RAF Titchfield: WWII hardened sleeping shelter (1)

Image: © Mike Searle Taken: 2 Mar 2023

The sole survivor of what I believe to have been two identical former WWII hardened sleeping shelters for the personnel of RAF Titchfield No. 12 Balloon Squadron. RAF Titchfield was a so called non-flying station, and the Headquarters for anti-aircraft barrage balloon operations in the Southampton and Portsmouth areas during the Second World War. The shelters are currently listed on the Extended Defence of Britain archive (EDoB) as civil air raid shelters 'e49885 Extant' and 'e49884 Removed'. However, their proximity to the former RAF Titchfield (now an industrial estate), suggest to me they were for the use of the military. The shelter here conforms to the standard RAF hardened sleeping shelter [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4703879] although the height of this building is considerably taller (the figure gives a sense of scale) with small circular openings (now blocked) at each end. There is no longer any access to the interior, and with its southern end to a large extent unprotected, this may in fact have been an emergency exit, as the main entrance at the north has a V-shape blast deflecting wall to the full height of the shelter. Google Earth view of site (note V-shape blast wall): https://media.geograph.org.uk/files/7eabe3a1649ffa2b3ff8c02ebfd5659f/RAF_Titchfield_Shelter1-original.jpg RAF Titchfield - a history: https://nfhwa.org/raf-titchfield-history-barrage-balloon-command/#:~:text=RAF%20Titchfield%20near%20Fareham%2C%20Hampshire,(12%20Balloon%20Centre)%20Titchfield. Image

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