Tag Archives: BBC Ottringham

Remembering BBC Ottringham on Memorial Day

The BBC Ottringham complex (Source: BBC Humberside History)

The BBC Ottringham complex (Source: BBC Humberside History)

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jonathan Marks, who shares this amazing story of the BBC Ottringham (a.k.a. OSE5) broadcast site.

Since Ottringham was an active transmitting site during in World War II, it makes for a fitting tribute here on Memorial Day.

On his blog, Critical Distance, Jonathan writes:

“Few people know that Ottringham, a village near Hull in the UK was the home of many of the BBC’s broadcasts during the Second World War, and that its transmissions were received well into the heart of occupied Europe. The site was intended to broadcast both medium and long wave services to counteract propaganda coming from Nazi occupied Europe. Today the site of the old transmitter site is an engineering works and the fields where the antennas stood reveal little of their radio past.”

I have embedded the BBC documentary of Ottringham below, but ask that you visit Critical Distance for two others Jonathan has posted (including one from his days at Radio Netherlands). Thanks again, Jonathan!

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