CART Auxiliary Unit Research

County Group

Locality

North Cave is a village approximately 3 miles north-west of Brough.

Patrol members

Name	Occupation	Posted from	Until
Sergeant Harold Cobb	Aircraft fitter	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Sergeant Frank Lowthorpe	Bricklayer	Unknown	Mid 1944
Private Edgar Cobb	Aircraft woodworker	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Arthur Jackson	Aircraft fitter	Unknown	1942
Private Cyril Pease	Audit clerk	Unknown	1942
Private Duncan Suddaby	Aircraft fitter	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Bernard Thompson	Bricklayer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Kenneth Adam Thornham	Farmer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944

Operational Base (OB)

The OB is set within a small plantation on a large bank that is thought to be natural. Clay soil abounds everywhere and the OB is not that far beneath your feet. The condition of the main chamber is good although the rest of the OB has collapsed.

The main chamber is 12 by 9 feet with the entrance in the north wall and an escape shaft in the south wall.

A strange concoction of rooms and tunnels made up the North Cave OB. Apparently an earlier OB was built which they then used as an explosive store and built a better OB next door. To gain entry to the OB you first slid back a tree trunk, which led down into the ammunition store. They walked through the store to a tunnel entrance into the OB. The escape shaft and the entrance shaft were extremely close together. See plan.

A nearby Observation Post (OP) was situated in the hedge line, however this could not be found. A telephone connected to the OB was in the OP. The OP was sighted with good views of the road between Hotham and the main road from South Cave to Market Weighton.

There are remains of telephone cable within the OB for communication with the OP.

Patrol & OB pictures

North Cave Auxiliary Unit - Inside main chamber

Inside main chamber (from Andy Gwynne)

North Cave Auxiliary Unit - Sink cleaned out

Sink cleaned out (from Andy Gwynne)

North Cave Plan (from Andy Gwynne)

North Cave Auxiliary Unit -Fuel Storage Point

Fuel storage point (from Andy Gwynne)

North Cave Auxiliary Unit - Telephone cable

Telephone cable (from Andy Gwynne)

Escape shaft (from Andy Gwynne)

OP view (from Andy Gwynne)

CART - Yorkshire - North Cave - Ian Turton

Main chamber (from Ian Turton)

CART - Yorkshire - North Cave - Ian Turton2

Sink (from Ian Turton)

OB Status

Largely intact

OB accessibility

This OB is on private land. Please do not be tempted to trespass to see it

Location

North Cave Patrol

Patrol Targets

The most likely local targets would have included Blackburn Aircraft Company at Brough Aerodrome and also the Drewton railway tunnel that serviced the Hull to Barnsley line.

Many of the Auxiliers worked at the Blackburn Aircraft Company and would have had first hand knowledge of its topography.

Military targets would have included RAF Brough, RAF Holme, RAF Bellasize and Hull Docks.

Training

The Patrol would train locally near the OB and they would have gone to Middleton on the Wolds, the base for the Intelligence Officer for the group.

The Sergeant may have gone to Coleshill House for specialist courses over a weekend.

Weapons and Equipment

Weapons issued to the Patrol included; .38 Smith & Wesson or .45 Colt pistols, .22 Remington or Winchester rifle with sights (silencers issued later in the war), Fairbairn Sykes fighting knives and Sten Machine gun.

Other information

Several members worked at the Brough's Blackburn Aircraft factory with members of the Brough Patrol.

References

TNA ref WO199/3389

Hancock data held at B.R.A

1939 Register

Andy Gwynne

East Ridings Secret Resistance by Alan Williamson

Terrence King 2012,

Neil Cross

Ian Turton