Because of the vulnerability of the Chain Home radar site at Ventnor, a site at St. Lawrence was chosen for a mobile reserve station that could be brought into use should Ventnor be rendered unusable following an air attack. There was already a buried reserve at Ventnor but as this was located on the technical site, it too could have been damaged in an attack.
The station was manned by personnel from RAF Ventnor with domestic accommodation provided at the Ventnor camp and at two hotels in St. Lawrence that were requisitioned. By 1942, St. Lawrence had become a radar station in its own right operating 24 hours a day rather than acting as a reserve site for Ventnor and Southbourne.
This is also the site that was supposed to have been the only 'invasion' the Nazis did in World War Two on UK soil apart from the channel islands. Recent now released previously top secret reports say that a 'German commando unit was landed from a fast gunboat at St. Lawrence and, having scaled the cliff, were involved in a short fire fight with guards at the Radar station. It seems that a few British were killed in the fight. The German unit returned to a waiting U-boat, before crossing back acros the Channel'
A weird find was that the local farmer is digging out the standby set house bunker. I'm unsure if the bunker is to be demolished or not...
