Nothing says British army more than someone wearing both a hi vis jacket and camouflage at the same time!

Served there between 1955 and 1959. Some very interesting programmes. Had the privilege of checking 12 shells from the former HMS Hood.

Seems like a big risk to keep the majority of your munitions in one location

Many years I used to live near Kineton. There was a very ordinary-looking country road along one boundary of this site. I was driving down it one day when I got a puncture. In a very short time a couple of military police jeeps arrived to find out what I was doing - when I explained they changed my tire for me, and sent me on my way.

Knowing my clumsy ass I would accidentally trip over a box and land on a shell

"so this one is defineately inert?" yeah but just dont look behind you or infront of you in any direction to the live ammunitions

I am so glad this has been done, I have often wanted to see inside an existing/in-use munitions bunker/store. Really detailed insight which has cured my curiosities! great to see the MoD allowing access and been quite open. Great watch.

There is absolutely no reason for this to be in my recommendations, but hell, now I am interested

God!, This takes me back, DM Kineton or CAD Kineton as it was know back in the day, was my first posting after basic training back in 1986/7. Served with some great lads and have some good memory's.

2:29 what a Goblin she made it through Sandhurst without being touched

I live like 3 miles from that, I didn’t even know this is what Kineton did 😂

Very interesting, I lived in Warwick years ago when the site was called CAD Kineton. Thanks for a glimpse of the history of the place.

Great report Sian

I was an AT at CAD Kineton from Jan 62 until Feb 64 and again from Dec 66 to June 69. Since then I have passed the depot on many occasions and noted its reincarnation from the original layout with well over two hundred rail served sheds (ESHs), seventy miles of rail track and virtually no roads to its current format. The original depot was split into three sub-depots, 1 & 2 to the east of the B4086, 3 to the west of that road. There was a twice daily passenger train to take staff from camp HQ to 3 Sub. Up until the late 60's the road on the south side of the depot from the B4100 (A41 in those days) to the B4086 did not exist. Originally there was a whole line of sheds on its alignment which, together with a cluster of sheds near Radway village, were demolished in the mid 60's. This was because they were too close to habitation that severely restricted how much explosive could be stored in them. In those days there were three level crossings over the B4086. These demolitions allowed the new road to be constructed to fulfil a promise made to the local population when the depot was built to reinstate a link between the two roads. Interesting to see the demolition ground at work, we had a 10lb explosive content limit for each 'blow' but we worked with each 'blow' being done in a pit. I believe they had to be a minimum of 3ft deep. For bigger blows, mainly to get rid of bulk stocks of wartime guncotton and other explosives, we used to take lorry loads down to the Salisbury Plain where we could have 80lb blows, again in pits. The dem ground had its own rail siding, there always had to be a small Wickham railcar and trailer present when we were working in case of accidents to take casualties (or the bits) away. The normal driver was old Bill from Northend village who, knowing my interest in railways, took me on explorations of rusty rail lines in the depths of 3 Sub where no 'man' had been for years! I pulled the point's levers (switches for readers in the USA) whilst he drove!. For other railway 'buffs', during my first tour at Kineton the SMJ was still open for freight and was used mainly for iron ore trains passing through. I also recall the winter of 62/ 3 at the depot, I was sub-depot AT and had to cross the depths of the depot by foot, regularly disappearing into snow hidden ditches. Using pinch bars to move wagons frozen to the tracks was another skill that we were not taught at Army Apprentice College! I did visit the depot on two occasions by rail tours in later years, this was after the depot had been reconfigured. On the second occasion the train, hauled by army locos, went round the whole depot, including '3 Sub', [all the stoves in the kitchen car had to be extinguished whilst the train was in the depot]. The funniest thing about this though was a chap who had got on the train by mistake at Banbury. He did not realise that he was on the wrong train until he was halfway round the depot, announcing to everybody that he should be at some location many miles to the north. The big problem for him was that he was due to be the best man at a wedding! Some good liaison between depot staff and MOD Police saw him taken from the train to Leamington Spa to continue his journey north. Like many comments above I cannot understand why smoke grenades only have a five-year life, at least in a temperate climate. We had perfectly serviceable twenty-year-old wartime grenades and paper cased illuminating cartridges for Verey pistols in the 60's. The same with 2" mortar smoke, although we did do a recart and retail job on tens of thousands of these. Used to find notes in the boxes from the girls working in the wartime factories to the soldiers they thought would have used them within months! The stories I could tell - can anybody remember me during my second tour as a Sgt arriving each morning on my bike from Kineton village?

Very Interesting Film, Thanks FORCES TV! 👍🏼👍🏼

Very interesting and thanks for sharing. I rode through the site on my Ducati a couple of weeks ago, never realised its significance. All under the shadow of Edge Hill too, scene of a few more bangs in the 17th century 😊

So is anyone else thinking what I am thinking? All eggs in one basket, one hypersonic missile?

