Post by smshogun on Feb 20, 2017 21:37:35 GMT -5
This is an untold story of mining, of possible genius, or possible lunacy, you decide.
This has taken over a year of researching and unfortunately most of the documentation has been lost and I cannot often be specific or even accurate on things such as locations, much of the substantiating documentation is either incomplete or has large sections missing, so here goes.
Back in the day, 1937ish to be as accurate as I can be, many of the establishment were thinking that war was possible and the Government had some plans to prepare for war and war production and negotiations, by 1938 most of the cabinet were on a war footing and many more preparations were underway for WW II and many plans were being implemented, but a few people knew that advancements in arms and armaments technologies were not as they were in WW I and were considerably advanced for WW II and this was causing some unease with senior Government staff.
Many looked back to WW I and realised the importance of many things such as the railways and many other things, and made a simple connection that all these things were on the surface and often had little camouflage and would be a target for Nazi bombing raids and even Nazi spies and sympathisers located in the UK and action had to be taken and only two options existed which were to camouflage ground based installations or move the locations underground as the Germans were already doing, and a plan was hatched.
Someone, somewhere suggested building an entire underground network which would be deeper than anything the country had seen as the larger bombs were larger and much more powerful and the fear was the shallow depths of the tube stations wouldn't be deep enough to not sustain damage from these new bombs, and then it happened; the suggestion was to use deep mines to drive roadways between them to a scheduled and organised plan so a network of underground tunnels far deeper than anything before was created running from Scotland through the north of England, through the Midlands, and down to the Kent coalfields to transport anything from troops to munitions to keep them off the surface and out of view of everyone.
Two trains of thought existed and one was to drive new roadways above the highest working coal seams at shallower depths, the other was to utilise old abandoned or disused workings and connect them together, and a list was apparently made of all the coal mines where this could be done to create a super underground highway using 30' X 20' rings infilled with concrete slabs and backfilled with concrete to form solid roadways between connected collieries and form this great artery from Scotland to Kent. From Kent they would have several shafts which could be used to wind the materials and connect the shafts to another set of roadways to connect with the Underground and transport materials to specific areas.
Numerous sets of air doors were to be incorporated at numerous points to allow the correct airflow and to act as blast doors in the event of a pit head being bombed.
This plan went further, instead of keeping factories on the surface they would build new factories underground to increase production of vital war materials and these materials factories were to be constructed at shallow depths so they were just underground and would be covered by mine spoil to camouflage them and give them protection from Luftwaffe bombing raids so they were not visible to the reconnaissance missions often undertaken by the Nazis which would make bombing them near impossible.
Further enhancements to the plan were to drive numerous drifts to large war producing factories such as those in the West Midlands and even into the old slate mines of Wales to move around valuable assets in the event of an invasion.
Many types of tubs were to be used and these were specially manufactured containers to carry any armament from grenades to shells to bullets and these containers were solid steel and just dropped into a standard tub and were locked in with a couple of bolts.
Special tanks were to be constructed to carry anything from fuels to lubrication oils, to drinking water, and again were simply square tanks bolted into a standard tub.
Many modified tubs were made for specific purposes such as carrying engines which bolted directly to a tub, to locomotive or aircraft sub assemblies and components, and any number of specialised tubs to carry any dedicated or specific items urgently needed.
Everything was designed to be simply lifted onto a tub and fastened, and then lifted off at the end of its journey so it could be dispatched to where it was needed or to be assembled.
Many other ideas were to open up a new shaft level and drive blind roadways off them and fill them with anything such as large fuel tanks for fuel reserves, create large armament dumps and overproduce on munitions, and even create food dumps so any shortages could have access to some foods.