Blast shelter near Edinburgh where workers took cover opened up after 50 years

A blast shelter near Edinburgh where workers took cover during World War Two has re-opened after 80 years.

The shelter was built for those working in the technical area of the former RAF East Fortune, which was used as a fighter station and operational training centre during the war and is now home to the National Museum of Flight.

Ian Brown, assistant curator of aviation at National Museums Scotland, said the blast shelter was one of a dozen placed around the airfield.

He said they were filled in for safety when the museum arrived at the airfield in the 1970s.

Following a conservation project, one of the blast shelters has now been opened up to give visitors a sense of daily life at the airfield during wartime.

Mr Brown said: “For as long as I have known there has always been an aspiration to open at least one up so that people can see what it was actually like.

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“East Fortune was never bombed but it was built over the winter of 1940/1941 right in the middle of The Blitz. It was highly likely that the airfield would be a target so they needed to provide protection for all the personnel who were here.”

Administrative staff at the airfield would use air raid shelters but the blast shelters were in place for those involved in repairs and technical work.

Mr Brown added: “They didn’t want that work to stop because there was an air raid so the idea was they would carry on working almost up until the point that bombs were falling and then you would run out of the hangars and jump into the blast shelters. They are open at the top so you jump in and crouch behind a wall.

“The main thing was you could quickly run into them.

“If a bomb had directly hit one of them, you wouldn’t have survived. These shelters really were just to protect you from blast and bits of high metal flying around at speed.”

While RAF East Fortune was not bombed, nearby Haddington was struck by Luftwaffee on March3, 1941 with six bombs dropped and three people killed.

At the time, around 2,000 people would have been based at RAF East Fortune where people came and went on different training courses..

Mr Brown said: “There would be instructors, mechanics but a lot of people here were just passing through.”

When the blast shelter was opened up, Mr Brown and his colleague discovered it was completely filled in with sand with a thin layer of concrete poured on top.

“The sand was perfect as it protected the bricks, which can obviously erode due to the weather. The bricks there are pretty much the same as they were when they were put in there 80 years ago.”

East Fortune served as a base for WWI airships and then as a satellite for nearby RAF Drem during World War Two.

The first flying unit arrived in 1941 with No 60 Operational Training Unit (OTU) with courses set up for night fighter aircrews.

Pilots from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Poland were among the first to be stationed there and aircraft such as Bristol Beaufighters and Blenheims were some of the aircraft used.

In November 1942, the training focus switched to anti-shipping strikes and courses for long-ranger fighter crews.