CARVED FROM ROCK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1944, Page 4

CARVED FROM ROCK

AN UNDERGROUND CITY IN BRITAIN VAST STORE OF MUNITIONS. FOR INVASION OF EUROPE. From an underground city carved out of solid rock and rivalling sections of the famous Maginot and Siegfried Lines will flow much of the ammunition to be used in the Allied invasion of Europe, an American correspondent in London wrote recently. “The existence of this huge bombproof arsenal, along with the fact that the British started building it seven years ago, was made public recently (in November) for the first time as Press representatives were taken through it on a guided tour.

“It has been one of this country’s best-kept war secrets and reporters looked on in amazement as a War Office official explained how some old, abandoned quarries were converted into a giant subterranean warehouse for explosives. “Details of the vast stores are of course secret. All that can be said is that there are stacks and stacks more of ammunition ready for the big day. “Away back in 1936, someone at the War Office with a hunch about the future had what then was considered a wild idea for utilising the unused quarries as storage areas. Starting with a small crew of specialists, the number of workers was drawn from all over England and grew into thousands. Hundreds of thousands of tons of rock had to be moved and new tunnels cut linking old caves. All the workmen were sworn to secrecy. “All that was known about their mole-like jobs was that they were working at ‘the dump.’ Hundreds of rumours spread about the place, but the public never knew exactly what was going on. The most persistent rumour was that it was an emergency food store. It was —food for guns. . “One enters the underground city through what looks like an or dinar j railway tunnel. The interior is a maze of tunnels, rail lines, conveyor belts, elevators, storage rooms, offices, and barracks for workmen and guards. “ ‘I was here three months before. 1 could say I knew the place properly, -

said the commanding officer. A stranger gets hopelessly lost in five minutes- , i “Over the entrance of one of the great storage sections is painted the words, ‘Germany’s Bogey.’ “Among other features of the place is a telephone exchange operated by A.T.S. (Auxiliary Territorial Service, girls), modern workshops, an air-con-ditioning system, and an emergency venerating plant powerful enough to provide power and light for a whole to “ Yet on emerging from the depths of the earth into daylight, one sees only peaceful pasture land and grazing cows.”