Nedge Hill, Stirchley - RAF wartime HFDF Station (3)

Image: © Mrs Bess Edwards Taken: Unknown

A wartime photo of the DF tower at sunset, and what may be an aerial silhouetted against the sky as the tower was described as having 'wire aerials going out to the trees'. Despite the station's secrecy (it was very 'hush-hush' at the time), Bess Edwards often visited the tower and was even allowed inside. She gives a fascinating insight into the tower's operation and its construction describing it in her own words as "... an octagonal building made of wood with a brick base and an inner wall, and an outer wall which ran round the outside of it. It was a bit like a windmill, with a ground floor and a ladder which went into the top part of it, where the RAF officers had to sit with all this equipment with which they had to track the planes as they went over. On the bottom floor they had seats and things. It was a rest area. I suppose it was where they could be off duty... Lower down the field were the outbuildings for stores and for an extra billet." Image

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