[Retlaw]

As for access. If an horse and cart can get there then why not a truck or tracked vehicle

Also we are talking about a retreating army. Now I am pretty sure they would not want their reserve ammo out on show for the enemy to bomb.
EH Don't talk so daft what retreating army, Britain was on the offensive when they started building those moorland sites
As you state about damp ammo being dangerous I am sure you are right. But then again how did they keep it dry in the trenches during the first world war.
Hell that place was even wetter than Accrington.
Damp ammo doesn't deteriorate immediately it takes time other wise the Navy would have had nowt to fire their guns with, they used Cordite in cloth bags.

And the armed guards on all the pathways leading to the area. I find it hard to believe that they was guarding a dummy airfield.

Yes you are correct, ten yards into the cave is all you could get, but this was due to the roof of the cave collapsing in. Unless you was around before the roof collapsed.
When you say you watched gambling going on up there, Was this before or after the war?
I watched them gambling after the war but I knew the area well before the war as I said we were no longer allowed access to pick the whimberries, and that cave was like that before the war, Those guards weren't guarding a dummy air field, they were keeping people away for security reasons, like the old watime posters use to say careless talk costs lives
Anyway I am not going to get into an argument with you about it. I also know the area extremely well and we both have our own ideas about what went on up there.
You might know the area pretty well as it is now, but unless you as old as me you won't know it a 1/4 of what I do. But if you want to believe what that chap from Burnley told you then carry on, I feel sorry for you.