Gotta love the constant ticking sound, thanks forces news!

I was one of 11 asked to volunteer to guard a dump in Germany for 24 hours. No one in without the proper paperwork, live rounds in weapons and a massive hill between the modern guardhouse and the rest of the dump. There was even pools to jump in because phosphorus was stored there. One major did his nut when we refused him access as he had the incorrect paperwork and we arrested some suspicious looking Germans across the road. It was when PIRA was active. During the night, I heard someone creep up to the wire. I fell over backwards cocking my SLR and fortunately didn't fire. It was a boar and I would have looked well stupid explaining that one away, although we would have eaten well first. Those were the days :) PS The Germans turned out to be picking mushrooms.

What a waste. They could just sell old explosives at military surplus stores so that civilians can have a blast during holidays.

Really love this channel, numerous members of my family are In the Army, I say what you been doing "nothing," they say. Great vids, thank you for this.

Thank you for giving us a peek inside this unseen world. Very interesting and cool!

Just down the road from me is Holton Heath which was once the largest munitions manufacturing site in the world,it's now a mixture of heathland and industrial estate,but some of the original buildings from around WW1 are still in use.

What a great video, getting a glimpse into MOD munitions storage.

Not only an active army base but also the Edgehill battlefield. They used to do escorted tours of the battlefield back in the late 60's.

Fascinating. I drive past the site quite often - really interesting to see inside the fence.

Defence Kineton. In my day it was called Central Ordnance Depot Kineton. How times change.

I enjoy watching these Videos from Forces TV so much! Like this one they are almost very interesting and show in a really good way how the British Armed Forces work and do their service! Good job! Royal Armed Forces and Forces TV!! And by the way Forces TV helps me a little bit to keep my school english alive☺ Greetings from germany🇬🇧🇩🇪🇬🇧🇩🇪👍

Drove past it the other day. It’s massive. Great video.

I've been kicked of the base for saying "who the f^%$ do you think your talking to" to the gobby head of civil contractors.... ooops! My cousin did some bomb disposal training their, to detect electronic triggered IED's. He found 4 out of 5 on the compound. His sergeant asked him to pull alongside a bin and try again. No detection was found. The sergeant got out and checked the bin because he hid the devise there. Local council had emptied the bin lol

kineton was my first uk posting when i was in my 20s im now in my 70 s but still have fond memories of c a d kineton

Very interesting video thank you for sharing.

1:38 his name

my dad was stationed there from 78 - 81 he was in the RAOC in A Coy and worked in the APB,s

In the 1980's I did many of the design and technical drawings for the Igloos and railway depot at CAD Kineton.

I was a kid at CAD Kineton,,, best childhood ever

Fellas, yeah, hi. Greets from the US. Hope you're well. Do me a favor. Just take a minute and look and see if you have any .30 carbine. It's obsolete, you don't use anything that takes it any more. I know, it's not in your inventory lists most likely, but you know, just check the back room, under those old tarps. I'll take any crate you happen to find. Thanks and hugs!

That is a strange way to store ammunition. I was frequently getting 20 x 139 DM 48 from a depot situated between Nordholz and Cuxhaven - Altenwalde in Germany and there it is stored in what looks like elevated dog sheds or huts with a table underneath, 2 Euro pallets in size inside, about 1,50 m high, apx 1 m elevated with big gates in front made from round steel bars so if any ammo is going off inside there will be no demage ... Hundreds of them all apx. 20 m apart.

Me: *tests grenade* *Everybody else in the ammunition depot:* 0_0

Lovely wildlife ponds. I never knew that they were so quick and easy to make. Alan Titchmarsh has lied to me for all these years!😡 Keep up the good work fellas. I can't wait to get back to Salisbury Plain after lock down for some wildlife watching.

Don’t they realise how low the water table is at Kineton 😂

Im dancing around like Wesley snipes from demolition man when he sees all the guns . What's your bogel

Interesting. My father Terry Jickells used to run the demolitions wing at 22 SAS for some years. This would be right up his street. Mark

i'd love to have a rummage around that place

Worked for a farmer that lived next door to it only one rail link in & out. And offen see plain painted wagons with a escourt going in at nite . The farmer said if it ever went up it would leave a crater 10 miles wide.

cool video

Back in January 1963 I arrived at CAD Kineton. Back then there was a farmer and his herd of cows! 1963 started with a cold spell lasting weeks, we used to make our way on foot over fields with two or three foot snow. Working in huge brick and concrete “sheds” full of what seemed every type of munitions ever made! I was there more than four years, some good time and nice people..some I still have contact with, not so nice people and bad times, enough to persuade me I did not want to spend another five years in some steaming far east station and getting paid less than any docker shifting loads!

Great video I live near there and I never knew that's what goes on there

that's MY dad in the stills, WOW 4;09 on the left ;)

Didn't know Thor was in the RAF

The kebab van is banging too lol

It is quite amazing though that some of these munitions of such a short lifespan.

