Cold War Sites

Fort Southwick COMMCEN

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This page has sparked off a good deal of interest from former Royal Navy and other personnel who have contacted me via e-mail. Many of them refer to the WWII UGHQ which was used up until 1974.

Here are some extracts. The italicised comments in [] brackets are mine.

You might be interested to know that through the summer of 1949 [this date is consistent with the WWII UGHQ closure - see top of page] I was the Leading Stores Assistant who supervised the de-storing of Fort Southwick of all its Naval stores and equipment.

The small Naval party who travelled from Portsmouth Barracks every day to work at the Fort roamed all over the tunnels and the underground rooms, which had been used during the D-Day Landings by Churchill and staff, and during those hot summer days we often lay around sun-bathing on the grassy areas atop the Fort. There was absolutely no-one else there - no other sounds or music, and the place had a very eerie feel to it. 

We also moved some furniture and equipment from the Mountbatten's home near Fort Southwick, which had been used as a Wren's barracks during the war.

At the conclusion of the de-storing I was de-mobilized from my extended service agreement, in September 1949.

I am now almost 77 years of age, and have lived in Canada since 1961. Thanks for the memory.

Sid Kerry, Chilliwack, B.C.,Canada - June 2005

I was a sparker at the Fort in 66-67. I worked on CCN call sign MTN.

When I worked there it was all underground a long way down and seemed further coming up, after an 8 hour watch. All the staff were Commander in chief Portsmouth.. Most communications there were tape really and some teleprinter services between Admiralty and Northwood constant signals traffic.

I personally worked the Costal Common Net on Morse. All ships in the Portsmouth area kept a constant watch on the frequency. There were general periods every 2 hours when we sent out signals to the ships, most were in code and encrypted call signs. Security was high grade. 

I do remember there was a maze of tunnels and some were blocked off. There was a galley and sleeping quarters. There was a back passage that came out on the cliffs overlooking Portsmouth, where we went every morning to burn the "secret waste" .

It was of course a NATO communications HQ but before my time, most of the guys lived in Portsmouth Barracks except those of us who were married then we lived ashore, in married quarters in Rowner.

I had heard that the place was haunted, though I personally never heard or saw anything unusual.

I have many happy memories of the place and in particular one Wren called Pauline Willis. I would like to find her again if possible. I now live in Australia, have been here over 30 years.

Johnny Mackin - ex RN - April 2004

I used to work for BT and in the early days (1965/6 ish) I worked in the GPO tunnels quite a bit. I remember one year when the Navy were on their exercises for 2 weeks in the summer, we had 12 hour shifts down there (midnight to midday or midday to midnight).

My recollection is that the colour photo you have of the tunnel with the lining left on (yellow & green painted) could be the GPO tunnel shown as 96 in the plan with the carrier room in the background. Along the right hand wall (where the lighter-colour band is showing) was seating – dark red leatherette, I think.

Another memory is that instead of going up and down those stairs with the little man drawings, we used to gain access via the South Adit – down the access road showing in another of your photos. Outside the South Adit, there was a car park in which we used to play cricket or football in our lunch hours. Pity the poor bloke who knocked the ball over the side – he had to retrieve it!

I remember that we had to go in the South Adit, which if I remember it is shown as EE2 on the plan, along the tunnel and enter the GPO tunnels via rooms 83 & 84 on the plan. Into room 85, at the top end of of which, just before you go into the power room, I seem to recall we had a table tennis table as well. At the bottom end was the Main Distribution Frame for the incoming cables etc. and then you turned left into 96, the first half of which was the admin part with our switchboard and records etc. The second half, where I think your photo tr16.jpg was taken, was our rest room.

George French (BT engineer retired) - 13 April 2004

During the mid to late 1950s my Father, a senior Naval Officer,  became responsible for the HQ under Fort Southwick. He was assured that it was kept ready for immediate operation. However, unlike his predecessors, he decided to inspect it.

He entered from Fort Southwick and clambered down the stairs. To his horror, he found that the emergency exit on the Paulsgrove cliff had 
been broken open. Everything of any value, including all the bedding, 
had been looted.

