A concrete-encased plotting room located four metres beneath the white cliffs of Dover will open to public visits beginning Friday through guided National Trust tours. The facility served as a command center during the second world war and contained the first land-based computer-aided targeting system used to direct artillery defending Dover and targeting German vessels in the Channel.
The bunker was ordered by Winston Churchill after he observed enemy ships moving through the strait of Dover without opposition during the early stages of the conflict. Following his “fight them on the beaches” speech, Churchill visited the Kent coast and issued a July 1940 memo demanding that advanced technology be deployed to establish command of the straits through artillery. The gun battery was operational within 100 days, with the plotting room completed 64 days later, earning the weapons the nickname “Churchill’s pets” among locals.
The plotting room housed an 1.8-metre-long electromechanical computer called a fire direction table, which calculated the positions of moving vessels when shells struck and transmitted firing instructions to gun crews. The facility was deliberately destroyed in 1957 to prevent it from falling into enemy hands and remained classified until 1981 due to its military significance. The bunker was rediscovered in 2017 after being secretly mothballed for decades.
Archaeologists led by Jon Barker undertook the excavation and preservation project. The bunker has been conserved in its discovered state, retaining period artifacts including old newspapers, shoes, official notices, and chalked graffiti. Barker is seeking information from descendants of the approximately ten workers who operated the facility, as records identifying the operators remain incomplete, with only a handful of names documented including actor Wallas Eaton and lance bombardier WP Bryant.
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