20 Abandoned Military Bases and the Stories Behind Them
Military bases once bustling with activity now stand frozen in time, their empty barracks and control towers slowly reclaimed by nature. These silent sentinels witnessed pivotal moments in history before being decommissioned and left to decay.
Their concrete bunkers and rusting equipment tell tales of geopolitical shifts, technological advancements, and changing military strategies that rendered them obsolete. Here is a list of 20 abandoned military bases around the world and the fascinating stories behind why they were left behind.
Fort Tilden
Located on New York’s Rockaway Peninsula, Fort Tilden defended America’s most populous city for nearly 80 years. Built in 1917 during World War I, the fort housed massive artillery guns capable of firing 1,000-pound shells up to 25 miles into the Atlantic.
After being decommissioned in 1974, nature began reclaiming the concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, creating an eerie contrast of military might and natural beauty.
RAF Stenigot
This former Royal Air Force radar station in Lincolnshire, England, played a crucial role in Britain’s Chain Home radar defense network during World War II. After the war, it became part of NATO’s communication network before being abandoned in the late 1980s.
Today, its most distinctive features are the massive concrete radar dishes lying on their sides like fallen technological dinosaurs, popular among urban explorers and photographers.
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Željava Air Base
Built between Yugoslavia and Croatia, this underground air base was one of Europe’s largest military installations during the Cold War. Constructed to withstand direct nuclear strikes, the base featured five runways and tunnels bored directly into the mountain.
When Yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s, retreating forces detonated explosives inside the facility, causing massive damage and contaminating it with chemicals and fuel.
Johnston Atoll
This remote Pacific island base stored chemical weapons, tested nuclear missiles, and housed a top-secret program called Operation PACER IVY. Located 750 miles southwest of Hawaii, the atoll was massively expanded through dredging to accommodate military operations.
After decades of environmental contamination, the U.S. military conducted an extensive cleanup before abandoning the base in 2004, leaving behind concrete bunkers slowly sinking into the rising sea.
Missile Site Radar
North Dakota’s flat landscape once bristled with nuclear missile silos, with this facility serving as their command center. Part of America’s anti-ballistic missile program, it operated for only 300 days in the 1970s before being shut down due to treaty limitations.
The massive concrete pyramid still stands in the middle of farmland, a Cold War relic that cost over $6 billion in today’s dollars but served almost no operational purpose.
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Balaklava Submarine Base
Hidden beneath a mountain in Crimea, this Soviet submarine base could withstand a direct nuclear strike while housing up to seven submarines. The secret facility included a complex system of tunnels and an underwater channel allowing submarines to enter and exit undetected.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the base was abandoned and its valuable equipment looted before later being converted into a naval museum.
RAF Hinkley
This British Royal Air Force station in Somerset protected England’s southwest during World War II before being repurposed for Cold War defense. The base’s distinctive dome-shaped radar structures, known as ‘golf balls,’ monitored the skies for Soviet bombers until technology advancements made them obsolete.
Abandoned in the 1990s, the site has been partially reclaimed for housing, though several original buildings remain standing among residential developments.
Fort Ord
Once one of America’s largest military training centers, this California base prepared soldiers for combat from World War I through the Gulf War. Covering nearly 30,000 acres along Monterey Bay, Fort Ord housed up to 50,000 troops at its peak.
Closed in 1994 during post-Cold War budget cuts, parts of the base have become California State University Monterey Bay, while other sections remain abandoned with crumbling barracks and forgotten training facilities.
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Wünsdorf Soviet Camp
Known as ‘Little Moscow,’ this massive Soviet military city in East Germany housed 75,000 Soviet personnel and their families. Complete with schools, theaters, and the largest Soviet military hospital outside Russia, Wünsdorf served as headquarters for Soviet forces in Germany.
When Russian troops departed in 1994, they left behind everything from military equipment to personal photographs, creating a time capsule of Soviet military life now covered in decades of dust.
Teufelsberg
Built atop a man-made hill consisting of World War II rubble in Berlin, this listening station gave American intelligence a 360-degree view of Soviet communications. The distinctive white radar domes perched above the divided city intercepted Eastern Bloc transmissions throughout the Cold War.
Abandoned after the Berlin Wall fell, its graffiti-covered ruins have become both a tourist attraction and a symbol of espionage’s physical infrastructure.
