Quote:
Originally Posted by RN7
On a side note; through looking more deeply at British military bases there are a lot of little known bunkers complexes that have turned up across the UK that's worth a mention. Makes you wonder what the British government was up to during the Cold War, and what's still out there. I can't find any information on it at the moment, but I saw something on TV a while back about a top secret base beneath an RAF air base with its own underground railway system. Does anyone know about it?
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Hi RN7,
Several locations were set up as Contingency Centres for Continuation of Government in the event that Central Government was taken out. The specific locations changed a few times throughout the years...there's an overview on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiona..._of_Government
There was also a bunker at Corsham in Wiltshire, which was intended for use by central Government (provided there was enough time for them to get out of London). However, as far as I know by the end of the 1960's British Intelligence believed that their Soviet counterparts knew of the Corsham bunker's existence and it would have been a likely target in any nuclear exchange. As it was thought it was unlikely that it could have survived a direct hit (dependent on the size of the weapon), plans were changed, but the bunker remained in existence. I believe the new plan called for members of central Government to "scatter" to different places rather than all congregate in one place. Those different places would include (but not be limited to) the Regional Seats of Government.
The Corsham bunker may have had an underground rail network (although I suspect it would be similar to that found in a mine!) I have also read various pieces on the web speculating that there is some sort of secret underground rail network underneath London linking Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Parliament etc, but Government Ministers have gone on record as stating this is not the case (of course if it's secret they're not going to say otherwise!). I've never heard anything about an RAF base with a rail network underneath it, but the most likely candidate would probably be High Wycombe.
Other useful links on the subject are here (for info about the bunkers themselves)
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/
And here (a set of articles on HMG's plans in the event of nuclear war)
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/featur...new_page_1.htm
And here (The Government's London Command Centre)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militar..._London#Pindar
Hope this helps...