X-Ray Specs

Likely manufactured in the late-1960s but updated in the mid-1980s - the Freed transformer inside is dated August 1969, but the Soderberg anti-collision beacon October 1985 - this Halsey industrial X-ray warning device was used by the United States military. The item bears an affixed metal plate, plus a sticker from the time of its disposal, that together provide valuable information on its origins.

The Disposal Turn-In Document (DTID) number acts as a unique disposal serial number. The first six places provide the Address Activity Code. FB5587 is RAF Lakenheath. The light was, thus, used by the USAAF. The next four places indicate the date the item was catalogued for disposal. Per the US military's adaptation of the Julian dating system, 9196 is 6 April 1991.

The National Stock Number (NSN) system was standardised by NATO in 1974 to track military assets, although versions of it existed prior. The first four places indicate the Federal Supply Classification Group. FSCG 9905 is for signs, advertising displays and identification plates: even military ID plates have their own ID codes! 00 in the fifth and sixth places indicates the United States.

Demilitarisation Codes indicate the degree of physical destruction required. DEMIL: A denotes a non-munitions/non-strategic item that does not demand any such. $2,245.63 is understood to be the asking price at disposal in 1991, over £3,000 at 2017 prices. The Federal Condition Code is given as A1 - serviceable without qualification, new/unused.

Halsey was a trademark of Post Glover Medical Products, of Erlanger, Kentucky. Established in 1938, the company supplied medical items, including X-ray illumination boxes. It still trades, as PG LifeLink. The light would have been supplied via the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Georgia, part of the USAAF's Materiel Command.

Shaped like a truncated pyramid, the device stands 29 inches tall. When switched on the Lucite panels are illuminated from within, and the twin bulbs in the beacon rotate within the red glass housing. Built to operate on US 115v mains, the light has been converted to run on UK 240v, with a new transformer inserted to provide steeped-down voltage for the 28v DC beacon. The original transformer and Hubbell connectors have been left in place, to enable any future reinstatement to the original set-up.

(Many thanks to Steve and Karen Myciunka, of Mullard Magic, for assistance with the item's history; and to various members of the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Forum for advice and parts.)

Sofia - Monument to the Soviet Army

Built in 1954, on the tenth anniversary of the 'liberation' of Bulgaria by the Soviet Army, the monument to that army features a central pedestal, 121 feet high, topped by a statue featuring a soldier and a Bulgarian family. 

This is surrounded by a large enclosed area, now somewhat ruinous, on the leading edge of which are two secondary but still monumental sculptures. The figures are secretly painted from time-to-time to indicate solidarity with various peoples and countries subjected to present-day Russian totalitarianism.

Sofia - Museum of Socialist Art

Originally to be named the Museum of Totalitarian Art, but concentrated solely on communist works, the collection of the museum is hidden away in a nondescript block in the outer Iztok district of Sofia. It opened in 2011, and consists of paintings, busts and statues from 1944 to 1989, the period of the USSR's control of Bulgaria.

The collection includes a statue of Georgi Dimitrov, first General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (more snappily Stalin's Puppet), by Lubomir Dalchev (late 1960s, above); and the statue of Lenin, by Lev Kerbel (1971), that used to dominate Nezavisimost (Independence) Square. Pride of place goes to the five-pointed star that topped Party House in the same square from 1954 to 1989.

UK Weapons of Mass Destruction

One of the normally inaccessible features of the Rhydymwyn Valley Works, developed by ICI in 1939 to manufacture and store mustard gas, is the tunnel system. Three tunnels (central one in bottom photo) were driven about 600 feet into the side of the valley, through limestone, and connected by four cross-tunnels, the stores (below). The system was designed to enable the storage of 3,120 tons of mustard gas, both Runcol and Pyro.

The site's production facilities were closed at the end of the war, when most of the UK's chemical weapons stocks were simply dumped at sea. But the country's then 'strategic reserve' of mustard gas remained stored in the Rhydymwyn tunnel facility until its destruction in 1958-60.

The store was ventilated by means of two huge extractor fans, at the top of the chimneys at the ends of each of the north and south tunnels. Air was drawn into the tunnels, deflected into a void above a mild steel ceiling throughout the storage areas, down through vents in this, and drawn out through grille-covered floor ducts, and up the chimneys. The steel ceiling was carried on concrete corbels.