Tht senior aircraftman early in the video, should really look into a partime narrating nat geo. He has the voice and style for it. 😂

85 grams of explosive for a 500 pound bomb? You guys are lacking using these smart bombs

This is an old demolition video from Finland. 5tons of high explosive, safe distance is 8km.

Been there done that. Spectacular. Lumps of clay dropped behind the concrete bunker and they informed air traffic control of the operation.

I used to live close by. We always said that if the balloon went up we should put our heads between our legs and kiss goodbye to ‘it’

What happened to RAF Bracht, thought that was an ammo dump. Which corps runs the dump?

I lived on this camp as a teenager with my parents 😮

Know it well, grew up in Kineton and still live 10mins away.

SGT JOHNSON IVE MISSED YOU

Interesting job that!

The exploder appeared to be a Shrike, as I remember from the RNZE in the 1980 and 1990s. I suspect that it is an evolution of that model.

If you want to see the grand daddy facility it's Hawthorne Nevada. I drive through there on route 95 a few times a year, always fun to stop for food break in the area great company if you know what I mean. Not many other stops on the way south from there except maybe Mina or luning but they are pretty dead.

Worked in Ammo in the US Army. Had a bunch of storage areas in Korea, Saudi Arabia

I am surprised that it was not mentioned that quite often burning is worse for the environment than exploding. Specifically explosives when burned can give off all sorts of nasties. Once an explosive is detonated if it is stochiometric then all you get is water carbon dioxide and nitrogen, rather than nitric and nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and occasionally hydrogen peroxide.

Why are the items nearing end of service life not given to the squaddies for training?

scraping anti-personnel mines is a good idea, however doing the same for vehicles mines, maybe not so. Mines would have been essential if we had lost the battle of Britain, and if a war was ever to come to our shores, our small professional army would need all the force multipliers it could get.

so whats that place off the M3 then?

Is it wise to have to 3/4 of your entire munitions in one place? One big accident or attack and it would severely hamper the armed forces in operations.

That's a big bang for 85 GRAMs of explosive. Good lord 🧐

Used bar mines for bridge demolition on training exercises and demolition training days

Is it safe to give out this information

Wow... That's impressive! This American's hat is off to you!

.... stores more than 60% of the entire Ministry of Defence’s munitions .... NOT very clever indeed!!!

Biggest fear is to not have enemies at all.

Forces TV needs to dial back on the YT ad frequency on this channel. Too many ads.

*'Kine - ton' ?* You'd think that the purpose of the site would suggest it should be pronounced _'kin - eh - ton'_ (as in _'kinetic'_ ) due to the massive amount of potential _kinetic energy_ being stored there, albeit in _chemical_ form.

Was unaware the Army still used the Shrike Exploder! Suppose it’s one of those devices, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

After watching this we literally have no hope in hell in any conflict 😂😂😂 I'm glad I left when I did

I was at the INNAP in Indiana

We never had a chance to use any of our ordnance, even when i was with the shooting team we were restricted on how much ammo we could use. Then we watched in disbelief when they took most away for disposal when the end dates were up. No firing ammo, no throwing grenades, no firing rockets it all just sat there until it was disposed off.

The long walk

Why blow up the out of date explosives? If they don't want it, they should auction it off, or give it to a homeless shelter. Don't waste it.

Thor Dymond gets bada$$ name of the day.

we used to use little nits of HE when we ran out of cooking tablets in our ration packs, it just burns nicely so I do not know why they made such a fuss about small samples.

Better let everyone know where we keep it all

Instead of disposing of them why do they not use them before expiry date for training etc? Especially munitions for aircraft. Or is it in such large quantities that they couldnt use them all before.

Never ask why there are ski boots attached to the ceiling in the MOD Kineton Officers' Mess bar ...

Get it shipped

Oh Brilliant, now everyone knows where it is

I always thought of it as C.A.D. Kineton.

Big Boom

I think their motto is "Do not drop".

So scary but that is the reality if your doing kind of job. Take care always and pray

I live just around the corner from here, always worried a nuke will go off

One man risk " Captain get with the PROGRAMME "

Did I hear that right, only 85grams of explosive in a Paveway 4? Must be extremely pokey explosive if so.

I worked in the Army Fire Brigade in the early 1980s. A field in Bramley, Hampshire had WW1 strange chemicals and other munitions buried. Massive lumps of white phosphorus too. We had to watch it all night. It began to flame as the air got to it. Much old ammunition and chemical weapons were recovered and we took it to be disposed of in Porton Down and other military sites. We followed them all the way. Records of the munitions dumped were lost before the recovery began. Who knows what remains. Some mustard gas would go off. This has a distinctive smell. Later a housing estate was built on the site. I wonder who knows what is under their garden.

Target 1 for cruise missles! Does this place have modern anti air missles close by?