City crews uncover Cold War cache

[old Grump]

Mathie

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

February 1, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS)

Building for the future can sometimes unearth the past. Construction crews discovered a fallout shelter while working on Lower Wacker Drive.
The nuclear fallout shelter, discovered by Chicago Department of Transportation crews in the 200-block of South Wacker Drive, is from 1962.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...hie&id=8527569

I used to a lot of work in that area and I am not a bit surprised. That used to be one heck of a big office building and the stuff below ground has just been forgotten. Those who put it there are long retired or dead and probably don't remember much from back then either. Somebody doing a serious search of down town Chicago with a ground search radar could probably find a few more of these not to mention some of those lost voters.

[Altarboy]

Nice. I remember all the big buildings in Nashville had them. Last time I was in the big NLT building it had the old fallout shelter full of Red Grooms art work. We need to get a little more vigilant.

[rci2950]

not too sure about eating the food from it though.

[dfariswheel]

The really interesting finds would be the WWII equipment hides the British scattered all over the island in the early days of the war.
They were fairly sure the Nazis were going to invade, so they set up a secret army who'd conduct guerrilla war against them after the island fell.

The members were secret to protect them from being found out if paperwork on them was captured.
Members were given equipment and ordered to take it out into the country side and build hides for it.
In the hides were explosives, ammo, and brand new Thompson Submachine guns.
Many members of these groups were later killed in the war, and they were the only ones who knew where many of the hides were.
There are an unknown number of these still to be found.

Another good find would be the secret stashes of weapons and explosives the Russians hid in America in the 50's and 60's.
The idea was that if there was a war, they'd infiltrate Spetznaz and agents into America and they'd arm themselves from these hidden arsenals, then conduct guerrilla war here.
These hidden arsenals were simply abandoned in place, since the Russians thought it'd be riskier to be caught removing them then to just leave them where they were.
If any were found, they'd just deny having anything to do with it.

There are also undiscovered tunnels and bunkers under Moscow that the knowledge of has been lost. In many cases, the ultra-paranoid Stalin had the builders and anyone with knowledge of them killed to protect their existence.

There's also more than a little suspicion that there are other secret bunkers in America other then the now famous one under the Greenbriar hotel.

[linx310]

Another good find would be the secret stashes of weapons and explosives the Russians hid in America in the 50's and 60's.
The idea was that if there was a war, they'd infiltrate Spetznaz and agents into America and they'd arm themselves from these hidden arsenals, then conduct guerrilla war here.
These hidden arsenals were simply abandoned in place, since the Russians thought it'd be riskier to be caught removing them then to just leave them where they were.
If any were found, they'd just deny having anything to do with it.

Some on this board back in 2001-2002 actually believed he found such a cache. They were working a construction site and uncovered a AK-47 and a stash of ammo sealed a few feet under the ground. From what he post I think it was of actual Russian manufacture, looked new, and was not of the type imported.

[El Duce]

The really interesting finds would be the WWII equipment hides the British scattered all over the island in the early days of the war.
They were fairly sure the Nazis were going to invade, so they set up a secret army who'd conduct guerrilla war against them after the island fell.

The members were secret to protect them from being found out if paperwork on them was captured.
Members were given equipment and ordered to take it out into the country side and build hides for it.
In the hides were explosives, ammo, and brand new Thompson Submachine guns.
Many members of these groups were later killed in the war, and they were the only ones who knew where many of the hides were.
There are an unknown number of these still to be found.

Another good find would be the secret stashes of weapons and explosives the Russians hid in America in the 50's and 60's.
The idea was that if there was a war, they'd infiltrate Spetznaz and agents into America and they'd arm themselves from these hidden arsenals, then conduct guerrilla war here.
These hidden arsenals were simply abandoned in place, since the Russians thought it'd be riskier to be caught removing them then to just leave them where they were.
If any were found, they'd just deny having anything to do with it.

There are also undiscovered tunnels and bunkers under Moscow that the knowledge of has been lost. In many cases, the ultra-paranoid Stalin had the builders and anyone with knowledge of them killed to protect their existence.

There's also more than a little suspicion that there are other secret bunkers in America other then the now famous one under the Greenbriar hotel.

I have been into the Bunker more than once. It was "hidden" in plain view so to speek. Most folks back then knew about it, just didn't talk about it. There were a group of chefs that were in charge of taking care of the kitchen. Rotating food out etc. What is kinda cool, is that when it was declassified lots of the spare equipment was rotated into the general population of the hotel. Kinda neat grabbing a pan and seeing government markings on it.

[Richard Simmons]

While not on nearly so grand a scale as the Greenbrier or other caches I've read stories about people back where I grew up in Nebraska buying surplus firearms in the 50's-60's and burying them on their property to "arm the resistance" when the soviets invaded. Those individuals passed away and never told anyone where the cache was and any property they owned, if it was on their property, has long since been sold and subdivided.

Also heard a story about a WWII airbase in the area that, when it was closed after the war, the rumor is that rather then spend the money on freight they simply dug a trench back in the hills and buried cases and cases of small arms ammunition. Not sure I have much faith in this story but knowing how the military is (I remember my Navy days where if you didn't spend your whole budget they would decrease it the next year) getting rid of even a couple million rounds of ammo rather than pay to ship it or have it deducted from your next budget might not be all that far fetched. Coming off a world war would say, 1 million rounds of 30.06 really be significant?

[Schuetzenman]

I don't doubt the story of digging a trench and shoving in ammo. My Dad was a Capt. on Army Airbases during WWII. His last base in Cali. did just that, they dug a big trench and then put in everything from their aircraft maintenance storage. Most of it was brand new. From aircraft engines to Starett micrometer calipers went in that trench. I'm sure the people in charge of ordnance did similar things.

[dfariswheel]

A friend of mine was an army officer in Germany in the 1970's.
He told me that his unit dumped a good many cases of small arms ammo into German rivers to get rid of it.
Other people I knew were also officers in Germany during that time and they confirmed it.
This sort of thing was common because often it would cost more to bring equipment and expiring ammo home.

A relative was in the army engineers in the mid-1950's and his unit was sent to a remote Air Force early warning radar site above the Arctic Circle in Alaska.
He said that lots of expensive heavy equipment was left due to the cost of retrieving it.
He also said that they lost several D8 Caterpillar bulldozers after they got stuck in the tundra.
He said the heavy equipment would just sink into the ground until it disappeared.
They couldn't get it unstuck because any other equipment brought near it to try to recover it would also get stuck and would sink.
He said the bulldozers are still there and would be in perfect condition if you could figure out how to find and recover it.