Secret Underground Wartime Bunker Tour - Fort Southwick, Portsmouth

About

On Saturday 8th February 2025 join Hampshire based historians, Hidden History Tours UK, on underground, torchlit tours to explore Fort Southwick UGHQ - a huge bunker, hidden deep beneath Portsdown Hill and Victorian Fort Southwick near Portsmouth.

Built in 1942 this was the Combined Operations Headquarters that coordinated the D- Day Landings. This labyrinth of tunnels was home to 700 men and women of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF and Allied nations that directed Operation Neptune - the naval phase of D-Day.

The Fort Southwick UGHQ had a direct link to nearby Southwick Park where Supreme Commander General Eisenhower was based in the weeks leading up to D- Day. Information from the UGHQ Operations Room was relayed and duplicated in the Southwick Park Operations Room, giving Eisenhower the latest situational information on the Normandy Beaches and English Channel. On our tour, history and statistics mix with people and stories, among them the memories of eyewitness Leading Wren Maureen James who, before she sadly passed away, gave us a wealth of personal anecdotes of her time here, including being on duty the night before and the morning of D-Day itself. These anecdotes now form part of the story that will unfold in the dark and atmospheric tunnels...

Duration is approx 2 hours. For bookings and all further details of our other tours of secret and hidden locations around England see our website.

Run by local professional event organisers with 25 years of experience (working for organisations such as English Heritage, The Royal Armouries and the Mary Rose Trust) we have been taking visitors to unique, hidden, historical locations since 2009 and you will be guaranteed the best tour experience of Fort Southwick. Tours are led here regularly so subscribe to our newsletter on our website and the first to hear about all tour dates (including tours to nearby Southwick House at Southwick Park).