Quarry Hill, World War 2, Adel Woods Bunkers, and Hitler!

[floodland]

from what i heard, Hitler was impressed by the Quarry Hill flats and as such they were earmarked for the garrison of troops occupying the North of England following an invasion.

[Phill_d]

Absolutely Floodland. Quarry hill was very much state of the art & brand new in 1938. There are pics to be found if you look hard enough of Quarry hill recce pics taken by the Luftwaffe so adding credibilty to old Adolf's intentions.

[Ro-Man]

Here's a few articles to pick your way through from both sides of the argument (copyright Yorkshire Evening Post and all from May 2004)Did Hitler plan Leeds fortress?SOURCE: Yorkshire Evening PostIn answer to L Pickersgill, I too observed airships - Zepplins - passing over Leeds on two occasions during the 1930s.I lived at the bottom of York Road at that time.The airships' flight direction was east to west across Marsh Lane and the Leeds Market area. There is no doubt the dirigibles were perfect spying machines, slow moving, a few hundred feet above the ground and ideal for photographing the surface area.During that era the Germans were ruthless in their quest for world domination.It was said if the invasion of this country had been successful during the 'dark days' of late summer 1940, Hitler would have been installed in the Quarry Hill Flats, which would have been converted into military barracks and well nigh a fortress, surrounded by his army and impregnable.His bunker would have been situated in the centre of the complex adjacent to the washhouse. In a book I read may years ago, the author said the Fuhrer's command armoured train would have been garaged a few hundred yards away in the Marsh Lane Sidings Yard.In conversation with people I have been ridiculed and accused of a 'wind up'. But I don't believe it was beyond the realms of credibility.A Nazi's vision of Fortress LeedsSOURCE: Yorkshire Evening PostRegarding 'Hitler's plans for Fortress Leeds' at Quarry Hill Flats, suggested by Jack Binns (Letters, May 10) and the ridicule he's been subject to whenever airing his observations.I too have been viewed as someone who has just fallen out of a tree whenever I've expounded the same thing, minus the Hitler's bunker bit, so I sympathise with him and hope this letter will help jog the memories of some of your readers in a bid to add credence to the story.About 30 years ago I was working nights at a tailoring factory just off York Road, Leeds, and befriended the night watchman, a very well-read and educated man who seemed far too well-qualified for such a job.I was intrigued until, on gaining his confidence, he produced a letter from no less a person than Adolf Hitler himself, typed in English before the war and on Nazi party note-paper complete with swastikas. It went on to thank him for his support for the Nazi cause in England and was signed by Hitler.He then told me why Hitler had shown such an interest in Leeds and why he'd gone to the trouble of writing to him. Old ariel photographs has shown that Quarry Hill Flats were perfectly placed to base his crack SS troops. A network of autobahns were planned (a German reality in 1939 when motorways here were but a pipe dream). These motorways would spread out from Leeds to the four corners of the nation, like the spokes of a wheel, the hub being Leeds, enabling the SS troops based at Quarry Hill flats to speedily respond, reach and put down any civil disorder in any part of Britain.At the outbreak of war, being a known Hitler supporter, he was arrested and interned as an undesirable. After the war he was black-balled and no one would employ him until the Jewish owner of the tailoring factory set him on.I still feel a chill knowing Leeds was central to Hitler's dreams of a Nazi Germanic Britain, as even in those days Leeds had a well-established Jewish population and Hitler planned to station his SS troops right in our midst. It doesn't bear thinking about.I also find it very humbling and not a little ironic that a Jewish person, knowing full well, by then, what the Nazi's had done to his people in Europe, repayed evil intent with kindness by giving an old enemy the dignity of employment.Noel E Ogden, Baildon Chase, LeedsIf Jack Binns continues his research into the second world war he will find that Hitler had a number of operational Fuhrer headquarters during the Second world war.Covering the German invasion of France and the low countries in 1940, Munstereifell was used and later in France, after our 1944 Normandy operation, Soissons.The best known, however, were those used during the titanic struggle on the eastern front 1941-45 - the 'Wolf's Lair', Rastenburg, and Vinnitsa.Every one of these field headquarters were very heavily defended, consisting of concrete bunkers with barracks accommodation and all were set in isolated and wooded areas, offering maximum defence against air attack or raids by special forces (commandos). Whilst concealment was paramount, they did have nearby rail and airfield links.Accordingly, I am sure Jack will agree that it would be highly unlikely that Hitler's security and military staff would choose the centre of a large industrial city to site a planned 'UK fortress', assuming a successful German invasion of Britain in late summer 1940.One therefore doubts Marsh Lane Sidings would have seen Hitler's command armoured train, but it is certainly an interesting theory.Don't dismiss stories of 'Hitler's HQ'SOURCE: Yorkshire Evening PostIt was with great interest that I read your letters on the possibility that Hitler planned to set up headquarters in Quarry Hill, Leeds (YEP,May 20).My father, Alex Hesling, died seven months ago aged 82.He was in the building trade along with the rest of his family. He worked on the construction of Quarry Hill Flats. Later he lived and worked in the flats until their demolition.I would consider my father had one of the most knowledgeable brains regarding the flats. From a small child I was always told that among his generation it was known that Hitler was planning to use the flats as his north of England headquarters. It was said that Hitler could be self-sufficient at the flats.The flats, I believe, had an Austrian (as was Hitler) designer and looked very German in design.My father told me many tales of the flats - lots of bones appearing, a river running underneath.I do not think this this information re Hitler should be treated with ridicule, as my father was a very sensible, well-respected member of the Quarry Hill Flats community and believed it to be true.Just to muddy the waters even more, here's a couple more things I found.This is from the Marriott Hotel guidehttp://marriott.com/city-guide/city-overview.mi?cityId=3&guideType=fun_factsDid You Know? The Midland Hotel in Manchester was where Rolls met Royce in 1904 and was the beginning of the famous Rolls Royce company. The Hotel was also Hitler's choice as a possible Nazi headquarters in Britain.And this is from a blog which is about the history of radio in Londonhttp://thisisntlondon.blogspot.com/2004/10/radio-ga-ga-1-1920-1962.htmlAnd so things continued until the Second World War, when the Radio London frequency was given over to the Ministry for Propaganda. As part of the War effort, it was necessary to misinform the Nazis as to the whereabouts of the capital city - it was broadcast from a variety of locations including Bristol, Stafford, Hull, Inverness and successfully fooled the Nazis so much that Operation Sea Lion, the projected invasion of Britain, was planned on the basis that the capital was just north of Leeds.

