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HMS Badger (shore establishment)
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HMS Badger (shore establishment)
HMS Badger was a shore establishment of the Royal Navy on the east coast of the United Kingdom. She was commissioned on 13 September 1939, and was the flagship of the headquarters of the Flag Officer in Charge (FOIC), Harwich who was responsible to Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. She was decommissioned on 21 October 1946, although the Operations Room remained as the Emergency Port Control for the Harwich area. The site was Parkeston Quay, now Harwich International Port, and the bunker lies under Hamilton House, currently an occupational health centre, close to the entrance to Harwich International Port, a few miles west of Harwich.
The Parkeston Quay site had been used during the First World War by the Royal Navy (see Harwich Force), and an Admiralty Research Laboratory had been constructed there. The port was, again, requisitioned from the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the beginning of World War II.
In its early days Badger provided a base for minesweepers, but by the end of 1940 it also serviced a destroyer flotilla, a submarine squadron and a Coastal Forces motor torpedo boat base, becoming the largest base for small craft in the United Kingdom.
Badger was the name of the Harwich-Parkeston shore base but, for traditionalist purposes, was also applied to a harbour craft—initially the requisitioned LNER ferry Epping, and later, the large 4-masted sailing ship Westwood, which was kept permanently moored, as personnel-accommodation ship, at the east end of Parkeston Quay.
HMS Badger had in excess of 1,300 shore staff, with up to 4,000 more men on warships under the authority of its FOIC (a rear-admiral or vice-admiral). His authority extending from the River Blackwater to Dunwich, and across to Holland. About 600 men of this command lost their lives, mainly at sea due to air and E-boat attacks (such as on the destroyers Wren and Exmoor) or mines (Gipsy and Grenville).
Its facilities included oil tanks, signals office (with WT/RT) station, a bomb disposal unit, a salvage and rescue tugs base, engineering sheds for warships (though there was no dockyard), minefield control posts (with small radar station), harbour entrance signal/control station, officers' club (at Michaelstowe Hall), and ratings club (at Parkeston).
Various sub-bases, originally part of it, were progressively split off under their own officers, such as HMS Epping for minesweepers, HMS Beehive (Felixstowe) for MTBs and HMS Bunting (Ipswich) for auxiliary patrol.
The successive FOICs were Harris, Goolden, Rogers, Baillie-Grohman and Watson. The base was visited by Winston Churchill, King George VI, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Admiral Sir Jack Tovey.
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HMS Badger (shore establishment)
HMS Badger was a shore establishment of the Royal Navy on the east coast of the United Kingdom. She was commissioned on 13 September 1939, and was the flagship of the headquarters of the Flag Officer in Charge (FOIC), Harwich who was responsible to Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. She was decommissioned on 21 October 1946, although the Operations Room remained as the Emergency Port Control for the Harwich area. The site was Parkeston Quay, now Harwich International Port, and the bunker lies under Hamilton House, currently an occupational health centre, close to the entrance to Harwich International Port, a few miles west of Harwich.
The Parkeston Quay site had been used during the First World War by the Royal Navy (see Harwich Force), and an Admiralty Research Laboratory had been constructed there. The port was, again, requisitioned from the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the beginning of World War II.
In its early days Badger provided a base for minesweepers, but by the end of 1940 it also serviced a destroyer flotilla, a submarine squadron and a Coastal Forces motor torpedo boat base, becoming the largest base for small craft in the United Kingdom.
Badger was the name of the Harwich-Parkeston shore base but, for traditionalist purposes, was also applied to a harbour craft—initially the requisitioned LNER ferry Epping, and later, the large 4-masted sailing ship Westwood, which was kept permanently moored, as personnel-accommodation ship, at the east end of Parkeston Quay.
HMS Badger had in excess of 1,300 shore staff, with up to 4,000 more men on warships under the authority of its FOIC (a rear-admiral or vice-admiral). His authority extending from the River Blackwater to Dunwich, and across to Holland. About 600 men of this command lost their lives, mainly at sea due to air and E-boat attacks (such as on the destroyers Wren and Exmoor) or mines (Gipsy and Grenville).
Its facilities included oil tanks, signals office (with WT/RT) station, a bomb disposal unit, a salvage and rescue tugs base, engineering sheds for warships (though there was no dockyard), minefield control posts (with small radar station), harbour entrance signal/control station, officers' club (at Michaelstowe Hall), and ratings club (at Parkeston).
Various sub-bases, originally part of it, were progressively split off under their own officers, such as HMS Epping for minesweepers, HMS Beehive (Felixstowe) for MTBs and HMS Bunting (Ipswich) for auxiliary patrol.
The successive FOICs were Harris, Goolden, Rogers, Baillie-Grohman and Watson. The base was visited by Winston Churchill, King George VI, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Admiral Sir Jack Tovey.
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