Written by Bob Hankinson on 28 March 2002.
The NATO Joint Operations Centre at Kanne in Belgium was used as the Alternate War HQ for The 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force until about 1990. It was built in a disused stone quarry, and had a permanent staff of about 20 and a wartime establishment of about 200.
Sub Brit’s Bob Hankinson worked there during February and October on exercises for three years in the early 1980s, and was delighted to pick out his office from a declassified floor plan which Joep Orbons provided. Since he was on day shift, 12 X 7, he would see no daylight for a month, since it was dark on going in and dark on coming out. He recalled exploring with the firemen; going out of the emergency exit into the farmer’s quarry and seeing wall carvings and entering the site in the Netherlands and coming out in Belgium. The complex is now badly contaminated with asbestos and there is no possibility of access; the last visitors were obliged to wear white suits and respirators. NATO still have the lease, but are not looking forward to its ending, since the owner wants it back without the asbestos contamination.
Written by Martin Dixon on 01 January 2014.
From 2014, part of the former NATO bunker have been used by the Limburg Foundation as an art gallery and tours are available.
Although named after the nearby town in Belgium, the bunker itself is in the Netherlands.
Written by Bob Hankinson on 05 August 2024.
I was delighted to visit my former office and our private “comcen” in the Kanne “caves” in May 2024, 40 years after the last time I worked there. The walls are unchanged, but the doors are removed, and so were the noticeboards etc. There were a couple of “firsts” for me. One was seeing the powerhouse area, where the diesel seepage was removed by digging down many metres to clean rock before backfilling. I also visited the “Flintstones” club, where the bar counters remain nearly unchanged I’m told (because these rooms were not lined with asbestos). I never was inside the officers club because they were closed during the war exercises which took me there every February and November. Forty years ago I did visit nearly everywhere else either because of my wartime role or through the friendships I developed with the firemen who took me along on their patrols during the night shift.
The Kanne visit was part of the excellent three-day study weekend I joined, organized by SFES with the help of SOK [ Société Française d’Etude des Souterrains (SFES) and Studiegroep Onderaardse Kalksteengroeven (SOK)]. They are very active societies, and their web sites are well worth looking at.