RAF Burtonwood. An underground city?

Hi folks

I have recently moved to St Helens on Merseyside and have been hearing local rumours regarding the local abandoned air base at RAF Burtonwood. A base which, well, I’ll let Wikipedia do the talking for a minute…

The facility was transferred to the United States Army Air Forces in June 1942 to become a servicing centre for the United States Eighth, Ninth, Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces aircraft. Burtonwood was also known as Base Air Depot 1 (BAD 1), although an RAF presence continued until October 1943. Burtonwood was the largest airfield in Europe during the war with the most USAAF personnel and aircraft maintenance facilities. The roar of the engines in the test beds could be heard for miles around, especially at night. By the end of the war 18,000 servicemen were stationed at Burtonwood. According to some sources Burtonwood was placed strategically so that it was out of range of Luftwaffe bombers, but this is not true as several Nazi raids were made on the facility.

Wikipedia

By the end of the war RAF Burtonwood was the largest US Air Base outside the US.

The rumours that I have been hearing are that underneath the site there is an underground city, running up to ten levels in depth, which is designed to be completely self sufficient. I have been doing some research yet cannot find any documents to support this theory.

People today say that sometimes official looking cars are seen going onto the site via innocuous entrances and then vanishing on to the site. People have also said there was a low humming sound coming from the area in the 1980’s and that electrical interference is a big problem around there. I myself have noticed major mobile phone problems when around there.

This is a link to some more info about the place.

www.controltowers.co.uk...

I have found an FOI request submitted on back in 2007 on the issue – the actual case number is

04-10-2007-072719-002

I’ve looked online to see if I can find a copy of the response but had no luck.

I called the MOD to ask about how I can a copy of the response to this request but transferred to somewhere in Exeter where it went straight to voicemail…

I find it very interesting that there is not a lot of info out there on this, but local rumours abound.

I’m going to make this my pet project for a while to see what I can find out.

Has anyone else heard anything about this site? I remember it was mentioned briefly here on ATS a few years back but nothing really ever came up.

So, what do we know about this? It strikes as odd and I get the feeling that something may be being covered up here.

Peace,

MGGG

"Bad Advice"- Grab a few chums, a few cases of brew, some shovels, and see if you can "drop in" on things at the base.

Also, who is that you're assasinating in your avatar?

not one line, it's actually two.

I too live close by and yes there are many rumours.

I don't know how true this is, but apparantly there's an american weapons cache down there, aswell as a load of old vehicles all cemented up in some deep vaults. Unseen by any since the war.

Supposedly one of the main roads around there used to be a huge runway.

Me and my mates used to cycle there as kids and we'd still see people in the old hangars, quite possibly just security guards..... but in that case why are security guarding empty hangars?

I don't think half the hangars exist anymore, but ask a few of the old timers in sthelens and they'll tell you a few stories.

Also since you're new in Sthelens, i one day suggest you do a little research on an area called Crank and more specificaly Crank Caverns, another local legend suggests that their used to be a huge underground church down there and again many of the original tunnels that supposedly strethced deep under lancashire have now been buried beneath the earth....... althought there a few that swear there are many hidden chambers down there.

I've only explored the first few caves myself and i tell you one area in particular is quite spooky.

U2U me if you need links etc.

**

Oh and the guy on the OP's avatar is David Cameron getting silently abused by a chav/thug/hoodie after his failed 'hug a hoodie' project.

Did a quick google search and found this doc for 04-10-2007-072719-002 .
www.mod.uk...
Some interesting FOI listed on this PDF.

I live 8 miles from Burtonwood, and have heard the rumours also, I can tell you it held one of the biggest US Military warehouses in the UK, I think I remember it closed over a decade ago, there is no restrictions to entering the site anymore, and from what I've seen, nothing to back up the underground base theory.

This site may hold an answer, or even e-mailing the webmaster and ask, they should have heard of the rumours, and probably followed them up.

But you are right rumours abound, but hearsay at best, plenty of people still around who worked on the base, someone should know at least where the rumours started and why.

reply to post by machinegun_go_go

04-10-2007-072719-002 01/11/2007

this is what the list says about your number

04-10-2007-072719-002 01/11/2007
Info on underground complex at WW2 airbase RAF Burtonwood.

is this st helen the same as mount helen...and did it used to be a old weather station on the mountain? or am i off topic??

anyway...

i remember something on tv here (holland) saying they were building faults underground ever since. and the tv crew got a small peak inside
claiming they had every picture ever taken than showing some elvis and monroe originals so small stuff but the place contains EVERYTHING NASA STUFF THE WORKS .and all on verry high security!!!iit was huge like 10-12 meter high just as wide concrete tunnels and doors in them...i guess 2 meters thick HUGE.
all saying it was to keep the history off the country secure. the reporter mensioned it is at least 7 floors deep or 8..but DEEP... so they are prepared for WW25 if you ask me..


[edit on 20-3-2009 by whatshenneping]

Originally posted by whatshenneping
reply to post by machinegun_go_go

 

04-10-2007-072719-002 01/11/2007

is this st helen the same as mount helen...and did it used to be a old weather station on the mountain? or am i off topic??

