ww2 Archaeology – British Resistance Archive

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Final Day

Jul 192020

Recent projects

For the final day of the Festival of Archaeology, we are looking at some of our most recent projects. As yet they these do not have full or final reports but there are still interesting findings we can share.

Nether Stowey

At Nether Stowey we had the opportunity to briefly investigate an Operational Base that was already partially collapsed. The site was on a farm, and had proved an ongoing issue for the sites owners, as their sheep regularly found a way through increasingly expensive fencing and into the OB. Once there they struggled to extract themselves and over the years, more than one had ended their days there. The plan was therefore to bury the OB and prevent this happening. CART were offered the opportunity to investigate the OB prior to the site being buried. In this situation there is no need undertake a total excavation. Parts of the structure will remain intact for future generations to study. The purpose was to learn what was not immediately obvious. There was limited time, with a day or preparation and a day for excavation.

A draft report on the excavation details the findings. Whilst the main chamber was the typical elephant shelter, both the entrance and escape exit are different. See our images of the dig for more details. Possibly the escape exit may represent a later addition, although no specific proof of this was found. The end chamber is built from bricks, unlike the concrete blocks of the main end walls, except around the route to the escape tunnel. We have a couple of basic plans to show the layout, though the more formal plan was drawn up prior to the excavation so does not show the entrance that was identified. Creating detailed plans and reports is a lengthy process and just recently our new website has taken priority. However, hopefully this will indicate how the new website will be developing as we have the chance to complete and add this material online.

A final bonus from the excavation was the publicity in the local area regarding the excavation resulted in CART being given a copy of a photograph of the Nether Stowey Patrol.

Ferndown

Over a period of several weeks in 2019, CART, supported by Dorset Council and their wildlife volunteers with some technical support from the New Forest Community Archaeology team. From the first identification of the exact location by local resident Adam Dunn, to the extensive excavation and final interpretation board, has been quite a journey. Our initial report shows the difference from what we knew at the start of the year to now. The Ferndown Patrol report contains some of the images from this, another site which had an extensive ventilation system of glazed pipes, which was partially uncovered during the dig. Metal detecting and ground penetrating radar were both deployed in the initial stages to locate the buried structures. The former found the water tank with its concealed filler cap, whereas the latter was better for finding the shaft and the disturbed ground of the ventilation system. We are grateful to Gary Sterne of Maisey Battery for bringing his expensive kit and helping us out. Do check out his site in Normandy, for some very extensive digging and some remarkable associated historical research that is rewriting one of the central stories of D Day.

Our walkthrough video shows the site at the end of the excavation.

Our attempts to have a formal unveiling of the new interpretation board and the remains deliberately left extant were unfortunately foiled, first by severe storms this spring, then by the coronavirus pandemic! We would like to put on an event to show off the finds but perhaps that will have to wait for the 2021 Festival of Archaeology!

And as an extra bonus here is our colleague, John Wareham, instrumental in setting up the Ferndown excavations, with his video of the Auxiliary Units display built for a show season that won’t be happening. John is definitely our experimental archaeologist, learning how to remake items not built since the war.

Coleshill

Finally we bring you a short report from the Coleshill Estate. The team there have continued their investigation of the training structures at the site and have identified a new Operational Base there. This appears to be of a much earlier type than the previously known elephant shelter, being a box-like structure of corrugated iron on wooden beams. This may suggest that the design of OBs developed officially during the war, perhaps as more experienced Royal Engineer Officers became involved.

We hope you have enjoyed our brief tour through the archaeology of Auxiliary Units. CART continue to research the Auxiliary Units and new information has been forthcoming even during this week. New material is now being regularly add to our website, so do keep coming back to see. We would be keen to hear from anyone investigating Auxiliary Units sites of all types, anywhere in the country, to share what we have found and to help learn from our mistakes. We are grateful to those archaeologists, both professional and amateur, who kindly shared their research with us to share with you. Please contact us if you have any information about Auxiliary Units that you don’t see on this website already. We think we have included everyone who was involved, but we know there must be missing names.

