Drellingore Patrol

The Operational Base was built in woods above Drellingore. The location was originally provided by Sam Osborne to local author Roy Humphreys and subsequently recorded for the Defence of Britain Project. Sam had first become aware of the site when a lady who lived in a cottage on his farm talked to him about someone sinking a "bloody Nissen Hut" in the woods behind her house. It was not actually on his land, but that of a neighbour, George Marsh. Later George approached Sam to join the Patrol.

Sam Osbourne; “There were a lot of poachers in the area so we had to be careful not to leave footprints nor create a footpath to the OB. We very rarely visited it. A tree stump was bolted on to a steel man-hole cover. This was hinged and counter balanced to allow access down an eight foot deep, three foot square concrete shaft with iron rods in the side. The shaft connected with a large chamber dug out of the hillside and measured 16 foot square. There was an escape tunnel that led to a Nissan hut that was three foot off the ground. You crawled through a wooden flap covered with earth".

Kevin Baverstock received a letter in 2011 from someone who stayed with George Marsh as a boy during the war. "One day when Pa was on leave, me, Dad and "Uncle George" took a walk and when 3 of us reached a clearing in the woods, Uncle ran his hand down the trunk of a tree and a square of turf rose from the ground, like a small grass top table on 4 legs. We peered into the hole below, there was a rough staircase cut into the chalk and we descended into a small room. It had bunks on one side and armaments on the other. When we surfaced Uncle ran his hand over the tree trunk again and the "table" descended, invisible, impossible to detect where it had ever been."

Reportedly the OB was built by Canadians, most likely the Canadian Royal Engineers Tunnelling Company.

The OB consisted of block built entrance shaft, with a solid metal manhole cover lid with a tree stump fixed on top for camouflage. The lid was counter-weighted and could be easily moved by one man, pivoting to the side to allow entry. The shaft was at least 12 feet deep and 30 inches by 32 inches, with a 5 inch lip to support the lid and scaffold pole rungs leading down.

The main chamber was a Nissen Hut like Elephant Shelter with block built end walls approximately 12 yards long. The chamber apparently contained bunks, a stove, a 50 gallon galvanised water tank, an Elsan toilet and a lamp during the war, besides their sabotage equipment and rations for two weeks. There were problems with condensation, so the chamber was lined with painted with a mixture of white paint, ground cork and white varnish.

At the opposite end from the shaft was a "bolt hole", and escape tunnel made up of concrete sewer pipes. The tunnel was L-shaped and opened on the hillside below. The exit was a rectangular concrete opening with a wooden frame with a wooden door, covered in earth, opening outwards.

The main shelter collapsed after the war, leaving only the remains of the end wall and the corrugated iron remnants of the main chamber structure. The block built entrance shaft with rotting and now partially absent metal rungs and the concrete escape tunnel remain intact. (Site visits 1995, 2021)