Second world war ‘brain’ bunker in cliffs of Dover opens to public
Summary
A World War II command bunker at Fan Bay in Dover’s White Cliffs will open to the public. The bunker housed an electromechanical computer that calculated the position of moving ships and sent firing instructions to guns defending the Dover Strait.Key Facts
- The National Trust led the excavation of the Fan Bay plotting room.
- Winston Churchill ordered new artillery defences for Dover in 1940 after seeing German ships pass through the Channel.
- The guns were ready within 100 days, and the plotting room was completed 64 days later.
- The room’s 1.8-metre fire direction table calculated where moving ships would be when shells reached them.
- The bunker was mothballed in 1957 and kept classified until 1981.
- The computer was deliberately destroyed in 1957 to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
- The bunker was rediscovered in 2017 and is now opening to visitors.
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