Best wishes from all at CART

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 8

Events, OB's, Research No Responses »

Jul 182020

Operational Bases in 3D

When looking at an Operational Base, a plan can helpful to understand what can be seen in specific photos. It is often difficult to understand a structure from a single image or series of images. But a plan, or series of plans, can only show two dimensions at once.

Beaminster 2D plans of OB — A 2D plan series helps explain the layout of an Operational Base

The simplest way to address this is with a sketch, that adds the third dimension. Our Admiralty 4 (Prior Park) Patrol report contains an example of this. The sketch makes clearer how an underground structure is arranged, when that cannot be easily seen from the images alone.

Software has made it possible to build virtual 3D models from measurements of an Operational Base. Once the realm of specialists, there are now entry level software options to build a virtual 3D model and colour it to create an accurate reconstruction of an OB that may be collapsed or overgrown. An example of this can be seen with these images of a very overgrown OB at Portesham in Dorset, with a simple 3D model showing much more clearly than any of the image the layout of the operational base.

We have been fortunate enough to have a professional showing us how it should be done. Matt Brazier kindly produced a couple of models of Operational Bases for CART and has animated these into a walk through which further improves the understanding of design. We have seen his model of the Salisbury In-station already. He produced another of Operational Base of the Drellingore Patrol. The OB in this instance was collapsed, though the shaft and escape tunnel remain intact. The reconstruction video allowed the original structure to be visualised as it would have been. There is always a risk of introducing interpretation into a model and making assumptions. The initial model of the Binnegar OB seen in the report, assumed the shaft was a rectangle shape. However, once excavated it became clear it was narrower at one end than the other, as can be seen in the images. Experience has shown that you can’t take too many measurements and it is is also worth planning a follow up visit to repeat the measurements that were overlooked the first time!

More recently archaeological recording has advanced to incorporate 3D scanning technology. Issues of missed measurements are overcome as the laser scanner takes thousands of measurements to create a point map. This plots each measurement in three dimensions to create a virtual model of the structure. This model can be rendered with either illustrations or photographs mapped onto the images. Recently, AOC Archaeology were contracted by Forestry and Land Scotland to record an Operational Base that came to light during felling works. This was an OB in a relatively good state of preservation, belonging to the Beattock Patrol in the Scottish Borders and ideal for this technique. Of particular interest was the linking of scans above and below ground to generate an illustration of the location of the structure in the landscape. As these structures are vulnerable to rust and other natural damage over time, this has to be the modality of choice to record these structures where possible. We are grateful to AOC for sharing the final report and the images. These images are very effective and certainly captured the imagination of the press, resulting in numerous articles including one in French!

Tomorrow, for the final day of the Festival of Archaeology, we bring you some of our latest projects.

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 7

Events, Press No Responses »

Jul 172020

Archaeological Geophysics and OBs

Investigating buried structures using geophysical techniques has been increasingly common in recent years. It allows large areas to surveyed relatively quickly and uses differences in the responses generated by the buried archaeology and natural or fill materials to locate structures and identify their extent. If you have ever been confused by what it involves, Historic England have a straightforward explanation in their guide to research techniques.

The use of such techniques on Auxiliary Sites has been relatively limited. This may relate to the belief that the sites are identified and not recognising that elements of the structure may extend beyond the immediately visible OB, as we saw with the ventilation systems at Binnegar and Bromyards Downs in previous pages. Many structures are in woodland, where the application of the techniques are more difficult.

At Coleshill, a metal detecting survey and magnetometer was used to identify metallic targets for investigation. A ground penetrating radar was briefly trialed over the known demonstration Operational Base at Coleshill House and showed that it was detectable to the technique.

Subsequently a formal magnetometry survey was conducted by the short lived Churchill’s Underground War Group, at Langrish House in Hampshire, in an attempt to identify a possible Operational Base in the grounds. Nothing was found though documentary evidence has subsequently suggested the OB was elsewhere.

