Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

Chatabix

S10 Ep 366 David goes bunker hunting with WW2 historian Andrew Chatterton

08 Feb 2024

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic of the bunker hunting adventure?

38.32 - 52.838 David

Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh, hi. Hello. Andrew. Hello. Andrew's forehead. Hello, mate. How are you? How are you? Yeah, really well. I'm slightly embarrassed we didn't do it without headphones when we did it.

0

54.34 - 56.402 Andrew Chatterton

We've got the best tech guys on it now. We're on it.

0

56.542 - 61.088 David

We've got some of the best tech guys in the world. I just, yeah, David went, well, why are we doing it with headphones?

0

61.338 - 65.683 Unknown

Do you know what? When I rang you out, I was like, fuck me, I'm calling Joe for tech advice.

0

67.285 - 69.827 David

That's a low moment.

69.847 - 75.534 Unknown

Right, should we explain to Joe? We thought we'd just do five minutes now. This is like an amuse-bouche.

76.595 - 78.837 David

Okay, I want to know everything. Where are you?

79.818 - 88.508 Andrew Chatterton

So, we are in... Don't tell him. We're in Branscombe, or near Branscombe, in East Devon.

88.888 - 90.45 David

Near the coast, isn't it, I think?

Chapter 2: How do David and Andrew prepare for their bunker search?

290.691 - 294.878 David

So is that now full, essentially, of mud? Yes.

0

294.958 - 301.329 Andrew Chatterton

This is where the roof is here. You know that corrugated iron that you were in in Coalfield?

0

301.81 - 302.451 David

Yeah.

0

302.6 - 314.432 Andrew Chatterton

So this is this up here. This is the ring pier. Oh, okay. It would have curved over, and what's happened is that there's been so much earth, it's collapsed. Right, and what's it? The entrance is somewhere here.

0

314.492 - 322.36 David

Yeah, right. So you're basically standing to the left of, like, directly above it, and then... Yeah, so I'm on the entrance here.

322.38 - 337.976 Andrew Chatterton

So this is where the hack is. Oh, I see. The blast wall is about here. And then that's the main chamber. Then you see the curve there and the brickwork. That's into the storage bit where the toilet was. And then it goes out to the escape tunnel on the other side.

339.177 - 345.845 David

Andrew, how would you... Would one of your colleagues or yourself just spotted that tiny bit of wall?

345.865 - 352.772 Andrew Chatterton

Yes. And gone, God, you've got to be on the lookout. We've had clues that there's one in this area.

352.988 - 354.529 David

What clue did you get?

Chapter 3: What clues lead them to the potential bunker location?

500.699 - 508.931 Andrew Chatterton

So where we're standing at the moment is on where... is on top of where... So that's why the engine hatch is here, because actually you're going down under this roof.

0

509.752 - 513.358 David

And that's lasted... That's all brick, so that's why that's lasted, isn't it?

0

513.739 - 522.753 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So we're right on top here. This is why it seems weird that the hatch is the same level as the roof, but because that you go down and then underneath.

0

524.095 - 527.04 David

And there's no way of...

0

527.628 - 541.462 Andrew Chatterton

of not conserving it but sort of digging it out and seeing more well we have we have got permission to dig this one out so at some point in the near future we're going to bring the equipment to dig it out because we're... Theory's 11.

541.482 - 548.889 David

Andrew, can we put you in now? Can we hold up your process, basically?

549.229 - 558.419 Andrew Chatterton

The exciting thing about this one is we're not sure when it collapsed. So it might have collapsed really early on, in which case it would have preserved anything that's left in there.

558.579 - 563.644 David

It's just 70 or 80 years worth of... So you need it to be slightly shoddily built.

564.244 - 579.966 Andrew Chatterton

Correct. Well, that's the only way you find... Because if this was intact... You're walking down there and the roof's still in. There's no way you'd find it. Sometimes you do need a collapse. You need a collapse to be able to identify it.

Chapter 4: What historical context do they provide about WWII bunkers?

730.188 - 744.763 Andrew Chatterton

And then they went to the shore. Okay, where are we going to put it? He said, well, put it up. So it didn't take that long because the nature of the people they were recruiting, because they knew the land, were landowners, were farmers, knew the area.

0

745.084 - 747.346 David

Occasional poacher, I read as well.

0

747.366 - 748.808 Andrew Chatterton

Correct. Occasional poacher.

0

749.008 - 753.74 Unknown

All these were built in a three-year period. Wow. Isn't it just?

0

754 - 774.208 David

Well, I found it fascinating how early they prepped. You know what I mean? It was like, I might be wrong here, but almost as the war started, they were going, we need to be thinking about if there's an invasion.

774.526 - 787.105 Andrew Chatterton

And Section 7, like the post-occupation, post-defeat, was kind of, we think, like February, March 1940. So even before any disaster had happened in mainland Europe, we were already preparing for the fact that we might be occupied.

787.807 - 805.015 David

Mad. Yeah. Mad. Because you sort of, when you first talked about it, I imagined it was like in the last year of the, you know, like, well into the war going, oh shit, we better, but generally the government don't go, oh shit. Well. Well, they do now.

