American Special Ammunition Sites in the cold war

I thought this might be of a bit of interest to people here who have never really been involved with this type scenario either ex military or civilian…

It concerns the "Special Ammunition Storage sites (nuclear) in BAOR and one in the UK. None of this is official or restricted and can be easily researched or dug into if you’re bothered.

It’s about what I experienced and the routines we had while doing this task 30+ years ago. Altogether I did 4 site guards while in BAOR.

The 2 sites I guarded (my Squadron) were the Sennelager and Hemer sites in BAOR…

These were in the British zone so things and procedures may have been different in the US zone, however, nuclear ammunition remained under direct control and management of US forces and overall SACEUR.
In the UK zone sites, we would control the outer and inner zones with armed guards, a separate QRF and the Americans would have overall control from a central tower overlooking the inner bunkers. They (U.S) were not allowed to arm guard these sites. ( May have been different in the US zone)
The on site guard would consist of tower guards (3 to 5) externally in a fenced area.

Inside the control building you’d have an immediate response team of GPMG gunner, loader and JNCO in charge ( these were sat 3 feet from the inner compound door, fully ready wearing webbing and weapons held and able to deploy in under 30 seconds. Sat in front of these 3 would be a main team of between 6 to 8, webbing off and weapons at hand ready to deploy in 2 minutes max.

Inside the actual inner bunker fence was an actual kill zone for want of a better description… Once deployed, no warnings were required and any intruder faced lethal force immediately.

The site consisted of an outer security fence with high power spot lights facing outwards inside of this a 20 to 30m clear area and then there was the outer bunker fence. Inside this area you’d have your sentry towers with one of the armed sentry inside. Inside the outer bunker fence was a 5 to 10m clear area and then you’d have the inner compound fence… In between the inner and outer compound fence was an immediate lethal force area with no challenges required, as was the compound itself.

Also on site were an equal sized team on rest, so you’d have roughly 16 or so armed ready to go and 16 or so on rest and we’d do 12 hours on, 12 off and we would do that for 3 or 4 days then swap over with the off site Back up Force, (which was the rest of the bumped up Squadron) who acted as a 30 min QRF who were a 20 min drive away (max).

We would be test crashed out anytime the American command team in the tower wanted to and this could happen 2 or 3 times over a day/night shift.

The actual site guards lasted for a 2 week period for each unit and this was an ongoing task which all major UK (tank & infantry) units were rotated through. Ammo stored here was for battlefield tactical missile warheads and artillery shells.

To hopefully explain things a bit better, I will use some images of the old disused Special Ammunition Compound at RAF St Mawgan with explanations…
Only main difference here was the actual guarding here was done by a US Marine detachment and the ammo consisted of nuclear depth charges (possibly undisclosed torpedoes) and small yield bombs. Predominantly to be used by UK and US naval air assets in the event of war.

This is an overview of the site, the red line shows the outer security fence. Bear in mind, this site is already situated in a highly guarded Military RAF station (Nimrods) . Also worth noting, this is an up-to-date image with lots of small trees, bushes and undergrowth visible… In the day, none of this would have been there, these areas were kept totally cut back and it would of been low cut grass only, no vegetation at all.

Next one is same view, but with areas marked which I will explain to give a better idea…

The fence line zones.

Yellow broke lines… This is the area between the outer security fence and the outer compound fence. About 20m in width and cut grass, with high power lights facing outwards. An area where intruders would be challenged.

Blue broken line. Clear area between outer and inner compound fence. This is an area where lethal force is authorised without challenges needed.

Green broken line - this is the inner compound fence line and inside of here is a use of immediate lethal force area, no challenge required.
The blue :large_blue_circle: are armed sentry positions in small bunkers.

I will also add images I took recently so you can see it better for size and scale and as above, these are now all overgrown…back then, all ground work would of been well kept and just cut grassed areas for maximum observation.

Blue ringed area is the main gate which was in the outer security fence, and was 14ft tall with triple row razor wire on top and the fence also had tamper/movement alarms running through it


Just inside the gate was the first visitor entry point for all ID checks to be carried out

and a sterile area ( green circle) to park a vehicle before the next larger security gate .

Next is the red circle, this is the first of 2 remote operated electric gates , which formed another sterile parking area, the main QRF duty guardroom and another secure visitor ID check area.


This also had an armed sentry tower on top of it.

Once through these 2 gates, you were then into the actual ammo bunker area and weapon prep area ( under armed guard at all times)

The building here (white circle) is the Ammo ready to use prep building and looking further into the bunker areas.
More ammo prep building

And views along the bunker access roads shown by the red dots.

The pink circle is the outer security sentry tower which looks down into a valley as well as the site itself along the northern side.

