Dover's Secret WWII Bunker Opens to Public

A secret World War II command bunker, ordered by Winston Churchill, has been opened to the public on the white cliffs of Dover. This pioneering Fan Bay plotting room, encased in concrete and buried four meters deep, housed the first land-based computer-aided targeting system. It acted as the 'brain' for a gun battery crucial for defending Dover and attacking German ships in the Channel. The bunker was secretly mothballed in 1957 and remained classified until 1981 due to its military importance. Its rediscovery in 2017 was described as a 'Tutankhamun moment' for archaeologists.

Churchill's alarm at enemy ships passing unchallenged through the Strait of Dover, following his 'fight them on the beaches' speech, directly led to the construction of this advanced defense. He ordered the use of cutting-edge technology, with the guns ready within 100 days and the plotting room bunker completed just 64 days later. The plotting room contained a unique 1.8-meter-long electromechanical computer, a fire direction table, used to calculate ship positions and direct fire. The computer was deliberately destroyed in 1957 to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.