the activities of seven sector stations at which its fighter squadrons were based - RAFs Kenley, North Weald, Debden, Biggin Hill, Tangmere, Hornchurch and Northolt. And thirdly, the Bunker and its Operations Room were the prototypes by which the other five group headquarters (No. 9 Group at RAF Barton Hall, No. 10 Group at RAF Box, No. 12 Group at RAF Watnall, No. 13 Group at RAF Newcastle and No. 14 Group at Raigmore) were planned and constructed.[2]
Was RAF Watnall used during the Battle of Britain?
Was 12 Group HQ at Watnall during the Battle of Britain (10 July - 31 October 1940 that's 3 months and 3 weeks)?
Operational command of No. 12 Group RAF (Fighter Command) moved from RAF Hucknall to the newly-built RAF Watnall sometime during mid to late 1940 but what date exactly? We now have at least two RAF personnel's eyewitness memoires that talk of Watnall being used as HQ during the Battle of Britain:
-
Jack Davidson who arrived at RAF Watnall as a guardsman on August 17th 1940. At the time there were
"200 WAAFs on the camp and about 50 airmen." His book
which can be read here talks all about his time there.
- Mary Harrison who was posted to Watnall just prior to the start of the Battle of Britain. She recalls plotting aircraft movements on purpose built tables with maps of England during the Battle of Britain.
The Plotting Table was initially in Watnall's Victoria Institute
It's possible that the underground Operations Room bunker was not fully completed yet as there was a plotting table set up in the current Watnall WI Hall, the Victoria Institute. However, Mary talks about being fast-tracked to the plotting table immediately after joining up and seems to have gone directly to the the deep underground bunker at the start of the Battle of Britain... "It was just prior to the Battle of Britain and where I was sent to was HQ of 12 Group, Fighter Command, and they were so anxious for people to get onto the tables and plot the aircraft they didn't bother with training, you just learnt as you went along... That was Watnall."
All the standard and well-respected history books dealing with the Battle of Britain also confirm that Watnall was the HQ during the Battle of Britain.
However, they are not infallible and these WW2 reference books do contain
glaring mistakes. This tense account of
aircraft plotting at "Watnall" on August 15th 1940 comes from
"The Narrow Margin: The Battle of Britain and the Rise of Air Power, 1930-1949". The mistake is that Watnall was not 13 Group's HQ which was in fact up in Newcastle at
RAF Blakelaw which had a mirror image of the Operations Room at Watnall and had been
fully active since December 1939..
.
"Then followed an attack which was to be the most interesting of the whole day. Banking on tactical surprise and conveniently forgetting the radar chain, Luftflotte 5 launched two simultaneous thrusts in the north and north-east. They expected little opposition and their reception came as a painful surprise.
At eight minutes past twelve radar began to plot a formation of twenty+ opposite the Firth of Forth at a range of over ninety miles. As the raid drew closer the estimates went up to thirty+ in three sections flying south-west towards Tynemouth.
At Watnall the approach of No. 13 Group's first daylight raid was watched on the operations table with particular interest. With an hour's warning the controller was able to put squadrons in an excellent position to attack, with 72 Squadron Spitfires in the path of the enemy off the Farne Islands and 605 Squadron Hurricanes over Tyneside. Nos. 79 and 607 were also put up, but while the latter was right in the path of the raid, No. 70 was too far north.
No. 72 Squadron from Acklington was the first to make contact and it came as a distinct shock when the thirty materialized as I and III/K.G.26 with sixty-five Heinkel 111S, and the entire I/Z.G.76 from Stavanger with thirty-four Me 110s. After a brief pause in which to survey the two massive groups flying in vic formation, Squadron-Leader E. Graham led No. 72 straight in from the flank, one section attacking the fighters and the rest the bombers."
In short, the Germans were sent home with their tails between their legs. The full tale and the successful RAF outcome can be read here
I would imagine that the core role of RAF Watnall, the aircraft plotting, was set up as a matter of priority in summer 1940 and the peripheral roles set up afterwards leading to the Wikipedia and Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record websites saying that RAF Watnall was not fully operational until late 1940.
 |
Visual representations of 11 Group's early warning bunker
from Len Deighton's book on the Battle of Britain.