No... Sthelens is a post-industrial town in Merseyside, UK. Although i too have noticed that there are more google sites for mount sthelens than our humble town. Such is life.

i live near raf mildenhall and raf lakenheath and have heard the same sort of rumours about mildenhall.
that there is a underground town including a church,malls and schools because whole families move down there.
the only difference realy to your rumour is this is a fully working base so i could never investigate properly
i do get an errie feeling when sitting watching te planes fly at mildenhall, they have a cool parking place at the beginning of the runway, but i do feel a bit paranoid when im there

How far did you get with this? I live locally and am also interested in the therory

a reply to: machinegun_go_go

lots of info and site visits , both permission and non-permission on this site:

www.28dayslater.co.uk...

not much validity regarding the underground rumors, yes there were underground storage areas , but they are only 1 storey deep, and there were also a few air raid bunkers, but nothing major that is suggested in the OP.

and now it is all demolished with houses, industrial units , a sub station and many other constructions going on,
many many photos and historical info here :

www.rafburtonwood.org...

let me know if you want any more info.

snoopyuk

a reply to: machinegun_go_go

Wow, really interesting. Looking forward to any more info you get on this.

Slightly OT but I find US bases etc a little sinister. I used to drive past RAF Menwith Hill regularly, as well as a few other odd military-looking structures in North Yorkshire.

Why are there such monitoring systems, bases and facilities for the US on UK soil?

I found what seems to be air vents in the ground in the surrounding areas of the airbase which must lead to something

If you drive along the M62 westbound, as you are level to the old hangers on your right, take a look in the fields on your left and you will notice what look like steel tunnel vents. Just to add to the pot

a reply to: Mcellis123

Probably methane vents for an old landfill, dump or midden. If they aren't vented, methane can build up underground as the waste material rots down. There are many designs of them, just google "Landfill vents" and go to images.

Believe me, if the vents were serving a secret base, they wouldn't be out in the open for everyone to point at and go "oooh! Secret base!", the very fact that they ARE in the open instantly tells you that they are NOT serving anything secret.

a reply to: BMorris
Nice try but no landfills in that area, unless of course you can prove the contrary?

We never once said "secret base" we all know of burtonwood airbase, we are not even saying "secret" underground town/village/warehouse we are just looking or asking the question was there something underground in the area, rumours have been going round since I was a kid while the base was still operational, so we are all just flying a few facts into the mix, and yes there is no land fill in the area and these air vents are very well hidden away from the public eye

a reply to: Mcellis123

Story found on another local forum about the underground (place):


It's great reading all your accounts of the likely hood or un-likely hood of a possible underground town and railway at Raf Burtonwood. My own thoughts come from certain facts that I have encountered over the years about the site.
Firstly in the early 1990’s I visited the site with a friend to pick an ice making machine up in a transit pick-up. We were lead to a lift that fitted our transit van in with room to spare may I add that took us down one level to what turned out to be one of the biggest underground rooms I have seen (partly in darkness). At the time we never thought anything of it as it was a well known to locals that Burtonwood had an underground facility.
Then some years later I spoke to an electrician that had to dismantle the wiring of the underground facility when part of the site was being demolished. His account was that similar to mine of the underground rooms that were on the site. He told me that they had to chase all the wiring back because there were no plans available for release to show where the wiring went. He worked on the site for 3 months and found several sources of power that weren’t coming from the National grid.
For me this suggests a far larger facility that still maybe in use today and the possibility of a rail link from the site to somewhere like Liverpool. We must remember that Burtonwood was used in the 70’s & 80’s to store Nuclear Bombs for the cold war. This would mean an underground facility does exist and that a larger piece of the jigsaw than I and my friend seen remains today undetected.
My last experience of a large underground facility being a Burtonwood comes from an argument with a former American G.I who worked at the base. It was on a night shift at Royal Mail when a group of us were speaking about Burtonwood and I mentioned the time I went underground to pick the ice machine up. The American who I won’t mention by name started to become very aggressive towards us all and told us that in the 7 years that he worked at Burtonwood he never went underground. When one of the lads pointed out that the site was used for storing Nuclear Bombs and this was a known fact. The Former G.I again told us in an aggressive manner he never seen any Nuclear Bombs stored at the base. Again we reiterated that to store Nuclear Bombs that our government and his, would have made sure of an underground Facility was used to store these highly dangerous items. He then said something to us all that made us think that the underground site was bigger than any of us imagined. He stood up out of his chair and looked at us all, pointing his finger shouting this thing is bigger than all of you guys could imagine. Prompting one of the lads to point out he told us nothing was there only a few minutes before. He then snapped back saying I sore to my country I would never tell a soul.
People like to think things aren’t there. But when single facts are put together, things become much bigger than any of us could imagine. This was the biggest Military site in Europe

a reply to: Mcellis123

This is a fascinating story! It would make a great book if someone could dig up enough info. Maybe it's a real-life Warehouse 13

To MRM13, it sounds like WW2 isn't being taught in school anymore. The reason the US has (or had) bases in the UK is because we were allies against Nazi Germany. After the war, much of Europe was divided up amongst the allies and is the reason the US still has bases in places like Germany. I wasn't around during WW2 but the world sure was a different place. By the way, there is truth to the saying "history repeats itself". Keep an eye on the Ukraine.

as posted before lots of info:

originally posted by: snoopyuk
lots of info and site visits , both permission and non-permission on this site:

www.28dayslater.co.uk...

not much validity regarding the underground rumors, yes there were underground storage areas , but they are only 1 storey deep, and there were also a few air raid bunkers, but nothing major that is suggested in the OP.

and now it is all demolished with houses, industrial units , a sub station and many other constructions going on,
many many photos and historical info here :

www.rafburtonwood.org...

let me know if you want any more info.

snoopyuk