Torpedownia Hexengrund
This concrete platform standing in the Baltic Sea off Poland’s coast once tested torpedoes for Hitler’s navy. Connected to shore by a now-collapsed pier, the facility allowed Nazi Germany to perfect underwater weapons in a controlled environment.
After World War II, it was simply abandoned to the elements, with waves gradually eroding its concrete pillars as seabirds make nests in former torpedo launch tubes.
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Maunsell Sea Forts
These bizarre structures rising from the Thames Estuary like mechanical sea creatures defended Britain from German air raids. Built in 1942, these seven interconnected steel platforms housed anti-aircraft guns and radar equipment, shooting down numerous enemy aircraft.
Abandoned after the war, one fort briefly became a pirate radio station in the 1960s, while others slowly rust in the harsh sea environment, accessible only by boat.
RAF Upper Heyford
This sprawling air base in Oxfordshire hosted American nuclear bombers during the tensest years of the Cold War. Its hardened aircraft shelters and specialized facilities supported operations that kept nuclear-armed planes ready to deploy within minutes.
Closed in 1994 as the Soviet threat disappeared, parts of the base have been preserved as historic landmarks while others have been repurposed for housing and business parks.
Kadena Communication Site
Hidden in Okinawa’s dense jungle, this hilltop communication facility linked American military operations across the Pacific. Its massive antenna arrays transmitted orders to submarines, ships, and bases during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Abandoned in the 1990s when satellite technology made it obsolete, nature has rapidly reclaimed the site, with banyan trees growing through concrete floors and vines covering specialized equipment too difficult to remove.
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Wolf’s Lair
Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters in Poland consisted of massive concrete bunkers hidden in dense forest. From this remote compound, the Nazi leader directed operations against the Soviet Union while surrounded by extensive security measures.
Partially destroyed by retreating German forces, the bunkers were too sturdy to completely demolish, leaving behind moss-covered concrete monoliths nearly 30 feet thick that still bear scars from demolition attempts.
Darwin’s Z Special Unit Base
Australia’s secret commando training facility prepared operatives for behind-enemy-lines missions against Japanese forces. Located in remote Northern Territory wetlands, the site trained the men who conducted daring raids into Singapore Harbor.
After the war, equipment was simply abandoned in place due to the remote location, with rusting landing craft and training structures slowly sinking into mangrove swamps over the past 75 years.
Camp Century
Buried beneath Greenland’s ice sheet, this American “city under ice” conducted scientific research while secretly testing nuclear missile deployment. Engineers created tunnels, living quarters, and even a nuclear reactor beneath the surface, all disguised as climate research.
Abandoned in 1967 when shifting ice made the structure unstable, Camp Century now poses environmental concerns as climate change threatens to expose buried toxic materials and radioactive waste.
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Hashima Island
This Japanese island fortress once protected coal mining operations vital to imperial military production. Its distinctive sea walls and dense concrete buildings earned it the nickname ‘Battleship Island’ for its warship-like profile.
Abandoned in 1974 when petroleum replaced coal in Japan’s economy, the island’s crumbling apartment blocks and industrial facilities became a UNESCO World Heritage site and appeared in the James Bond film ‘Skyfall.’
Fort Gorges
This granite fortress in Portland Harbor, Maine, became obsolete before it was even completed. Construction began during the Civil War, but advancing artillery technology rendered its defenses ineffective before a single cannon was installed.
Never attacked and never firing a shot in anger, the fort was abandoned after brief use during World Wars I and II, leaving behind a perfectly preserved hexagonal structure accessible only by private boat.
Nekoma Safeguard Complex
North Dakota’s ‘pyramid on the prairie’ protected America from nuclear attack for exactly one day. This $6 billion anti-ballistic missile facility featured a massive radar capable of tracking incoming Soviet warheads, but budget concerns and treaty limitations shut it down almost immediately after activation in 1975.
Its distinctive concrete pyramid stands alone on the flat landscape, housing sophisticated equipment that was cutting-edge for less than 24 hours of operational use.
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Remnants of Yesterday, Lessons for Tomorrow
These silent structures represent billions in defense spending and countless hours of human labor, yet still couldn’t escape obsolescence. Military planners now face the challenge of creating facilities adaptable to rapidly changing threats and technologies.
As these bases crumble, they remind us how quickly strategic necessities can become historic curiosities, with today’s critical infrastructure potentially tomorrow’s abandoned relics. The concrete and steel may decay, but the stories they contain provide valuable perspective on how quickly our definition of ‘essential’ can change.
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