# Greenham Common WW2 Bomb Dump



## hydealfred (Feb 18, 2011)

Greenham Common is well documented on DP however, I dont think from my searches on here and on the net that the following site has been. Although I stand to be corrected.

The following shots are of the bomb dump at Greenham that is well hidden away. I believe the site dates from World War Two. In early 1944 the airfield was used by P47 Thunderbolts for fighter sweeps over the French Coast prior to D-Day. I assume that the bomb dump was built to store bombs used on this type of mission. The access tracks are still in place and appear to cross over the road that runs along the perimeter of the airfield on its northern side. Whether the site was used in later years whilst B47's were staioned here during the 1950's I do not know. So any further history would be welcome. The shots were taken February 2011. 

One of the access roads - now a footpath 







Large piles of rubble mark the site of former buildings 






There are several sites off of the access tracks at the dump that have these earth banks 






To the rear of these earth banks are raised platforms which I assume to be loading bays 






Along the bricks walls of the platforms are these rings which I would say are for camouflage tie downs






Remains of the perimeter fencing 






These concrete structures are a bit of a mystery - so over to you 






More of the above 






Another part of the bomb dump with access track, loading platform and earth banks 






This fork in the track leads to the front and rear of the bomb dump structures 






There are several of these hardstandings - behind further rubble from demolished buildings 






A curious building stands well concealed near the tracks. I would assume it is something to do with fuzing 
or the like. It is very small and has two rooms with a separating wall (confirmed by AiX as a components 
store for the storage of fuzes)






Further view of the above building 






The remains of the building lighting - similiar to what I have seen at St Merryn and Grove 






The remains of electrical switch gear 






Across the other side of the site and access road there are further earthworks which also appear related 
to bomb dump activities. This part of the site links with the road on the Northern side of the former airfield. 






Thanks for looking.


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## Badoosh (Feb 18, 2011)

The concrete sections are part of a Stanton shelter by the looks of it.


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## jindivik (Feb 18, 2011)

Very nice hydealfred, intriguing,no doubt there is somebody here who will explain the above 
cheers Ian (snowdon)


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## tommo (Feb 18, 2011)

reminds me of savernake forest bomb store, nice one fella


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## Zotez (Feb 18, 2011)

I have never seen this before so I will take a look - I do know a few military structures were knocked down around 7 years ago near Greenham Common becuase I remember seeing them in bits.


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## Munchh (Feb 19, 2011)

Badoosh said:


> The concrete sections are part of a Stanton shelter by the looks of it.



Agreed, prefab arches.

Good work alf this site is news to me.


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## Foxylady (Feb 19, 2011)

Some great finds there, Alf. Yes, I thought about Stanton shelters too, albeit very scrunched up! lol.
Fab photos. Cheers.


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## night crawler (Feb 19, 2011)

The sections are airraid shelter sections, think you will find there are a similar type at Hapstread Norryes.


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## krela (Feb 19, 2011)

I'm pretty sure they're not specifically stanton shelter pre-fab pieces, they're the wrong shape. But I do agree they are shelter pieces of another design...


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## King Al (Feb 19, 2011)

Nice find Fred! looks like a good place for a ramble about


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## luckystrike (Feb 20, 2011)

Thanks for the pic's very interesting.

Picture 4 shows the wall that looks like a railway platform, well its actually the unloading wall. Lorries would deliver the bombs to the site along the delivery road loop and pull up next to the wall, the flat beds of the lorries being the same height as the wall to make it easy to roll the bombs across.

Picture 5 the hoop in the wall. Once the bombs had been rolled off the lorries onto the top of the wall a rope would be run through the hoop and looped around the bomb. The bomb would then be rolled down the earth slope on the other side of the wall with the rate of descent being checked by the rope. A simple system that worked, one man could roll the bomb down the slope single handed.

The bombs were then stored in the middle between the banks, when the bombs were picked up and taken to the airfield for a mission the tractors and bomb trailers would collect the bombs from the other side of the storage area using the seperate loading road loop. Theres no bank on the collection side because the trailers were always low to fit under aircraft.

All bomb stores had some sort of escape shelter in case something went wrong!, these were usually on the other side of a large earth blast bank. This is what the demolished shelter was in your picture. Rumour has it that it was demolished during the Greenham Common ladies peace camp days, authories thought some of the ladies might want to set up home in there.

Your final picture shows one of the other bomb storage areas on the loop, most bomb stores had two or three seperate storage areas but all along the same loop of roads.

Luckystrike


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## Curious Dragon (Feb 20, 2011)

Some great pictures there. You can see how easily this site could be missed or just disregarded.
It looks like it was a great day for exploring too.

I am still adding to my knowledge of how different sites operated and this has filled in few more gaps, thank you.


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## TK421 (Feb 20, 2011)

Really interesting site, and lots of existing infrastructure to see lurking in the trees, great report!


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