Richard - 14 February 2004

I visited Southwick several times during the late 60s and early 70s when I was with the then GPO.

The navy were still using the tunnels and I remember always going into the tunnels via the lower road. There was always a security man on the door, either a naval person or more usually an MOD policeman. 

Brian Wells (BT engineer retired) - 14 February 2004

I was ship's company at the Fort early 1947 following my return from the Mediterranean, after volunteering for submarines whilst on a course at STC (Signal Training Centre) Camarata, Malta. Being a telegraphist, my home base was HMS Mercury, then at Petersfield and they had sent me temporarily to the Fort before I was eventually drafted to HMS Deepwater, a diving tender, which had been handed over by the German navy as part of war reparations. Deepwater was the nearest I ever got to a submarine but at least my volunteering had got me an early Blighty ticket!

Believe it or not but I have no recollection of the steps referred to in
your pages. [This suggests that the WWII UGHQ was not in use at this time] My strongest recollections concern the trolleys we used to
take food stores down on, the tunnels as I remember them, being downward sloping affairs and we had a riot of fun riding these things down there, sometimes at break neck speed. [These must have been the original Victorian Magazine tunnels as they are the only ones which slope downwards. The food stores that Ron refers to were probably  taken to the northern Caponier which was used as a Galley (Kitchen) during WWII and it looks as if were still in use in 1947]

I was told that it had been Eisenhower's HQ for the D-Day landings but more likely to have been the Comms Centre for him, probably the reason why Fort Southwick still had a connection with the then HMS Mercury and my drafting there. I always have to work out when I was there but my main aide memoire is the Grand National which Caughoo won in 1947. I was on the second, Lough Conn which led virtually all the way round until Caughoo came out of the mist. I still swear he only went round once! Some guy at the Fort at the time was putting the name of Lough Conn up all over the place and I had an ante post bet on him.

 I also remember at the time one of the other forts being army owned, as we used to go to weekend dances there, the primary attraction being the ATS [Auxiliary Territorial Service] girls.

Ron Cuthbertson - ex RN - December 2003

During the late fifties [so the tunnels were re-used as early as this] I was involved in an exercise at this site. I had recently qualified as a radio operator (RO3 Special) at HMS Mercury just up the road at Leydene.
As a RN radio operator my task was to monitor telephone calls from a small room and check that all telephone calls were "scrambled". During one of my stints on the exchange Montgomery [this is THE Monty - Viscount Montgomery of Alamein] popped his head around the door and asked how we were doing. He was in civvies so I assume he was just a visitor and observing the exercise. By the way, it still surprises me today that so many senior officers had to be prompted to scramble their telephone.

John Tomkins - ex RN - September 2003

In 1966/67 I was based at HMS Dryad, in the very fair village of Southwick.( Very fair because like many other Hampshire villages in the area I frequently enjoyed the hospitality of the Red Lion and The Golden Lion ). Anyway I was then a Radio Electrical Mechanic and one of a number who did watch keeping duties at "The Fort." My job was watch-keeping on the transmitters in the transmitter room. This meant doing running maintenance and transmitter frequency tuning and retuning on a bank of old transmitters dating back to the 40s to give the communications team the channels they needed for sending messages around the MOD(N) / NATO network.

We used to go on watch driven in a small RN bus from Dryad, up the back lanes. 
The transmitter room was in an isolated part of the fort [northwest demi-caponier] entered through a steel door at the end of a tunnel. As memory serves the back of this area actually looked out into what I believe was part of a moat. It was spooky to say the least. The transmitter room duty was a lone job. I recall there was a small kitchenette for cooking scran [food] and brewing up. There was also a sleeping area with a bed and rough blankets. Can't recall where the head [latrine] was though, for some reason. Most of the watch was spent listening to the radio ( I think it was Radio Caroline or London, mainly), reading and answering the telephone to the radio operators who were based in another place. You won't be surprised to know that it was common practice to share stories with oppos about "ghostly experiences" in that place.

Trust me, being alone down there in that transmitter room, fed the active imaginations of many Matelots [RN sailors]. The very fact that the forts were built by Palmerston and then that they were so specifically a part of the WWII effort was enough to get most people going.

