I know it wasn't the weekend … but … when yer retired, it's the weekend every day ..
Just got back from my re-union jolly in
Liverpool. Basically it's a drinking and eating fest, but we did visit the
'Western Approaches Museum.' This is a bunker buried deep beneath a building more or less in the centre of Liverpool (down toward
Pier Head) where the
Battle of the Atlantic was master-minded by the Royal Navy and the RAF.
This was of considerable interest to a bunch of old Merchant Navy Crocks like us because the merchant ships were the targets.
Admiral Karl Donitz and his U boats had us by the short and curlies and very nearly brought the country down in 1942/43. From this room (many rooms in this bunker but this is the Map Room) the battle was plotted and adjusted as vital convoys were shepherded across the
North Atlantic, at very considerable cost in ships and lives.
Eighty percent of the staff in this bunker were female at the time. One young Wren lost her life falling off one of those plotting ladders. They are very high.
Sobering stuff.
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