Edgbaston Bunker

Below the garden of what was originally an Edwardian family residence in sedate Meadow Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, lies a Cold War bunker. Constructed in 1954 to be used by up to 80 civil defence bureaucrats in the event of nuclear war, the extensive facility is a single-storey structure in concrete, with steps down from one entrance (top) and up to two fire exits (below).

The bunker could produce its own power, using diesel engines and generating sets, and had its own store of water. Never used for its intended purpose, in 1956 the space provided temporary shelter to refugees who had fled the Hungarian Uprising.

The mansion and surrounding land, including the bunker, was sold by Sandwell Metropolitan Council, for the West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority, in 1990. The council made it a rather insane condition of the sale that, if nuclear war had not broken out by 2003, the bunker was to be demolished. It's still there.

At points during the 1990s the bunker was reportedly used for raves. It was at some juncture converted by the owners into a social club, complete with bar (above), pool table, band practice room, and skittles alley, originally the main corridor (below).

The naivety of those 'preparing' for nuclear war is illustrated by the fact that the bunker lies downhill from a large reservoir, damage to which would have flooded the secure site. Ironically, it was fire, in the form of arson, that ultimately did for something that would supposedly survive a nuclear attack.

Canvey Island Concrete

Just five miles east to west, three miles north to south, and of seven square miles, Canvey Island, in the Thames estuary, feels like a world of its own. The low-lying land is criss-crossed by creeks, and accessed by means of one of two bridges.

Settled since the Roman period, Canvey was first protected from the sea in the 1620s, the reclamation work, which conjoined a number of smaller islands, possibly undertaken by the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden. The island was largely agricultural until the twentieth century, but in the 1930s became popular with Londoners wanting to take the air.

The International style Labworth Café, of reinforced concrete, was opened in 1933. This is the only building in the world designed solely by the famous engineer Ove Arup, who modelled it upon the bridge of RMS Queen Mary. Originally called the Canvey Island Café, this became known by the word "Labworth" painted in large letters on the inland side, the building constructed as it was on the Labworth Estate.

Canvey was inundated in 1953 by the North Sea flood, which claimed 58 lives, and between 1973 and 1982 gained 15 miles of upgraded and massive sea walls, running around 75% of the island. Construction of these buried the supporting piles of the Labworth, reducing it to two storeys.

The building only narrowly escaped demolition, but found a new lease of life in the late 1990s, having been Grade II listed in 1996. In 2001 the building was altered again, decidedly for the worse, when the shelters that had formed its wings, which originally had ship-like railings atop them, were enclosed.

During WWII a common weapon against shipping was the magnetic naval mine, often dropped by parachute. Although this was largely a redundant technology by the time of the Cold War, in 1963 the Admiralty built the Degaussing Range Station (below), known locally as the Canvey Loop.

In two loops of thick cable on the bed of the Thames a charge was induced by the magnetism of passing ships' hulls, which charge was detected at the station. Where the readings demanded this, the ships could then be degaussed. The station closed when the new seawall, the steel piles of which would have severed the cables, was constructed, although it was only declassified in 1993 - the equipment remains partially secret.

ROC Post - Inside View

As previously documented, over 1,500 underground posts were built across the UK during the 1950s, from which the Royal Observer Corps would, it was naïvely supposed, report on the number, location and strength of nuclear explosions.

The post at Nesscliffe, Shropshire, has no padlocks on the hasps of the access hatch, and the Torlift lock is easily opened with the aid of the right tools. Although the paint is peeling, the shaft is in good condition.

The sump pump at the foot of the shaft is still in place and serviceable (above). To the right of this, the toilet cubicle retains its Eltex chemical toilet.

The chamber of the post has been largely stripped, but there are small remains of the Bomb Power Indicator (above). As was common, the post was built at the same site as the aircraft spotting and identification installation associated with the ROC's earlier function.

At Nesscliffe there remains a hut associated with the earlier spotter facility. Inside there is an old stove at one end, and the ubiquitous chemical toilet at the other.

St Nazaire U-Boat Pens

One of five such facilities built in occupied France by the Third Reich, the submarine base at St Nazaire was constructed by the Organisation Todt, within the existing harbour, to provide protected repair and supply facilities for Germany's U-boats.