In spite of this my time at Dryad and Fort Southwick was great. I went on from there to work at Lascaris COMMCEN in Malta by the way, another fort would you believe?

David Imisson - ex RN - August 2003

I was 18 and served in the underground Commcen in 1962/63... I was an RO3(T) (recently promoted from Junior Signalman!) [Radio Operator 3rd Class - Tactical] having joined C in C staff after coming home on the Belfast from the Far East via the States and Canada... Although CinChan had offices up in the Citadel, it was all RN and a few Post Office staff down in the underground Commcen.

I got caught out in the Boxing day blizzard of 1962 [this was the Great Winter of 1962/63 when the Solent froze over] returning from leave to Dryad. As I was due on watch the next day I was dropped by a taxi at the bottom of the hill as he refused to go any further. I walked up to the top to find 'Road Blocked' snow signs.
It was around midnight and I started to walk back to Southwick village in
the dark. I struggled on through deepening drifts which if my memory serves me rightly were up around my thighs. I became very worried. Eventually I turned in the darkness and saw a light behind me on my left from one of the Police houses. I knew I would never reach Southwick and went and knocked on the door. I have no idea of what time it was but it was well after midnight. The policeman and his wife got up, took me in, thawed me out with toast and a drink and eventually he took me through ASWE to the Fort steps where I went down and was very early for my shift next day! The outgoing shift was stuck there for a couple of days as my watch couldn't get through.
 

At midnight each night someone (usually the youngest and most junior) had to go up from the underground centre to check the transmitters were all ok and not on fire. It involved climbing the steps to the Fort [there were 168 of them], getting the keys from the Policeman on the gate, walking around what we called the Moat [the Gorge north of the Citadel] and then down a tunnel under the parade ground  [Victorian magazine tunnel] until you came to a spiral staircase [Victorian ammunition lift]. You turned left at the spiral staircase and then down a tunnel hacked out of the rock until you arrived at some double doors. [this is the north west demi-Caponier] There was no getting out of it because you had to go in to the transmitting room, and phone the PO of the watch down in the Commcen to report everything was ok. I remember being back in the mess in Dryad and telling the lads that I didn't really like having to do it. When they asked me if I did it on my own they said "You must be mad, it's as creepy as hell", which it was! 
 

I remember exploring the tunnels under the Fort (not the Commcen tunnels) just before I left. We went in via the tunnel from the Moat [the Gorge at the rear of the Citadel], down to the spiral staircase and then carried straight on (rather than turning left to the transmitters). I remember we came to an area that had old bedsteads in it. [the north Caponier] This then seemed to go on for a way before being blocked off. [the Musketry Gallery in the northern ditch] It was rumoured that this went all the way to Southwick and was used by wartime staff to get down to the Commcen. [It doesn't I've checked, but the rumour still persists today] 

Martin Jordan - ex RN - July 2003

During my naval service, I was drafted to the Commcen at Fort Southwick and spent most of 1973 there. Each watch* consisted of about 10 naval personnel, including the switchboard operator (telephone exchange), and 3 or 4 civvies. There was also an engineering rating who looked after the machinery.

   For the most part, we would be bussed up from the dockyard, walk down the 170 or so steps before we got anywhere near to doing any work! Of course, watch completed, we would have to walk back up the stairs! There were 'stick-men' painted on the steps, upright at the bottom and falling over by degrees by the time you got to the top.

   The all-night-on watch was of 13 hours duration; there was a small kitchen at the back of the Commcen where we could knock up bacon sandwiches etc. Not everyone was required throughout the night; there were bunks mounted on the tunnel walls (they folded up when not required).

   The replacement Commcen was built on the parade ground at about this time. I recall moving equipment from the tunnel to the new building in the latter part of '73.

David Field - ex RN - May 2003

* Footnote:

A "duty watch" would be primarily responsible for the security of the area with additional duties covering health and safety of the area (fire patrols, first aid cover etc.). It could also cover minor maintenance (jobs to stop the boys getting bored) and general cleaning.

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