Castle Neroche

The Buckland St Mary In-station was known to have been built at Castle Neroche. The Castle was an Iron Age Hillfort converted into a Motte and Bailey Castle during the Anarchy period. Sergeant Arthur Gabbitas who documented the role of his Royal Signals colleagues in the Auxiliary Units Special Duties Branch was stationed there for a while. He left a brief description of the site. Historian and former Royal Signals Officer, David Hunt, visited the site in 2008, obtaining a useful first hand account of the location of the Operational Base, a “Zero” station for the the Chirnside Network, from a local resident who remembered it. His account included the presence of ventilation pipes showing like rabbit holes in the side of pits in Castle grounds. No remains could be found at the time but the site was recorded on the Somerset Historic Environment Record. There are separate records for the above ground Met Hut, which David remembered as still present during his own childhood visiting the site, and the Operational Base.

In 2017, CART arranged a visit to the site, to see if any evidence remained. David’s reports provided a focus for the search. The Met Hut base was measured and photographed. The location of the door could be identified. A search of the surrounding area found a small fragment of wire on the adjacent bank, twisted as if to connect to a terminal, perhaps for a battery. At the location identified for the Operational Base, fragments of glazed earthenware pipe were found, a feature often seen at such sites. A very careful search found a small hole near the edge of the bank with the top of two earthenware pipes just visible at its base, just a few centimetres below ground level. The earth had washed down into the pipes over the years, creating the hole. The pipes were almost certainly part of the ventilation system previously noted. Nearby an aerial tree was identified with fragments of the aerial feeder cable projecting from the bark. Because the entire site is a scheduled monument, no excavation of any sort was possible.

A report was prepared and submitted to the County Archaeologist who fortunately was interested enough to arrange for a further non-invasive investigation after obtaining the necessary permissions. Liz Caldwell from GeoFlo (www.geoflo.co.uk) was commissioned by the Southwest Heritage Trust, which was organised by Chris Webster, to survey the site. We think that this report represents the first time that an Operational Base was located by such techniques. With permission we include images from this report in an album of images form the site. The survey was conducted with a Fluxgate gradiometer (Bartington Grad 601-2 ) and Resistivity meter (TR/CIA Resistance Meter) processed with Geoscan Geoplot 3.00v software. The survey showed with a high degree of confidence the location of a structure underground, with a high magnetic signal, consistent with an elephant shelter structure. The ventilation pipes were not visible using these techniques.

On a repeat visit visit to the site, with a change in the conditions, a very shallow regular depression could be identified at the site identified by the non-invasive techniques. A further hole with a pipe junction was identified, in line with the first, supporting the interpretation of a ventilation system. Two aerial trees were identified. We do not believe there is a third extant tree at the site, though there is another tree with a lightning scar, an appearance that can look similar to an aerial scar. As both aerial trees and lightning strikes are located on high ground they can exist in close association.

Suffolk Comparisons

Coming right up to date, a group from Keele and London South Bank Universities have published a pre-print paper utilising several techniques, namely, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Resistivity, Conductivity and Metal detecting across three Operational Base sites, one intact, another collapsed and a third destroyed to test the modalities. Metal detecting proved valuable in locating the site of the structures, with GPR showing extant chambers and depths. The other modalities also produced useful information and allowed the construction materials to be identified. This is an interesting proof of concept study and suggests that the study of buried structures of the Auxiliary Units with non-invasive techniques is both useful and practicable. We look forward to further investigations of this nature.

Tomorrow we look at the Operational Base in 3D

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 6

Events No Responses »

Jul 162020

Surveying Sussex

When it comes to Auxiliary Units excavations in Sussex, CART has been fortunate to receive information from others doing the hard work on the ground.

