Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker
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The Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker is a former government-owned nuclear bunker located at Hack Green, Cheshire, England.
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[edit] Current status
The bunker is open to the public most of the year. It has a substantial collection of military and Cold War memorabilia, including one of the largest collections of decommissioned nuclear weapons in the world.
The museum includes information about the function of the bunker during the Cold War. There is a simulator designed to simulate conditions in the bunker during a nuclear attack. Visitors can watch the BBC film The War Game, produced to inform the public of what would be likely to happen in a nuclear attack on Britain. Younger visitors to the museum can follow the trail by the "Cold War Spy Mouse", which avoids the more disturbing aspects of the bunker, such as the medical room, where a mannequin is depicted with symptoms of burns and radiation poisoning.
[edit] History
The first military use of the area was in World War II, when a Starfish decoy site was established at Hack Green. Its purpose was to confuse Luftwaffe bombers looking for the vital railway junction at Crewe.
A Ground-Controlled Intercept (GCI) radar station was added.
In the 1950s, the site was modernised as part of the ROTOR project. This included the provision of a substantial semi-sunk reinforced concrete bunker or blockhouse (type R6).
The station, officially designated RAF Hack Green, was also known as Mersey Radar. It provided an air traffic control service to military aircraft crossing civil airspace.
The site was abandoned and remained derelict for many years, until the Home Office took it over. They rebuilt the R6 bunker as a Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQs) - one of a network of 17 such sites throughout the UK - designed to enable government to continue in the aftermath of a major nuclear attack on the UK.
In about 1992, following the end of the Cold War, the Home Office abandoned its network of RGHQs and sold many of the sites. This one was bought by a private company and subsequently opened to the public in 1998 as a museum with a Cold War theme.