[Phill_d]

Top notch detective work there Ro-man. Thats just one of the many articles i've seen about it myself. If proof were needed then i think you've done a fine job here! I don't think there can be much doubt now. It'd be good if we can find the recce pics. I can't remember just were i saw them. I'll have a dig about.

[jim]

Another site I've not seen before.If Adolf wanted Marsh Lane sidings for his private train, I wonder what happened to the german bomber pilots when they got back from making Marsh Lane one of the two most heavily bombed railway sites in Leeds? (The other was Gott's Field, between the canal and the river,and Wellington Road and the Central Station approach viaduct.)

[Loiner1960]

Quarry Hill Flats were supposedly based on the Karl Marx Hof complex in Vienna. The Hitler connection was that in the event of Great Britain being conquered, Quarry Hill Flats were to be the Headquarters of the SS in the North of England. So it would be more likely SS Reich Furher Himmler would have visited. As for Leeds being bombed. Well it was but it was only luck that the Germans didn't bomb Leeds as much as Sheffield of Hull. With AV Roe at Yeadon, Blackburns at Sherburn, all the shadow factories in Hunslet, Holbeck and Armley, it is rather odd.

[Cardiarms]

The Nazis had ambitious plans for social housing like Quarry Hill. Not so long ago the german'military' guide to the UK was published. IIRC Leeds was described as a cloth manufacturing city and the engineering was not appreciated and therefore not worthwhile target.Off to google..

[liits]

I’m sure that I’ve posted this elsewhere on here [or somewhere similar]. A friend who lives in Hove but comes from Blackpool has heard two different versions of this story. The first [from Blackpool] being that if Hitler conquered Great Britain, he was going to use the Tower Ballroom as the headquarters for the SS [Oh yes, I can just see them on that maple wood dance floor. Side-togethe, side together....]. The second [from Hove, well, Brighton] was that Hitler was going to use the Grand Hotel as the headquarters for the SS. I’ve recently seen on TV some guff presented by Jim Carter which said that the Senate Building of UCL was planned to be used as the headquarters of the SS. At what point were the SS going to stop picking curtains and soft furnishings for all of their new headquarters buildings and actually start being despots? Seemingly, any place where it was possible to get more than three people together was “considered” as suitable for the SS.Tosh.    

[buffaloskinner]

There seems to be definite plans for Blackpool, but none seems to have come to light about Leeds.Maps and aerial photographs found in a military base in Germany by Michael Cole, a publisher in York, purportedly reveal Hitler's grand design for Blackpool, which may explain why it was spared the fate of such cities as Coventry, which suffered massive bombing damage in 1940.The marked maps and photographs were seen by Hitler when his plans to invade Britain were at their height. As part of Operation Sealion, he wanted to march soldiers along the coast after a drop by paratroopers in the resort's Stanley Park."I got them from Germany about a year ago," Cole told the Telegraph. "They have immense historical significance as they are some of the last surviving remnants of invasion material."Elaine Smith, of Blackpool's civic trust, said: "We did escape a lot of bombing. Hitler probably wanted to keep the resort as it was to enjoy it as chancellor of Britain."Adolf Hitler saved Blackpool from Blitz because he wanted it as a personal playgroundhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4782054 ... ndHitler's plans to turn Blackpool into Nazi resort come to lighthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/hitle ... sAndHitler ordered Luftwaffe to spare Blackpoolhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/blackpool_plan/    

[liits]

Well, I suppose if it’s in the newspaper, it must be true!I don’t see why, having conquered nearly the whole of Europe and having the French Riviera - sort of under his control, his pall Mussolini running Italy [another warmish climate] and from 1941, he had Greece under his control why would he want to come to Blackpool? Brid or Scarborough I can understand. Filey, at a push, but Blackpool.....!At least he wouldn’t have had the problems of all the other Germans hogging the sun beds with their towels...... easy, no sun in Blackpool!I’m still inclined to think that this is tosh and I’m surprised it’s in the Torygraph. The whole thing smacks of Capt. Mainwaring and his "Novelty Rock Emporium to the Amusement Arcade" style of thinking.