D Day Dorset Guard Duties

While Patrols from elsewhere in the country were sent to the Isle of Wight around D Day to provide guard patrols there, in Dorset there were plenty of important points that needed defending. Auxiliers were drawn from across the county to form into patrols based on the men available.

Knitson Farm

This was the location of a large communications facility which had been constructed starting in 1936. Masts were erected on Nine Barrow Down and and underground control facility built from three double Nissen huts buried under concrete and grassed over. At the bottom of the hill was a large generator bunker formed from an oversized Nissen type hut with a pair of roof hatches accessed via shafts at either end. The side entrance had a brick and concrete lobby with a couple of rooms and then steps leading down to a track towards the farm. The steps had a built in ramp either side to allow the generator trailers to be hoisted up to the main bunker. This is on private property and not accessible due to its dangerous condition. The steps can be seen from a footpath along the track.

The exact purpose of this site still remains a mystery. It was nominally under Royal Navy control, but civilians, Army and RAF personnel all worked there. In the run up to D Day US Navy personnel were also seen. This was not a part of the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) formerly located at nearby Leeson House and Worth Matravers, nor part of the Y intercept service.

Accommodation for the personnel included a pair of Nissen huts and a small toilet block at Knitson Farm. After the war, one Nissen hut became part of a neighbouring property but still survives. The farm continued to operate amongst the military activity. Mr STJ Smith was the tenant farmer, though he sold up in 1945, disposing of his Fordson tractor, 2 working horses and a 52 strong dairy herd. He had taken over from F and H Curtis, who had sold up in 1937 through FW Cottee, auctioneer and estate agent. He had three children and during the war advertised both for a housekeeper, as well as an additional farmhand.

The Auxiliary Units men who were brought in were used to provide guard patrols at night. It seems the younger men were selected by preference. They were provided with tents in a field to sleep during the day. They slept 8 men to each tent. The RAF Regiment provided the daytime patrols. The fear was that a German raid might knock out the vital communications needed to control the huge invasion forces. The Auxiliers however knew nothing about what was going on. Some only knew they were guarding a door in the hillside!

Sergeant Fred Simpson from the Creech patrol kept a diary of his period of duty, even though this was officially forbidden.