How a headquarter of the Battle of Atlantic looked like? It's all preserved in Liverpool
It was almost exactly 79 years in February 2020 since the Western Approaches Command first opened. Now it is a well-preserved museum of the Second World War. Based in the vast, purpose-built bunker in the Derby House at Exchange Flags in Liverpool it was a place where the British fought the most immediate threats from the German U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean.
The U-boats were attacking provision shipments, vital in the British war effort. Western Approaches was an area to the west of the British Isles and Liverpool its main port.
The underground 100 rooms were reinforced with concrete, 7-foot thick roof and 3-foot deep walls. Only a part remains open to the public, it is a journey through time.
The main Operations Room (below, upper-right) has remained exactly how it was left on 15 August 1945.
We took a walk through a labyrinth of corridors, passing hidden rooms, each with its own story - servicemen and servicewomen working day and night, their lives entangled in the war. Documents, maps, machinery, tools to ensure that shipping routes will be protected.
Winston Churchill confessed after the war that his main fear and the greatest challenge was the Battle of the Atlantic.
During the war, supply convoys were arriving on the Mersey shores. Both warships and merchant ships had to be repaired and equipped. Thousands of Liverpool people were involved. Because of this strategic position, Liverpool and Birkenhead were heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1940/1941 sixteen months of unsuccessful Blitzkrieg.
The museum organised an excellent Wartime Weekend on the occasion of the HMS Prince of Wales inauguration visit to Liverpool.