The Operations Room
Building 3 was the Officer's Squash Court. It was also designated as the overflow morgue should the need arise. To our knowledge it was never used as such.
We have some dioramas in the building to show how various scenes would have been during WWII.
The one chosen for today is our version of the Operations Room.
The Operations Room was the hub of activity when the squadrons went out on their missions. Although now it wouldn't be deemed as politically correct, in WWII these rooms were mainly staffed by women in the W.R.A.F.
A chalk board would display the date, we show 6th June 1944, D-Day, the squadrons and the number of planes from each squadron that had taken off, the time they took off and the time they landed, the aircraft type and the operation they had gone to take part in.
There would be a large table covered by a map and the locations of the squadrons and planes could be plotted by the W.R.A.Fs to show where they were at any given time. This was achieved by literally pushing a tiny replica of a plane and the squadron details with a long stick. How things have changed today with our digital imagery. There would have been radios and telephones for communications with all the planes, a noisy and very disciplined room that was vital to the war. One can only imagine the silent atmosphere as the squadrons flew back and were marked as landed, and the despair when an aircraft didn't come back.
Today 3D photography and films are taken for granted as a relatively new innovation. However, 3D photography was used during WWII by Spitfires fitted with machine gun cameras which marked the fall of the rounds fired. Behind the cameras in the photo you will see a map with 3D viewers on it.
We have some dioramas in the building to show how various scenes would have been during WWII.
The one chosen for today is our version of the Operations Room.
The Operations Room was the hub of activity when the squadrons went out on their missions. Although now it wouldn't be deemed as politically correct, in WWII these rooms were mainly staffed by women in the W.R.A.F.
A chalk board would display the date, we show 6th June 1944, D-Day, the squadrons and the number of planes from each squadron that had taken off, the time they took off and the time they landed, the aircraft type and the operation they had gone to take part in.
There would be a large table covered by a map and the locations of the squadrons and planes could be plotted by the W.R.A.Fs to show where they were at any given time. This was achieved by literally pushing a tiny replica of a plane and the squadron details with a long stick. How things have changed today with our digital imagery. There would have been radios and telephones for communications with all the planes, a noisy and very disciplined room that was vital to the war. One can only imagine the silent atmosphere as the squadrons flew back and were marked as landed, and the despair when an aircraft didn't come back.
Today 3D photography and films are taken for granted as a relatively new innovation. However, 3D photography was used during WWII by Spitfires fitted with machine gun cameras which marked the fall of the rounds fired. Behind the cameras in the photo you will see a map with 3D viewers on it.
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| Mock up an R.A.F operations room in WWII. |
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| The chalk board and table map. |
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| 3D Spitfire machine gun cameras and viewers. |
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