I WAS interested to read the article about High Garrett POW Camp (Times, January 9).

It was Camp Number 78 but a Red Cross Inspection dated February 12, 1943, states: “This work camp is still under construction ... a great deal of work remains to be done.”

It was built by Italian prisoners, mainly captured in North Africa, who initially lived in tents. Germans followed from September 9, 1944.

The suggestion that the tower housed a ‘top secret WWII communications HQ’ is news to me and sounds implausible.

May I suggest the communications equipment found in the water tower had been left by a detachment of 2163 Air Force Communications Squadron, USAF, which operated there from the early 1960s.

High Garrett was a micro-wave radio relay site serving wider USAF interests in Europe and it had links to Wethersfield.

Their equipment was made by Marconi.

When the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing at Wethersfield went on alert, High Garrett also became the Combat Operation Center.

I would be happy to share my archive of the camp with Mr and Mrs Oakley if they care to contact me. have spent the last 18 months compiling a Street by Street Guide to Braintree and Bocking in WWII and continually update and add to it.

I am keen to add verifiable facts.

The latest version is always available at Braintree District Museum and open to the public.

Due to its size, availability is only by electronic means.

Mike Bardell

Braintree