Happy to try and answer further questions if there are any and great if anyone can add further images of old disused Special sites.

Forgot to add some images of the RAF Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) … There were 9 in total, only 2 are now left on the RAF real estate.

These were only used for war deployment or temporary exercise … Aircraft would of been Navy Phantoms or Buccaneers or US aircraft if needed during the time.

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Fascinating information, thanks. That last photo reminds me of a former Nike missile site I pass on my daily drive from work, concrete antenna bases poking up through masses of bramble in a fenced in area with the far end of the compound used as a staging area for PennDot road crews.

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Thanks John, very interesting or should that be QI!

I must admit to being surprised at the health of the guard dog after being there all that time mind you he (she?) doesn’t look very intimidating in those photos. :wink:

On that note, were there any dogs on these sites when in use?

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Looks like a nice spot for a weekend hike.

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This is all very interesting Johnny. Great pics too. Reminds me of my time in Germany, when in December of ‘85 if my memory serves me correctly, I had just arrived to my unit as a brand new private and my company was tasked with doing something very similar at Miesau ammo depot. It’s not far from the French border and about 25k west of Kaiserslautern I believe. I recall lots of snow, freezing temps and trudging along the roads on night shift and checking the seal on every bunker in our AO. And the occasional snowball fights! Great times !

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Kicking myself for not taking pictures!

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Outstanding pictures Johnny yes. Some of it reminds me of Miesau. Is the are free to check out on your own or do you need permission? Fascinating

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Luca is very used to wandering around all over here … we bring him all the time as I still have access to the site and its a nice secure area – This Special site is still within the confines of RAF St Mawgan and part of the (disused) general ammo & fuel storage site so no public access.

ref Mil dogs, yes, at the time, RAF Police/Regiment patrolled the outer outer area with attack dogs.

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I do remember the SAS sites; my first posting to Corps HQ in Bielefeld saw me ending up in the Staff Branch of G Security, and SAS sites were very much a real focus for the chain of command, not least as there was a lot of juggling to task units, given that Northern Ireland was beginning to bite with its concomitant roulement and training requirements, and manpower wasn’t finite. The BAOR training cycle too had to continue - after all - the raison d’être for BAOR - and obviously nuclear weapon storage sites had to be effectively protected.

Terrorism in Germany, in the form of first the IRA, then later, the Red Army Faction hadn’t yet begun either (1971) but was soon to come. Interesting times for those deciding what units did what(!)

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Still part of a Mil site so no public access.

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Very interestng stuff indeed. Now. Back in '83? Not so much.
As I was on a Green Light team I had to take the SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) course. During the five day course, it took about five minutes to learn how to arm and time it, and five seconds to learn how to destroy it without detonating it, We spent the better part of a day training on an inert weapon, and doing math calculations, as the timer has a +/- factor of fifteen percent.
The rest of the time was spent on security measures - where it was stored, how it was to be transported, security around the aircraft. (in most cases a C-130) And of course all of the forms involved in the chain of custody. No one expected us to really remember all of the that past the final exam on Friday. It wasn’t rocket surgery, I remember hearing it once, and then designing cool motorcycles on paper while the instructors went over and over, ad nauseum, all of the tedious stuff. We did all pass with flying colors, all six (?) of us.
So if you ever saw me or my boys at one of those facilities, you knew someone was going to have a bad day. Probably us. We all figured the timers were just there for show.

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Great looking dog too!:+1:

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Fascinating presentation John, thank you.

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Cracking pictures and info John- thanks for sharing them :+1:!

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Cheers Matt… I was walking up there this morning (and just now actually lol) and thought it’s one of those things that although people did it as a duty, it wast something that was ever really in the public eye and in some instances the military either and it would end up being one of those things, that the place and types of procedures would just fade into memory and be forgotten about.

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So true. So many duties of that type went unnoticed by the public, and so many obscure places (in some cases) where we served are unknown. Great that you’ve brought this to light John

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Good stuff John. :+1:

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Cheers Ryan - you may know this, as I forgot to ask that old devil dog that was posted here when I helped him out on his holidays when I showed him around the site ages ago … Where would the Marines have come from that guarded this ? the security detail Marines that do the Embassies and consular places ? or from regular battalions and rotated through from Europe or US ? not sure of numbers but I figured at least a bumped up company strength ??

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This John, is purportedly the Senelager site; this was on the BFG Locations website, and someone has offered this Google Earth extract. As to accuracy I do not know.

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Yes, thats the site directly behind my old Barracks Athlone. However, this is a rebuild after the old SAS was repurposed and it was taken off line as a Nuc store and given back to the Bundeswehr, The actual site was a total different lay out and a lot less bunkers.

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