Hedley, Ridley Gill, Auxiliary Unit Operational Base

Dilapidated concrete bunker with corrugated metal roof. This was the Operational Base of Kibblesworth Auxiliary Unit Patrol which was part of Area No. 3 (along with Hetton, Haswell, Wheatley Hill, Washington and Birtley). Area No. 3 was commanded by Captain A C J Burningham. The patrol was formed in 1941. The patrol targets were Kibblesworth Bombing Decoy site, the East Coast main railway line, the Consett to Sunderland railway and the Tanfield Railway, local roads and bridges. The patrol members were trained locally and at Middleton on the Wolds. An Operational Base is an underground structure intended for use by members of the British Resistance Organisation in the event of invasion. GHQ (General Headquarters) Auxiliary Units were specially trained secret units. Winston Churchill appointed Colonel Colin Gubbins to form the units in summer 1940. Auxilliers were recruited from the Home Guard. The men were trained on weekend courses at Coleshill House near Highworth, Wiltshire, in the arts of guerrilla warfare including assassination, unarmed combat, demolition and sabotage. They were trained in explosives - fire pots, time pencils, cordite, ordinary fuses. The unit was equipped with revolvers, rubber truncheons, sten guns, rifles, commando knives, blasting gelignite explosives, fire pots with time pencils, cordite wasp fuse cord, grenades and sticky bombs. Each Patrol was a self-contained cell, expected to be self-sufficient and operationally autonomous in the case of invasion, generally operating within a 15-mile radius. They were provided with a concealed underground Operational Base (OB), usually built by the Royal Engineers in a local woodland, with a camouflaged entrance and emergency escape tunnel; it is thought that 400 to 500 such Obs were constructed. All patrol members were issued with a cyanide capsule and were instructed to use it if wounded or captured to avoid compromising local residents.