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Shepherds Grove weapon store and Thor sites.
RAF Shepherds Grove was built for American use, but was opened by 3 group, RAF on April 3rd 1944. The name came from a small copse nearby and the airfield is close to Walsham le Willows in Suffolk. This store dated from its second lease of life, after WW2, when F86 Sabres were stationed here in 1951. Later, in 1954, F84 Thunderstreaks were based here. The nuclear store dates from February 1957 and Phil Unti, who was the NCO in charge of the #8 weapons detachment of the 1st tactical Depot Squadron here from 1957 to mid 1958 has been kind enough to fill in some gaps in my previous knowledge about this area. At this time, the 78th Fighter Bomber Squadron, flying Republic F84F's were here, as part of the 81st Fighter Bomber Wing. Later when the planes had gone, this airfield was to be used for Thor missiles, but the Thor site was on the main airfield and not on the bomb storage site. This storage area for the early American bombs is now very unusual and surprisingly complete. The rectangular area was originally double fenced although only one now remains, and was guarded 24 hours a day, as you might expect. Dogs patrolled between the fences dusk to dawn and in bad weather when visibility was reduced. There are two watch towers, one inside and one outside the surviving perimeter fence, which were manned at all times, as was the gate picket post. Due to this layout, I assume the surviving fence was originaly the inner one of the two. These towers are exactly the same pattern as the ones at Alconbury, but in more derelict condition. There are two igloo type buildings for the major part of the bombs, in the case of Shepherds Grove these were firstly Mk7's and later Mk28 thermonuclear weapons. The third igloo building, externally identical to the bomb stores where the main casings were kept on their bomb trolleys, was used for nuclear component storage and is different inside. The building is only about half as long as the main stores, and contains a huge concrete safe. The surviving writing on the wall states "You are in a N surveillance area. No smoking. No eating. No drinking." The two bomb stores are just reinforced concrete boxes, mounded in earth, with gravel filled steel doors. The largest building other than these is a large building on a single storey, with much weather damage now due to the roof being in very poor condition. This building was used for maintenance of the weapons (more detail with pictures). There was also a Nissen hut for general storage, and for painting the weapon casings. Once the fighter bombers and their weaponry was withdrawn, Thor missile pads were built on the main airfield in 1959 and the new personnel associated with them moved in. Little now remains of these and the area has returned to agriculture around them. Part of the main airfield site is now an industrial estate.


Entrance gate to store area.


Picket post inside gate.


Bomb store doors, nine inches thick made of one quarter inch thick steel plate filled with gravel.


Two igloo stores for main bomb bodies.


One of the watch towers.


Entrance to the third igloo, the nuclear component store. Note the extra ventilation louvres for a filtered air system.


Remains of air filter system.


Safe door in component store.


Sign on the outer wall of the safe.


Entrance to the maintenance building. In this first part, the bombs were taken apart for servicing. The office is ahead and at the far end of the building beyond the office is the area where the fusing system was serviced. You can see from the remains there was an impressive heating system to provide a stable atmosphere both for workers and bombs. To the right of the office is the lavatory, now in need of replacement!






In the fusing system bay, power points are still in place labelled 220V 3 phase and 110V and the copper earth strapping has gone but its place is visible still. All explosive stores were and still are earthed everywhere.


In the next bay are two bases where a pair of Budda 30Kw generators used to be. This part of the building also contained emergency lighting batteries. Outside is the wall which surrounded the generator deisel fuel tank and the pipework and fuel catchment drains are visible still.


Looking uphill toward the main airfield site, the maintenance building with the wall which surrounded the fuel tank just visible and one igloo and a watch tower in the distance. Beyond this is the airfield, now farmland.


The last building on the site was a Nissen hut which was used for general storage and painting of bomb casings, but time has taken its toll on this building and only the end walls and some of the roof spars remain.

Before the missile area was built the base was wholly staffed by American personnel. Here is a photo from some of the complement of staff in 1954. Click the image for a full size version, and its good enough despite the age to see faces clearly. let me know if you know anyone here, it would be nice to put some names to the faces!


On the main airfield site were three Thor missile pads, along with their associated works, of which very little remains. There are some concrete roads still in evidence, through which cable and pipe ducts passed. Of the pads themselves little remains now and that is covered with rubble and rubbish.


pipe and cable ducts to a Thor site.