Warningcamp

The Operational Base for the Warningcamp Patrol is a rather unusual one, with a box like structure of corrugated iron let into solid chalk, with heavy steel joists supporting the roof. Though there is no documentary evidence, the general consensus has been that such box like structures represent the earliest phase of Operational Base (OB) construction. The more familiar Nissen hut like elephant shelter appears to date from late 1941 based on a plan dated to the end of that year.

In 2014, the Sussex Military History Society conducted a comprehensive excavation of the site. This revealed a good deal of the structure and fittings of the OB. We can’t bring you the full report on this one but there are a few photos on our report on the Warningcamp Patrol provided by one of the diggers. There is a photo of one of the others mid-dig here, but please don’t be distracted by his excellent website on the Pillboxes of Sussex!

A couple of videos give a good overview of the site.

Exploring the Warningcamp Auxiliary Hideout

And mention of the Last Cowboy in Sussex, means we really have to share another Sussex link with you, not least as as it shows what the CART website once looked like. It can justifiably be included here as it shows a single find from the site!

Kingley Vale

The National Nature Reserve of Kingley Vale had been rumoured to be home to an Operational Base for the West Stoke Patrol. The South Downs National Park project “Secrets of the High Woods” utilised volunteers to investigate further. Oral history and a map marked up by a former site ranger provided clues for further fieldwork. An early report includes an images of the Observation Post.

Section 5.4 Modern on page 54 of the report documents the findings. The oral history account has moved since the report was written, with the extract, “They are the size of a house underground.”, discussing the OB while still accessible. The full Secrets of the High Woods document contains very little about the Auxiliary Units, but plenty of archaeology, with great LIDAR images from the project. It is included here for one CART member with a particular interest in OB water tanks – pictured on page 152.

Houghton Forest

You may have noticed the name of Mike Kallaway in the previous reports and he appears again as pone of a team from the Chichester and District Archaeology Society to bring us a very detailed report on the OB in Houghton Forest, most likely to have been used by the North Stoke Patrol. We have also been provided with an series of additional images of the OB showing more of the details described in the report. Note the very detailed LIDAR data with 0.2 m contours, but that the OB remains undetectable.

This OB differs from the Binnegar OB we saw earlier in the week, though shares an apparently similar basic structure. The main elephant shelter is set on a low wall. A shaft provides an entrance. The end walls are built from corrugated iron, and as is the case in the Hougton Forest OB, these tend to collapse more readily under the weight of soil. Both have ventilation systems, though at Houghton this appears limited to just four pipes. The drawings show all entering the top of the OB, though design elsewhere might suggest that perhaps those in the missing end wall might have run to nearer floor level. In addition they are made of cast iron rather than the glazed pipes seen at Binnegar. This seems to point to a slightly more basic design, perhaps suggesting an earlier build. The Sussex Auxiliary Units were among some of the earliest patrols to be set up. Alternatively this may simply represent the differences between different units undertaking the construction work, using the materials they were familiar with. In some parts of the country, escape tunnels appear to have been a later addition. In this case the loss of the end wall makes it difficult to determine if this was an original feature or later addition. There remains much to be learnt from a careful study of the construction of Operational Bases, matching that with the limited records of construction, to try and understand the development of their design over the period 1940 to 1944. The level of complexity varies widely, not withstanding local solutions to specific problems such as the waterproof box designs used on the low lying Romney Marshes in Kent. Plenty of scope for further research, which will be aided by careful recording of what remains available for study.

Tomorrow we will take a look at a the use of geophysical techniques to search out Operational Bases.

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 5

Events, OB's, Press No Responses »

Jul 152020

Small but sweet

After having presented some large scale projects, its time to recognise that not every archaeological excavation needs to be on this scale. The two projects described here are on a smaller scale, but produced very useful findings.

Bromyard Downs

In Herefordshire, the Bromyard Downs Project undertook an investigation of two possible Auxiliary Units hides identified from oral accounts. One consisted of nothing more than a depression in the ground. The other was only approximately located. Metal detecting revealed a possible locaiton for the latter and the presence of some concrete blocks.

