Underneath Liverpool city centre is a room that was key to the Allies winning WWII.
From 1941, Derby House on Rumford Street was the headquarters of the Western Approaches Command Centre, which controlled the defences of British shipping during the Battle of the Atlantic. The longest continuous battle of WWII, the Battle of the Atlantic saw the Allied and Axis powers fight for control of the ocean.
Throughout the war, the Allies worked to secure Britain's merchant shipping, bringing vital goods in and out of the country. As Britain's main transatlantic convoy port, Liverpool had a crucial role, receiving 1,285 convoys during the war.
READ MORE: Veteran, 98, remembers 'adventure' as Liverpool marks 80 years since crucial battle
Plymouth was originally the headquarters of Western Approaches Command. However, Winston Churchill decided in 1940 that the Devon city had become too vulnerable to Luftwaffe raids and the command centre was moved to Liverpool.
They set up shop in the huge basement, which was bomb and gas-proof. The RAF and the Royal Navy worked on joint Atlantic operations in the underground bunker known by staff as 'The Citadel' or 'The Dungeon', looking after British shipping and protecting the crucial convoys from German attack.
The operations room was marked by a map of the Atlantic covering an entire wall, while another map showed waters around Britain. Staff updated the maps with intelligence, in order to keep ships safe.
A tactical unit was established at Derby House in 1942. The team looked at the tactics used by Hitler's U-boats - submarines which were used to target British shipping.
The U-boats posed a terrifying threat to Britain, with Churchill saying: “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.” However, Derby House's tactical unit provided vital help to ships, allowing them to make it safely to their destinations.
By mid-1943, Britain had effectively neutralised the U-boat threat, meaning Britain marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic in May. Liverpool will host the 80th anniversary commemorations over the weekend of May 26-28 this year.
This week, veterans and military personnel gathered at Western Approaches, now a WWII museum, to mark the countdown to the commemorations.
Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Roy Gladden, said: “The Battle of the Atlantic was, according to Winston Churchill, one of the most important battles that took place, and if we’d lost that we would probably have lost the war.
“Tens of thousands of Merchant Seamen died to keep the supply lanes open and without them our nation would have starved.
“It is therefore vital that we remember the important role our city played, and I am very much looking forward to the series of events the city is putting on to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.”
In a key part of the commemoration weekend, the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial charity will unveil a new national memorial to those who were lost. The new garden of reflection will be unveiled on May 26 at the Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas at the Pier Head.
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