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After my trip to Reinden Woods I stopped by the old RAF Hawkinge site I had noticed a mound behind the museum. The mound turned out to be the aircraft fuel installation. It consists of two rooms both with their own entrances but also connected by a steel hatch.
The airfield itself was the nearest Royal Air Force station to enemy-occupied France and only some ten minutes flying time away from the Luftwaffe fighter airfields in the Pas-de-Calais, in addition to which the airfield and surrounding district was subjected to long range cross-Channel shelling from the German shore batteries stationed along the French coast. Not for nothing was the Folkestone area known as "Hellfire Corner".
Outside:
The first room I entered turned out to be used to house the pumps motors away from the main fuel store. The motors were connected via a shaft to the pumps above the underground storage tanks in the other room.
Entrance (very wet and muddy)
The next room was the fuel storage and pump room, there are 2 large tanks under the floor accessed by circular hatch's in the floor. One is open and the other is still sealed and can only be seen through a small pipe leading to it.
Entrance:
Sealed hatch:
Open hatch:
Shot into the open hatch, its a fair way down around 10-12 feet.
Steel hatch leading to motor room:
The airfield itself was the nearest Royal Air Force station to enemy-occupied France and only some ten minutes flying time away from the Luftwaffe fighter airfields in the Pas-de-Calais, in addition to which the airfield and surrounding district was subjected to long range cross-Channel shelling from the German shore batteries stationed along the French coast. Not for nothing was the Folkestone area known as "Hellfire Corner".
Outside:
The first room I entered turned out to be used to house the pumps motors away from the main fuel store. The motors were connected via a shaft to the pumps above the underground storage tanks in the other room.
Entrance (very wet and muddy)
The next room was the fuel storage and pump room, there are 2 large tanks under the floor accessed by circular hatch's in the floor. One is open and the other is still sealed and can only be seen through a small pipe leading to it.
Entrance:
Sealed hatch:
Open hatch:
Shot into the open hatch, its a fair way down around 10-12 feet.
Steel hatch leading to motor room:
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. Get wet?