The project online portal hosts the report.

The findings confirmed the oral history of the area. In this project we saw that even the history of the site from the 1970s and 1980s had been lost. One OB had been intentionally destroyed. However, with only the entrance shaft excavated, it is not impossible that some significant part of the main structure remains. A number of sites have been found where the entrance shaft was lowered and filled in, while leaving the main chamber of the structure intact.

It also featured in the local newspaper

Puddletown

CART undertook a small excavation on private land near Puddletown Forest, near Dorchester in Dorset. The location of the Operational Base had been identified by the landowner, who invited CART to investigate, though there were few visible remnants to see at the start. This excavation identified a section of brick wall, at the entrance to the OB. In other areas there was little apparent, but careful excavation revealed the remains of corrugated iron sheeting placed vertically. Groups of nails were found in clusters with occasional fragments of wood preserved where the iron had leached into the wood from the nails, slowing its decay. The original wooden framework had rotted away, as had the majority of the corrugated iron. Changes in colour and texture were all that identified the edges of the structure and where the corrugated iron walls had been.

Nearby in a large hollow, a number of .45 calibre cartridge cases and bullets were found. Possibly from a Thompson Sub-Machine gun, these might have been the result of practice by the Auxiliary Units men. However, the US Army also trained in the area and used the same weapon, so could also have fired this weapon here. The presence of 1942 dated .300 rifle rounds supported the latter interpretation.

Excavations are not complete at this site, but current findings suggest that the structure was a box like underground hide built with a wooden frame. When the area was planted as forest, after the war, the weight of the trees above the OB appear to have caused it to collapse.

We have a small gallery of this excavation for you to view.

Tomorrow we look at Sussex and the work of Chichester and District Archaeology Society there.

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 2

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Jul 122020

CART’s first archaeological project investigating the Auxiliary Units was Coleshill Uncovered.

As the headquarters of Auxiliary Units Coleshill House and Estate was known to have housed the training facilities and hosted many Auxiliers through the war. However the only previous investigation had been by the Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group (RMARG). They had made some significant finds, not least the demonstration Operational Base. They excavated the escape tunnel which had collapsed, creating a walk in entrance. They also found an observation post and possible ammunition bunker.

Coleshill Uncovered took a variety of approaches;

The underground water tunnels, reportedly used by Auxiliary Units, were investigated

A survey of the site identified a number of structures not previously recorded.

Metal detecting revealed evidence of training and men living at the site.

Using a magnetometer allowed the OBs and demonstration hatches to be found.

Excavation revealed details about surviving structures that indicated their design and construction.

Some of the highlights were;

The discovery of a bayonet concealed in wall close to where the escape tunnel of the demonstration OB exited. Once a stone was removed it could be retrieved. It is thought this was was part of the demonstration of how to prepare for the worst, but it is remarkable to think this had stayed on place for so long.
The uncovering of a number of demonstration hatch covers, showing the range of designs in use. It was remarkable to be able to match one of these to the plans handed out as part of the Patrol Leader’s Course at Coleshill to men from across the country
Being able to see the internal layout in one of the Nissen huts due to marks left on the concrete floor, once a mat of vegetation had been rolled back
Finding identifiable fragments from an aircraft and a German artillery piece, which confirmed verbal accounts of Coleshill in wartime which had been recounted to the National Trust staff by visitors over the years.

CART hosts the reports from this series of studies and also images of all the finds

Project Stage One and Stage Two

As an extra for the Festival we have uploaded some previously unseen images of the excavations

Please do comment on the photos, particularly if you see something unusual or can help identify something.

The Finds Register is useful to have open while you browse the finds images.

And as another extra, we have a report on the Firing Range with its supplement.

More recent visits to the site have not revealed any additional finds, though we do have a wartime image now of what is believed to be the same location.

CART @ Festival of Archaeology 2020 – Day 1

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Jul 112020

For the first day of the Festival we at CART would like to introduce you to archaeology as it relates to the Auxiliary Units.

