Bunker boys were hiding in plain sight as paranoia grew

A flashback to the height of Cold War tensions and the role played on home soil in safeguarding peace and security by the Royal Observer Corps has prompted Edward Valentine to contact Craigie.

The Aberdeenshire resident relished Thomas Brown’s recent recollection of his time in the 1960s as a member of the now defunct civil defence organisation, which involved carrying out checks for nuclear activity from an underground bunker close to his home in Bankfoot, Perthshire.

Mr Valentine now brings us his own memories of serving in the division, along with further information about the responsibilities its personnel were charged with fulfilling.

He helpfully writes: “The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was set up in 1957.

“This was mainly staffed by Royal Observer Corps uniformed full-time and volunteer personnel in the field. The ROC was administered by the Air Ministry.

“The only time the organisation was on high alert in the Cold War was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.”

The Marykirk dweller adds that the warning and monitoring set-up was tasked with warning the public of any air attacks and of the approach of radioactive fallout, providing confirmation of a nuclear strike and supplying the civilian and military authorities in both the UK and Nato with details of nuclear bursts and the path of nuclear fall-out.

He goes on: “The Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts were equipped with bomb

power indicators, ground zero indicators and fixed survey meters.

“Many of the underground bunkers still exist in varying states of dereliction. I was a member of the Stonehaven (Post Bravo 3) 29 Group from 1962 to 1964, the Castle Douglas 22 Group from 1964 until 1966 and the Stonehaven group again from 1966 to 1970.

“Out walking recently with one of my daughters, we came across a bunker in a

remote area of Angus. I enjoyed explaining the functions of the various systems that once existed in this ‘hole in the ground.’”