After the Second World War perceptions changed very rapidly. Russia came to be seen as a very real threat and there was every reason to believe that a ‘Third World War’ was a very high possibility.There was much political posturing by all sides as countries rebuilt their economies and established new spheres of influence. The development of atomic weapons by the Russians and their ability to deliver them using long range TU-4 bombers alarmed the government of the day. Many studies were carried out as to the likely result of a nuclear exchange with casualty rates predicted at anywhere from 5% to 95%. Most informed opinion seems to have settled on a 50% to 90% casualty rate and this led the government to begin planning for this possible Third World War.
In order to give as much warning as possible to the UK it was decided that a new chain of radar stations would be needed. The decision was made re-use what already existed and upgrade as much of the older radar equipment as possible. The Chain Home stations were refurbished as a matter of top priority and some of the old CHL stations were redeveloped as Chain Home Extra Low (CHEL) sites to, once again, fill in the low level gaps in the CH system.
This was done as a matter of top priority and the equipment was installed at some 66 sites round the country. The sites were also hardened significantly to offer the operators protection from a near-hit with a 20-Kiloton Atomic Bomb, a standard Soviet weapon at that time. This meant that the buildings would have to be constructed from reinforced concrete 10 to 14 feet thick all round and, for additional protection, be buried underground. A hierarchy of sites was established with single level bunkers in the front line feeding their information back to larger, two-level bunkers which in turn fed information to the larger control sites up to three levels deep. On the eastern and southern sites the bunkers were usually underground while the western and many more northerly sites were fortified above ground level.
Truleigh became a single-level R2 site as part of the ROTOR system and in the underground bunker a team of RAF personnel worked at plotting tables and communications equipment not all that different from during WW2. More information on the ROTOR project is available from Tex Bennett’s essay on the Subterranea Britannica site.
The regular RAF were always short of trained personnel however so they were supplemented at various times by others. Civilian technicians directly employed by the Ministry of Works were used to maintain the main electrical power supply and the bunker’s internal electrical equipment. National Service conscripts were also used in a number of jobs and, in 1953, a local volunteer force was recruited.
The Royal Auxiliary Air Force opened No 3701 (County of Sussex) Radar Reporting Unit based in Brighton. There were only two such RRUs set up and the volunteers underwent evening and weekend training augmented by annual camps at RAF and other establishments. As well as an annual bounty of £15 the members of 3701 RRU were paid between 2/6d and 4/- (depending on rank) for a two-hour training period. On camps they also received normal pay and allowances. 3701 RRU adopted the motto “Alert the Eagles” and were affiliated with Wartling, Beachey Head, Truleigh Hill and Poling during their existence.
In spite of the promises made in the recruiting booklet there was never much hands-on training given and the evening visits to Truleigh Hill were often a disappointment since the regular duty team only worked a day shift normally and were not well pleased at having to stay on for the RRU training. The promised opportunity to take over the station and operate it one Sunday each month never materialised on a regular basis either. An exception to this was a period of about 5 weeks during the Suez crisis of 1956. This situation was taken so seriously that the RRU were operating almost every evening and weekend and a supply of small arms were placed on racks inside the entrance tunnel in case of special forces being landed nearby to disable the radars. In addition, local TA units were placed on stand-by and worked with the RRU as a defence force. 3701 RRU was disbanded in 1958 when Truleigh Hill and its kind became redundant.