Conflict Archaeology is the term used for the archaeology of modern warfare, typically of the 20th Century. It also includes the wealth of material, including personal accounts of use, from those that were involved with locations. This is somethig that rarely if ever exists for more ancient sites. It considers more than just what can be dug up, including how sites are perceived over time.

Until quite recently, structures left over from the Second World War were generally considered eyesores, something to be cleared out of the way to get to the actual archaeology from hundreds of years ago. However, archaeological techniques can be applied to excavating wartime structures. It can uncover information that has otherwise been lost, despite being in the recent past.

When we think about Auxiliary Units perhaps the most obvious structures are the underground Operational Bases (OBs). Yet we know relatively little about when most were built, and even less about how they were built. We have a couple of documents showing designs, yet almost all OBs differ in some way.

But Auxiliary Units did not spend all of their time underground, in fact documentary and personal accounts indicate quite the opposite. They had training centres and headquarters, and practiced their skills against various military structures.

Defence of Britain logo

If we start at the beginning, perhaps the first attempt to apply some archaeological process to the Auxiliary Units story was the Defence of Britain Project. This aimed to document the location and type of all wartime sites in Britain, with some basic information and in some cases images or measurements, or other written evidence. It ran between 1995 and 2001 and although administered by the Council for British Archaeology, the fieldwork was almost entirely done by volunteers without any formal training. There was no follow up investigation of the sites by excavation or any other means. The result was a database that is still available to search online.

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/dob/

As part of CART’s history, this was an important project as it put researchers interested in Auxiliary Units from around the country in touch with others working cooperatively with a common purpose. Many of those original Defence of Britain volunteers are members of CART or have contributed information to this website.

Probably the first formal archaeological report on an Auxiliary Units site came from Wales. We would like to thank Martin Locock, the author for permission to host a copy here.

An Auxiliary Unit ‘hide’ (Operational Base) at Cilybebyll, Neath Port Talbot. Archaeology in Wales 40 (2000), 57-59.

With decades of hindsight, we now know that the alcove described most likely would have housed an Elsan toilet, and that the winch mechanism was for the door. This highlights how knowledge alters the interpretation of the same findings. The Royal Observer Corps underground bunkers of the post-war era, were equipped with radio aerials that could be elevated by winding them up from inside. These structures had no need to be completely concealed from an enemy, as they were designed for monitoring nuclear fall out. We know now that Auxiliary Units had better ways to conceal an aerial from even close scrutiny, described in the Special Duties part of this website.

This was the Operational Base for the Pontarwarde Patrol

Martin Locock has his own award winning archaeology blog with top tips for project managers

http://10simplesteps.blogspot.com/

In Essex in 2006, came one of the first formal archaeologial excavations of an Operational Base. Based on a accounts of a structure and the presence of a depression, a small excavation revealed eveidence of the structure.

The report can be read here

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-4…

Further information was recorded in a subsequent project documenting World War Two Heritage in Essex

https://www.worldwar2heritage.com/en/page/9069/190/British-Resistance-H…

Some additional Images are in the Essex Sites and Monuments Register

https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MEX1…

Read the CART Patrol report here, with the men fully identified for the first time

https://www.staybehinds.com/patrol/maldon-patrol

The site is now being preserved and hopefully its Auxiliary Units history can be incorporated in the future interpretation at the site.

Rather a nice example of the extended scope of Conflict Archaeology. We don’t just have the report of the excavation, but this prompted accounts of the use of the site to come to light. Providing publicly accessible reports brought forward more information over time. The presence of a boat in the mill race as a getaway vehicle was empheral and could never have been deduced from excavation. Yet it explains the structure, specifically why the escape tunnel was built to open into the Mill Race. For the modern volunteers restoring the Mill, it provides an alternative way to interpret the structure and an additional element to the history of the site.

We’ll be back with more for Day 2 tomorrow