Charing Patrol

The main OB was at Impkins Farm where there was a dry well. A hinged ladder descended into the well off which there was a side tunnel leading to the OB.

There was a two-man Observation Post underneath a sheep trough on Charing Hill overlooking the A20 Ashford to Maidstone Road.
When Captain Norman Field decided to place an underground OP on the bare crest of Charing Hill he had to solve both the problems of surreptitious digging and soil disposal. He and his men borrowed an anti-aircraft gun, placed it on the spot they had picked for the OP, and then started filling sandbags to shield it, using for this the earth that they dug from around the base of the gun to build the OP. For several weeks they manned the gun, and then an Army truck came to tow it away, and cart off the sand bags. This was not unusual as the guns were often moved from one place to another. All that remained on Charing Hill was a perfectly concealed hideout; or so Captain Field believed. They were not unobserved, though:

Mr R J Lukehurst was a boy at the time and remembers it being built: “The bunker was in the chalk pit opposite the Swan Hotel and was built by the RE behind tarpaulins; but as schoolboys do we found a way in. The entrance was a traditional wooden sheep trough. There was a loose nail in the floor which when withdrawn enabled this to be slid to one end. A stepladder led down into the interior. From memory I would say it was about 10’ long by 6’ wide with headroom of 7’. There was a barrel of water, a crate of rations and a lovely perspex covered map which was hand drawn to give a pictorial view as seen through the actual rabbit holes in the bank. These had slide back glass covers; all very ingenious. I suppose we must have been seen and as the cover was blown it didn’t last very long. I think it was probably filled in about 1943/44.”