805.396 - 829.93 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah, they do. But yeah, yeah, we were, and you know, this is my whole, thing that I go on and on about is that we have this perception of kind of Britain as this unprepared weak alone pathetic country just waiting to be invaded but we were anything anything but that we were massively prepared across you know all areas um aux units and special duties branch of section seven but even the

829.91 - 848.437 Andrew Chatterton

Dave and I were talking about pillboxes and tank lines and stop lines and, you know, all this stuff was in place. Loads of regulars. We had an Air Force plan under Dowding that was completely designed for this exact scenario of the Battle of Britain that we just rolled out and the Germans were never going to beat us in that.

Chapter 5: What challenges do they face while searching for the bunker?

980.243 - 990.377 Andrew Chatterton

So, the bunker is off a zigzag in a road, then down a hill by a rhododendron bush.

0

991.403 - 995.07 David

Oh, bloody hell. Pick the bones up.

0

995.892 - 998.878 Unknown

Also, what got me excited, you don't know what's in it.

0

999.659 - 1010.16 David

I'm just thinking, well, what's the chances of the bush still being there? What about, did they say name of woods? Did they give name of woods?

0

1010.741 - 1016.423 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah, they called it, I don't know, we want to... If we find it intact, I'm not sure we want to give away.

1016.443 - 1019.208 David

Okay, yeah, don't tell me. But I gave you the name of the woods.

1019.229 - 1021.293 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah, so we got the name of the woods and we got the name of the road.

1022.515 - 1024.72 David

What road? What road next to the woods?

1025.442 - 1025.702 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah.

Chapter 6: What interesting findings do they encounter during their search?

1184.226 - 1189.16 David

I get this, Andrew. I'm going to want to call this episode Bunker Hunters.

0

1190.965 - 1191.828 Joe

Right, this is a zigzag.

0

1192.81 - 1194.274 David

Can I see the zigzag, David?

0

1195.197 - 1197.383 Joe

Well, it's like the start of the lane.

0

1197.734 - 1216.288 David

The road comes from up there. Is that a zigzag? Yeah, it's a zigzag. Andrew, any idea whether we should be looking... Your sense of when you look around, you go, we found bunkers more in that looking area?

1216.468 - 1228.205 Andrew Chatterton

I'd go down, I think. Why would you go down? I think it's too steep to put a bunker in. Doesn't it say top of this road? Top of the road and then down. It says down as well.

1228.605 - 1234.292 David

There's little cops here. What's a rhododendron look like? Do you know what a rhododendron looks like?

1234.312 - 1245.105 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah. I mean, this rhododendron bush was there 84 years ago, so chances are... I think... Can I go back to the info?

1245.226 - 1252.629 David

So the lady said her dad said... On his deathbed, there's a bunker near the zigzag next to our road attention.

Chapter 7: How do they confirm if they've found the bunker?

1460.464 - 1467.757 Andrew Chatterton

Yeah, you don't want to do it on the actual slope, but then when it's flattened off enough, it's easier to build the bunker.

0

1467.777 - 1470.201 David

What do you do when you find one to celebrate?

0

1470.569 - 1497.657 Joe

he normally sings a song he sings a song a lovely song he's got a lovely song he's written is it bad luck to sing it before you've found a bunker yeah it is very much it's got a really high voice it goes on for about six minutes does it sound like erasure this is how confident I am of not finding it here we go oh here we go

0

1497.788 - 1499.15 Andrew Chatterton

Bit of a dip in the land here.

0

1499.591 - 1504.658 David

Hold on, there's a clue here. Right, right. I like the fact that, David, you've both darted forward.

1505.359 - 1512.27 Andrew Chatterton

Well, I think that it suddenly dips down. It's always an interesting sign. What, are you saying something might have collapsed there?

1512.29 - 1513.732 Unknown

Might have collapsed there, yeah.

1513.752 - 1516.216 Andrew Chatterton

Can you see it? Yeah. There's a big old hole over there, actually.

1516.897 - 1532.365 David

And you've got the drop there, which could have had the escape tunnel pop out of. Do you ever look at the... go down that bit there and look along for the tunnel along... The drop, maybe. You know, like... No.

Chapter 8: What are the implications of their findings for historical research?

1654.969 - 1656.25 David

That's insane.

0

1656.27 - 1661.337 Andrew Chatterton

Do you want me to go at length? We'll pretend we haven't found it and we'll come back.

0

1661.877 - 1668.949 David

No, I'm just thinking, could we find another one, please? You see how it sinks? Oh, my God.

0

1669.77 - 1674.578 Unknown

We're part of history. It's on the ground.

0

1675.219 - 1682.52 David

So is Sean not convinced? Sean's never convinced. He's not happy. Sean, you've got to sing in a minute.

1682.8 - 1685.765 Andrew Chatterton

Joe, I've been doing this for so long. This never happens.

1686.326 - 1689.892 Unknown

We don't go, oh, let's walk down there. Oh, look, there's that.

1691.756 - 1702.193 Joe

He's exhausted, by the way. Well, I mean, look, it's the perfect place for it. Perfect place for it. I mean, it could be down there, couldn't it?

1702.213 - 1702.654 Unknown

Down there, yeah.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.