Monument record 0950300000 - Whaddon, SW of the church

During World War Two the field south-west of Whaddon church housed two radio huts, one for teleprinting and one for transmitting, and a large number of radio antennae. All that remains of the installation are two concrete bases. Messages were sent as morse code. Messages sent from here include the orders for the D-Day landings to allied command and the terms of surrender of the German army (B1).

‘Windy Ridge, a Second World War military two-way radio station is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in a field on Church Hill south of St Mary’s Church, Whaddon and centred at SP 80472 33998, the site functioned to received decrypted information direct from Hut 3 at Station X, Bletchley Park and to broadcast intelligence to Allied military commanders in the various theatres of operation. The radio station comprises a cluster of eight rectangular military buildings of various sizes linked by a network of narrow concrete pathways and partly enclosed by a probable barbed wire entanglement, with an earth-covered air raid shelter lying close to the buildings. A ninth military building is sited on its own about 160 metres to the south behind a medieval or post-medieval windmill mound, next to which are five upstanding aerials. Two of the site’s rectangular military huts were constructed of low brick walls, with roofing of corrugated iron sheeting. Connected by landline, one building contained teleprinters that received decrypted information direct from Bletchley Park; the second was a radio transmission centre that broadcast to military commanders in the field. Adjacent to the base were receiving aerials, though the transmission aerials were sited further to the east of the village. The military personnel at the site were primarily Royal Corps of Signals but assisted by members of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Working a two shift system (0800-1600hrs and 1600-2200hrs), the servicemen were initially accommodated in the village hall, but as the numbers grew at the nearby military base at Whaddon Hall, a hutted camp was constructed in the field to the rear of the village hall. Following the war’s end, the Windy Ridge station continued in use for several years before closing, after which the huts were passed to a local farmer. They were later destroyed through vandalism and only the concrete foundations remain. In March 1946, within the adjacent field to the station there appears to be numerous scattered long poles that may have been dismantled aerial masts lying in the pasture, but these have been removed by October of that year. However, the five aerials remain upstanding next to the lone military hut immediately south of the mill mound and remain so in 1947. However, by 1954, these too have been removed, though many of the buildings remain. By 1962, only two of the nine buildings remain upstanding and remain so in 1970. However, these have been demolished (probably destroyed through arson) by 1993 and only the concrete building platforms remain on aerial photographs taken in 2019 (3-15).