What a great day! Middlesex Light Blues members including friends and family rendezvous at the Daisy Cafe onsite at the Battle of Britain Uxbridge RAF Bunker on this chilly February day.
When we checked in as the Middlesex Light Blues Club, our tour guide, spotted we are Middlesex Freemasons and so Dilip introduced himself, turning out to be a fellow mason from the Province of Berkshire. We started the tour with a view outside the bunker entrance, proudly guarded by a Hurricane and a Spitfire.
On entering the bunker, you immediately sense the depth of the bunker that was built between February and August in 1939, just 7 months, taking the 76 steps down into the heart of the operations room. The bunker was completed just eight days before the outbreak of war in 1939 and saw its first action only six days after the outbreak of hostilities.
The bunker was home to No. 11 (Fighter) Group Operations, covering the South East of England for the balance of World War II. This compelling tour about the remarkable history and the role of this secret Operation’s Room deep below what was then RAF Uxbridge, is truly amazing, giving you a real sense of history and how close Britain was to invasion in 1940.
Brother Dilip gave us a diverse oration about the story of the world’s first integrated air defence system and how the coalition of the Hurricanes & Spitfires, Fighter Command’s Operations Rooms & Sector Scramble Stations, Radar Stations, Observer Corps posts, anti-aircraft gun & searchlight batteries, and balloon barrages, stood resolutely in the way of Operation Seelöwe, Hitler’s plan for invading Britain in the Summer of 1940. As the timeline of the Battle of Britain unfolded, many in the room felt the enormity of what took place.
The complexity of this integrated air defence system is truly astonishing, especially when you realise this had never been done before and was implemented so quickly, and became effective just as quickly, at a time that was pivotal to how Britain held out in 1939.
No. 11 Fighter Group
Royal Air Force
Operations Room
1939 – 1946
BENEATH THIS STONE IS THE SITE OF THE UNDERGROUND OPERATIONS ROOM FROM WHICH THE GREATER PART OF THE HURRICANE & SPITFIRE SQUADRONS WERE CONTROLLED DURING THE
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
DURING THIS EPIC BATTLE THESE SQUADRONS SHOT DOWN OVER 1300 OF THE 1733 ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED.
THIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENT CONTRIBUTED LARGELY TO OUR ULTIMATE SUCCESS AND SURVIVAL AND INSPIRED SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL’S NOW-FAMOUS WORDS
‘NEVER IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN CONFLICT WAS SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW
Once the bunker tour was complete, we made our way to the exhibition and visitor centre where we learnt more about how this key element of RAF history helped win the Battle of Britain.
This tour has made a definite impression on the members that attended, and we plan on booking this tour again in the future, and Brother Dilip looks forward to welcoming us again.
We wish to thank Bro Dilip for his excellent oration, and we look forward to seeing his book launch later in the year (Summer 2023) called ‘Enemy Sighted’ which details the history of the Battle of Britain Bunker.
Battle of Britain Bunker
Wren Avenue
Uxbridge
UB10 0GG
Battle of Britain Bunker Website http://battleofbritainbunker.co.uk/