what would be in a box like this

canberra;59562 wrote:

Were 30 MU AND 2 MU both located at Sealand????

Yes - and at the same time for many years.

Graham

Despite having served in the RAF for a good few years I have to ask, was there ever a 1MU? It may sound a silly question but there are gaps in the Squadron numbers so maybe there were gaps in the MUs.

canberra;59568 wrote:

... was there ever a 1MU?

Kidbrooke - 9 April 1938 to 15 Feb 1947, Stores / Equipment / Repair Depot.

There were also the alphabetical Temporary MUs, e.g. 'D' MU, MT Storage at Wembley.

Nos. 40 - 43 MUs were all renamed to prevent confusion with their parents, 40-43 Groups.

Your question reminded me of British Standards - what is BS1?
It is the British Standard on British Standards.

Graham

And off topic, but there is an RAF form 1 !!

30 MU was originally a Radio MU (Wireless+Radar) which transferred from Stoke Heath to Sealand. It was based in the Quedgeley Hangars mainly staffed by civilians and did third line radio maintenance, there were only 30 forces personnel there in 1964 but hundreds of civilian radio techs. There was some flash point and the civilians worked to rule, I do remember the Navy not being able to get their Blue Parrots to forward areas. There were desperate but fruitless negotiations with the Whitley Committee.
The result was the influx of many service personnel from a hastily closed overseas MU (Cyprus?). A large number of the civilians left to return to Capenhurst which had a sudden need to generate enriched uranium as the shelf life of the plutonium in our "American" bombs was called into question.
The following year the instrument third line servicing moved up from St Athan and a massive clean room was built on our lunchtime football pitch. It also became the home for the umbilicals and reportedly Clearwater (I was long gone by then).
Oh yes, the box. I think it almost certainly came from 2 MU which was located in a big hangar on South Camp. 2 MU packaged large items (engines, airframes etc) for long distance shipment, I do recall they were rather touchy about getting their boxes back.
One final thing there is no back up generator in the bespoke building. It was reported that there was some trouble in Cyprus and 2 MU had it de-installed and sailed it out there. I am still at a loss as to how they managed to extract it from the building.