The base, 984 feet long, 426 feet wide, and 59 feet high, was developed in four phases. Pens 6, 7 and 8 were built between February and June 1941; pens 9 to 14 between July 1941 and January 1942; and pens 1 to 5 between February and June 1942. A fortified lock was built between late 1943 and early 1944, to provide protected access from the Loire.

 
The 14 pens could house up to 20 U-boats. These were protected by a roof 28 feet thick, a layer cake of reinforced concrete, granite and steel beams. A 'Frangrost' layer towards the top provided voids into which the blast from bombs was dissipated.

































Within the fortified lock lies the French submarine Espadon (Swordfish). Built at Le Havre in 1958, the Espadon is not dissimilar to a WWII German U-boat. Home to a crew of over 60, sharing two bunks between three, it remained in service until the early 1980s.

Welsh Mustard

The Valley Works of Rhydymwyn, near Mold, was founded in 1939 as a facility for the production and storage of mustard gas by ICI’s Special Products Division. It takes its name from the Alyn Valley. The Alyn was culverted and, back in the days before we pretended to give a damn about the environment, used to discharge toxic waste into the estuary of the River Dee.

  

The site was split into four main areas: mustard gas production, bulk storage in three tunnels driven into the limestone flanks of the valley, the filling of shells, and the fitting of these with explosives and fuses (one of the magazines is pictured above). The facility provided for the production of over 300 tons per week.

Mustard gas production stopped at the end of WWII. From 1947 to 1959 the tunnels were home to the UK's strategic stocks. Ultimately the material was dumped at sea or burned on site, which remained as a buffer depot until the early 1990s. Some remediation work was undertaken in 2003, but the site undoubtedly remains toxic, and is thus securely fenced and guarded. 

There were originally 200 or so buildings. About 50 remain. One, building P6, was converted in 1942 to house equipment used to test how feasible it might be to separate the isotope U-235 on an industrial scale. This was for Tube Alloys, the codename for part of Britain's nuclear programme. This ended in 1945 when America constructed and used the world's first nuclear weapon, humankind's next generation of WMD. 

Church & State, God & the Bomb

Atop Beacon Hill, overlooking Holme upon Spalding Moor, five miles from Market Weighton, stands All Saints church. "Holme" refers to the hill, about which the land is otherwise flat, as the word is Danish for an island. The church is of the thirteenth century, with walls of both stone and brick.

A couple of hundred yards away is an ROC post (YMGW passim), complete with an Orlit-made, pre-cast reinforced concrete, aircraft spotting post of the 1950s. This one is a type B, on stilts. The steel door is still present, although detached from its hinges.

Hack Green, Nuclear War Bunker

Hack Green started life in 1941 as a fixed radar station. It was one of only a dozen provided with both searchlights and the communications facilities to control fighter aircraft. After WWII, radar technology needed to be updated to cope with jet aircraft, and to be protected against nuclear strikes. Accordingly, Hack Green was refitted as a Rotor radar station. Fully staffed, the site was home to over 260 personnel.



In 1958 the site was one of four that provided joint civil and military air traffic control. As an RAF station, Hack Green closed in 1966, yet a decade later the Home Office acquired the site from the MoD, for conversion into one of the regional seats of government proposed to operate in the event of nuclear war.



A massive bunker was constructed, partly underground, to provide for self-contained power generation and air filtration; decontamination facilities; and communication, control and broadcasting functionality. Were the Emergency Powers Act to be invoked, the 135 civil servants and military staff bunkered in the RGHQ at Hack Green would have sought to govern the area from Cheshire to Cumbria, or at least what was left of this.



Hack Green RGHQ operated from 1984. Like its counterparts in other parts of the UK, it was sold in the early 1990s. It is now home to a splendid collection of radar, civil defence, and cold war exhibits, drawn together by Rodney Siebert, the site's curator. Some of the communications equipment, all valves and flashing lights, came from Criggion (YMGW passim).

Le Drapeau Tricolore

About four inches of snow at home. It's interesting that, when referring to snowfall, the BBC still, rightly, uses the imperial system, especially given that it's otherwise capitulated to the use of metric units on so many fronts. We all still use gallons too: how many ever state the miles per litre that their car will manage?