Fact Sheet 5
The Western Approaches
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| The Royal Navy Map Room - the most important room in combined headquarters. |
As many Merseysiders will tell you, the City of Liverpool made a key contribution to victory in World War II.
Merchant shipping based here kept the nation supplied with food and raw materials.
Combined Operations, which was responsible for control of the Western Approaches (a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain), was moved in l941 from Plymouth to Derby House, part of Exchange Buildings close to Liverpool’s waterfront.
This move was instigated by Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
The complex - which was known locally as the “Citadel” or “Fortress”, was designed to be bomb proof and gas proof, with a 7ft. thick roof and walls ranging from 3ft to 11ft thick, and 100 rooms covering an area of 50,000 square feet.
The Royal Navy, Air Force and Royal Marines worked jointly to monitor enemy convoys and “wolf packs” of German submarines which threatened to bring Britain to her knees by crippling our merchant shipping in the early part of the war.
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| The Enigma Decoding Machine |
Probably the most important area in Western Approaches was the decoding room, in which the ENIGMA DECODING MACHINE was kept. The original Enigma coding machine had been recovered from a sinking U-boat, along with the code books, but tragically the sailors who saved them were lost.
The main operations room contained giant maps of the North Atlantic, the Western Approaches and the British Isles. It was upon these huge maps which convoys and wolf packs were plotted with Wrens moving them around, using large mobile ladders.
The most famous event in Western Approaches’ history is probably the hunting down of the Bismark.
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| Sir Max Horton, Commander in Chief of the Western Approaches from 1942. |
The most famous commander of the Western Approaches was Admiral Sir Max Horton, who took command in November 1942 and immediately instituted a series of tactical changes in the way the escort ships were to be used. Organizing them into "support groups" and "hunter-killer groups", they were to operate at longer distances from the convoys and prevent the deadly wolfpacks from ever forming. The technique was successful: with more forces becoming available, rapidly improving technology (particularly radar), and information being provided by Ultra, the battle was soon over with the Allies successful.
Sir Max Horton is buried in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.