Remains of the rail mounting for a Thor shelter end door, where the missile was stored out of the weather until required for use.

The entrance to the Thor site while it was in operation.


One of the Shepherds Grove Thors on its transport trailer about 1962


Diagram of the layout of the Thor pads, all were to the same design. Kerosene tank to the top right, LOX tank to the bottom left. Shelter drawn back, but missile not erected in this drawing.



Aerial shot of one of the Thor pads at Mepal just before it was removed for a power station. Kerosene tank base to the top, LOX to the bottom and the blast walls still in place. Compare to drawing above.



Supplementary Storage Area, RAF Wittering
The first generation of British nuclear weapons storage was refered to as a clutch, or B1 site. This was not found suitable for the period when weapons had to be stored close to the operational areas of the airfield and when American weapons were issued for use by the RAF. The improved storage area was called an SSA, or Supplementary Storage Area. This highly secure area was common to a number of airfields both in Britain and in Germany where the Nato forces were stationed to meet a potential Soviet threat. All of these areas are now redundant for their original purpose and some are derelict and will be removed in the near future, no doubt. The one at RAF Wittering is relatively complete and is still in good order. It is of historical interest in that it is the airfield where the very first nuclear weapons were issued to an operational unit of the RAF. This site was first of all involved in training for the units which would handle these weapons. Close by this old site, and not recorded by me along with other operational areas for obvious security reasons, is a high security area used by the Nuclear Weapons Convoy Group. This site has therefore spanned the whole period of RAF nuclear involvement. Beginning in 1953 the Bomber Command Armaments School began to fulfil its task of training RAF personnel along with the necessary Army, Navy and civilian personnel in all aspects of nuclear weapons handling, storage, maintenance and servicing. During the summer of 1953 the units and personnel required at Wittering gradually moved in. The BCAS was formed on 1st August 1953 to Establishment LUE/IBO/3527, its OC being Wing Commander J. S. Rowlands GC MBE, and its true purpose was kept secret. It even had to use some unconventional means to aquire all its equipment as most of Bomber Command did not have the security clearance to know what was going on! When exactly the first nuclear weapons other than training equipment arrived has been variously reported and may have been as late as 1955. Below is a brief look at the remaining site.



The biggest structure in the SSA is this array of concrete cells arranged herring bone fashion under a single earth mound. All the buildings in the SSA have a D reference and these are called a D3 building. They have from 12 to 24 cells and this one has 19. These buildings date from around 1958. Note each cell has its own lamp post outside to provide illumination of the hazards for lorries arriving there. many fire points are around the building and emergency water supply tanks.

Fire is an obvious hazard in all weapons storage. Also visible is the array of lightning conductors on the roof. As with all weapons storage, copper earth straps are everywhere as well. The perimeter fencing with its many downward pointing lamps is also visible.


The entrance doors of these cells are flexible and made from hinged panels that run in tracks top and botton, unlike the American ones that are solid and move sideways. The recessed entrances make this arrangement necessary.


Also in this area are six individual igloos. These have similar recessed flexible doors and inside they have a 5 ton travelling crane, operated by hand worked chains.







The remaining earth banked building is this one, which probably fulfilled an admin function, but is now derelict. There are six other interesting buildings here too. In the main depots at Faldingwoth and Barnham are many core stores, which all have rectangular roofs. It was in the original plans to make these irregular shaped to disguise the number present, but with later thoughts about the misinformation value of having a lot more stores than weapons, this seems to have become the policy at these depots.


At the SSA, however, the core stores are complete with random shaped roof slabs. Note the shadow!

These shots give an idea of the nature of the site and its immediate surroundings. Even though this storage area is empty of nuclear ordnance, it is still maintained in the sort of condition required by the book known as SD814 (secret document 814) which was where the procedures for protection of the nuclear warheads was written. Such duties were called "814 duties". These two shots show the fence with short grass inside and out and nothing outside the fence within a reasonable distance, offering no chance to sneak up or hide.




One of the six igloos has this odd arrangement with half the door width filled in. It looks contemporary with the igloo itself but no explanation is currently known for this.


This shot amongst the igloos does give a little idea of the rather atmospheric place this is. Signs that someone has been there, but nobody visible!


This building, close to the SSA pictured here, is one of the oldest wooden buildings the RAF maintains in everyday use. It serves as a canteen for personnel in this area.


This last hazy vertical shot gives an idea of the layout of this area.