Operator Royal Air Force Year built 1939 | In use 1939-1945 (1945) Owner Air Ministry | |
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Type Royal Air Force station Battles/wars Battle of Britain
No.12 Group Fighter Command, Europe December 1939 - May 1945 | ||
RAF Watnall was the operational headquarters of No. 12 Group, RAF Fighter Command in Nottinghamshire.
History
The station was established in Spring 1940 to act as headquarters for No. 12 Group whose area encompassed the Midlands, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and North Wales. The operations room, whose staff were responsible for directing RAF aircraft in the No. 12 Group area, was located in a bunker which is now flooded. It was fully operational by 1940 and closed in 1946.
The filter room, where large quantities of intelligence on enemy activity were filtered before being passed to the operations room, was located in a separate block and did not open until 1943. After the war it continued to be used as an early warning centre until it closed in 1961.
The filter block was sold by auction in 2008 and is now being redeveloped as a hotel. An episode of The Restoration Man presented by George Clarke, which was aired on Channel 4 on 12 February 2014, described the progress of the development.