Building 103 (Decontamination Centre)

Details

WHITTLESFORD

1767/0/10024 NORTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME 01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD) Building 103 (Decontamination Centre)

GV II Gas decontamination building. 1939. By the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing No 6224/37. Brickwork walls in Flemish bond, protected to half-height by grassed earth revetments, which with heavy steel beams support a flat asphalted concrete roof, with part containing the water tanks raised as hipped roof, also asphalted.

PLAN: A rectangular block 88' x 32' (26.9m x 9.7m), with two protected entries on the long W side. The interior, which has a double-skin 'protected' concrete roof, is divided by brick partitions; the entrance to the left (N) leads via a short passageway to reception and undressing areas, and lockers in the external walls can be accessed from outside, for which a protected walkway is taken round the N end and to a short return. From the undressing room through air locks, is the large bleaching room with showers. The S half has storage for clean clothing, a large dressing room, and an exit, again through an air lock, to the W. Beyond this area are boiler and air-conditioning plant rooms.

EXTERIOR: A massive plain box brick box taken to a high flush coped parapet; at the S end is a square external stack to the boiler room. On all sides, rising to about half the total height, the brickwork is cement rendered, and earth at a natural angle of repose is carried all round, grassed on top to provide stability. On the W side are two U-plan sections of walling, the returned raked at the angle of the earth revetment. These stand separated from the main body of revetment, through which two narrow passageways lead to the exit and entrance; at their outer-ends the walls are raked down with the earth slope. A hipped roof section, over the large water storage tanks, is visible above the parapet off-centre on the roof, above the entrance and shower areas.

INTERIOR: retains original layout.

HISTORY: With the threat of gas attack, greatly feared after World War 1, all air stations were provided with heavily built and protected decontamination centres. This one is the standard form for the Expansion Period of the 1930s, and is a completely free-standing example, close to the barracks area and the Officers' Mess (Building 45, qv). There is a second centre for wounded personnel of identical design at Duxford, attached to the Station Sick Quarters (qv) and built to the same pattern.

Duxford represents the finest and best-preserved example of a fighter base representative of the period up to 1945 in Britain, with an exceptionally complete group of First World War technical buildings in addition to technical and domestic buildings typical of both inter-war Expansion Periods of the RAF. It also has important associations with the Battle of Britain and the American fighter support for the Eighth Air Force. For more details of the history of the site see under entry for the Officers' Mess (Building 45).

The use of gas in war was outlawed by the Geneva Gas Protocol of 1925 (both Britain and Germany were signatories), but not its production and development. As a result the British Government, with its previous experience of the ease at which signed agreements were broken during hostilities, decided to develop gas weapons and design methods of protection against their use. This included the construction of specialised buildings, so that in the event of such an attack, personnel who became gas casualties could receive first-aid treatment and get decontaminated. The decontamination building is therefore, designed to deal with all types of gases developed during World War I: lachrymatory agents; respiratory agents and blister agents.

It was possible to protect oneself from many of the gases by wearing a respirator. Some had distinctive odours which gave sufficient warning of the presence to allow personnel to take cover inside a building or shelter. However, mustard gas has only a faint smell of garlic and its symptoms are not always apparent until some time after the attack, especially the worst effects of the agent. In liquid or vapour form, mustard gas can be absorbed by the skin without being detected. By the time irritation is noticed, the agent has penetrated the surface of the skin and started to cause serious damage. Therefore, special warning posts with metal plates coated with detection paint that changed colour when exposed to mustard gas, were placed at intervals along pathways connecting with buildings. The idea was to get out of all contaminated clothing, dispose of it, wash thoroughly and change into fresh clothing as soon as possible. If all this could be achieved within 20 minutes of the initial contamination, serious injury could be avoided.

As one of the symptoms of exposure to mustard gas is blindness, guard rails or projecting covered entrances guided injured personnel through a foot-bath of bleach solution, on their way to the undressing area. Patents on entering the reception and undressing area, removed their clothes which were placed through special openings on an outside-wall where they were collected inside bins for de-cleansing by boiling. An air-lock was then used to get access to the bleaching room where decontamination could take place. Showers were often arranged in two groups with a space between so that a person could wet themselves under one, move into the space to use soap and then move under the next shower cubicle to wash off the soap. It would have been routine procedure to wash out the eyes in warm water. After a thorough wash, treatment of the affected areas could begin. The antidote to mustard gas is bleach and a specially prepared paste would be rubbed into the damaged area and then wiped off within 2 minutes. Next came the dressing and waiting area, leading to an exit via another-air lock. The plant equipment supplied clean, filtered air and in a gas contaminated environment, raised the internal air pressure to seal the building to prevent gas entering. This enabled the building to be used during a gas attack. All doors had rubber seals which formed a perfect seal when shut. The undressing room has pressure stabilisers on an outside-wall to release the pressure as necessary.


(Paul Francis, British Military Airfield Architecture 1996.)

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