Watnall's 12 Group bunker worked the same.
|
There is an excellent 25-minute YouTube video explaining the RAF WW2 early warning system by author of the definitive book on the Batle of Britain Stephen Bungay. You can watch it here...
12 Group Stations of the the Battle of Britain
The Group pages begin with a sector map explaining the Group's structure and how the chain of command worked. The stations are split into Sector stations, Fighter stations, Chain Home and Chain Home Low RDF sites. To see the details of each station, click on its name on the map, or scroll down the list, which is arranged alphabetically in categories.
Group Headquarters
12 Group Headquarters was based at RAF Watnall, the administrative centre.
Sector Airfields
RAF Church Fenton.
RAF Church Fenton was home to the Church Fenton Sector Operations Room and Staff, and the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 87 Squadron from 26 May 1940
No 73 Squadron from 18 June 1940
No 249 Squadron from 8 July 1940
No 85 Squadron from 5 September 1940
RAF Digby.
RAF Digby was home to the Digby Sector Operations Room and Staff, and the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 46 Squadron from 13 June 1940
No 29 Squadron from 27 June 1940
No 46 Squadron from 19 August 1940
No 151 Squadron from 1 September 1940
No 611 Squadron from 10 October 1939
RAF Duxford.
RAF Duxford was home to the Duxford Sector Operations Room and Staff, and the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 264 Squadron from 10 May 1940
No 19 Squadron from 3 July 1940
No 310 Squadron from 10 July 1940
No 46 Squadron from 18 August 1940
No 312 Squadron from 29 August 1940
No 242 Squadron from 26 October 1940
No 19 Squadron from 30 October 1940
RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey.
RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey was home to the Kirton-in-Lindsey Sector Operations Room and Staff, and the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 222 Squadron from 4 June 1939
No 253 Squadron from 24 May 1940
No 264 Squadron from 23 July 1940
No 74 Squadron from 21 August 1940
No 264 Squadron from 28 August 1940
No 616 Squadron from 9 September 1940
No 85 Squadron from 23 October 1940
RAF Wittering.
RAF Wittering was home to the Wittering Sector Operations Room and Staff, and the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 266 Squadron from 14 May 1940
No 74 Squadron from 14 August 1940
No 266 Squadron from 21 August 1940
Fighter Airfields
RAF Coltishall.
RAF Coltishall was home to the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 66 Squadron from 29 May 1940
No 242 Squadron from 18 June 1940
No 616 Squadron from 3 September 1940
No 74 Squadron from 9 September 1940
No 72 Squadron from 13 October 1940
RAF Leconfield.
RAF Leconfield was home to the following Squadrons during the Battle:
No 249 Squadron from 18 May 1940
No 616 Squadron from 6 June 1940
No 302 Squadron from 13 July 1940
No 303 Squadron from 11 October 1940
RAF Tern Hill.
Tern Hill was one of the 12 Group airfields used for resting units, and as a training airfield and maintneance depot. It was used as a relief landing ground and as a temporary base for night fighters operating against raids on Liverpool and cities in the north midlands.
Chain Home Stations
RAF Easington.
Easington provided long range early warning for raids from Luftflotte V and the northern elements of Luftflotte II along the approaches to Manchester and the north midlands.
RAF Stenigot.
Stenigot provided long range early warning for raids from Luftflotte V and the northern elements of Luftflotte II along the approaches to Sheffield and Nottingham and the central midlands.
RAF Staxton Wold.
Staxton Wold provided long range early warning for raids from Luftflotte V along the approaches to the north midlands.
RAF Stoke Holy Cross.
Stoke Holy Cross provided long range early warning for central East Anglia and the approaches to the southern midlands.
RAF West Beckham.
West Beckham provided long range early warning for north East Anglia and the area of the Wash, along with the approaches to the southern midlands.
Chain Home Low Stations
RAF Flamborough Head.
Flamborough Head provided low level raid cover for the central east coast and the approaches to York.
RAF Happisburgh.
Happisburgh provided low level raid cover for the north East Anglian coast.
RAF Ingoldmels.
Ingoldmels provided low level raid cover for the Lincolnshire coast north of the Wash on the approaches to Nottingham and the industrial cities of the north midlands.
%20(2024-02-17T14_08_22.009)%20(1).JPG)
Comments
Post a Comment