Hack Green (RGHQ 10.2)
Location: Nantwich Cheshire
In 1941 Hack Green, a site previously used as a bombing decoy site for the main railway centre at Crewe was chosen to become RAF Hack Green, Following World War II, a major examination of radar capability showed that our existing radar defence would be unable to cope with the threat posed by fast jet aircraft, let alone nuclear missiles. Any operational station needed to be protected against the new threat posed by nuclear weapons. 'Rotor' was the code name given to the Top Secret plan to replace the Chain Home and Ground Controlled Intercept radar network.
Hack Green was a semi-sunk bunker known as a type R6. RAF Hack Green joined 12 Group protecting Britain against the perceived Soviet threat of both conventional and nuclear war. As a Rotor station, Hack Green had a compliment of 18 officers, 26 NCO's and 224 corporals and aircraftsmen. 1958 brought yet another change in Hack Green's role when it became part of The United Kingdom Air Traffic Control System, one of 4 joint civil/military Air Traffic Control Units.
In 1976 the abandoned site at Hack Green was purchased from the MOD by the Home Office Emergency Planning Division to be converted into a protected seat of government for Home Defence Region 10:2. It was cloaked in considerable secrecy over a five year period. At a cost reputed to be some £32 million, the original Rotor radar bunker was converted into a vast underground complex containing its own generating plant, air conditioning and life support, nuclear fallout filter rooms, communications, emergency water supply and all the support services that would be required to enable the 135 civil servants and military personnel to survive a sustained nuclear attack.
The HQ became operational in
1984, region 10s other bunker at Southport, Lancashire was unsatisfactory and
prone to flooding so its duties were transferred to Hack Green, which became
responsible for a huge area from Cheshire in the south to Cumbria in the north.
The HQ would have been headed by a Regional Commissioner who would have been an
appointed civil servant or minister. Under the Emergency Powers Act he would
govern his defence region, and neighbouring regions if other RGHQ's had been
destroyed. He would attempt to Marshall the remaining resources to put the
region back on its feet and prepare for the re-establishment of national
government. He was assisted by a network of County War Headquarters and the
United Kingdom Warning & Monitoring Organisation.
Source: Text reproduced with kind permission of
Hack Green Secret Nuclear
Bunker
Below are a selection of photo's from my visit last year, well worth the visit, I could put loads of info on here about ROTOR and the RGHQ's but best advice it to visit Subterranea Britannica RGHQ's and ROTOR for more detailed information
